Are you in a band ?

The state of the Metal scene over here in Jersey is pretty strong. The crowds are never gonna be huge cos there's simply not enough people over here though.
 
There's a group of dj's who organise a metal night every couple weeks which are always well attended. Also the crowds over here usually go nuts for any half decent metal band.
 
If any band from these boards would wanna play a gig in Jersey then pm me and I'll sort it out for you cos I have strong connections with the main metal venues over here.

ORIGINAL: Tosser

The state of the Metal scene over here in Jersey is pretty strong. The crowds are never gonna be huge cos there's simply not enough people over here though.

There's a group of dj's who organise a metal night every couple weeks which are always well attended. Also the crowds over here usually go nuts for any half decent metal band.

If any band from these boards would wanna play a gig in Jersey then pm me and I'll sort it out for you cos I have strong connections with the main metal venues over here.

  What kinda of numbers are you getting for a semi decent metal band ??

   

There's a club over here called the L'Auberge which will pull in say 200 people on a decent night with a couple of the main local metal bands. There's usually more interest when bands come over from the mainland or from Guernsey though cos for us over here, that doesn't happen often enough.
 
There's another venue over here called 'The Live Lounge' that will pull in say 100-150 people easily enough. It's a pretty small stage and venue but a good laugh.

www.myspace.com/shadowsoforpheus
 
we'll do our bit, were acyually touring the first ten days of august

www.myspace.com/machineheadvaughan

I dont know if its been said already,
But London has as an amazing Metal community
and yet we have one of Englands best venues being closed down (Astoria)

Im gonna start talking to a few of my mates in bands who might have contacts
to see if we can get a large network down here or somin atleast.

In glasgow i dunno exactly but alota the bigger main venues like cathouse, soundhaus, barfly, garage, king tuts are all ran by 2 companies im lead to balieave, Df concerts and CPL Scotland im sure, they all manage there nights so that there is alota across the board and "BIG" acts dont clash with up and coming big acts on the same night so peopel get a chance to see each band they'ed like but sometimes is unavoidable if there is 2 big acts on the same night

I am in communication at the moment with www.headbang.co.uk about setting up an association like the ones in the Folk Curcuit, namely the FAO (Folk Arts Organisation) and the AFO (Association of Festival Organisers).  These associations bring together organiser of all the different Folk Events and Festivals so everyone can get an idea of where the whole industry is heading.  They hold Annual General Conferences with live bands, training sessions such as "First Aid for Festivals", "Working with Bands and Agents: Who and What to pay", "Stewarding at small events", "SIA Training", "Marketing, Publicity and Sponsorship" and various other events.  The AFO also run a Ticket Swap scheme for eveyone who is a member where different festivals can run a one for one ticket swap between eachother.
 
There is a lot of this that could be brought into the Metal scene, I was proposing a BMFEA (British Metal Festivals and Events Association) where organisers and promoters can come together and at least have some form of unity with eachother.  This will include small festivals such as Bloodstock and Damnation, medium size festivals such as Ragnorok and Give it A Name as well as the large festival organisers such as Live Nation and Mean Fiddler.  Also music promoters from all over the country, record companies, and eventually Rock Pubs and Clubs all up and down the country.
 
This is in it's bare bones stage at the moment and communication is thin on the ground.  I have the ambition and motivation to start this whole thing off if I have the backing, as soon as the ball is rolling on this project there is pretty much no going back.
 
Carrie, would you be able to show this to Live Nation and get some feedback from them?  As they would be the largest company involved it would be nice to know whether they would support such a project.
 
The BMFEA and the AMFO (Association of Metal Festival Organisers) would be two seperate entities with the AMFO running much like the AFO, basically just a union for the festivals that are held around the country, a central resource for guidance and fellowship.
 
I have already had a lot of support from bands from the thread I put on this forum and duplicate threads on other forums and am in the process of setting up a database with the band info I have recieved.
 
Obviously this will all take time and money and I will need proffessional backing to get it going, I need people with as much ambition, optomism and motivation that I do to work with me in setting this up.

