bocean02

Hi Adam, it's for the local area.

As suggested I'm offering reduced rate PA hire and engineer for a couple of months. This is aimed at new and up and coming bands in need of a hand. Give me a shout and I'll let you know what I can offer. 

Ashdale Hall Westhill. Medium sized Hall with a basic PA set up. 

I am offering PA hire and engineer at a discounted rate for the next month or so if that helps with any of your potential venues?

You can also email me at bandvan@live.co.uk

Hi everyone,

It's been a year since I was on here asking for opinions from you all regarding my idea to start a Roadie/Sound Engineer business. Well, better late than never! I am now at the beginning stages of putting my plans into action and within a week or two will be offering a full PA (4K Electro-voice), 16 channel desk (Mackie DL1608), separate mixer for drum mix where necessary, mics, cables, D.I. boxes and stands. This will expand in time I expect, maybe to include certain instruments and amplifiers but won't be investing unless I know there is a real demand.

I have a large Transit van which will soon have seats in the rear to accommodate a 5 piece band and all the gear.

As this is early days I will be offering the services at mates rates for a while to give you an intro to Band Van and how it could benefit you.

Roadie, transport, sound engineer and equipment all rolled into one package, Band Van. Nice!

Any queries send me a PM, any friendly comments are more than welcome.

Cheers, speak to you soon

Colin

Hi guys, I am at the beginning stages of creating a wee Roadie/Sound engineering service called 'Band Van', thought some of you may benefit from this especially when you're gigging outside Aberdeen.

Within the next week or two will be offering full PA (4K Electro-Voice), 16 channel desk, separate mixer for drums where necessary, mics, cables, D.I. boxes and stands. This will expand in time I expect, maybe to include certain instruments and amplifiers but I won't be investing unless there is a real demand for it.

I have a large Transit van which will have rear seats soon so it will accommodate a 5 piece band and all their gear. 

As these are early days I will be offering this service at mates rates to give you an intro to Band Van and how it could benefit your band.

Give me a shout and see if I can help you out!

Cheers

Colin

If you've just started the band then you're gonna be aace! Bit of a cross between The Rapture and Longpigs, love the mad vocals but you could do with a better recording. I can help you out with a cheap or possibly free recording if you're keen?

Good work, I'll look forward to the next track you offer!

I was speaking to a Collegue who suggested that I offer front of house; drums, amps, stacks, stands etc rather than back line. The idea of course being that it could help touring bands (especially from over seas )and local bands who cant transport big equipment or don't own the big gear. To be fair, if they hired me they would have a van to transport the big stuff  They would be of a high standard and could be offered as a mobile service for as and when needed.

What do you guys think of that idea?

Its not so much that i wouldnt be interested in a sound engineer, its more that as stated above, the guys who do the sound in their own venue's tend to know their systems very well, and know how to make them sound good, if you were to offer that as well, id kinda want someone who was willing to work with us more as a full time engineer and not just for a week or two on the road, that way id be happy that even tho you may not know the venue, you know how to work with the band.

 

Ill email you tho and discuss more that way.

Hi Milner, did you get my email?

Oh yeah, dont undersell yourself, you are offereing a very very handy service!

Personally speaking, my band is going to start getting out of the city more, hopefully, in the next 6 months or so, but playing gigs, then driving is never a safe option, ideally id be looking at options for a van, driver and someone who can help lump equipment about and someone we can all get a long with, if we're sharing a van for a few day so or a week or longer, we would have to get along to a certain extent.

 

At the moment we are lining up a show up in Inverness, again it might be an idea to have someone drive us there and back afterwards, what would you be looking at for something along those lines?

Let me get back to you on that one, I haven't done any roadie work out of Aberdeen yet so this is where I need to compare prices to try and make it work for everyone. I take it you're not looking for an engineer? If you give me an email at thevangroup@live.co.uk and we can discuss prices. I don't want to start throwing rough estimates here until I know for certain. Cheers mate.

Thank you all for the useful info, I will be taking it all into account and will keep in touch.

Please any addition comments are welcome.

