|
Index |
Starting a Folk Club IntroductionStarting a folk club? Or still running one after yonks? Or getting involved? Or just popping along as a floor spot or listener? There's lots to think about: and as many opinions on each and every aspect of running a club as there are versions of John Barleycorn. This is an edit of a thread started by Dave Thackeray, who asked, in uk.music.folk: ...which raised one of the more enthusiastic threads in recent years - these pages are a consolidated and edited version of that thread. Read, learn, enjoy!
General It seems to me that the most successful clubs know what their audience wants. I get organisers who say they've tried booking guests but always get a better turn-out for singers nights. Well, it's obvious what their audience wants, isn't it? If you're going to do it, do it right. My feeling is that the venue (and its comfort level) is also very important. Re ticket prices. Don't start off by undercharging. If you value the music then your audience will too. Charge enough to be able to afford good guests with names that will draw. Once you start charging people money to get in the whole thing changes. There is then an obligation to provide people with what they will accept as value for their money. Note that I'm not setting any qualitative standards for what they might regard as "value for money": that will vary widely. But there are certain things which help to ensure that they do interpret the content of the evening as such; reasonable comfort, being able to hear the music without straining or filter out the noise of prats yacking behind them, being able to see the performers without craning their necks, access to refreshments and these days, for many people, a smoke-free environment (and I have no vested interest in this latter :)
We've had a load of very, very useful advice regarding running a successful folk club from a wide variety of viewpoints but I don't think so far there has been one put *exclusively* from the point of view of the professional. Yes, Jacey has put hers excellently but she was also commenting as a promoter and agent and so wearing several hats. For what it's worth, here's one pro's idea of what constitutes a good working environment.
I love folk clubs. There is nothing like them anywhere else. And when I play in a folk club I feel a deep responsibility to give the very best I'm capable of. And most professionals feel the same.
Get a really superb MC - someone with a lot of character, audience rapport and ability to make people laugh and feel welcome.
The secret seems to be to get a hardcore of regulars who'll come out hail or snow and share the workload. It's invariably too much for any individual mere mortal.
to pa or not to pa... I feel that - if we could but get the idea across to Joe Public - the one huge advantage of seeing a performer in a folk club is that they are close up and personal and _not_ squeezed through a PA system. It's a great selling point. When the room _needs_ PA to ensure that the audience at the back gets just as good sound as the audience at the front, my feeling is that it should be treated as 'sound reinforcement' and that the volume should be kept down and the visual and audible impact of the equipment minimised as much as possible. A PA is just a tool which should be used if necessary to enable an audience to better appreciate a performance. Of course, a folk PA should use valves and not transistors, and the speaker cones should be made of reconstituted horse manure and housed in oak cabinets cut from a tree which Bonny Prince Charlie once hid in.
Another reason why PA used properly is a benefit: it allows beautiful combinations of acoustic instruments to work together that are unbalanced in volume in real life. Like any quiet stringed instrument with a melodeon, for example.
A PA almost invites your audience to be noisy and talk over or under it, and discourages them from joining in with choruses (which may or may not be what the performers want!).
The main reasons I dislike PA is you can't hear the audience joining in on choruses and partly as a result, the PA distances the performers from the audience and it makes it much harder to get a good atmosphere.
If a PA is being used properly you shouldn't even know it's there, and none of the problems you list should occur. Trouble is that isn't usually what happens....
Mobile 'phones Now you've hit on my current pet hate.
interval music When the doors do open, make sure the sound check is over and have some appropriate background music playing. Use this music also during the interval and again after the last encore - a clear signal to the audience that the show is over.
I detest this. I go to a live show (a) to hear live music and (b) to socialise with people I know. I can hear recorded music at home.
smoking Make it clear from the word go that this is a non-smoking club (even if you are a smoker yourself). Most artists (especially singers) and audience members will love you for it.
That's a bit strong. The most successful folk clubs that I've been in have been held in the pub, with normal pub rules about smoking - i.e. it's allowed.
I'd go along with those who advocate a non-smoking club, if you have the sole use of a room. Most people, and the vast majority of singers, don't smoke.
bookings A good way to work is a basic, affordable fee against 75% of the net door. That way if a guest pulls in a good crowd, they go home with more and you have some profit for the club. There's no standard deal, some artists may take a lower guarantee but want a higher percentage - say 90%. It still leaves you in profit at the end of the night. Some clubs offer 100% of the door because they can't offer huge guarantees. Whatever works for you and your artists is fine. It's usually negotiable within reason.
floorspots If you are going to book good guests and expect to draw an audience from outside your club regulars, then you owe it to your paying audience to make sure that any music presented is 'of merchantable quality.' If you have floor spots to support the guest, then try to hand pick them for their talent and don't feel obliged to put on the first person who asks unless you know they are good. If you are having a singers or open mic. night, then anyone and everyone should be encouraged to have a go and maybe the talented, audience- friendly performers should be encouraged to become regulars and be nurtured to do support spots for your guest nights. Some floor spots, if not quality controlled, will either drive your audience away, or folks will start to turn up later and later, just to miss the floor spots, which is very bad for business.
advertising Over the years as a performer, organiser, audience member and eventually media mogul, I've seen so many potentially good clubs fail through abysmal publicity. ...endless horror stories about disastrous gigs that achieved no audience because organisers thought that just by booking a big name, loads would turn up due to telepathy.
accessibility Folk clubs are NOT private functions unless there is NO membership and access is by invitation only. The Licensing Act 2003 and the DDA (Disability Discrimination Act) - and any other law for that matter - does apply to them. A person being Disabled is no more reason for refusing membership of a folk club than their being Black would be. |
Highlights
It seems to me that the most successful clubs know what their audience wants.
Don't start off by undercharging. If you value the music then your audience will too. Charge enough to be able to afford good guests with names that will draw.
Once you start charging people money to get in there is then an obligation to provide people with what they will accept as value for their money.
Get a hardcore of regulars who'll come out hail or snow and share the workload. It's invariably too much for any individual mere mortal.
Get a really superb MC - someone with a lot of character, audience rapport and ability to make people laugh and feel welcome.
The one huge advantage of seeing a performer in a folk club is that they are close up and personal and _not_ squeezed through a PA system.
If a PA is being used properly you shouldn't even know it's there
Make it clear from the word go that this is a non-smoking club (even if you are a smoker yourself). Most artists (especially singers) and audience members will love you for it.
A good way to work is a basic, affordable fee against 75% of the net door. That way if a guest pulls in a good crowd, they go home with more and you have some profit for the club.
If you have floor spots to support the guest, then try to hand pick them for their talent
If you are having a singers' night then anyone and everyone should be encouraged to have a go
Over the years I've seen so many potentially good clubs fail through abysmal publicity.
|