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Do clubs REALLY book out a year in advance?


jeff42

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just askin cuz I got this email from a club today when I inquired about getting a gig there.

Hey Jeff,

Just wanted to get back with you and thank you for your interest at XXXXXXX. We appreciate the link you sent and it did give us a good idea of what your band is about. To give you a little background on how we do our booking and the what you could expect. We do book a year in advance to help ensure availability. 2013 is already filled. We are always looking for new entertainers and even though we are booked for 2013 there are those chances for cancellations and when it comes time to begin booking for 2014 we will have your information on file and if your still together and interested in performing here we could look into things further. Again thanks for your interest. Feel free to send any links or information regarding your band to my email.

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Quote Originally Posted by jeff42 View Post
just askin cuz I got this email from a club today when I inquired about getting a gig there.

Hey Jeff,

Just wanted to get back with you and thank you for your interest at XXXXXXX. We appreciate the link you sent and it did give us a good idea of what your band is about. To give you a little background on how we do our booking and the what you could expect. We do book a year in advance to help ensure availability. 2013 is already filled. We are always looking for new entertainers and even though we are booked for 2013 there are those chances for cancellations and when it comes time to begin booking for 2014 we will have your information on file and if your still together and interested in performing here we could look into things further. Again thanks for your interest. Feel free to send any links or information regarding your band to my email.
SOME do, but in my experience working at some venues which did...they would not be totally full for 2013 at this point in 2012...it generally worked out to ~6 months out solid, the next 2-3 close with several key dates locked and the rest just wishes and vapor.
there's no way to tell, and that email could be legit, but to me...
You're getting shined on.
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We play a club once a month that booked us for 2013 in October. Third year in a row. It's nice to start out that year with 17 gigs currently booked. (We're playing 6 gigs in December. Not unhappy, but I would love to do more.) I suspect that he only books other gigs when a band fizzles out or flakes out. It happens a lot, so I'd send them a reminder about once a month that you're still interested in their consideration. It will remind of the band's name and website. They'll probably not remember the first contact, but the name becoming familiar is a good thing.

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The way I'm reading that email, it sounds like they kind of are doing what an NFL team does when they put a player on the practice squad. You're not really a part of the team, but they want to be able to activate you if the need arises.

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My favorite part is the line "...if your [sic] still together..." icon_lol.gif Sounds like he has dealt with a few flaky bands in the past.

The only time I have booked out a year in advance was for NYE. We are playing the same place we played last year and they had already locked us down for the following year before we even started the third set, which was nice. Otherwise, we usually just book a few months in advance at a time.

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Back on target, the OP's question was if it was commonplace that VENUES book so,solidly a year in advance, and if I infer correctly, he means to a degree that said venues would be likely to be, in November 2012, booked solid through end of December 2013. And be in that state NOW.

I don't think anybody questions the likelihood that many bands book as far out as 12 months in advance, or further.
But while similar, that's not the same thing.

Assume a venue books only 2 nights a week. That's 104 bookings/year. Even if much of their roster duplicates and plays every 4 weeks, the spot where that kind of 'regular act' replication intersects with the dates that are farthest out would almost certainly mean that...MOST venues that may aspire to book a full calendar year out, are likely less solid/full when it comes to the end of that next year.

In other words, Venue A may easily be locked and loaded through the summer of 2013 give or take a date or two, but I'd say the chances that they are fully booked for all of Sep-Dec of next year, for example, diminishes a fair amount. There are bound to be gaps later in the time period they book for...

And if the venue in the OP DOES book a full year out, AND 2013 is already fully handled...Jan 2014 wouldn't be something they try to book further down the road. If they were so fully committed for the entirety of 2013 now, they'd be thinking of 1Q14 already, no doubt, and it would be nothing to throw the OP a gig for that time period if they were at all interested.

I still say it sounds me like a polite brush off than what is likely reality of their schedule.

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Quote Originally Posted by kmart View Post
Back on target, the OP's question was if it was commonplace that VENUES book so,solidly a year in advance, and if I infer correctly, he means to a degree that said venues would be likely to be, in November 2012, booked solid through end of December 2013. And be in that state NOW.

I don't think anybody questions the likelihood that many bands book as far out as 12 months in advance, or further.
But while similar, that's not the same thing.

Assume a venue books only 2 nights a week. That's 104 bookings/year. Even if much of their roster duplicates and plays every 4 weeks, the spot where that kind of 'regular act' replication intersects with the dates that are farthest out would almost certainly mean that...MOST venues that may aspire to book a full calendar year out, are likely less solid/full when it comes to the end of that next year.

In other words, Venue A may easily be locked and loaded through the summer of 2013 give or take a date or two, but I'd say the chances that they are fully booked for all of Sep-Dec of next year, for example, diminishes a fair amount. There are bound to be gaps later in the time period they book for...

And if the venue in the OP DOES book a full year out, AND 2013 is already fully handled...Jan 2014 wouldn't be something they try to book further down the road. If they were so fully committed for the entirety of 2013 now, they'd be thinking of 1Q14 already, no doubt, and it would be nothing to throw the OP a gig for that time period if they were at all interested.

I still say it sounds me like a polite brush off than what is likely reality of their schedule.
THIS... and I will investigate with others I know who work there. thumb.gif I find it hard to believe that they are booked til dec 2013 from now. This person took over booking around a month or two ago and I know the last person handling the booking for this club only booked 3-4 months in advance.
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It wasn't commonplace then, but we used to play a place that booked the whole year in January. Our opening to get on their list only happened because they had a cancellation. After that, they put us in the steady rotation.

I'd go ahead and get on his "waiting list." It might work out.

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One of the better places we've worked to get into did all their bookings for 2013 about 2 months ago.. they put us on rotation, but we got in specifically by filling in for a band that canceled, and we really brought a great crowd, etc.. so guess who they called on the next cancellation? And we killed it again, and that's how we got onto the rotation for 2013 smile.gif

Go with the flow Jeff, some places do book that far in advance, so respond very enthusiastically about filling in for cancellations.

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Quote Originally Posted by Kramerguy View Post

Go with the flow Jeff, some places do book that far in advance, so respond very enthusiastically about filling in for cancellations.
Yep, its a great place and did a benefit thing there with the other band, every so often I will make sure I remind them about us.
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My friend's band just completed booking for most of 2013 - about 60 dates. They leave a few weekends open for private parties and weddings, plus they take August off every year. They're a retro - mostly 80s band.

 

Back when I was in a band with a booking agency, we'd book maybe 3 months out max, and those were usually college gigs. The local bars were 1 or 2 months advance bookings, and some were last minute bookings. Our agent knew better than to book his bands too far in advance.

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Back on target, the OP's question was if it was commonplace that VENUES book so,solidly a year in advance, and if I infer correctly, he means to a degree that said venues would be likely to be, in November 2012, booked solid through
end of December 2013.
And be in that state NOW.


I don't think anybody questions the likelihood that many
bands
book as far out as 12 months in advance, or further.

But while similar, that's not the same thing.

 

:facepalm:

 

Do you, and this is just a wild shot in the dark, imbibe in any mind altering chemicals?

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Wow, that's a lot of helpful input from working bands. Surely this must be...wait:




:facepalm:

Do you, and this is just a wild shot in the dark, imbibe in any mind altering chemicals?

 

 

I don't, in fact.

At all.

Never have, not that that's got a thing to do with it.

 

Perhaps you may want to re-read the OP and see if you can see what I see: the OP asks a specific question.

Most of the subsequent responses, including those you've quoted, answer related, yet different, question.

If you don't see that difference and/or believe that they are one and the same thing, that's not surprising.

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