One of the most difficult things when starting out as an unsigned band is trying to build a fan base. Most new acts playing locally at the moment tend to have a dedicated following of between 5 and 10 people who will come to gigs regularly (sometimes even less), usually made up of friends and family. It is certainly not easy to get people along to see live music every time, especially if several bookings land together in the calendar.
Les Valentine have been very fortunate in consistently getting around 15-25 people or more to come to shows, whatever the venue, on stage time and period since the last one. There are obviously an excellent core of people who come to almost every venue for us, and, crucially, another group of people who also come when they can ensuring between them we keep the numbers up.
For live music promoters it's very important that the acts they book bring people to their venues, so conversely if musicians want to be asked back to play again it's vital they get people along. Often promoters or sound engineers count, almost to the person, how many people their bookings bring along, which is why we are always very grateful to every single individual who turns up. In this respect we feel that this week we have taken a bit of a step forward.
On Monday (27th) we played a gig in the fantastic underground bar at the Joogleberry Playhouse. It was the first time we had ever played there and we can't recommend it enough to other bands and music lovers. The atmosphere is intimate, lighting and sound excellent and the audience genuinely turn up to see and enjoy live music.
The gig was played and afterwards we gave out a number of CDs, signed people up to the mailing list and chatted to one or two people about our next gig, Thursday at the Pav Tav. We went home pleased that at least a few new people had heard of us and taken CDs home and began looking forward to Thursday.
Then,due to the environment which saw the audience engaging directly with the performers, a satisfying thing happened - two of the people who had never heard us before added themselves to our 'Les Valentine News Room' group on Facebook and said they would come on Thursday. Then, come Thursday, they actually turned up to see us play again.
We know what you're thinking. Two isn't exactly a huge number of people, and you'd be right. But what it represents is that we are starting to interest people who have no prior links to us other than hearing our songs, which is very important to any new band. In short, we must be doing something right.
In a couple of weeks we go into the recording studio to re-record our demo so that it might be taken more seriously than the current demo we recorded in a bedroom. Now we can practise for that and get ready in the knowledge that, if we keep doing what we're doing and learning how to do it better, we will get people interested in us. Exciting, isn't it?
Dates for the diary
11th-12th September – We are booked into Ford Lane Studios to re-record our demo properly.
13th September – Our new CD of the newly recorded songs will be available, FREE!
27th September – GIG – Laid Back and Latte, University of Sussex
26th October – GIG – Sanctuary Cafe, Hove
9th April – Steve's Birthday
19th April – John's Birthday
And remember – SPREAD THE WORD!
If you like our music, tell people about it. Copy our CDs for friends who you think would be interested, bring people to gigs. The hardest part really is getting heard, so if you can help in any way, please do. As always, your support is very much appreciated as evidenced above.
Thank you,
Les Valentine