Promoting gigs 101

Promoting gigs is often seen as a thankless task by those who do it. If there are individuals who consider it to be a pathway to fame and fortune, and you know them, then give them a slap.
It's for their own good.
The amount of effort put into booking a headlining band, arranging supports, sorting out venues, arranging equipment and accommodation, negotiating a rider, printing tickets, making posters and flyers and then going out and about advertising the gig is the story that is never told.
All of this needs to be done prior to anyone setting foot on a stage or a punter entering the door.
Then when everyone is enjoying the acts you will more often than not find yourself at the end of a cold and damp corridor - or just around the corner from where the action is - taking tickets, stamping hands, and generally keeping the peace while smiling inanely at the jokes that those who are slightly worse for wear insist on telling you.
Then when it is all over people can congratulate you on what a great night it has been before you go home and make pizza for the bands. Then there's breakfast in the morning to be sorted.
No one talks about all that.
Yet after saying all this Kel and myself keep coming back to doing it again and again.
Someone maybe needs to give us a slap.
The upside to it all though is that most of the time the stress and hassle is worth it.
Even if the night isn't a huge success and you find yourself out of pocket there is still something worthwhile about it all.
One of the positive aspects is making something out of nothing.
The process of an idea pushed forward into becoming a reality can give you a bit of a buzz.
While most people are talking about it you are doing it.
A successful gig will give you a high so good that it should be registered as a Class A.
Then there's is the friendships forged.
You can't put a price on that.
I don't mean with the bands who are just travelling through - although most of them are cool as the proverbially cucumber - but with the people who come back again and again. You find out that you have loads in common with someone who might live three streets away, but you never knew them until they turned up at the first, second and third gig.
It's not unusual to be stopped in the street to ask what you have coming up and it is from that little acorn that relationships grow.
Just recently my 16 year old son had been moaning about not being able to attend some of the gigs due to them all being for over 18s.
If I was just someone that was heading out to club and pub gigs then his moaning would be just that. A gripe I could do nothing about, but through promoting the gigs I asked two acts to do an acoustic set for him in my flat and both agreed.
I mean how great is that?
Push the coaches back, clear a space and have a nice relaxed gig in your front room with a limited audience.
Probably the best thing about it for me though is that it is an extension of my love for music and the counter culture.
On the outside looking in I'm a single parent working in care and struggling to get by just like virtually everyone else, but that is just one part of my life and I'm also immersed in music. Loving every minute of it. Doing an unpaid job that I love.
There is huge satisfaction in it all, and for all the trials and tribulations there have been times when it has actually kept me sane.
So I guess I will just keep dipping my toe in. Taking a break when it is too much and then diving back in when the mood takes me.
Just confirmed today is the return of Dave Sharp, ex guitarist of the Alarm, who is currently extending on the sound that Guthrie and then Dylan pioneered.
He's in the final leg of making a new album and until that is done and dusted we really can't comment, but if he can capture just 20% of the magic he weaves live then it will be something pretty special.
Supports have still to be sorted, but the ElDiablo signal has went up and I'm just waiting on the nod from a few people before I can announce the full line up.
Apart from that we also have The Duel confirmed. Another personal favourite of mine.
In fact Kel and me don't put on any bands that we don't personally like. That would be too much like a business.
So anyone you see at one of the shows we have arranged is there not because they were simply available, or a mates band, but because we like what they do.
I'm looking forward to this as their last trip to Scotland was plagued by problems from really, really, crap weather keeping people from attending, a crowd who were mainly there to see the support band and buggered off prior to a note being sung or a chord being struck and then sound gremlins added to the misery.
This time it's going to be a different story and they are going to imprint the name of the Duel in local history as THAT band who came and stole our hearts.
So far one support band has been arranged. A local mob called Mechanical Smile who have the bones of a good band in them and I'm hoping will blossom into some home-grown talent that we can be proud of.
We have all seen bands like this. everything is in place, but we are just waiting on them to align and then they can shine bright.

It'saxxxxthing has a Matlock overdose.

In an ongoing attempt to publicize the forthcoming gig that my girlfriend and myself are promoting here's some more Glen. Now c'mon. You can't have too much Glen can you?
Normal services will resume after the 18th with the exception of a review.
This is where I should put in an ironic smiley face, but I don't know how to so just assume I'm painting one on my own face.