 
Apache's Festival Survival Guide: [ Official Thread | SkyDrive Public Folder | Web Quality PDF | Print Quality PDF ]

Enclosed is the relevent snippet from a much longer email between myself and the Founder/Editor of HeadBang
 

I'll also shortly be getting involved in a project to try and bring together all the promotors/event organisers/band management etc that we can to try and bring some unity into what is a very fragmented niche of the music industry. This is something that I was invited to be part of just a couple of nights ago and as yet its early days.We will most likely be starting with those based in Northen England, but with an eventual aim of trying to build an alliance of some sort for the whole UK. Let me know if that little bit of an outline interested you and I'll keep you informed.

 
Unfortunately I did not have Sent Messages saved at the time so I do not have my response to hand.  Pretty much sums it up in the last post though.

 
Apache's Festival Survival Guide: [ Official Thread | SkyDrive Public Folder | Web Quality PDF | Print Quality PDF ]

my dad has a pub in a town on the outskirts of manchester and he holds metal nights almost everyfriday the problem he has is finding enough metal bands to play and usuallay ends up with the same bands every couple of months, metal bands need to put themselves about more not just a myspace page

Am in a band, good idea for sure. Would like to help out with this sort of thing.

quote:

ORIGINAL: suzi13

The Fermanagh music scene is absolutely cracking, due to the fact that years and years ago some very clever folks sat down and formed a collective, the spirit of which lives on. It's a small county, so maybe networking's easier for us, but the collective will put you in touch with other musicians when your band needs something new (ie bassist, drummer etc), give you a place to practise and record demos and provide you with equipment and a wee sound man for your gigs if needed. All for a price granted, but you can't beat the community feel to it. Everyone knows each other and rather than it being all about the pub, gigs are organised wherever they can be played (sometimes half way up a mountain in the summertime), and posters/word of mouth secures the crowd. Seriously, I'm over in Canterbury at uni now and I can't believe how little interaction there seems to be between folks - it's like noone knows each other nor wants to. Not what I'm used to at all. For such a small place Fermanagh really could teach Canterbury a thing or two! The bands don't hold much hope of ever really getting out of Northern Ireland, but that's just the way these things go. Links have recently been made to Dublin, Derry and Belfast so a few bands are travelling well at the minute, but for the most part they're happy playing to the small Enniskillen crowds because we give them plenty of support

This is superb.. Do you have a website for the collective ? Would be interesting to see what they do and learn maybe from this.
 
Nope, sorry. Will snoop around and see if I can find you some contact info for someone who knows more, I'm down the bottom end of the old food chain lol, I just turn up on the night.

Reading this thread is depressing! I live in a county town (Stafford) & we have NO rock venues to speak of at all....the closest thing here is an occasional pub that holds a 'rock night' which is usually a couple of high school bands that need somewhere to practise. I have to travel out of town to get to any real gigs.
 
BTW Amenti you were awesome on the Forever Never gig!!

Sometimes too much drink is not enough.

Make it idiot proof and someone will make a better idiot.

Always remember you're unique, just like everyone else.

ORIGINAL: Apache

I am in communication at the moment with www.headbang.co.uk about setting up an association like the ones in the Folk Curcuit, namely the FAO (Folk Arts Organisation) and the AFO (Association of Festival Organisers).  These associations bring together organiser of all the different Folk Events and Festivals so everyone can get an idea of where the whole industry is heading.  They hold Annual General Conferences with live bands, training sessions such as "First Aid for Festivals", "Working with Bands and Agents: Who and What to pay", "Stewarding at small events", "SIA Training", "Marketing, Publicity and Sponsorship" and various other events.  The AFO also run a Ticket Swap scheme for eveyone who is a member where different festivals can run a one for one ticket swap between eachother.

