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Post by olmate on Dec 8, 2009 12:44:05 GMT 10
So erm, I’ve had this idea and was curious to see what sort of feedback it’d receive….
We all know Canberra’s metal scene (well, the music community as a whole, really) has been dying off pretty severely over the last coupla years. It probably comes down the several factors (lack of venues, people having kids, people having no money due to mortgages/bills, laziness, apathy, an overwhelming fear of bad weather, etc…….) but one thing I’ve been noticing lately (correct me if I’m wrong) is a distinct lack of bands actively going out and doing the good old poster run. I talk to loads of people who say that they miss tons of shows coz they don’t even know they are on!!! I realize that getting the word out there is probably a lot easier these days with access to the WWW and all, but is it possible that the very thing that should be making it easier to pull the numbers is actually creating a culture of laziness in the bands (and yes this has included me in a couple of instances) who are expecting people to come to their shows? As I say, I could be wrong, but I can’t remember the last time I saw say, Civic for example, plastered in posters for an upcoming gig, and the only place that bands seem to put them up is at the venue itself (usually the Basement). Playing in 2 bands myself, we almost always try to do at least one or two runs done in the month leading up to the gig (although I will admit we didn’t get around to it for the last gig one of the bands played, and the turnout was suitably shithouse) so I know it can be a pain in the arse.
Sooo, all this ranting brings me to my point/idea….. Would it be worth trying to start up some sort of Register/Contact list, where people who would be willing to put up a few posters at their local shops/college/community centre/traffic lights/wherever, can post their contact details, and have the organizer send them a few posters to put up around the place. Even if you aren’t actually playing the gig, surely it would help to create a stronger sense of community within the scene if people were willing to help out local bands/promoters in getting better numbers to shows. I live right near Jamison and I’d have no drama’s chucking a few up around the shopping center there if I was asked, and it'd be really cool to think i could give somone from say, Tuggeranong a bunch of flyers and know that they'd be willing to put them up around their local area....... Obviously this would all be pretty heavily based on trust and reliance on people to do what they say they will, but what do folks reckon, is it worth trying? Or has laziness and apathy sunk in too far?
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jeete
Metal Newbie
Posts: 13
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Post by jeete on Dec 8, 2009 15:22:57 GMT 10
Firstly - great idea for a thread!
Postering is good, but I don't consider it the most effective way of promoting shows. Not to mention the ACT Govt. has just introduced (or is about to introduce) new bill postering legislation which makes plastering places with your gig posters an absolute liability offence. The implications of this legislation means that you can no longer claim the defence of 'oh gee, we didn't know you couldn't poster here', which while a notoriously dicey defence, police often let you off. They've also massively increased the fines that go with being caught postering.
There are a number of problems which plague Canberra shows at the moment. The most evident for me is to do with the line-ups. As much as it is cool to play with your friends and put your mates band on the bill you've got to ask yourself - 'is this band going to get people to the show? Are they going to bug and nag all of their mates to the show regardless of whether they dig metal or not?' Too often in Canberra I see 1 local band playing with 3 or 4 interstate bands (of one which is often headlining). You're almost doomed to begin with. Unless the interstate bands have played Canberra many times, have a decent name for themselves and can pull the punters you're screwed. Let's face it, most punters are fundamentally lazy, even if the interstate bands are good (which they often are), barely anyone is prepared to go jump on the net to see if they actually like the band beforehand etc. The better option from my perspective is perhaps one, max two interstate bands with the rest of the line-up being made up of Canberra bands who will get their mates along and who will put in the effort to get people to the show. You also need to have the interstate bands in the right place (which is also difficult cause bigger bands often want to headline for the notoriety). I note the recent Insidious Torture gig. While they're an incredible band most people left after Kill for Satan and they didn't play to many people.