Colin

Just a thought - if a band wanted to do an "all ages" tour, then they'd probably end up playing a lot of village halls and that kind of thing. Or, for more punk/DIY shit, there could be a few gigs in back gardens and house parties et al. Those would definitely need a van, gear and a sound man, but wouldn't be particularly well paying!

 

xx

I agree, where do you think the best place to advertise for this would be? Maybe the village halls themselves??

Reasonably priced van hire is something that is lacking in Aberdeen, it's actually nigh on impossible for under-25s, therefore a driver too would be greatly beneficial for most.  We had the problem of being under-25 when we toured earlier this year, but two of us are 25 this year, so we would rather just have the van for the next tour we do.  If you did an option whereby you would just let us use your van, on a day rate, it's definitely a service my band would use.  I don't know that many bands would be looking for a sound engineer as well, unless - as Adam says - they are really good/know the band inside and out.  There's probably money in just being a guy that owns a van that can rent it our to folk though, with the option of a driver on top for a larger day rate.  There are people out there who will drive a band around their tour for food and beer, however, just 'cause they love to tour.  That's probably more common in the "d.i.y" scene that we operate in. 

Hey Moose, may I ask what you would consider 'reasonably priced van hire'?

The problem with renting a van out to people is the shocking insurance premiums, they are steep enough for what I do now!

The d.i.y scene doesn't pay the bills unfortunately but definately sounds like more fun

Cheers for the feedback

You have to remember, at the level 99.9% bands are at in Aberdeen and the surrounding area, that you would need to be pretty cheap in order to get enough buisness to keep yourself going. I would be interested in seeing prices and what have you.

I don't expect to make it overnight but am lucky enough to already have an established business which will keep my head above water while I work on this project. Obviously I would love to be able to do this for really cheap as I support the band and performance scene however, what I have learnt from running a business is, don't undercut yourself or it just won't work. Business is business unfortunately.

What service that I have suggested might you be interested in? And how much would you be prepared to pay?

I will be getting some cost estimates which I can let you know of soon.

There is definitely a market for van + driver in Aberdeen however I'm unsure of how often you would be asked to be used as a sound engineer. If a band is taking a sound engineer on tour, it will be the engineer they use for every gig rather than just the driver of the van they've hired.

 

I tend to find that unless an engineer is really, really good, then it is more beneficial to use the in-house engineer. They know the equipment and the venue and that is generally quicker and more efficient.

 

As Stroopy says above, it is also highly unusual to have to provide a PA at venues, certainly that bands that frequent this site, will be playing.

 

That said, if you can allign your prices with somewhere like Splitter Scotland and include you as a driver then you will get business from Aberdeen - one of the worst parts about touring and hiring a van is that one of us has to drive. If the stress of driving a massive van was taken out of the equation, it would be excellent.

 

Good luck!

Thanks a lot Adam, I am aware of the local venue set up so assumed that there wouldn't be a need for an engineer or gear there but hopefully I could continue the roadie business that way. I expect that if this service was to work it would be beneficial to those who perform all over, not neccesarily in purpose built venues but schools, community halls and pubs etc. Maybe more suitable in the Shire.

I will look further into the cost of Splitter Scotland but as far as I am aware so far, it's over 100 miles just to get the van from them.

Thanks very much for your feedback

I hear you man, I'm gonna aim the service at people who grasp that you gotta pay your way

Hello,

I run a local delivery business called The Van Group and am going to expand utilising my sound tech' skills however I was hoping I could get some real critique from the people who would potentially use this service. I have been doing roadie work with a few bands in Aberdeen for the past three years so am not new to that area of work but I have not been employed at the same time to provide sound engineering. I haven't found anyone else who provides a van equipped to transport a 5 piece band and their gear, load/unload/set up (or at least assist) and offer a sound engineer in the same package. I would also like to find out how many bands/artists might benefit from hiring the sound rig as well on top of this, Mixing desk, amps, loud speakers etc. The service would be local and national so think tour van if you will.

So peeps, what could benefit you or people you know? What could I be missing out? What price would you expect to pay for such a service?

Thank you for any friendly feedback offered

Cheers, Colin