There is a lot of this that could be brought into the Metal scene, I was proposing a BMFEA (British Metal Festivals and Events Association) where organisers and promoters can come together and at least have some form of unity with eachother.  This will include small festivals such as Bloodstock and Damnation, medium size festivals such as Ragnorok and Give it A Name as well as the large festival organisers such as Live Nation and Mean Fiddler.  Also music promoters from all over the country, record companies, and eventually Rock Pubs and Clubs all up and down the country.

This is in it's bare bones stage at the moment and communication is thin on the ground.  I have the ambition and motivation to start this whole thing off if I have the backing, as soon as the ball is rolling on this project there is pretty much no going back.

Carrie, would you be able to show this to Live Nation and get some feedback from them?  As they would be the largest company involved it would be nice to know whether they would support such a project.

The BMFEA and the AMFO (Association of Metal Festival Organisers) would be two seperate entities with the AMFO running much like the AFO, basically just a union for the festivals that are held around the country, a central resource for guidance and fellowship.

I have already had a lot of support from bands from the thread I put on this forum and duplicate threads on other forums and am in the process of setting up a database with the band info I have recieved.

Obviously this will all take time and money and I will need proffessional backing to get it going, I need people with as much ambition, optomism and motivation that I do to work with me in setting this up.

 
Sounds good to me, certainly if that went ahead take part and help out anyway possible

ORIGINAL: russe200

my dad has a pub in a town on the outskirts of manchester and he holds metal nights almost everyfriday the problem he has is finding enough metal bands to play and usuallay ends up with the same bands every couple of months, metal bands need to put themselves about more not just a myspace page

  What pub is this ? If you can let us have the name then bands on here and promoters can start to look at it as an option for smaller gigs.. what is the stage setup like - how many ppl etc.

   

its basicaly a function room that was built under the pub in north manchester it holds about 150 -175 has a 1.5 k pa, bands have to bring there own back line, we had some really good nights with bands from around the area almost filling the place. if anyones interested pm me and i can pass the info on to the booking guy  

My band are looking for potential Northern short notice shows for between mid-end March, and other dates in the future too. If anyone is interested check www.myspace.com/dantesascension and let us know, we're a London based weird ambient/hardcore band lol... but yeah, we have a few fans and stuff, we're all up for helping the UK metal community!

This is an interesting thread.  See i am part of a commitee than owns and runs a community centre in Medway.  We used to put on gigs every other saturday and 2 years ago it got so packed that we had to turn people away or do a 1 out 1 in system.  We are talking in excess of 300 people in a small community centre at a time.  Unfortunatly in Medway and surrounding areas now the is a major competion on for bands and different places are putting on gigs every night of the week.  It is now not unheard of for 4 different gigs to be happening in one night in a 3 mile radius!.  The problem is this splits the crowds as jezebel said everyone looses.  We now (if we are lucky) get bout 40 people a night and we only do gigs once a month because of the lack of support.  Its a sad state of affairs as we there are many many talented bands that come and play for us (and in other places) that just dont get the support and scope they so badly deserve.
 
If you are thinking of helping out in local area or anyone in medway agrees with what i have said contact us and lets see if we can do something about it.

Hay Guys,
 
Great work, We are in!
 
Descent To Cocytus!
 
Rotherham/Sheffield based Metal band, call us what you will,
 
www.myspace.com/scrotumofsteel
 
please checkl us out, there are videos etc on the site,
 
Cheers guys
 
Scotty

no i aint in a band....

Im from n.ireland based metal/hardcore band called INTERROGATE we seem to promote and gig well here in n.ireland but find making plans for touring in mainland uk difficult, main reason bein is that we aint friendly with any bands in england or scotland we have tryed to approach some bands for support slots but have had no luck ... we plan to tour round august as we have 2 gigs (biker fest's) round england .....if there are any bands willing to give us some support slots during august this would b great..... we will return them with the same .... check us out !!!
 
www.myspace.com/interrogate
 
www.interrogate13.com
 

Maxdmyz would be up for some cooperative gigging.
 
Camden is boring us.

