booking agents

[k.]

I guess that's the problem of discovering punk rock well into adulthood after you've already had kids.

[Mark Beef]

booking agents are the greatest cause they never ever book you at a place where you make no money, backtrack and drive 500 miles out of your way, or get raped in back next to the grease trap by the sound guy.

rutabowa will have a great tour with his magical unnamed band as long as he just uses a legit booking agent and plays officially sanctioned VICE/SCION approved clubs. NOTHING CAN GO WRONG. He will go home to his family and tell them about all the wonderful times he had feeding wild animals in the forest, and then playing THE ROCK SHOW where he healed several badly burned children with his tasty licks.

Sorry you enjoy sleeping in trash, Kevin. Not everyone has a yearning desire to go live in a gulag. Some of us used to watch Robin Leach's program and daydream.

[tahiti amin]

I guess I could kind of be considered a booking agent because I've booked so many tours for bands I have put out.  I've never collected a cent for it though.  I figured peoples exposure to the band was my payment.  Plus a lot of those times I have gone a long  on the tour.  I've also booked Florida legs of tours for a lot of bands, but I consider that more hooking my friends up then playing booking agent.

[Mark Beef]

you no punk now, kevin's rules

[k.]

Best part of this thread is that Rutabowa is talking about touring the UK. It's the size of Ohio. And he lives there.

[Mark Beef]

it's also a place where NF skins will smash your head in and teddyboys will slit your throat for not looking like Elvis. Plus unless the NME has you on the cover the only place you might be able to play is some squat that last had Rudimentary Peni there. Look what happened to those dudes.

[bradxxx]

this thread is a classic in the making...

[Mark Beef]

I would suggest using Marc from the Rock n Roll Adventure kids he seems like a complete truth teller

[Whet Bull]

teddyboys will slit your throat for not looking like Elvis.

[smiller]

OR you could get someone who knows what they're doing to do it, and have a great time and not lose money.

Not to mention all the blow jobs & unicorn rides.

[SmogVeil]

That's my only point, if you use a booking gent, yer a lazy pussy.

I suppose the same can be said for drummers.  Why use one when a drum machine will do and it's cheaper.

[BRACE]

 seriously if you are playing some fucking bar in Annapolis on a Tuesday why give someone 20 % of $ 10? I booked a "North American Tour" for my my crummy nazi band when I was 16 and made like a thousand dollars it's easy just don't be creepy/play in shitty towns/book dumb drives/be a fucking baby. I was it was the 1970s and my small terrible punk band could have a manager who thinks he's gonna make us stars and gets us coke/rips us off but it's 2012 and your crummy Oh-Sees rip off band stinks anyways so my advice is to just stay home

[SmogVeil]

We've done both.  Cleveland Confidential Tour was booked in-house and for the most part went off without a hitch.  Except each stop took a good weeks worth of work to coordinate, time I could have spent doing something else, but I'm a label, it's my job I suppose.  We got lucky on that one as it was mostly door deals, and we knew enough people to get booked into the right places for that sort of thing.

All the RFTT tours have been booked by a top tier agency that has it's shit 100% tied down tight.  Never a problem getting the confirmations we need to do our work, never booked into a bullshit club the band can't fill, no death rides of 500 miles or more.  Clockwork.

We have a number of bands that self book.  It's not easy, it's 90% bullshit and 10% days that go right.  Most of those bands limit themselves though to the midwest and east coast which is way easier to book 10 nights versus the west coast where 10 nights means there's gonna be some fucked up mega drives that will without a doubt sap whatever energy the band has to deliver on stage.  Plus, like cans of soup?  That may be your pay, if any.

We have one band that used an agency that totally sucked: confirmations always lacked key info (promoter name and contact data, set times, load-in times).  Trying to piece that stuff together is a nightmare, plus it's not my job, that's what the agency was supposed to be paid for.  Plus, half the gigs were in places that were too big or just didn't do punk or garage.

Best to really develop some friendship with an agent before signing on.

[BRACE]

 whoa if you type three question marks in a row you get this face:

[Jumbo Tsuruta]

it's 2012 and your crummy Oh-Sees rip off band stinks anyways so my advice is to just stay home