Challenge Of The Day: Put On A Gig
This is a pretty easy one surely. Put on a gig somewhere in the UK.
OK, we're not asking you to put on a gig really, this is pretend. So please, just imagine that you want to put on a gig. For a friend, or just for the fun of it, in a place that isn't normally a music venue. It could be in your local bar - just a couple of local musicians playing acoustic in the corner. Or it could be a slightly bigger pub for your friend's 21st / 30th / 40th birthday party - a covers band of four people for instance. Or you've got ambitions - how about putting on a bigger act in one of those huge pubs which regularly has at least 300 people screaming at football on giant TV screens? So just imagine the scenario. Now what? Well the first thing to cross your mind would probably be 'I think I need permission' or perhaps 'I wonder if there's something about licensing music I need to know about'. Today's challenge is: Find that information. Then let us know how you got on. Was the information easily available? As a non-musician layperson who just wants to put on a fun party for a friend, was it clear? And after searching, are you any the wiser about what you are and aren't allowed to do, or even more confused? Please leave comments and tweets letting us know what you found out and if you're on Twitter finding out stuff too use the hashtag #uklive Have fun, we'd love to know how you got on. But please note, if you already had extensive experience in this field this experiment is not for you. We're trying to find out how easy it is for laypeople to put on an event involving music, not asking promoters to wade in with personal experience. We'll save that for another blog post. So get searching! Live music has recently been in the news. Here's a recent Guardian article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2009/oct/15/small-venues-struggle-live-music As more and more people keep telling bands like us 'All the money's in live music now innit?' we'd like the same people to show us how that is true.
