NWB - Community Blog

Depends which venues you're on about.

So that no one goes round and puts their windows through!? lol

... but seriously: wider variety of bands on offer? As long as they like you, your gonna get re-booked, no matter where you're from?

'cos they're better than some of the local bands? ;o)

this is a good blog for venues to comment on, come on venues, what are your veiws on the question.

Well speaking on behalf of a Tribute band we play towns that are looking for something a bit different and don't currently have that particular act.

Seriously though, why the heck not? I've played a large WMC in Middlesborough, and the first time we played there it was packed out even though the punters had never heard of us. The venue had built a reputation of only having very good bands on which is why the punters came anyway. We've also played poor venues near where we all live and work and they've been empty.
The "bring loads of mates and work colleagues to gigs" plan can only work to a certain extent. Keeping the quality high is key.
I know that decent bands from the NW who play over here in Yorkshire certainly don't empty the pubs...

I book bands for a number of venues here in the NW and it is very much a case of getting the right band for each venue. There are many factors to take into consideration when putting a diary together.
1.Customer type (is it a venue frequented by younger customers/mature or a mix)
2.Budget.
3.Location.
4, Venue history. No sense in turning a rock venue into a folky one for inst.
Some venues have developed a rep for promoting new and/or Originals bands (West Coast Rock Cafe-Blackpool and The Napier-Blackburn spring to mind, and the bands are almost exclusively local.


I personally find that if I were to place only local bands into a venue, in a fairly short time the customers would get tired with the same bands playing every few weeks, and would possibly start moving away.

I want to bring the very best bands in and that does mean bringing in bands from afar. Thats not disrespecting local bands, but providing a varied and fresh and exciting weekend of live music each week.
Ideally the venues should be providing top quality nights entertainment for its customers based on budget and band availability , not a convenient gig for a band from round the corner.

That might sound a bit mercenary, but the venue is a business and its main objective will always be attracting and retaining a good customer base, and keeping them.

successfull advertizing efforts of the venues putting out of town bands on is a factor to consider, while a good band with a decent following will attract thier following to the gigs they frequent localy,the fans will wait for the next local gig rather than travel distances. so venues efforts must be stronger in this situation. we do all we can to gather up our fans for each and every gig played localy. and the same for out of area gigs,

well i reckon if we got 10 bands in the town.....
and hundreds from out of town....
the choice is obviously better.
the way we do it is.... you can see the local band at several local venues, but not the out of town band at all of the local venues,
not to say we have nt got some very good local talent tho.

I agree with Keef and Ken, to keep having all the local bands on would eventually get boring for the customers, plus if everyone did this it would be the same bands week in week out in one area and with no kind of variety people would stop coming out. So it's got to be kept fresh and new and different to keep people interested.

Variety is the spice of [muso] life!!

A good band will attract a crowd on reputation alone, wherever the venue.
LAST GANG IN TOWN play across the country due to the location of the band members so have a following in Merseyside, Cheshire, Lancs and Yorkshire. If you put in the effort and spread the word and properly advertise and promote your gigs you should attract the 'locals'.....
e-mails to local press and radio have helped us many times.....
Good promotion by the venue is also likely to attract people.
I also don't understand why 'local' bands don't try their luck at places where they are unknown, it's more of a challenge to entertain strangers as it is to play to your mates down the local in your hometown.
But that's just my opinion.....

I wouldn't want to watch my favourite bands every week (well with the exception of one lol - but I'm only one person in the crowd), and although you may get a bigger following locally I think customers need more variety. There are as many customers that come in out of curiosity, than those coming in with prior knowledge of bands x

"# Posted by LAST GANG IN TOWN - 23/11/2009, 19:09 (GMT)

A good band will attract a crowd on reputation alone, wherever the venue.
LAST GANG IN TOWN play across the country due to the location of the band members so have a following in Merseyside, Cheshire, Lancs and Yorkshire. If you put in the effort and spread the word and properly advertise and promote your gigs you should attract the 'locals'.....
e-mails to local press and radio have helped us many times.....
Good promotion by the venue is also likely to attract people.
I also don't understand why 'local' bands don't try their luck at places where they are unknown, it's more of a challenge to entertain strangers as it is to play to your mates down the local in your hometown.
But that's just my opinion....."

Spot on; in Angel Of Sin we gigged all over the country and it's a good buzz to see if you can crack a town hundreds of miles away.

surely, if a band was to only play very local gigs in one town, then there wouldn't be enough venues in that one town to fill their diary for a year?
Another reason why bands play all over the North West and beyond.