This sort of promoting has a big ripple effect in the music scene. When an interstate band comes and plays to a 30 person crowd in Canberra they can go away with a bad impression. They tell their friends about how much it sucked to play Canberra, those friends tell their friends etc. The reality of the situation is that Canberra has a large metal following...IF...you can get them to the gig! I know it's not always feasible but I think we actually need fewer gigs that are promoted better. Promoting is a tough game, you've got to start early and go hard. You need posters, internet promotion, word of mouth, text msging and pretty much every other medium available to get people there.
I think Canberra has some of the country’s best and most hardworking bands. Per capita, Canberra has a fucking incredible amount of great bands. We’ve just gotta work at getting the shows right!
Btw, these are just my two cents. I’ve learnt my promoting lessons (and am still learning them) quite often the hard way! There’s no high ground here – just all of us working together to build the scene bigger and better!
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Post by Airgedlamh on Dec 8, 2009 16:01:55 GMT 10
I would certainly be interested in helping out as much as possible but unfortunately i don't go out as much as i used to. A mortgage on the way really doesn't help much.
On a side note, as for Jeete's comment about people leaving gigs early, unfortunately i was one of the people leaving before the headlining band of the mentioned gig. This was not because i was ONLY there to see one band, but because it was getting late and i had a lot to do the following morning. Too many gigs are running over time and with the great new trend to stick as many bands as possible into one lineup are having headlining bands start past midnight. I can certainly see why getting more bands in is better, it seems more value for money for average Joe punter. But honestly especially coming from someone who plays in a band as well, i would have more fun for the gig to end at a reasonable hour and then have time to drink and mingle with people afterwards.
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Post by olmate on Dec 8, 2009 23:01:51 GMT 10
I agree with you both.
As for the effectiveness of postering, i agree it probably isn't at the top of the list for effectiveness BUT, i do also know that there's a lot of folks out there who either don't have the net (believe it or not they do still exist) or who simply don't know where to look for the info. As well as that, posters can be a good way of getting people to shows, purely out of curiosity. They may be wandering through Civic with nothing to do, see a poster and decide to check it out, just for something to do. So purely from that angle, they do serve a worthwhile purpose in that they help to make people aware that there is something happening in their town.
Ten years or so ago, it was much harder to find out what was going on around the place and usually the only way people would find out about gig was if they'd seen a poster somewhere, or picked up a copy of BMA. So when people spotted a gig poster on a wall, they'd actually go and look at it to find out what was going on. It seems that one of the unfortunate side effects of having such easy access to methods of advertising such as the internet, is that instead of people actively having to seek out info on the local scene, they are now being bombarded on a daily basis with myspace event invites, facebook events, email advertising, text messages etc etc etc, and instead of creating a buzz, it can actually cause an attitude of complacency because in the end, it all just turns into one big blur of spam which they end up ignoring. The other problem it seems to cause is laziness in the bands themselves. Obviously it's much more difficult to actually go outside into the world and freeze our fingers off in the middle of winter, sticking posters to half frozen lightpoles and shit, and who wants to do that when we can just sit on our arses at a computer and send out a bunch of emails, right? But is that really any more effective when in a large number of cases, people probably aren't even reading them?
Also i agree with Jeete on the whole "too many interstate bands" thing, too many interstaters can kill a show purely coz a vast majority of locals don't know who they are (this isn't any reflection on the quality of the bands, it's just a fact). As you say, punters are lazy bastards and unfortunately, these days people seem less and less likely to even bothering to show up unless they can buy the headlining bands CD in the nearest JB.
Airgedlamh, i hear you on the issue of gigs running late. I assume you're referring to the Basement here, and as you probably know, Mikey isn't actually allowed to start gigs before 9pm (i think?) due to the restaurant next door. It kinda sucks, but it's also very cool of the restaurant to allow the pub to stat making noise that early, considering that if they wanted to be arseholes about it, they could hold things up till at least 10. As you say, often there are too many bands on the bill and by 1am, everyones too pissed or tired to pay any attention to whats happening on the stage. Realistically, bills should be limited to 4 bands max.
