'AND' Magazine article by Kevin Harrington

Rubberband Promotions...
promoters of live music

And Magazine, May 2003

Not enough venues? No audience? Place full of people not reacting and cuddling their pints of lager? The sound engineer didn’t know what he was doing? The promoter couldn’t organise a piss-up in a brewery? I didn’t know the gig was on? We are talking about your town of course aren’t we? Well, no I’m not. I hear this from just about every town I have dealings with.

Yes, the grass is always greener elsewhere. The scene in Leeds and Manchester is much better. The streets of London are indeed paved with gold underneath the chewing gum. And live music around Southampton is thriving…seriously it is. I have recently been working with some people on a live music project that is proposed for the Southampton , Portsmouth and Bournemouth areas. This project is designed to make more money for the breweries (there’s a surprise), give bands more chance to play (good) and most importantly it is designed to deliver a great audience experience (now that makes a change).

But really, these sorts of projects are few and far between. A good live music scene is much more dependant on a healthy, professional attitude from all involved. Who should take the lead in developing things? Let me declare my hand first: I am a live music promoter in Hampshire and Berkshire (www.rubberbandpromotions.co.uk) and I also run a 1,400+ page web site that supports live music (www.josaka.com). Whether you like it or not, live music is driven by market forces…if people don’t ‘consume’ live music it ain’t going to happen. I believe the driving force has to come from bands and promoters jointly. The average pub/club that hosts live music is usually very good at running the venue and serving the customers but their forte is generally not marketing live music.

At a wild guess, the UK arena market (NEC, Wembley etc) for live music is worth around £50m, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There is an enormously valuable and vibrant live music market in the UK . Often, at a local and unsigned level, things start to go wrong because of the wrong focus. The reality is that musicians have to do something about marketing themselves as well as writing and playing great music.

For such a large industry, live music suffers from very poor levels of research. There is one very good piece of research (linked from www.josaka.com/Features/2002/PromotingGigs) that has been conducted. Everyone making a business out of live music should read it. There’s a good reason it’s called the ‘music business’…it’s because it is both of those things.

It would be wrong of me to talk about good and bad promoters. But I can talk about bands that do the right things. Here are some examples from a venue we promote in Basingstoke called Drakes. Al l four play very good music, but they also have that something extra:

Aubrey Lemmon from Winchester …they are one of the most professional unsigned bands I’ve come across. They actively market themselves. They never moan when things are not dead right. They turn up to gigs with a complete PA system in reserve (even when you tell them that you have a 5kW rig, back-up equipment and a professional engineer).

Austen from Andover …I don’t think they know how to complain. They are always working hard to make every gig the best.

Heckler from Newbury…have gone out of their way to develop an almost club like relationship with an active audience base. They are incredibly media friendly and get asked onto radio shows and then get asked back.

The Johnsons from Basingstoke …never fail to connect with the audience. When you see them live it’s as though the audience is king, they wind it up and always deliver a blistering set.

What do all four of these bands have in common? They innately understand that a live gig is about live music, it is about entertainment, it is a business. Who wins? Everyone, and especially their audiences. And when it goes well rewards follow. Another band that understands live entertainment is Kaldera. Following their performances at Drakes we now have them supporting The James Taylor Quartet in Camberley on Friday 2 May. This gig is part of the JTQ national tour promoting their 19th studio album and there will be an audience of 500.

The grass is green right across the south and there is probably also some gold around. And let’s face it, if you cannot make a go of it in your own area, what really makes you think you’ll fare better in front of complete strangers?

by Kevin Harrington

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