It appears that after two blogs, I was unable to keep them coming regular.
So in honest I suppose it will be written sporadically.
Recent stuff...
I've been told that my deoderant smells like a maxi pad.
and totally unrelated.
I have changed my deoderant from Old Spice Showtime to Old Spice regular.
Lately I've been booking (trying to book) two short tours for October.
the first around Ontario and Quebec, the second in the UK.
Lets talk about the first.
I don't have many conecctions around by means of promoters or venue owners so I found these bars and venues by following where musician friends I know and bands I liked. Where they played I made a note of it. that was my start point.
I thought If you play similar music you would have a good chance of getting something at that venue. Funny thing is though. I don't know who I sound like. I'm not folk, but I play only the acoustic, it's verging on pop rock. but pop rock venues tend to book full bands, which I am not.
THe second thing I did was go to google maps and type in "bar" and you slide that cursor around ontario and hundreds of venues pop up.
Checking out all of thses was very time consumming.
I decided it would be quicked to email the bars and venues. A quick email gettting right to the point of what I'm doing what's involved and how much I want.
Here is what happens
1) some emails will not work.
2) many bars will not respond
3) bars will be booked up
4) I'm not the right fit for the venue
5) a few that say yes
It was frusterating going sending out emails and have them come back "delivery postponed, email does not exist" and sother such wording. A lot never bothered to get back and since this is really my first attempt at booking a tour, I thought 4 weeks would have been agood enough time period to get some shows booked but a lot of the venues that responded were booked well up to Dec and Jan.
Afte exhausting the email I began calling bars and got similar results.
1) no answer
2) They only book cover bands
3) Booked up)
4) He'll call you back (only to not get called back)
Fun Times So for a wek or so. I had two gigs booked. both in Ottawa.
"Hey guys! the tour begins and ends in Ottawa!"
I've got a few more added since then and the other guys involved are checking into their resources to fill out the dates.
So that's a to be continued.
How about the UK?
similar but only involves emails since a 5-10 min phone call would cut deeply into my wallet.
I'd scour google maps, visit uk bands I knew of to see where they were playing asked friends that live in certain cities where the music venues were, etc.
I was hoping that the novelty of being a Canadian Musician would help me get some gigs, but really I don't know.
I've got no more gigs than I do in Canada.
I also came up with similar results, no response, booked, not the right style. And a few yes's.
THe odd thing I found was that mainly in London, bars that had open mic nights would try and book you for that, as a gig. 15-20 min set for free. And honestly I have taken one of them right before I return home.
Going over seas I was able to get intouch with a few booking agents that were advising me on certain things. one was don't come over with out a plan.
I was reccommended to one fellow who does alot of Canadian UK shows. I heard lots of good things about him and asked for some advice.
First off I got questions like
What are your sales like?
What Lable are you with?
What's your goal?
How long are you staying?
How much money do you have to spend?
What's you r fan base?
Ummmmmm, my CD is not out. No Lable. My goal is to play music. No idea. almost none. And fan base is so small you wouldn't even call it a fan base.
I was recommended to not come over with out a bigger plan or I would lose my shirt.
I chose not to take that advice, and still fly over.
The promoter is helping me get my VISA and was very kind and informative. I'm glad to know that I will be broke by the end of this, but I kinda had that in my head anyway.
A friend of mine was recently over around London, and well he came back broke, but the stories he had and the experience was worth it. Plus now he has connections for a future tour.
And that's pretty much what I'm running on now.
I'm nobody right now I'm not known anywhere outside of the city I live in and even then, not such a draw.
But that's what I'm working on I need to go out where no one knows me meet people (potential fans, venue owners, promoters) and get known.
Sitting in a comfortable spot is not going to help me grow.
SO I plan on being broke for a while now. Maybe I'll get lucky and start to make a bit outside of the day job. But right now, that's not the task. The task now is going out, getting visible and meeting people.
So let's see how I do....
As a side note, I don't proof read these. I know my grammer and punctuation is probably attrocious, what are you gonna do?
Also I'm on a computer that does not have my photo's and videos on it so next post I'll load them up!
-Neil
http://www.eyeswide.ca/
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