Running your own Gig

This is a very good idea if you have trouble getting your first gig with a recognised venue or promoter. It will help get your foot into the industry and hopefully generate interest and fans! Running your own gig isn't as hard as it may sound but it will take a lot of time and dedication to organise.

You should choose a suitable venue to hire which allows for live music to be played, it also needs to be easily accessible so that people can get to it! Look around and find the most appropriate and the best priced. Find out any other information you can i.e. Does it come with pa system? Lighting? Security?

Once you have a date booked (ideally 1-2 months in advance) you should then start asking 3-5 other bands to play at your event. You should have at least one band which is on the national circuit, one band who has a good local reputation, and one band with moderate reputation and possibly even another new band who is yet to play... Don't forget to put your own band in the line up! You should discuss with the bands the dates, the times and the payment to avoid confusion at a later time... make sure you keep it all documented for future reference.

You'll want to secure a PA system if the venue doesn't already have one, hiring a specialist sound company can be costly... this is where most promoters pay most towards. You'll also want to book security and crew for the day; note that you don't have to go with specialist companies, a lot of the time friends will be more than happy to do it for free entry and drinks or food. Choose people that you can trust. Once all arrangements have been organised you can move onto promoting the show.

A lot of people forget how important it is to promote to people you don't know, you can't rely on your friends or the bands fan base to turn up to the show. You'll want to put in around 20% investment if not more of whatever you expect to make out of the night(money wise). For instance if I expected to make around £400 in one night I would put at least £80 into promotion/marketing/PR.

Good promotion doesn't have to be costly, you don't NEED expensive glossy colour postcards or full colour A3 posters(although one or two may be good in high traffic areas). Get someone to design a good A6 black and white flyer, print four to one A4 piece of paper and get it duplicated down at your local printers.
Also get some A3 and A4 black and white posters printed onto luminous paper. A good ratio of the two will ensure that you get a good turn out. Word of mouth also helps, always remind people that the show is going to happen on such and such date. Even emailing or reminding people a day or two before it is due to commence will bring you extra people.