Getting gigs

Littlejonny · June 15

I’ve always been involved in originals bands and there’s a certain network of people involved and everyone’s in it for the passion for music, and the need for a music scene/community.

Recently however, I’ve been looking into doing covers gigs - in my case, solo guitar instrumental stuff, and jazzy groove based stuff that I’ve been playing with my band (mercy mercy mercy, chameleon, theme from Bullit…you get the idea) but I’ve no idea how to go about getting gigs for this type of thing.

It’ll be a different set of venues, potentially even restaurants and cafes, pubs.

Can anyone offer advice for how to get in there…what’s the etiquette?

fastonebaz · June 15

Message them via Facebook messenger. Over and over and over again.

Snags · June 16

Tune in to your local FB groups and see which venues advertise those kind of events. Go and introduce yourself. Have links to examples of you doing that kind of thing, even if it's at an open mic. Where yourself around open mics - if you're good and stand out a lot of landlords may approach you to offer you a Friday/Saturday solo slot etc. At least, they do around here.

EricTheWeary · June 16

I haven’t gigged since covid but yes Facebook is a great resource. Looking at venues, using Messenger, musician’s groups,etc. Here there are agencies that book gigs as some venues prefer to deal with them rather than bands directly so Google for those. In the end most of our gigs were via an agent who actually ran an exotic pet food shop in the day and did all the bookings for a particular brewery by night. Or just old fashioned knocking on doors. You do need to have an ‘elevator pitch’ so if explaining what you do takes more than a few words you’ve probably lost them. Photos, videos (short clear live video especially)ready.

ESBlonde · June 16

As said fb and have your ‘socials’ ready. Your insta, fb, website etc. and a short yootoob showreel of you doing excerpts of your thing - nobody wants to sit through 35 mins of stuff but several 25 second bits edited one after the other so they can see what you’re selling. Some photos of you too all add up to looking experienced and professional.

You should write a brief biography emphasising stuff you feel would be relevant (professional attitude, reliable, worked at X venue(s), or shared a stage with Y known artist or performed for local dignitaries etc. Big yourself up you’ve done lots already, if you have punter quotes use them too “ Johnny and his band were fantastic at our wedding/party/restaurant….”

Littlejonny · June 16

Thanks guys - that’s really helpful. I guess we need to get on the case with socials. Blimey it’s a lot of work just to get a gig these days isn’t it? We used to just hand out cassettes

Moe_Zambeek · June 17

Littlejonny said:

Thanks guys - that’s really helpful. I guess we need to get on the case with socials. Blimey it’s a lot of work just to get a gig these days isn’t it? We used to just hand out cassettes

The good thing is that generally speaking the pay has stayed the same as it was in the cassette era

p90fool · June 17

My band does a lot of evening wedding parties, but there is definitely a market for daytime wedding gigs for a solo artist, adding some ambience as the gathering gets under way.

You won't get paid as much as the evening band, but it's certainly worth it for one person.

It's an avenue worth exploring anyway, maybe contact a few wedding planners with a bio?

Littlejonny · June 17

Tp90fool said:

My band does a lot of evening wedding parties, but there is definitely a market for daytime wedding gigs for a solo artist, adding some ambience as the gathering gets under way.

You won't get paid as much as the evening band, but it's certainly worth it for one person.

It's an avenue worth exploring anyway, maybe contact a few wedding planners with a bio?

That’s a great idea - thank you.

thecolourbox · June 17

I play solo piano for ceremonies, drinks receptions and wedding breakfasts and it pays much much more than doing the same music in pubs or restaurants. The other week I was told I was "above budget" for a 3 hour restaurant gig when I quoted £200! whereas I quote more than that for a 30 minute wedding ceremony...

But yes, to get those gigs, I had to get myself in front of the right audience so website, facebook, instagram, a few other listing websites with varying success. Good quality videos, not just phone videos from the back of the audience at an open mic. But it's been worth it and much more pleasant than the pub type gigs I've done - worth a thought

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