House Concerts
One of the positive consequences of the current transformation of the music industry is that more and more independent artists like myself are being encouraged in all kinds of ways to get creative in using the resources of community and yes indeed, the world wide web, to develop their own careers at a lot less cost than it once took, at a lot lower risk. Instead of a pitiful minority taking the vast majority of the musical pie, there are increasing opportunities for more musicians to partake of their own sustainable slice, and in the process allow fans a chance to participate in the success of ‘their’ artists, and to experience their work in more intimate and down-to-earth contexts that foster community.
One of these contexts is house concerts. I’ve borrowed and amended accordingly some of the following from the website of Steve Lawson, a friend in London who is an uber-blogger on this kind of stuff.
The elements of a house concert are:
* Us (the musicians)
* You and your house (the host)
* Travel (getting us to you)
* Accommodation (fold out couch, stair cupboard etc.)
* An audience (normally, your friends, family and a few local music fans who we know)
* Food and Drink (could be wine and cheese, a tea/coffee and dessert, or even a pot-luck dinner if that’s what you want to do)
* Some sweet moula (ticket price, sponsorship, patronage, cd sales…whatever, we need to make some cos it’s our job)
We come to you:
The further it is, the longer it takes and the more it costs. We like using trains, but we can also drive if that makes more sense, particularly if we need to bring our sound equipment.
Sound needs will depend on whether you want just me (or me and my guitarist Adam) to do an acoustic set (in which case we potentially don’t need anything), or both Jez and I (with or without Adam), because he’ll either need to plug in a keyboard or play your piano, in which case I (and Adam) would need to plug in as well.
Space:
We only need about a 6 foot x 6 foot. The corner of your living room is fine. If you’ve got a through-lounge, we’re laughing (if you’re in the US, and you don’t live in a shoe-box in Manhattan, your house is big enough, trust me )
Audience – people you know:
The reasons for this are two fold. Firstly, it’s easier for you to ’sell’ the idea to them, cos they know you, and secondly, you’re not having to advertise where you live to strangers. We can provide e-flyers for you to email out if you wish.
Numbers:
The audience can be anything from about 10 people upwards. If it is only 10, they’ll have to be willing to pay £15-20 a ticket for the gig (not much, really, for a night when you can bring your own drinks, and watch a gig where you can ask the band questions between songs, and offer them crisps). The more people there are, the lower the ticket price can afford to be.
Bottom line:
We need to guarantee about £150 + some travel money from a gig. On occasion that stretches, especially if we’re in an area and haven’t got a gig on a particular night, or it’s in a place less than a mile from where we live, or we can get there on one bus…But that’s a ball-park minimum. If you work towards us making £200 + travel + CD money, that’d be plenty. If we make more, bonus! It helps to off-set those gigs where we just make the minimum.
Eating together:
This is one of the coolest parts of doing house concerts. It’s great to finish the first set, grab a bowl of veggie chili or some tortilla chips and have a chat with the audience about what they make of it. If you want to work out a thing where some of the ticket money helps to pay for the food, that’s fine too.
