les_paul says:
what's silly about looking for a band manager?
unless you are on a tour of 2k + cap venues they are simply another hole in the wallet...
here's some advice from an olden fvker who's been through the Manager, Promoter, Label-PR-guy etc, thang a time or 50 (lol)
Unless you have an album out and are playing 600 to 2k venues a manager will only get in the way, ** at the FOH-soundman, the Stage-soundman, the Merch-guys and anyone else--it makes him look busy and makes you miserable in Wyoming or (oh god) Cleveland.
and you get to pay for this lol
a Promoter is good if you are new to an area BUT unless you are pulling enough cash to pay for room, board, food, AND the aforementioned promoter he is dead weight.
Labels are worse (i wont get into that as i don't wanna have a heart attack)
a great axiom for all who tour (or tour regionally) :
>If you can do it yourself do it yourself<
+
Expect:
the soundman to be drunk -- the monitors blown and/or dysfunctional, Merch-guy will skim money-- the (clubs AND venues) 'door-man' is skimming money -- you will never get a decent monitor mix -- if the soundcheck is at 7pm expect the soundman to arrive 1-hr before the show, drunk – the SM58 you are singing into (why I bring my own) will smell like a deli-tray and have dangerous fungi growing in it – load-in will be uphill – load-out will be uphill as well, -- the van or bus will break down at LEAST twice -– the ‘nice accommodations’ you were promised will be someone’s couch---I could go on but I’d just get depressed.
My advice:
Be yer own Promoter/Manager. Invent a fake name and use it. Learn the world of negotiation and travel from a ‘booking’ standpoint like it was the art of walking. Never use stage-hands, if you’re pompous enough (not saying YOU are just generalizing) to imagine that you need a ‘roadie’ or tech .. yer insane. You will need 1 extra man in the band who plays nothing but the Van or Bus and watches the door, the Merch etc, and can kick the soundman’s asss lol.
In THIS economy its even worse.
(I aint touring past a 200 mile radius this year, and at 44, don’t mind that at all – I’ve already put in my dealing with a-holes time.)
Some booked shows will become un-booked for no reason: roll with it
Some owners will not want to pay up (I'm serious) so the 1 extra man you hired should be physically fit, not just to drive but to kick some butts as well .. This brings us to a VERY important piece of gear , the sawed-off baseball bat (I like aluminum, my bassist swears by wood) because many times the a-hole owner will have his door guy etc watching his back.
Now back to the promoter.
Like I said, make one up and use him/her .. it really works, we did a series of dates with Fugazi and they had the same , lol, ‘manager’ as us...them lol.
In their case (and ours at the time) we made enough bank to have out 1-extra guy double as our soundman and we traveled with two (all that would fit) wedge-monitors and a board so that we knew if (50% of the time) the monitor mix sucked we could count on ours to deliver the vocal, Kick, and R-Git (all ya need)
If ya wanna line up a tour try “gig swapping” I hear its all the rage these days … you befriend a few bands in a few cities and open for them on the promise that they will open for YOU or your turf. This provides a built in crowd.
To build that crowd, play that bar/venue as much as possible each year … soon you will headline there (if they like ya) ..most likely with the band you gig-swapped with.
Get to know all the college radio stations, they LOVE out-of-towner's and will be your greatest asset along with your CD, online EPK, www-yourband-site (owners do NOT look at MySpace etc, none that I’ve run into)
MOST important advice other than ‘have FUN’ =
If there are only 20-50 or less people in the club-etc play like you are playing in Radio City Music Hall to a SRO crowd! Then GO BACK
-> case in point : in the late 80’s or early 90’s (I lol forget which band/year) we played to about 15 people in (I think) Johnson City TN … there was NO promotion. No Posters (all we had back then) NO radio spot, NO nothing… BUT we had “the regulars” and we played about 15 min before my bassist (now my bassist again) Scott said: “hey, we all know that this is a small affair so in that spirit why don’t we ALL have some fun!? .. we’ll put money out for each of you grab a beer ‘on us’ and we will have a 2 hour party with nothing in mind but fun and fine rock n roll IF YOU will tell all your friends about it!” (cheers) “so are we on!?” … we went back and played to a capacity crowd the following month.
So all in all a manager , IMNSHO, at this stage would best be a friend (large if poss) who has a knowledge of gear, driving and butt-kickin’ (if need be)
And
The Promoter should be YOU …with the web up and CDs to send you can pump a gig, a tour, a small tour, whatever y7ourselves and save a boatload of hassle and cash.
Damn … dint mean ‘t rant hahaha
Oh well
Hope that helps
RAWK!
Cs
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