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Scottish Music Network


Sam 45

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I'm taking this from www.edinburgh-music.com - just to warn anyone out there.

I'd just like to bring to your attention, a Glasgow based promoter, Scottish Music Network (www.myspace.com/scottish_music_network)

We began having problems with him, after he failed to turn up for a show he booked our band for along with three other bands. He has made no attempt to apologise or justify this to any of us.

After we then failed to turn up to another of his shows, purely out of principle, his response to us was:

"you will not get a gig ioff me or any the promoters i know in the city again"

After speaking to another band (Screaming Blue Murder) who tried to pull out of a gig unavoidably, they told me he'd said to them:

"If you do not play I will still expect full payment fromy our band, if I do not recieve this I will be forced to contact all the major promoters in Glasgow and let them know not to book such an unreliable band"

I think you'll agree that this sort of response from a so called professional promoter is a bit out of order, and shows him to be obviously exploiting local unsigned bands, with the sole interest of making money.

We have spoken to other bands and acoustic artists who have had similar experiences with this "promoter".

We hope you will support us in our attempt to stop this from happening to any other bands.

Thanks for reading.

4th In Line

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I think we need a bit more info on this before we go slating anyone. All we have so far is one guy's post on Edinburgh-music, with nothing else to actually back up what he says. Could always just be a personal beef, after all "we failed to turn up on principle" isn't exactly the best way to do things either. I can't find any mention of trouble with him anywhere else, and there are a few positive comments on his myspace. Obviously it wouldn't be a great shock if a promoter turned out to be a charlatan, but we don't know that he is. Let's get a bit more info first. Anyone else heard of/dealt with him?

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Right

tears of grace are playing for smn on the 31st august. We know the deal isn't great...but

so what?

The scene up here is a lot lot nicer to bands - down there it is more difficult and bands don't have it so easy. For a first gig in glasgow and maybe a stepping stone to better gigs we don't mind if it isn't as straight forward as up here.

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Right

tears of grace are playing for smn on the 31st august. We know the deal isn't great...but

so what?

The scene up here is a lot lot nicer to bands - down there it is more difficult and bands don't have it so easy. For a first gig in glasgow and maybe a stepping stone to better gigs we don't mind if it isn't as straight forward as up here.

Aye but how are you going to cope with selling your tickets?

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generally bands hire a minibus and take 15 of their mates down with them' date=' so thats half of the tickets. beforehand they will have spen 4days on myspace finding new friends in glasgow who will come to the gig and buy tickets from them

which is fair dos[/quote']

I think either a gig swap or selling tickets for a gig is acceptable to the extent that every band is going to have to graft and work hard to gain a following. It's never been easy but in the end it's worth it. :up:

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aye that will be of great use to you eh?

Might be, you never know where that kind of thing comes in useful :)

Anyway, if someone was to ask me to sell tickets for them, I'd ask them for a guarantee on the crowd in return...how many of these scammers would guarantee a crowd, I wonder?

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There is no reason why you should have to if it is in a proper venue. None of the gigs I have played down in Edinburgh and Glasgow (which, to be fair, is not a huge number) have been like that. Just don't expect to make any money, or not at first. If you are lucky enough to build a following out of town, you will get a bigger cut of the door spoils - petrol money at best! We have had really good experiences outside of Aberdeen, some of our best gigs - however we were lucky in that I know a lot of people who bring other people to gigs so the crowds were friendly. It was still mostly people who had never heard our music before.

It is worth contacting venues directly to see if they have any free slots, stereo/nice n' sleazys would be good places for bands that haven't played Glasgow before and Bannerman's in Edinburgh.

Gig swaps are fine if the other band hold up their end of the bargain. If you go that route I would suggest making sure that they have a gig you can play at already lined up before committing to get them up to Aberdeen. Been stung by that one before. Really nice guys but too much going on with their own band and probably being directed by other people more than anything.

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You should also consider going to desired city and have a look at the places, hear some bands, network a bit - speakto / find out who books gigs there. Always hard to get into a new music scene if you don't know where to start. Gives a bit of reality to what you are wanting to achieve. Plus its always fun to go on a bit of a road trip!

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