Band: Trevor Jones Band
Venue: The Bowery, London
Date: 25/02/2012
Audience: 3
Set: All I Am, Bad Man, Alive, Roll On The Rain, Old Fashioned Woman, Falling, Solid Ground
Notes: This was certainly a gig that may have tested our patience a little. A couple days back, when we asked why we weren't on the venue's website, we were informed that they weren't plugging us until we confirmed that we could bring a certain amount of people to London to watch us. It's an age old argument with unsigned bands, and to be honest I feel we've grown out of this - we're not naive teenagers anymore desperate to play in the smoke, we play London on merit not on how many friends we can drag down. It looked like the gig was off then, but then late yesterday it seemed to be back on. Turning up at the venue this evening we still wasn't sure if we were actually playing or not because the 'promoter' hasn't been answering his phone. I was in a bad mood about this, I think we all were; the promoter clearly doesn't care at all about music and has done nothing in regards to actually promoting - he is merely a businessman who is after door numbers for his venue. He wasn't even there tonight, although that might have been a good thing in retrospect. I felt sorry for the poor guy who was there running the event as he clearly meant well but was put in a tricky position - we weren't on the billing as far as he was aware, and we were stuck with two options; 1) go on stage at 6.45pm and be the extra band tagged onto the billing or 2) go back to Cambridge, having not played a single note. Sorry for swearing, but it's fucking bullshit. Don't get me wrong - the venue is nice, the soundman was excellent. It's just all of the other bollocks that goes with it sometimes - we're musicians, we play music, we hope people will like it, we work hard in rehearsals, we entertain people. It's just sometimes, in particular with London gigs, you find yourself in this situation. I mean - we're the band, we play music, if you're a promoter what do you actually do if you don't promote? Had a couple issues with the house kit - the bass drum was very worn and if you tried to attach your bass pedal to it there was a sense it was going to crumble, the hi-hat stand was too thick for my clutch, the cymbal stands were wobbling when hit. It was hardly going to be my most accomplished performance, but as I say - the sound was actually excellent. For most of the gig we played to three people - because we were on at such a ridiculously early time. At one point it was one person, she was there the whole time and even seemed to be enjoying it. By the end of the set the room felt busy, mostly in anticipation of the band that were about to follow us. But positives...we played really well for most of it, 'Solid Ground' went a little odd at the end and all of us seemed to lose our way a bit, but under difficult circumstances I thought we were actually pretty tight this evening. Other positives - it's nice to hang out with Trevor, Tony and Bill and have a drink after the show, grab some food, and generally make light of the whole slightly ridiculous situation we found ourselves in. You've got to really, haven't you?
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2 comments:
It's a pretty crap situation really. It's amazing promoters still haven't moved away from this ridiculous "pay-to-play" model. I can't believe they actually make money from it?
Well they certainly can't have made much money from it the other night by the looks of things :-)
I agree though - I thought there was a bit of an outcry about the whole pay-to-play thing a few years back and venues were clamping down on it. To be honest, it only really seems to be happening in London on a big scale. But that's still a shame, as it's not like we want to avoid playing the place, but sometimes you're left with no choice...
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