They called me heretic and flout, and they drew a circle to keep me out, but will and i had wit to win, i drew a bigger circle and brought them in"

this is a great thread, its great that people want to work together to try and up the metal scene, but as it was mentioned before, the group of metal 'fans' in the uk is slowly deminishing, because every one is in a band, and weather out of selfishness or not, people in thier own bands dont tend to go and watch other bands because in thier minds they r in direct competition, wich in fact is the complete oposite, because if every one thinks like that no one will ever go to a gig ever again. and unfortunalety thanks to myspace (with i think in some respects is a very good promo toll) bands who have very little material or have only played a few gigs every can have 500 'friends' and think they are the best band in the world, and it goes to thier heads,
 
But dont get me wrong, I think people in bands is great, people making the music they love, but in this current situation, we will never get another slayer, iron maiden or metallica, because in thier day there vere fewer bands so because they were doing what they were doing they were admired, but nowadays the phrase 'oh im in a band' crops up ALLLLLL of the time, and because its heard so much people dont tend to take any notice,
 
some ppl here may know what band i play in others wont know, other wont care, lol, its not important, but every day we get oh can i get guestlist, can i get a free album, if i tell my mates to come can u get me in free, and altho we would love to its not realistic, we dont get a guestlist most gigs because it cuts into 'venues profits' we dont have the capacity to give away free albums, ie we all in the band purchased a copy of our own album at full price (same with tshirts, wrist bands....any thing)
 
but i have to admit there are still people out there who are willing to help, ie, ALL YOU LOVLEY PEOPLE, lol and there are still hardcore 'metal fans' who just love coming to gigs and goin mad, we personally are just a bunch of metal fans who play music we like, luckily there r a few ppl who like it too lol. I really do think this is a great idea tho
 
bloody hell that was a rant and a half :S

dear hit_the_dirt,



i agree completely.



ive been in the same band for 5 years and we made an agrement not to make a myspace because unlike most people we dont want to sit around and add peopl to make us look popular.. we leave that to our music.

theres quite a few venues around birmingham and surrounding areas, just building up a fan base for your own band
 
which is hard
 
best thing to do is if bands swap gigs
 
eg, a band are coming from hull to play in my town, and hopefully we will go up and play a gig with them in hull
 
cos we have a good fan base, but only in our area, you no wat im tryin to say man

www.myspace.com/machineheadvaughan

****ing epic idea. South Wales scene is getting quite silly.

You can get hold of us at http://www.myspace.com/allinstride

Let us know what's goin on. We'll help out if we can.
cheers.

ORIGINAL: rawwwrrrr!!!!

dear hit_the_dirt,



i agree completely.



ive been in the same band for 5 years and we made an agrement not to make a myspace because unlike most people we dont want to sit around and add peopl to make us look popular.. we leave that to our music.

 
Your making a mistake there dude. Despite the obvious concerns of people just adding you to appear popular. Myspace is an excellent promotional tool, It's easy to let people know about your gigs and a good link to people who wanna hear your music without downloading anything.
I'd still urge you to get one, even if you are going to use it secondary to your website.

CHANGE PLACES!

 
GENERATION 10: The first time you see this, add this text to your sig on any forum and add 1 to the Generation. It's an experiment.

Mind reading in progress I think – I’m in the middle of seeking grant cash to set up this very sort of network.
 
OK it’s tied in with offering free practice, recording, video, production & management facilities to new unsigned bands in the North-east, but I in the process of having a website constructed to help network people & bands across the country (for free). It’s an idea I got trying to help my mates band out (www.groundsoul.com – sorry shameless plug), but I quickly realised it’s something everyone can benefit from.
 
But not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth (so to speak) if your interested in helping out with information, contact lists of potential gig location etc, I’m more than willing to talk.
 
You can email me, or contact me via my myspace address : (www.myspace.com/cherryproductions), OK not much to look at the minute but I’ve spent the last 18 month trying to find a suitable location for my practice rooms – finally found somewhere !
 
I’m not saying it’ll all be done in a day but, sooner rather than later !

