I've sort of decided to start trying to bring bands I love to my home country, I say "sort of" because it all hinges on a band I've mailed (or rather the management of that band) whom I've decided will be my first band, and I will not settle for anyone else, So if it falls through, I'm not interested in pursuing it any more.
Obviously this is going to be financially difficult, and I'm expecting to take a huge loss on the first gig tbh, if it happens at all.
I would like this to become something I do as my main job, basically I'm tired of hoping bands I love will come here, so instead of complaining about it when they don't, I want to bring them here myself.
Naturally the bands I'm looking to bring are not big stadium filling giants of the mainstream, but they are signed to major labels, this is all totally new to me, and I'm sure the mail I sent looked very amateur, but it was totally honest about what I wanted to do, what I planned and the reasons why I wanted to do it, whether that gets me anywhere remains to be seen.
Maybe this is just a pipe dream as I'm only interested in bringing bands that I love rather than bands I know will fill a venue, but It's something I want to at least be able to say "well I tried" about.
I have no specific genre in mind for the bands I want to bring, examples of the groups I want would be : The Eighties Matchbox B-Line disaster, Sons & Daughters, The Faint, Covenant and Blonde Redhead.
Basically I'm looking for some advice, suggestions, ideas or just feedback in general.

Goth bands do a hell of a lot of touring to make up for the fact they get very little money from a gig.

The Cruxshadows last gig in London tickets were £7something with Screaming Banshee Aircrew before hand Splitting that between promoter, Bands, Venue etc they couldn't have made very much money.

It seems that if they band can fit in the time for the gig and they want to do it they will. The more exposure the better.

Good luck, Black Milk. You're going to need it.

I have some experience helping out a dear friend of mine who was a local promoter that got most of the decent Goth/alternative bands I've seen to play down here, including some that are/were well known in the UK scene (Deviate UK, Pro-Jekt, The Ghost of Lemora). Most of the time all I ever did was sit on the door stamping hands and taking money, but I learned a lot through simple observation and discussion.

Your biggest problem is not going to be getting the bands. As SV_Harlequin points out they rely on touring, especially for exposure, so they're usually more than happy to hop in a van and head down to the sleepy hamlet of Wheredafuk, Nevaherdovit for a gig, if they have a date free. Speaking of which, be prepared for last minute cancellations due to vehicular breakdowns, etc and have some kind of backup in place, even if it's just a bloke with a box of CDs (depending on venue, natch).

No, your main problem is going to be getting the fickle punters into your venue on the night. This means you poster and flyer the shit out of your local area, so anyone who'd be interested knows your event is on. I think my friend always did that about two weeks before the gig; any shorter than that and people have already made plans, any earlier and people will forget. Word-of-mouth is the other big "Awareness-generator" you need to make use of. Both require time and legwork so if you have any mates that can help out, bribe em with a drink or a place on "The List". Anything (legal) that'll raise awareness of your gig is good.

Your dream is perfectly possible, BM, but it's a hard one. There'll be good gigs and bad gigs. There'll be times when your venue's packed tighter than a Hillsborough stand and times when the local cemetery seems more popular. There'll be moments you'll want to kill everyone who said "Sure I'll come!" and who then didn't show up. On the other hand having a great gig and knowing YOU are the one who made it possible is, so I've been told, a great feeling.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head right now, but I'll happily answer any questions I can.

- trag

Thank you guys for the feedback and advice

I don't *think* that I'll have to worry so much about the whole van breaking down thing, as I'm probably going to have to fly these bands in and set them up with hotel rooms (which is why I'm going to stick to bands from the UK or at the very least European to keep costs down for now) and transport them to and from the gig myself.



