NWB - Community Blog

Dixons are/were a big agency in the N.East that had a lot of rock and tribute stuff on their books. In my experience though, all agents and agencies , with the odd exception, are a bunch of blood-sucking parasites living off someone elses talent, getting paid more for one phone call than each muso ends up taking home.
No disrespect to guys like Keef who book acts for venues because they love keeping music live, not for the money.
All too many agents out there in "clubland" never even go out to watch their own acts , so don`t even know what kind of stuff they play, that`s one of the reasons you get booked in the wrong venue for the kind of music you do.

Hmmmmm !!!! Thanks Chris for not putting me in the firing line with other agents/promoters lOL, not that I work like any other agent.
Best advise I can give is get out there scope the venues, talk to landlords/managers (meself included) and promote yourselves. Catdog play some pretty mean,fierce ass kicking rock and are finding venues. A lot will depend on whether you work purely covers,mix it up or self penned material.

I've never been tied to an agent for various reasons, but in Angel Of Sin we did get a few bookings via agents including Don agency and a couple of North East based agencies. As for playing metal, you can get away with stuff like Enter Sandman, and the better known Maiden/Ozzy/Sabbath stuff, as they do get played in the clubs at the moment. Obviously the AOR stuff goes down particularly well with the vocal harmonies etc.
We always got plenty of club gigs without needing to 'be' with an agent.

JON Delirium/AoS

we used an agent once but found them to be totally unreliable. Much better to approach the venue yourself and give them references from pubs you've played and other bands who've seen you. Plug your gigs on here and I'm sure lots of bands will come see if they're not gigging themselves (I know I will), lots of venues give gigs on recommendation from bands on here
Mark

I'm surprised you found agents to be unreliable. I've always found it to be quite the opposite, as agents have to be professional, and generally speaking, everything is spelled out in the contracts, and there is very little chance of being double booked, etc..

Rob

benefits of having an agent are good i think, not had one for about 2 years now, but they take all the flack if for some reason you cant make a gig, and they have to find a replacement, they fill your diary to the hilt and they bug you to do more.
BUT ours used to take 17% + vat, that will have gone up now. he was very good with us he came from st hellens so most of our gigs were in that area, but they do expect you to travel were ever they can get you in. and the fact they dont know and you dont know what sort of place you are going into, we played some really dodgy places and places that really didnt want our style of music.
I now think it's better to check out were we are going and keep all the money to ourselves!

For me it was never a money thing ... but what got my goat was "who worked for who?" I've never ever wanted to gig more than twice a month on average, there's just so many other things to keep me busy, but I found with an agent if you were moderately OK, i.e. rebookable ... then they'd push you to do as many gigs as they could get you.
As soon as you started turning gigs down you were out ... finished!

So, my opinion of agents is ..... scum!! (personal opinion mind)!

Willowtheskiver

The only good agent I've ever worked for is Nigel Round. Most agents just stick you on their web page and wait for the enquiries to come in. If we were playing Commitments however, then I'm sure they'd be beating down our door to play bland, inoffensive gigs everywhere..

we used to work for an agent called Shirley...in Oldham area...used to send her a tenner for every gig....used to get us on in Oldham nearly every night somewhere....some places that didnt even wants bands LOL Good times!

Worked for loads of agents in the past and I don't mind them. I only had a problem with one who was based around the Chorley area a few years ago. Basically if I want X amount for a gig and the agent can get it then I have no problem with him adding his fee on the total bill providing I get my X amount. I work when I want though and never get pressured or bullied into anything.

I used a few agents wen i did me solo stuff, mixed reviews realy. Had some good gigsin cumbria they realy apperciated ya traveling all that way and loved rock and punk but onthe other side i was sent to places known as caberet pubs full of piss stains even though they knew my set contained Bon jovi, Ac/Dc, Braz Adams etc and they were expectin Tom jones n elvis.