Yeah, well done for that witty comment, I'm sure everybody will agree it's much appreciated.
 
 

ORIGINAL: miss_nefarious

Yeah, well done for that witty comment, I'm sure everybody will agree it's much appreciated.

 
???

Where abouts in the north-east johnyold??

Love all music! AC/DC CoB Atreyu A7X BFMV Korn SOAD

<Badger> If we cant get it on 606, i'll try on here!!

ORIGINAL: rawwwrrrr!!!!

dear hit_the_dirt,



i agree completely.



ive been in the same band for 5 years and we made an agrement not to make a myspace because unlike most people we dont want to sit around and add peopl to make us look popular.. we leave that to our music.

 
dont get me wrong man we have a very active myspace, and i think it is a very helpful promo tool, but its hard to tell serious musicians (that will further the scene) from little kids playing at it

the same sort of thing has just gone on in the local scene ere (rhondda valleys area in south wales), and there are bigger crowds being pulled

as for the british scene its in a rather awsome state band wise atm in my opinion (mainly for thrash and death metal...and it is getting recognised, EVILE and S.S.S. have signed to earache in the past month or 2) plus a few local bands round me are getting interest/signed from bigish indie labels...


as for me being in a band, no not atm, i am getting members to start a crossover thrash band atm, should be practicing really soon hopefully

SAVE DOWNLOAD, GET M.C.R OUT of A MAINSTAGE HEADLINE SPOT!!...sign this..
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Save_download/

www.myspace.com/Pumpk1n_K1ng

our band only plays in one pub at the moment and its getting dificult to promote black metel in england

i'm in a hip hop group from the south called 'One Icon'..
but don't get confused..i love metal..was born a metaller and will die one..and no..i dont like limp bizkit or any of that other gay nu-metal bull****.
but yeah i know what you mean about having to travel.
i'm organising an alternative festival this year in my hometown 2 weeks before download..should be a good 'un.

no

THE BUSH PEOPLE R WATCHING U. ALL OF U

www.myspace.com/fellsilent
www.fellsilent.com
 

I'm from a Ska/Punk/Pop band down near London but we're expieriencing a mix of good shows and bad shows where we go, its a real contrast every time sometimes we get 500+ sometimes we get hardly anyone, the metal scene down here isnt that bad tho, the gallows are from my home town Hemel Hempstead altho the gig scene here is beyond the grave, whilst Enter Shikari are from St. Albans 8 miles away, there is a prob with promoters in general tho i agree, they do not communicate with each other and some that i know tend to fight against each other, if more promoters worked together, as Jezebel has said then all genres of the music scene will benefit, also just to get some promoting on here of an Ace band from my area- Simple Reason are one of the best Metal bands ive seen for awhile.  I was backstage at Download last year, and some people (no names mentioned) were acting a bit stuck up about their bands, i still had a good time tho, Simple Reason tho are prty decent guys and with an incredible sound and stage presence, defineately something to watch out for.
 
Morbidity
 
P.S- if anyone is interested in a ska/punk/pop band called Dr. 8Ball check them out at www.myspace.com/8ballska they are supporting Paul Weller, Razorlight, Koopa and the blue man group at Old. Billingsgate in London next year!!

my band is called anal death we kick ass

spit that bannana out and go woooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Im from n.ireland based metal/hardcore band called INTERROGATE we seem to promote and gig well here in n.ireland but find making plans for touring in mainland uk difficult, main reason bein is that we aint friendly with any bands in england or scotland we have tryed to approach some bands for support slots but have had no luck ... we plan to tour round august as we have 2 gigs (biker fest's) round england .....if there are any bands willing to give us some support slots during august this would b great..... we will return them with the same .... check us out !!!

www.myspace.com/interrogate

www.interrogate13.com

my band is called the absence of reality. we recwntly changed the name from hostile as it had already been taken. hopefully we have a recording session for next week so we can record our first song
 
which will be posted here www.myspace.com/theabsenceofreality