Getting gigs... how do you do it?

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MajorscaleMajorscale Frets: 1553
edited March 2021 in Live
I would be interested to know how you get gigs and what methods or channels you guys use. Tips / tricks etc. Would really like my pop/rock covers band to get more proactive on this front! 
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  • EricTheWearyEricTheWeary Frets: 16256
    https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/201503/where-to-start-with-gigging#latest

    This was a broader question but some ideas in there. 

    Getting to be historical for me now but identifying and contacting venues. So, look at venues you know of and look at bands you know of and where they play. Sometimes they will defer you to an agency so you then have to contact them. If a venue ( pub, club,whatever) has an active Facebook page contact them through that. Have your own Facebook with photos, videos, activity, ideally lots of likes. 
    Probably nothing you don’t know in that I suppose. It’s just awkward and time consuming and often no one wants to do it. When people on here say ‘ I don’t play well enough to be in a band’ I’d have to say having the confidence to go get gigs and knowing three chords often goes a lot further than knowing every Steve Vai solo note for note. 
    I was never the person to tell my work colleagues/ barber/ binmen I was in a band but some people do and we got odd gigs that way. Somebody wants a band for Fred’s 50th birthday and they remember that conversation. 

    The gig I always remember getting was we played what was a well received set at a local pub and at the end this woman emerged from the crowd. Attractive, wearing a tiny mini skirt and walked straight up to me. I was starting to think maybe what happens on the road stays on the road...
    “ my dad really likes this kind of music.”
    It was a bit deflating but she booked us for her father’s 50th birthday party. 
    Tipton is a small fishing village in the borough of Sandwell. 
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  • MajorscaleMajorscale Frets: 1553
    edited March 2021
    Thanks Eric, that link was a good read but it was more a beginners guide on how to gig. We’ve been gigging for years, have FB and a website,  but we are wanting to do more than just the regular haunts and private stuff for regular “fans”. 

    In essence I’m after more specific gig generating advice and to get some ideas beyond simply phoning the local music pubs. Recommendations & experiences on resources / websites to register on / agents / how to get into the festival circuit / clever marketing ideas etc.

    I.e. Anything that has worked for your band in the past...
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  • Danny1969Danny1969 Frets: 10357
    I'm in 3 gig'ing bands, been gig'ing for 33 years. One's a tribute, one's an original and one's a well paid covers band.

    The tribute - agent. Gigs are offered constantly. Every time we earn the agent earns so unsurprisingly the agent keeps offering. You can generally work for as many agents as you want and still get your own gigs. Our money comes from ticket sales so if we promote a show and it sells well it can be quite well paid. A tribute act is probably the easiest type of band to promote and we use the normal Instagram, paid FB plus local radio and local paper. 

    Originals band - It's more about who you know when it comes to getting on some good bills. I used to run a recording studio so I have a lot of friends and contacts I've made over the years plus we have put on our own festival a few times and booked ourselves :)

    Covers band - You need some great sounding live footage of your band on Youtube so people can hear what you sound like. it needs to be proper live with proper punters, not a faked thing but it needs to sound great, not a distorted phone recording. We started recording via multitrack off the desk quite a few years ago. I would remix the audio and then put the good audio on the videos people used to take. There's about 100 videos of us now on Youtube doing all kinds of covers and we get loads of work from it.
     We like the corporate function gigs because that's generally the best paid and the comes with the most perks. We also do a lot of well paid weddings. We don't do many normal pub gigs as most pubs won't pay the money but we have an arrangement with one pub that we play every month. They do pay us well and it provides a venue where punters can come and see us and that leads to a lot of well paid weddings and corp stuff as well. We have the normal FB band page but I think Youtube has been the best window for us. 
    www.2020studios.co.uk 
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