This article was originally written for the Nothing Feels Good zine in 2023.
Brutalligators have been playing live shows since 2016, but straight out of the gate we got some amazing bookings with bands like Tellison, Fresh, Gaffa Tape Sandy, Don’t Worry, Yr Poetry, Modern Rituals and a bunch of other amazing folks. No, this isn’t an exposé on how Brutalligators are actually all nepo babies, and my dad runs Big Scary Monsters (I think I might be older than them anyway), but that at the beginnings we booked (or co-booked) a lot of our own shows. And it’s not that hard, and you don’t need buckets of cash to do it. You only need a fondness for rejection, an inflated sense of worth and a ‘what’s the worst that could happen’ attitude.
First hurdle: venue. Most venues in London under 200 capacity you can have for a night for between £90 - £150 depending on the size. That will cover the sound engineer, which you will need. Most venues won’t allow you to bring in your own sound engineer anyway, so sorry to your mate Bazza, but you’ll probably have to go in-house. Independent venues are usually better at putting on untested promoters, and are better at responding to you as well. Folks like LNZRT usually won’t touch you unless you’ve got a track record.
My biggest pieces of advice with venues is first - don’t overstretch yourself, and second - pick venues that already do similar gigs. Don’t assume you can fill a 200 cap venue with a band that has only ever played 100 cap venues. Selling out a beautiful small venue like Blondies or Paper Dress Vintage can make for a way more special night than having 20 people at The Lexington. Venues that put on similar shows are golden because they probably already have a good fanbase, and can help with promotion (never underestimate venue footfall). If they put posters up in the venue of upcoming gigs, then that’s a bonus!
Bonus advice: Ask if the venue does free gigs. It’s rare, but some venues still have budget for doing free gigs, so may give you £150-250 to put on whatever you want, or at least a bar split. If it’s a bar split, ask what a wildly successful night usually looks like and what a middling night looks like so you can budget effectively.
Second hurdle: bands. Who to put on? If you’re just starting out, or don’t have a big following, or can’t get more than 50 people in a room for a gig that isn’t your album launch or first ever gig, then tip: don’t put yourself on as headliner. We made this mistake a few times early on. Best case scenario, people come for the band they want to see and then fuck off when you start playing. Worst case, they don’t come because they’re more likely to see the band they want to see headlining rather than opening a show. Genuinely, the best advice for any band you want to play with (below a certain level) is to just ask. The worst that can happen is they ignore you or come back and say ‘nah sorry but thanks’. Fun fact, we asked Nervus to open for us at a show in 2017 not really knowing who they were. Nervus. Opening for Brutalligators. I am an idiot.
Ask how much they expect as a guarantee. If you know you can’t afford to pay a guarantee, set your sights a little lower. Also, do research into whether you think the band can actually fill a room in the city you’re putting it on. Have they played there before? Do they have shitloads of Spotify listens? Is there anyone talking about them online? At the very least, ask the band if they reckon they can actually pull a crowd…
Finally, make sure you have some locals on the bill. Again, rookie error that I keep making, but having locals who will actually pull some folks in no matter what can end up saving your butt when it comes to putting on a show.
Third hurdle: promotion. Here’s a secret: you don’t need thousands of instagram followers or the most stacked mailing list you’ve ever seen. You don’t need to stand outside gigs and flyer (probably). You don’t need to flybill everywhere. These days it comes down to some simple things: Consistently post (probably 1-2 times a week) on social media about the gig. Be annoying and pester the venue and the bands to also post about it. Yes, you have a duty as a promoter to… promote… but at the same time, the likelihood is that those bands followings will be full of people who actually like the band. Do the basics: Post the gig on songkick and bandsintown. Make sure the venue has a poster (a lot of venues will print their own, so ask). Oh, have a poster. Most artists who do gig posters will do it for £30-50, and some might even do it for a gig ticket.
One simple thing I’ve learnt recently is that after you’ve done a social post about the gig, go to the profiles of the bands and start following some of their followers. Great way to spread the word, especially if the band aren’t posting much.
On flyering, I’ve not had it work much before. *******However*******, if there’s gigs happening close to the venue (or at the venue) that are very similar, it might be worth printing off some super cheap flyers (hello vistaprint), head down there and hand some out. It’s probably not going to be great, but it might work. Similarly with social ads. It’s pretty easy to end up spending more than you need to trying to promote your show, and end up in negative moneys. If you want to test it, then dive into it with some folks who know what they’re doing.
Third and a half hurdle: Once you’ve started to pull together all of this information, MAKE A BUDGET. Open up your good old trusty Google Sheets and work out how much you’re spending, how much tickets need to be and how many you need to sell to break even. Generally work on getting that number as low as possible to break even. I tend to assume 30-50 people will pay for a ticket on any gig I do, which is pretty low. Also, think about ticketing platforms. You could just do tickets on the door, but the likelihood is that you’ll have anxiety until the day because you won’t know how many people will turn up. To be fair, this anxiety will likely happen because most people don’t buy tickets until the week of unless you’re relatively big. Dice is good and gives you cred by being on there, but they’re a bit of a nightmare to set up and work with. SeeTickets and WeGoTickets are pretty good, but take a decent chunk out of the ticket price (factor that in). I’ve heard decent things about Fatsoma as well. If you’re doing gigs in Bristol, you need to be on Headfirst. A lot of venues have ticketing tie-ins too, so ask them.
Fourth hurdle: running the night. First up, make sure you communicate with folks (I’m terrible at this). Email the bands and ask for tech specs, and email the venue and ask for the venue specs. A week in advance, put together a document called an ‘advance’. This has all the details, including venue address, emails and phone numbers of organizers, soundfolks and venue, parking deets, guest list deets, merch deets, if you’re providing food or drink (ie the rider), load in times (check with the venue first), sound check times (check with the engineer first), set times, what is being provided in backline and all the band tech specs. It’s like a one-stop shop for everyone to know what’s going on. It doesn’t need to look schmick as long as the details are there. Sometimes a simple email will suffice!
On the day, print off the door lists and head to the venue. Make sure you turn up on time and try and make sure everyone sticks to the schedule. You’ll likely need someone to run the door (most folks will do this for £30-50 if you ask around), as I can wholeheartedly say that you won’t have the time or space to do it yourself. For this you’ll likely need a cash float (ask the bar if they can spot you money, or go to a bank beforehand) and ideally a card machine (Zettle or Square do good little ones for super cheap), and either a Sharpie or stamp to mark folks as they come in. If you’re super nice, provide the bands some food, or at a minimum, provide a ‘food buyout’ (usually £10 per person. Often providing your own food is cheaper). A rider (not only alcoholic drinks) is also a nice thing to do, but a lot of venues will provide this with you. Ask in advance.
It sounds like a lot, but honestly, it becomes second nature pretty quickly. Also, there are so many shit promoters out there, that the bar is pretty low to be seen as a good promoter (and probably help your band out along the way).
Finally, bask in the glory. Whatever happens, you’ve probably learnt something, even if that thing is ‘I never want to run a gig again’.