Yeah, I know how difficult it is to motivate people to go to gigs as one of my brothers is himself in an indie band, and another brother organizes indie nights every couple of months in various venues (who has also offered his help on this).
I've done a bit of research and I now know that I can get 50 perspex advertisement things for only €50 scattered around the city, the company that does it will also put them up for me, getting the posters printed will cost about 3 times that (given the size they need to be).
I've also checked out a few venues, my first choice (which is currently being renovated but should be ready in about 2 months) is €1000 for a weekday, but I want a weekend to have more of a chance of a crowd which they don't list in their prices, it's going to be pricey but the location is perfect (right in the busiest part of the city center), it can also handle quite a large crowd.
I've also aproached one of the local bands The Urges about the possibility of playing the support slot for The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster and they practically fell over themselves to say "yes", which is great because The Urges themselves bring a fairly decent crowd by themselves, and I think their fans would be into EMBLD too
Essentially I'm all ready to start this thing moving, I'm just waiting for the go ahead from the management.

Black Milk - Some friends have their own record label here, and they do some gig arranging for bands from Japan who sign with them for US distribution. The most important piece of getting that off the ground for them was getting investors to back them financially. However, I remember back in the Old Days, there were people who simply did all the legwork of arranging showcase type shows (multiple bands) for the sheer love of sharing the music with the local kids. If this is what you're into, best of luck!

Yeah that is essentially the idea behind it, and thank you
Though I've so far recieved two responses basically saying "no" :/ Still, one of those was because they are fully booked for '07, so I'm still hopeful for an '08 gig
My head's been racing, filling up with names of bands I would love to bring over all week, I'd love to be able to get this to work

BTW I love your Miss Piggy Quote!

Cool idea, Black Milk; hope it works! This is a small point, but you might want to look into color copies instead of printing: they're MUCH less expensive (1/3 the price, at the print shop I worked for) and can be more eye-catchingly colorful since you can use more than a couple of colors and not break the bank. You can always get them done on a high-quality stock, and if you go to local shops rather than chains, you may be able to bargain a bit.

Another tidbit about printing flyer/promo material: look into "gang runs" (at least that's what we call them here in the States). Basically, a printer runs a bunch of smaller jobs on a big sheet of paper at the same time. I know down here you can usually get good deals on color printing for less than what it would cost to go to a copy shop and make B & W copies. The downside to using gang runs is that the color isn't spot on most of the time (as they do it for the whole sheet rather than your job), you can only order large runs, and there's no option for "rush" jobs, because the printer won't print until he has enough jobs to fill up the whole sheet. (Sometimes, this can take a while.)

If you're looking for someone to design your promo material, hit up the senior level graphic arts students at your local university. Speaking from experience, most are willing to work dirt cheap (or for free) because they're looking for "real life" samples to use to pad their portfolios, and if you find one that's a fan of the band you're promoting, you might be able to get them to donate the design, provided they get put on "the list." I know this kind of stuff worked on me when I was a student.

Best of luck, Black Milk!

As someone that has done things like this and worked with people from the band point of view, start smaller. Seriously. Your wallet will thank you.

After all, if 5 people show up for the gig, YOU will be footing the airline tickets, hotel rooms, venue, help, etc.

If you insist on starting big, make sure you're operating within the confines of the law. Nothing sucks more than finding out your show got cancelled due to a fire hazard, or lack of alcohol license, or the band didn't have a work permit/visa, etc.



Edited By Vivisector on 1189870826

Yeah I've come to realise that maybe I was trying to do the first manned martian landing before I could even crawl

Since then I've been contacted by someone who somehow got wind of what I was trying to do. He works for a nightclub/bar type place that usually has local bands performing almost every day of the week, but is keen to be seen as a "proper" venue.

Anyway he has asked if I'd be interesting in helping out in this, which sounds good to me, as I imagine they will front some if not most/all of the money and also, the place is connected to a hotel owned by the same person, which is another plus, the biggest advantage though would be in constantl having a definately available venue to offer any band I approached (which I wouldn't have to pay for).
I'm still waiting to hear back, as I wanted to know what exactly they have in mind, and what it is they actually want from me.

I'm glad that you're easing your way in. Diving in could have landed you thousands of dollars in debt