First Keep your ears Peeled at Bar Monsta, Camden on
Friday 19th January 2007
Lineup: Trash Money,
The Housewives,
The Fall DJ set from My Ears My Ears DJ
Trash Money Myspace Page
The Housewives Myspace Page
After 3 good nights on the trot, I had one bad night - not a bad ratio really. No matter how well you plan and promote a night there are simply no guarantees.
But the problems ran deeper than that. We'd never really built up a regular crowd, each night was basically bands playing to their collective mates, and a few stragglers here and there.
The problem with doing an unsigned live bands night is that whilst it would be nice if people receiving a flyer with 4 bands they've never heard of would be adventurous enough to go home and check out their myspace pages, think "Hmm, they aren't bad" and pop down and see them.
Alas, they are much more likely to conclude that if they haven't heard of them they can't be any good and put the flyer in the bin.
Obviously there are some bands such as Deathstar Preview who weren't yet signed that word of mouth had built them a but of an audience, but such bands are few and far between, and you are competing with full time promoters for them. If they are playing in a better venue down the road next week, people will wait for that.
| "if a full time promoter down the road with a bigger and better venue comes knocking, who would you work with?" |
Bands that are getting 6 music or XFM airplay are apparently a good bet as people in the know will know their name, yet at that stage they are still more interested in building a reputation than earning silly money for doing a gig. But again, if a full time promoter down the road with a bigger and better venue comes knocking, who would you work with?
I did enquire about established acts, but then you are talking in the thousands, often silly riders and there is little chance they will agree to get changed in the toilet.
Tribute acts pull a crowd, and it's fun to do it once in a while, but if you end up just booking bands that play other people's songs, then you've lost the point of doing the night, increasing your financial risk and diminishing your satisfaction.
It struck me that I should turn the night on it's head, and return the focus to the DJing, with live bands as the icing on the cake, rather than the main course.
One thing I learned from booking The Smyths is that it's a lot easier to promote a night with a known name on the flyer, even if it's just a DJ playing their songs or a tribute act pretending to be them.
A flyer that tells you we play tracks from The Smiths, The Cure, The Clash, Jesus and Mary Chain, HMHB, Billy Bragg, New Order, Joy Division etc + live bands in similar style, if that's your kind of music, and there aren't a thousand other nights doing the same thing, then there is every chance you will come down and check it out.
But we needed a clearly defined music policy (though not one that is too restrictive!) but what?
| "What was once alternative was now being watered down and served up to the mainstream" |
The term Indie had changed it's meaning over the years to become practically meaningless. What was once alternative was now being watered down and served up to the mainstream.
I realised that what bound together people who listened to the kind of music I wanted to play had listened to John Peel.
But of course when someone is passionate about music and their job is listening to and playing music, they are able to develop a taste for music that many people with normal day jobs are unable to "get". Therefore, doing a peel night could make people think of some of the more bizarre stuff he used to play and put them off.
So I decided to narrow it down, to the festive 50s - every Christmas John Peel asked his listeners to vote for their favourite songs of the year. The popular end of Peel if you like.
So the music policy was to be tracks from the festive 50s of the 1980s (bit of a mouthful). Which gave us a pretty wide scope of music to play, and I came up with the name "Keep your ears Peeled".
It was a lot of fun begging, stealing and borrowing every track that made the festive 50s in the 1980s (aside from 20 or so I just couldn't find anywhere. If anyone has a copy of the Farmer Boys singles please pass them on!)
Trash Money
This really was make or break for the night. I didn't really see any point in going back to the format of bands playing to their collective mates, so to give the launch night the best possible chance, I made it free entry, and booked Trash Money who were originally meant to play the last Progress Bar gig but couldn't make it as their drummer was off playing with Travis.
The Housewives
The Zapatistas were supposed to play the Dublin Castle but split before the gig, so I booked their new band, The Housewives.
In addition to live bands, the idea was to have a featured artist each month and someone would play a 45 min set from their back catalogue. This month it was (a rather obvious choice) The Fall. I managed to find a guy who had ran a DJ night back in the 80s called My Ears My Ears, and was a big fan, so he took the honour of doing that set.
| "I decided to abandon printed flyers and so on" |
I decided to abandon printed flyers and so on, and instead seek out people on Myspace whose list of bands they like match the kind of stuff we were going to play and send them a personal message rather than the usual automated stuff that most people do.
I got a generally good feedback, and one guy even promised to come down from Nottingham especially for the night, as long as I played his favourite song by Choo Choo Train. I played it, and sure enough he came to the gig - a good sign!
| "The night went well with about 100 people turning up" |
The night went well with about 100 people turning up over the course of the night. The atmosphere was good and at a personal level I met Nick Smash from The Dave Howard Singers - the band that made me realise there was better music outside of the Top 40!
At the end of the night, The Fall DJ set went down particularly well, with a small crowd of 20 or so dedicated Fall fans going mental! I couldn't afford to book The Fall (or handle someone as temperamental as Mark E. Smith) but we could play their records and bring along the faithful!
| "The only negative feedback was from people who didn't like the bands" |
The only negative feedback was from people who didn't like the bands, but loved the DJ side. A bit of a shame, but proof that the concept was working - people were coming for the music the DJs were playing not just for a particular band.
The crowd were a good mix of oldies like myself that remembered the music from first time around, and kids who had gotten into it through their parents and enjoyed discovering new (to them) gems. All in all a good night!
Read on: Second Keep your ears Peeled Night with Digital the New Order/Joy Division Tribute