Self Promoted Concert

The dust has settled on my latest attempt at concert promotion.

I didnt realise until after it was over what a big deal it was for me to perform for a full evening (I did two sets of around 45 minutes) without doing anything less than what I consider my best material. This did include several Brian Wilson covers, but they were really strong songs from the Pet Sounds album which you won’t hear many other places and which are very personal to me. These were actually by far the weakest parts in terms of the performance, and could really have done with more rehearsal, but I’m glad to have a performance of them under my belt.

Booking the theatre and paying for printed flyers and posters meant that it was impossible for me to make money, and in fact I probably lost over £100, but in my long experience of promotion that is far from uncommon. Finances aside I was pretty happy with the audience of around 50 people.

What was important to me was to perform a full concert in a suitable environment and despite the constantly growing circuit of pub based acoustic gigs, I haven’t yet found promoters offering artists the chance to play in a small scale concert environment.

Press wise I had two small but much appreciated previews in the Evening Mail and Metro. Nothing from the Birmingham Post on this occasion, but I already have a good review from them on my concert supporting Einstellung so no worries there. As with our Project X Presents event of last year, I failed to get a reviewer in which is a real shame. Our region seems to lack a paper or magazine which regularly reviews local events – and has done for some time.

The sense of achievement in “doing it all for yourself” is considerable but its not something Im likely to do again for a while – I think pushing forward in this way is well worthwhile, but has to be balanced with letting the momentum gained leak out into the surrounding musical environment, I don’t think its possible, or desirable, to try and do everything solo.

In any case I’m off to Australia for six months in December, so this gives me something to build on both whilst I’m out there and when I get back. Hopefully then I can establish myself further in Birmingham and find some suitable partners that will help spread my music here and further afield.

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