But anyway, i'm getting off topic. In light of all that's been said so far (and i'm sure other folks will more to contribute) do we think that there would be any point in getting something like this going? Or more to the point, are the any people around who'd be interested in putting their hand up and helping out
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Post by ashahalasin on Dec 9, 2009 5:57:50 GMT 10
I'm willing to help out around the Bruce area.
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Post by Airgedlamh on Dec 9, 2009 10:49:40 GMT 10
I think it certainly would be worthwhile getting a list of interested people together. What would be really good is to find some young sap to do what i did in my younger years haha, me and a couple of friends got together and charged bands to do poster runs for them. The charge wasnt that big even, mostly covered fuel cost and we usually asked for free entry to the gig we were doing the run for as well. Another idea is get a list of friendly business that would put posters up in the shop front as well. Eg, Better Music, Flip Side (or whatever they want to call themselves these days) I used to see posters up in JB all the time years ago but not so much now, would places like the basement and the pot belly be happy to have posters up for events at another venue?
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Post by olmate on Dec 9, 2009 11:23:15 GMT 10
I think it's deffinately worth tryin something like this, we'll just have to give it a little time and see how the feedback looks for a bit. Hopefully enough interested parties will put their hands up.... Agreed about finding businesses to support posters. The other thought i had, would be top produce a few "Canberra Metal Forum" posters to put around the place just to make more people aware that it exists. These would probably be put to better use in the metal/alternative/whatever sections of shops like the ones you suggested and pubs (as opposed to plastered around random walls). Would be cool if there was some sort of pull-off tabs at the bottom (like the way people put on the bottom of posters advertising for band members or whtever) with the web addy on it or something. I might see if i can come up with something and see what people think. I doubt any venue would allow you to advertise for shows at other venues though, that's kinda suicidal
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Post by alie on Dec 9, 2009 12:16:59 GMT 10
im happy to put stuff up at UC and could probs pop across and do CIT if no one else can.
if any one is at ANU that would be another good place where flyers are still probs ok to put up
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Post by Airgedlamh on Dec 9, 2009 17:30:32 GMT 10
I miss the random promo wall at Impact Records, i used to go there to find out about everything going on. I'll have a play with organising a promo poster for the forum as well.
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Post by olmate on Dec 9, 2009 17:39:19 GMT 10
I miss the random promo wall at Impact Records, i used to go there to find out about everything going on. Bloody oath man, that wall was an institution
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Post by Airgedlamh on Dec 9, 2009 21:51:35 GMT 10
Tahaaah, i should probably work on something that isn't so image intensive as well. Wont embed the image as it's made to A4 size (i hope) (edit for update, link below)
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Post by olmate on Dec 9, 2009 22:32:21 GMT 10
Looks good dude. Maybe just make the title read "Canberra Metal Forums" (just to make it blindingly obvious what it is, for the completely ignorant folk out there).
I'll have a go at printing some off at work when i can sneak it. Once ive done it, i'l start out by chucking some around some of the more obvious places on the northern end of town, if someone's keen to put a few round down south, that'd be a good start
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Post by Airgedlamh on Dec 9, 2009 22:37:42 GMT 10
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Post by Missmanagement on Dec 10, 2009 12:35:56 GMT 10
The public poster boards around town are good. You have to be pretty vigilant though, being at war with the likes of Academy and Foreshore posters.. At a busy time you might have to re-poster 2 or 3 times a week.
There's Civic, Woden, Manuka, ANU... Are there more?
In Sydney, you'll often find people handing out flyers for a future gig, outside, at the end of a show.. (Not sure if this works too well.. A lot of flyers seem to end up on the ground..)
As for gigs running late, didn't the Rockape used to have a headliner, and then a local band playing the graveyard shift?
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kurt
Metal Fiend
Posts: 83
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Post by kurt on Dec 12, 2009 0:20:09 GMT 10
Sometimes, but a band starting after 1am really is a bit silly.
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