Gig booking was something that I looked at as being as simple as toasting bread. My initial idea was that you just selected your date, picked a band, advertise and then bingo, it all worked out. This may be one of the biggest misconceptions that I have had since working in music circles.

The last 2 years have seen me and my colleagues put on shows through Podcart, but also when I took up the roll as manager over a year ago my opinions have changed dramatically. The feeling I get with booking shows on behalf of my artist sometimes is like getting to the Great Riddle Gate in the Neverending Story, only to be judged by two sphinxes. Sometimes you get through by the skin of your teeth and other times you just get blasted and collapse into a pile of grainy sand.

Podcart have put on numerous shows and we never take profit. The artists/engineer gets everything and that is it. Yeah there have been times where we have had to take out of our own pocket, and so be it. The artist has effectively come down to entertain for the evening, lugged all their equipment down and it providing entertainment for others. Why not be paid?

A lot of promoters in Scotland work the same way. There are some bigger guns that work on a pay to play basis, but generally I have not had a truly bad experience as a band manager in this country. Promoters such as Gathering Whispers, Cry Parrot, Ragdoll Promotions, Lost & Found, Pelmet Nites, AGP Promotions and many more. A lot of which you can find on this site: http://www.musicpromoterdirectory.co.uk. Additionally, folks/bloggers  such as Matthew Young of Song, By Toad have also begin to put on a series of excellent shows in Edinburgh. Venues such as Bloc should have notable mentions. Chris and his team and Crag Carrick before him have always put on shows and hardly ever charge on the door. The artist gets a fee and they put on a number of touring bands. The money they make is over the bar and it really is a great thing they do.

Having a booking agent is a bonus. Having worked with Select Booking Agency and AGP Booking Agency, I can say they have been truly brilliant in what they do. They work exceptionally hard for their artists and whilst they do take a percentage of each show booked it really is fuck all. The band gets the majority and it is done in a professional way. The booking agents have set up a network of contacts and so as time goes on their roster choice is trusted. This of course may not be the case for all booking agencies, but in my experience I have had a good run.

When it comes to bad promoting this is when I just want to bang my fat head off a wall till it is a bloodied pulp. I have spent the last 2-3 months trying to book a UK run of shows for the artist I manage. The mass press email has gone out with the inclusion of those press quote pieces of gold that will make a promoter/venue light up and think cha-ching. London has been one of the worst experiences for booking shows. The number of pay to play venues is ridiculous and also the number of venues that work on a ‘bring your own fans’ hierarchy is depressing. For example Bug Bear Promotions say bring over a certain number of fans and we will give you X amount. They use Dublin Castle as a venue and shove on 4 artists. They don’t give a fuck about what artists go on in terms of what will work best and the people doing the door are just employed to sit like an auditor and count people. It is as close to a musical battery farm than you can get.

This second time round has been better, but it still seems that there is such a short amount of decent DIY promoters and instead is some arsehole sitting wondering what his next money making scheme is going to be when in actual fact he could not give a fuck about the bands or music in any way whatsoever.

So to add a positive spin to this then I would like to highlight some promoters/venues/nights outside of Scotland that are actually awesome. Firstly in Liverpool there is Harvest Nights in Liverpool that uses MelloMello. Adam is the promoter and loves music and cares about the nights he puts on. Next up is For The Love of Folk in Hemel Hempstead, London. Melody is the organiser and runs her night at Indy Jax. It is a beautiful wee venue and is perfect for folk/acoustic artists. She is proactive and her love and passion for music shows. Next up is Shaun Litton that runs from The Wilmington Arms. He knows London like the back of his hand and has been running gigs for years. He also has a great number of contacts. These are a few of the gooduns.

I really could have written another 2000 words on this subject and it is by no means everyone’s experience, but I just got to the point of having enough and needed a rant.

Glasgow Podcart will actively be trying to put on as many gigs as we can from now on. It will not just be for grass roots and unsigned, but it will be a combination of touring artists, established artists and the unsigned. By mixing it up everyone gets a fair chance and it still brings a focus to the live community we have. We have our first official gig outside of Glasgow on August 29^th with a touring American artist called Courtney Marie Andrews that was recommended by Adam Thompson of We Were Promised Jetpacks. First listen and I was blown away. We will also be doing our first show in Inverness, the line-up is Godly and I cannot wait to announce it.

As for the rest of the country I really want to now start building up a network of really good DIY promoters. Essentially the idea would be to get a decent promoter in each major city/town in the UK and if a band is looking to tour then perhaps that whole network could organise a straight run for them. It would be a massive initiative and something that would effectively prove that things can be done. Maybe, even a more established artist could skip the big promoters and use this network as a one off to get it kick started. Who knows, maybe I am being ambitious, but hey what the fuck is life without a bit of ambition and fire. Let’s see how this pans out.

Halina x