Hey Crew!
So I want to start bringing big names into my town. My promotion company has developed a pretty large name for ourselves, but locally the only shows that ever get put on are country and our own parties.
We’ve got a stadium of about 6000, and it gets a few hundred people every month for a hockey game… It’s begging to be filled with some big names.
I’ve worked with people who brought bands in before, but I’m not sure how to bid on them for shows etc.
If anyone has experience in this sort of dealings, any advice is greatly appreciated!!!
Contact their agents. These can be found on most artists’ bios on soundcloud, facebook, or myspace. Approach them with an “All in” budget in mind; meaning this is to cover session rate, hotel, and travel. Chances are, they’ll want you to handle the hotel and transport to and from the venue to the hotel, but sometimes they’ll handle it.
Without getting into the logistics of party planning, all you have to do is contact the artists booking agent. If they are available to play, they will send you a performance agreement and after you have read it you can hash out a deal.
if you’re trying to do this on the regular, you’ll probably want to start getting on mailing lists for agencies. i know a big one that’s based where i’m at will send out a list every season for who is availble for touring and when. i’m not sure if every agency will but the good ones should.
Wow, thanks guys! Amonly.com is exactly the kind of site I’ve been looking for!
I have brought in shows before, and we have always covered their hotels/food etc. so that is no surprise.
I was contacted last night, and have been told that Tiesto is coming to our town. It will be funny to see how many people in our town even know who he is!
I plan on trying to hire Lmfao, Drake, Kesha etc (top40) simply to start the trend of big shows in our town. If Tiesto is here, I’m sure it will be much simpler to get other big names in.
Are their any other agencies like amonly that have websites with tour dates and so on that you guys know of?
Thanks!
my only advice… is never Hire Goldie to play at your party unless you have alot of cocaine ready the moment he lands from his first class ticket that better not be in his unlucky number which changes from day to day.
also be prepared to deal with introverts which is a mission in itself. Like spending 3 hours at a dinner table with mixmaster morris going on about 150 different topics per hour.
Ive just found that once you invest in a big act, you really need someone to buffer yourself and the act so you can focus on the getting the party ready instead of keeping the talent happy. Worst case scenario is hosting a Warp records party or Rephlex records party. More introverts that have their own multilayered insanity mix to deal with.
Last minute changes coming from big artists is something to be prepared for if your contract is not clear. The most extreme last minute thing I can think of is when Richard D james switched where he wanted to perform. We spent all week contructing a big stage and focusing all the visuals and lights on the stage, and suddenly he wanted to just blend in the crowd and hide behind a couch and do his set on a laptop. The crowd thought our VJ was the one making the music
I bet the street number was his unlucky number… In all fairness , he is just wierd. We used to run a club/street clothing shop in Miami beach in the mid90s called Area 51 on washington ave. On several occasions Goldie and Bjork would come to the shop and hang out and Goldie would spin a set and actually leave his dubplates there over night. But he is really really strange.. he can guess your astrological sign like some freak of nature. His mixing ability is overshadowed by the selection of tunes he carries.
Awww, Morris is brilliant - I booked him for the last Purple Radio party - trying to stop the fucker playing after the bar was shutting was an issue in itself mind …
dont get me wrong.. his set was amazing… Great guy… but if the doors open at 10pm and a quick dinner starting at 7pm turns into a topic of how ants like to get high by following ravers who inadvertanly were dancing of crushed Es. You dont want to get him upset by telling him every 20 minutes that time is running out. Not to mention the phone ringing and having to problem solve last minute things. And then getting off the phone and stepping into a new conversation on how there used to be wood paneling in the earlier flights into space which had alot of yugoslavian hardwood for materials. This was 2004 or around that time in Munich germany.
hehe, I’ll have to ask him about this next time I see him,
One of the best known ambient/chillout DJs going. Been doing it for years an years, and still walked away with the Ibiza DJ award in that category last year (think he won it for the first time in '94)
Doesn’t tend to play less than about 5 hours at a go …
I’m from Northern British Columbia (Canada) and am hoping to bring LMFAO here.
What kind of offer do you guys think I should put in for them, our stadium holds about 6000 people.
One of my all time favorite is irresistable force on rising high records.
My point with bringing up mixmaster morris was that this was a very special person. And When bringing in people of this caliber… you cannot disrespect them in anyway.. Some people you have to let them get away with things.. regardless if they break the contract.. in his case he really made the party with his set and laid out a vibe that you just dont get anywhere else.
but with other big acts… that just come in and milk the plane and hotel ticket so they get a free vacation and end up showing up late… those have to be dealt with differently regardless of the crowd pull they have.
Like if someone like dudmouse were to show up an hour late because of a k overdose.. we would let them play… and based on the contract… not pay them for being unprofessional. Word often gets around really fast with mobile phones if an act is MIA, and this will or could affect the turnout and momentum needed to fill a space.
