What does it take to get an audience on a rainy night?

I received a phone call tonight from a local club organiser with an update of information to include in my newspaper column. He also told me that he was closing the club in December as he wasn't getting enough audiences to cover the guests' fees. One of his forthcoming guests (I'll mention no names here as this is a public blog) had sent him very little information about themselves that he could use for publicity.

The gig was arranged on the phone and since then he had received a couple of posters but no press pack, photos, biography. I checked for websites and found none that this act were operating themselves. There was some online presence but most of it consisted of comments from other event organisers, plus a site for buying CDs online. There were no photographs of sufficient quality to be used by newspapers.

No doubt when these guests arrive, the act will be disappointed by the low audience turn-out. No doubt also that they are probably damn fine musicians travelling some distance to do the gig, so presumably they will expect the club to pay them the agreed fee even if it is evident that the club loses a lot of money that night (well - to be more precise - the organiser. The money will come out of his pocket).

For me, this highlights an observation I have often had about the UK folk circuit - in particular, acts who haven't broken into the 'mainstream' but are getting regular gigs at smaller venues. The venues are usually run by enthusiastic amateurs who do not make money from their work - in fact, they often lose money. Yet there is a business relationship of sorts set up when the gig is arranged. A fee is agreed, plus a statement of how many sets, the length of each set, arrival time, whether a PA is needed, etc. Club organisers in my experience are optimistic souls who offer the bookings with the conviction that a large crowd will show up. Often, this does not happen. And often this is because the artists are 'professional' enough to charge a fee but are still 'amateur' in their outlook, believing that the minimum amount of promotion is needed to pull in a crowd.

They have to ask themselves - why would anyone come to see me perform on a rainy night if they haven't heard of me? What message should I be putting across, via publicity offered to the folk club, to convince people to get out of their cosy homes and drive over to the venue to watch me perform? Sadly, many acts on the smaller club circuit are not honest enough with themselves to ask that question. They think that people should come to see them anyway and if people don't, it's the club's fault.

Club organisers should also ask themselves - how can I convince people to come and see this act? Is it enough to consider that I think they're worth booking? The answer to that is no, that is not enough. There has to be a compelling reason offered for audiences to give up their time, home comforts and cash to sit in your folk club and watch someone they have never seen or heard before. But, as I said, most folk club organisers are too optimistic to think that people need a much stronger reason to get out to the club than the fact the guest is a good musician. If the guest doesn't have a decent website or good quality publicity, there is nothing to give people the incentive to come and watch them perform. And sure enough, they won't.

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folk clubs   music promotion   marketing