Club Not So Fabulous

I chatted to the Club Fabulous promoter during sound check last night, asked about the event did it get much of a crowd... etc? He said that if the bands all brought plenty of people it got pretty full but if they only brought one or two it was pretty empty. I was immediately suspicious; he said he'd been running the night in Camden Rock since last November (2009) so it seemed strange that he didn't yet have a regular audience.

Well, the first four bands played and their friends generally left about one drink after each band finished, but the bands themselves all stuck around, which we were pleased about. Until we got onstage to plug our instruments in. They then busied themselves clearing their gear off the stage for us and promptly left. Four bands at once! Which left Marc and I onstage in front of our girlfriends, pat and his girlfriend, the sound guy, the bar man and three men who were having a conversation at the bar but not paying any attention. So much for the 25 EPs I brought along to give out, nevermind, we still have them for next time...

Anyway, realising that we weren't going to get paid for this one or re-booked whatever happened (we had to bring 15 people with us for those privileges - which is like trying to succeed at Farm Town without pissing off your friends), we decided to have some fun. Our banter was resolutely sarcastic, particularly when I found myself promoting our myspace page to room full of already "friends". Marc did actions to Evangelical Boy, made lion noises in I Can't Save You From Robots, and sang back-up in All The Same Mistakes. It was pointless but great fun - particularly when a crowd of teenagers walked in half way through our last song, we played a couple of extras, especially for them and they danced.

This is the closer - Cedars of Lebanon:

The lessons learned:

1. never play last, particularly at a mid-week gig, and especially if it's not followed by a club-night to retain punters
2. never play gigs for promoters that don't do any promotion
3. research the reputation of a night and promoter before agreeing to play
4. network with the other bands, even if you didn't like what they played, they're more likely to stick around if you show you're interested in them as musicians and can say something enthusiastic about their songs

And here's some photos of the whole debacle, taken by Heather Jones but cropped and adjusted by me because, as you can see, we were mostly unlit - notice the patch of bright light at the back of the stage pointing to where the drummer's left knee would be; very important to light the drummer's knees well!