Glen Matlock is a bit of an enigma.
He has penned the music for some of the most iconic tracks to ever come out of the UK.
He was involved in a band who it could be argued managed to artistically and socially alter the course of history.
He has participated in musical projects with his peers that on paper looks like a whose who of the rock world. From playing with Johnny Thunders to Primal Scream to The Faces he is the guy who has been there and bought the t-shirt.
Yet who is he? Where is his larger than life rock star persona.
It's not there and that's why he is an enigma.
Someone once described him to me as the John Major of punk. A grey man who you would be hard to pick out of a crowd.
Now I don't agree with that at all, but I can partially understand where the comment is coming from.
My personal take on Glen Matlock is that he is workmanlike. Someone who considers that the music comes first second and third, and that's not to be construed as a critical comment.
He doesn't need to colour his hair shocking pink to write a classic song.
He doesn't need to backhand one of the paparazzi to garner column inches.
He simply lets the music do the talking and for me that is more than enough.
When the first Philistines album “Hard Work” was released I was bowled over with it. Here was a band who had all the swagger of a modern day Faces. A band who were instantly recognizable as British, but with enough transatlantic appeal to ensure more global interest would be on the cards to.
The songs were there, the musicianship to, and the vocals from Gerry Foster fitted like a hand in a glove.
Even now when I give it a spin it has exactly the same impact that it did back then.
That it wasn't the huge success that I expected it to be was a bit of a shock.
All of this came flooding back to me just recently. In all honesty I had forgotten all about it.
Between all the years between its release and the present much water has swept under the bridge and sometime, somewhere I must have stopped playing it and then as it so often happens it was out of sight and out of mind.
Even when it was discussed recently I drew a blank on it. That is until I gave it a listen again and my enjoyment of it all came flooding back.
For me it's a forgotten classic. One of those albums that barely get a mention and when you play it to people they can't believe that it wasn't picked up on by the critics and fans at the time.
Later on Glen dropped the Philistines tag and for his next release stepped up to the mic to take on lead vocal duties for the “Who's he think he is when he's at home?”
Unfortunately even getting Steve New on board wasn't enough to pull the album out from under the shadow of the Sex Pistols reunion.
Lost is the shuffle would be an apt description of what happened. Just as it should have been getting the big push Glen was back with his estranged band mates singing the songs from the past and leaving his baby to fend for itself.
It didn't fend well either.
It's rare for anyone to say much about it at all and it isn't a band album. It was initially a bit disappointing as it fell far short of having the instant “oomph” appeal of the Philistines début, but over time it grew on me and apart from a mix that could have been better there's not a lot across the breadth of the album to criticize at all.
Without the Sex Pistols acting as a distraction we maybe wouldn't be retrospectively saying “shoulda, woulda, coulda” about it.
It wasn't until 2000 before Glen would dip his toe back into fronting a band and he did so with a revamped Philistines and the “Open Mind” album.
Still assuming lead vocals he also had the assistance of a certain Mick Jones featured as a guest musician on a handful of tracks for this release.
The draw of a Sex Pistol and a Clash member should have ensured that every aged punk would have been dusting off his or her Seditionary rip off t-shirt and hobbling down to the nearest record buying emporium to snap it up.
By this time though he was flying under the radar though, and churlish as it seems I was quite pleased that the stereotypical punk aficionados didn't pick up on it as their critical appraisal would have served to do little more than undeservedly belittle the direction he was heading in.
For some if it isn't a retake on God Save the Queen then it's worthless.
It's a myopic view, and a sad reflection on how punk has crystallized into a rigid style and sound.
That Glen doesn't kowtow to the expectations of people who are mired in a moments past glories is admirable.
“On Something” that came next wouldn't so much revisit the sound of Open Mind, but more so reinforce that this was the direction he was taking and if you wanted along for the ride then fine, but if not, then that was up to you.
By now Glen Matlock & The Philistines had cemented a sound of their own.
A classic rock sound that avoided the worst pitfalls that the rock/metal fraternity usually find themselves tumbling into.
Real working class rock and roll with a bite.
More recently with their Born Running release they have taken that sound across the Atlantic and eased comfortably into slightly colouring it with a hint of blue collar Americana, albeit without losing their own sense of identity as a band.
It's a solid release that wont do Glens reputation as a songwriter any harm at all. He's still got it, and maybe, just maybe, others will be ready to play catch up and reconsider their opinion that he is the grey man of rock, as there is nothing bland an one dimensional about what Glen Matlock and the Philistines do.

Glen Matlock & The Philistines/Devilish Presley

Not long now until Kilmarnock is exposed to a double header of fine rock and roll.
Everything is in place. The bands are looking forward to the shows, and over the course of the two nights we have a shit hot line up of some of the best talent that Scotland can offer in support.
On Friday the 18th we have Glen Matlock and the Philistines. Someone who really doesn't need an introduction.
To say that locally this is a bit of a big deal would be the understatment of the decade.
Prior to Glen Matlock and his band tearing the roof off, the night will open with Zoe Lewis. A very talented young lady who already has two self released albums to her name and an impressive canon of self penned tracks that will no doubt impress and entertain in equal measure.
Following on from Zoe will be Glasgow's Filthy Little Secret playing their first gig in Ayrshire.
Currently carving a niche from themselves in the city, and gearing up for a debut album to be released, they are certainly going to turn some heads with their penchant for yelping out primordial garage rock from the swamp.
Last of the supports, but by no means the least, and just back from their first UK tour will be the mighty Tragic City Thieves who will be playing their first show north of the border since burning it up down south.
This is also the first of two nights were they will open for Glen Matlock and the Philistines as they will also be setting the stage alight in King Tuts on the Saturday evening.
If that's not enough and you think that you can last the pace then on saturday night it gives us great pleasure to reintroduce everyone to Devilish Presley.
One of the hardest working bands in the UK, they are just on the cusp of releasing their fifth self released album "Dark Triad" and I can genuinely say hand on heart that they are up there as one of the most entertaining bands that I have ever seen.
They are the square peg that refuses to be hammered into the round hole. Goth Rockers, Deathrock Champions, Ghoulish punk. All are equally descriptive, but all fall far short of telling the whole tale.
You have really got to see them to really understand why once seen they are never forgotten.
First act to perform on the night is the truly mind blowing eccentric one man band "The Paraffins" whose refusal to pander to anyones preconcieved expectations surrounding a pub gig is a work of genius.
Billy Liar, our very own Scottish punk troubadour, will follow the Paraffins and will no doubt enlist many more people to his growing army of fans.
Then for those who can't have too much of a good thing, or those who missed the previous nights debauchery, Filthy Little Secret will attempt to shake off their hangovers and do it all over again for the Killie faithful.
What's not to like about all this?