Help with booking bands

[allison]

Can anyone give me any advice on how to book a band of say,The Slip's level?

Ive been made Artistic Director of a -potentially-pretty innovative ARTTOWN event and would like to book a band I like!The event will be primarily a visual arts fest, with spoken word pods at local bars, etc but I have the go ahead to use the local theatre for something.I need some definite ideas and strategies. My only experience is with booking bands in bars-small bars at that.Can the board give me any tips on what kind of lead time is necessary-that is how far in advance does the process usually start, what kind of money are we talking etc etc.Any tips on up and coming bands that push genres would also be really appreciated!

[The Chameleon]

From my experiece in investiagting this type of thing you need to take several things into consideration.

1. Plan waaay ahead, like 4-6 months or more. THat way you can navigate any potential hold ups, scheduling and promote properly.

2. If you are booking an American band, you will have to get thier work visas in order, so the can pass the border. This costs $$ and takes time.

3. YOu need to ask what thier rider is: Larger bands all have riders. This is a list of what they expect to play. Gerenally this lays out what food/drink they want, hotel rooms, and other essentials. Read that part carefully often the rider can cost you more than the actual performance fee, depending.

4. The best case scenario is finding a band you liek that is already coming to Canada or looking to tour Canada. THat way you don't pay for the immigration and they usually play for a lesser rate as they are on tour.

5. To get this info, go to thier web-site and go to the contact section and ask the responsible person for thier rider, list of availability and fee scale.

Finally if you are serious about booking the Slip PM Jaydawg he's helped book them many times in Canada for the Evolve festival. I'm sure he's got the inside track.

Edited October 5, 2006 by Guest

[allison]

Thank for the tips Chameleon-I truly appreciate it

[bouche]

Just contact the band/agent to start.

It should be pretty easy from there if you know your budget.

[phishtaper]

the Slip is still a relatively small band, but when booking them, you are wandering into the big leagues here. you'd have to book them through their agent and that happens to be The Agency Group - one of the biggest agencies in the world. they handle hundreds of other acts like Matisyahu, Bruce Cockburn, New Deal, String Cheese, Feist, Yes, Roxy Music and my favourite, David Sylvian. oh, a little band called the Tragically Hip ...

[zero]

The Slip has a different agent in Canada.

Chameleon may be confusing matters a touch but his points are all real good. Basically it's contact the agent, get what they're looking for as a guarantee, find out from other promoters what you can actually offer and it might be accepted (when promoters don't talk to one another someone ends up overpaying).

It all comes down to an offer on a single day. Midweek is likely where a concession on price is most realistic. Some artists like David Byrne (I last recall) play for between $10-100,000 depending on the artistic or sheerly economic opportunity. You want to find a venue, availability of the band on that date, what the band needs in terms of a guarantee and what they might accept. Remember that agents work on commission so if the guarantee is $2000 and you offer $1500 the commission on that is better than zero. It's in their interest to get the offer accepted by the band.

There are a lot of other subtleties re: riders and work visas. In the meantime remember that agents are sharks and they want to make the most money possible and they're not there to tell you how the game is played (although they likely will if you ask).

[briguy]

American musicians do not need a work permit if they’re playing theatres.

Venues that do require a permit will cost $150 for a single musician and $450 for 3 or more. It’s a very easy procedure and usually takes me two business days to get everything done. Not so easy for Canadian artists looking to gig south of the border though.