Alun Parry Singer Songwriter: September 2007

The Alun Parry Band

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Saturday, September 22, 2007

Jade Backs Venues Campaign

My campaign to highlight music friendly venues has received the backing of Echo music writer Jade Wright, who is publicising the initiative on her blog.

The objective is to come up with a list of music friendly venues, and so encourage a DIY approach to getting gigs - showing musicians where they can stage their own gigs without unfair room hire charges from venues.

If we all used these muso friendly venues, it would be a huge challenge to the standard venues - and I don't see how those who charge us for the privilege of bringing them customers could continue to get away with it. The closed shop would be broken!

As ever with anything supporting local grassroots music, the excellent Jade Wright has happily volunteered to use her blog to help collate this information. The result will be a free online directory of musician friendly venues.

I'm not surprised that Jade has come to our aid. She is a genuine champion of local music, and her philosophy is very much geared towards a DIY approach to music where the power is with the ordinary musician.

Since Jade arrived at the Echo, she has been an activist for the local music scene, not merely a journalist.

When she runs out of space within the paper itself, she continues to champion the local scene online through her Myspace page and her music blog. But even within the paper there are many innovations that turn the spotlight on local up and coming acts. Such as the Whats On My Ipod feature, or the Unsigned Band of the Week.

Even when the Mathew Street Festival was dead in the water, who was the first on the telephone trying her utmost to save it? Jade. A journalist's job is to merely report these things, but Jade always goes one stop further.

As such, I'm glad that Jade has decided to give her support to this idea. We're lucky to have a local music journalist who goes so far beyond the call of duty to promote local music.

5:01 PM | Permalink |

Saturday, September 8, 2007

Let's Promote Music Friendly Venues

I should be blogging about my album launch really shouldn't I? And posting up some piccies of the album launch party. Especially the ones of the audience. Well I will but not yet. I've got a different bee in my bonnet. And that's venues.

They drive me absolutely nuts! Has anyone ever tried to put music nights on like I do? If you have, then you'll already know what I'm talking about.

Contact most venues and say you want to put a music night on in one of their rooms and they say certainly, and quote you a price that you have to pay them.

Well hang on a minute, what's going on here?

They expect ME to pay THEM for the supposed honour of bringing customers to drink their ale in their bar. What an odd idea!

That's like having a team of publicists getting people to buy my album, and me charging them for doing so. Really, the music industry is the strangest business in the world. It operates in such a topsy turvy way that it constantly infuriates me at the sheer nerve of it.

I don't mind if they have an in house PA and they have an engineer. I can see what I'm paying for there. Someone is going to look after the sound. And if they've invested in a good PA then fair do's that they want someone running it who knows what they're doing.

But when I start paying just for the privilege of having the room it drives me crazy. What should really happen is that they should be saying "the engineer costs this much, but you're bringing in these customers so we're happy to pay for x% of that". Not be lumping on more.

And then there's the venues who have no in house PA and no engineer. Just a bare room available to use.

And they STILL charge. So we have to lug all our PA equipment to their venue. Then we have to engineer the night ourselves. Then we have to book any support bands. And then we promote it along with the other bands so that loads of people turn up and drink the venue's beer. And the bands all play.

And what do they pay for PA Hire, Sound Engineering, promotion, sales commission, and live music??

Nothing! And in fact worse than nothing. They hand US a bill!!!

So hang on. When you've got the PA and the engineer it costs us about £80. But when we've got the PA and the engineer you pay nothing at all, and expect us to pay you for the venue.

I was quoted £140 by one venue in Manchester! Just for using their room!!!

What a bloody rip off.

Frankly I'm sick of it.

It's about time that venues started paying out not charging. What are we? Slaves?

At the very least, if I'm gonna pull my tripe out ensuring that a hundred beer drinkers come into your venue rather than the one down the road I want the room for free.

I want to hear from people who have found music friendly venues.

Please reply to this with the name of venues who don't charge for rooms.

Please reply especially with the name of venues who pay for the service, even if its just a %age of the bar tab to keep it risk free for them.

I propose to make this list public and then encourage all musicians and promoters to only use these venues, boycotting the rest who fleece us. Even better I'd encourage musicians to BE promoters and stage your own gigs.

But let's find out which venues are good for musicians across the UK. Find out the ones who don't hit us with payment for doing THEM the favour. Find out the ones honourable enough to pay up for the work we do in promoting and playing music - not to mention bringing and setting up our gear.

The standard cry is Keep Music Live. But thats not enough. We need a new cry.

Make Venues Musician Friendly!

And there's only one way to do that. Share information on the musician friendly venues and potential venues out there. And refuse to use the rest unless they follow suit.

We have power to change the industry from the bottom if we cooperate and take it on. And take it on we must!

Send me those venues now and I'll build a database on these pages that everyone can use!

2:29 PM | Permalink |

Jade Backs Venues Campaign

Let's Promote Music Friendly Venues

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