Are you available to come and play right now?

djspecialist

Does anyone have tips for dealing with venues with apparently zero notion of forward planning?

Paraphrased message history with one local joint:

[Me, Sep 18] Hi, do you have any gigs?

[Me, Oct 18] I heard you've been on holiday - just checking in again to ask whether you might have any gig opportunities.

[Me, 3 Nov 18] Just checking in again ...

[Venue, 9 Nov 18] Can you play tomorrow?

[Me, 10 Nov 18] Sorry, we aren't available. We'd be interested in future opportunities though - please let me know if you have any gaps in the calendar?

...

[Me, Jul 19] Hi, just checking in again - we're looking for bookings and would be interested in playing if you have some open dates.

(A bit of discussion of fees, gear etc)

[Venue, Jul 19] Can you play next Saturday?

[Me, Jul 19] No ...

Aaaaarrrrggghhh ...

John_P

With Venues that appear to struggle to operate a diary I find it easier to offer them a few dates when I am available, then follow up with a confirmation message if a booking is agreed or a reminder of available dates.   

It does make the mind boggle at how they manage to run a business though.  

p90fool

We have two venues who ask us to gig at short notice quite often, but it's not their inability to plan, it's because another band has let them down. 

stickyfiddle

p90fool said:

We have two venues who ask us to gig at short notice quite often, but it's not their inability to plan, it's because another band has let them down. 

Yeah, this would be my assumption. 

maltingsaudio

Had a festival ring me at 11 one Saturday to ask if I could get a PA there and set up by 1pm, they had forgotten to book one for one stage! And yes I did manage it 

jpfamps

p90fool said:

We have two venues who ask us to gig at short notice quite often, but it's not their inability to plan, it's because another band has let them down. 

We've had a venue that has done this, and we've done the gig a couple of times, but then they won't book us for a regular gig, so we stopped doing it.

It never ceases to amaze me just how useless the people booking bands in venues are.

mudslide73

jpfamps said:

p90fool said:

We have two venues who ask us to gig at short notice quite often, but it's not their inability to plan, it's because another band has let them down. 

We've had a venue that has done this, and we've done the gig a couple of times, but then they won't book us for a regular gig, so we stopped doing it.

It never ceases to amaze me just how useless the people booking bands in venues are.

We've had similar where we've done a couple of cancellations but not got on the regulars list. We get a lot of dates around school hols where other bands won't do it. We've also got in at good venues after stepping in and doing well. It depends on how you feel about it I suppose.

Jalapeno

.. or to be fair how flaky some bands/musos can also be

jpfamps

Jalapeno said:

.. or to be fair how flaky some bands/musos can also be

Absolutely.

jpfamps

mudslide73 said:

jpfamps said:

p90fool said:

We have two venues who ask us to gig at short notice quite often, but it's not their inability to plan, it's because another band has let them down. 

We've had a venue that has done this, and we've done the gig a couple of times, but then they won't book us for a regular gig, so we stopped doing it.

It never ceases to amaze me just how useless the people booking bands in venues are.

We've had similar where we've done a couple of cancellations but not got on the regulars list. We get a lot of dates around school hols where other bands won't do it. We've also got in at good venues after stepping in and doing well. It depends on how you feel about it I suppose.

Well if they don't book us, but continue to book the band that let them down, I expect most people would not be happy.

midlifecrisis

yes quite a lot. sometimes we can do it other times not. sometimes it leads to future gigs, other times not.

ESBlonde

Not so much these days as a band, they tend to be crappy pubs with no space, paying shyte.
As a dep guitarist I'm more likely to say yes, I like the buzz and often meet musicians I'd heard of from different generations.