Text your friends, make a Facebook event, give people things to listen to and videos to watch. Get a hashtag going on Twitter. Send a group email. Having 300 people attending on Facebook does not necessarily mean 300 people are going to your event. But at least they know about it and great. Getting a great support act can really make a gig worthwhile for local people who might not be too familiar with your headliner. It can make people take a chance. Make sure the support band tell their friends about the gig. Make sure they know how great your headliner is so that they are actually excited to play.
On the day, make sure you have everyone’s phone number. The band, the agent, the support band, the venue, the engineer, the person on the door. Make sure someone is picking the DJ up from the airport. Make sure all the stuff the bands asked for is there; bottled water, brown M&Ms, a drumkit, whatever. They’re almost definitely going to need some beer, try get the venue to give them something. Make sure there is someone on the door and that you don’t unexpectedly have to do it yourself. Make sure the bands know what time they’re sound-checking at and what time they’re playing at. How long are their sets?
Afterwards, make sure everyone gets to where they’re supposed to be sleeping, whether that’s in a hotel or on your mate’s couch. Make sure everyone who is supposed to get paid, gets paid. Including you, if you’re getting paid. Arrange times for people to meet up/leave the next day. Know how everyone is getting home. Have a beer and relax. Make friends, have a laugh. Do you know where the party is?
The above probably sounds like common sense and putting gigs on is basically just a long stream of common sense decisions blurred by the fact you’re dealing with musicians, who rarely deal in common sense. Know your limits – financially, emotionally, physically. Work only with people you genuinely trust. Book only bands you genuinely love. Work in venues you genuinely enjoy. Write everything down, on paper. You will lose money along the line. You might also make some money. The amount of times I’ve thought to myself, “Well, I just paid €150 to see that band. Totally worth it.” As long as it’s not having a catastrophic impact on your ability to buy food or pay the rent, it probably won’t matter because you’ll be having such a great time. A million things could go wrong, dozens probably will. You’ll have to think on your feet. Go into it with your eyes open and just about anything is possible. When it goes right, it’s just about the best feeling in the world.
