SKASPOT LIVE!!! - Oh Come All Ye Faithful (this is not a X-Mass Carroll singalong)
Greetings Skaspoters, - I respectfully request everyone's attention for this one............ Class?.........Class?.......Ahem.....Listen up please....Thank you.
To start this conversation, I need to break us all down into 2 groups:
1. Ska fans who love the music and have no experience in organizing & promoting events / shows / concerts. (fans and friends of band members)
2. Ska fans who love the music AND DO HAVE some / any experience organizing or promoting events / shows / concerts. (Bands and friends/fans of bands, event planners, band managers, agents, technicians, etc. ?)
OK, who's in the first group? Raise your hands....(ok, please reply here w/ details)
OK. who's in the second group? Raise your hands...(ok, please reply here w/ details)
From the replies, we will put together a new group called "SpotMasters", And you do not HAVE to have experience putting on shows to join the SpotMasters, everyone is welcome but I need to know who has what skills so we can best apply our resources to this challenge.
I will now detail what I am proposing and I challenge other SpotMasters around the globe to try something similar in their home ska scene.
I am in the process of approaching local venues (clubs / community halls, etc.) looking for one night a month (to start) to turn their venue into "SkaSpot Live".
The venue must have a decent sized stage and preferably good in-house sound and lighting systems including house technicians. If the stage is too small, most ska bands wouldn't be able to put on their normal energetic stage show. So, make the stage size a priority. If the room is interested but don't have in-house production, ok, we can bring it in or book bands with good S & L systems.
I propose to the venue, that SkaSpot runs and takes the door admission $ and the venue keeps the bar receipts. The venue runs the poster for the Skaspot event in their regular advertising campaign and splits the cost of printing the posters that are put up by the Spotmasters street team volunteers. Skaspot will supply a generic poster / flyer design useable for each event (for skaspot brand continuity).
As well as other graphics to be used in promotion and display around the venue on our event nights.
Spotmaster volunteers will produce and run the event. Take tickets, man the merch table, provide security if necessary, stage manage the show schedule, count the door $, pay the bills (show expenses) and pay the bands a % of door receipts after expenses are deducted. We will dress the part, two tone look, pork pie hats, and make sure we have some "ringers" to get the crowd skankin.
Our main policy is to promote and tolerate ALL forms of ska (& up-tempo reggae, bluebeat, rocksteady, hybrid). We support and promote the genre in general. but we make an attempt to offer history and education to those who attend our events in an effort to widen ska music awareness. Our position is "Ska music is good for your ears and feet - just have fun" I plan to project old ska videos, etc around the room during set changes. Lots of signage around the room (temporary so it can be taken down at the end of the night and stored until next gig) that promotes Skaspot, SkaSummitt, Ska podcasts, Ska bands, Ska merchandise and skaspot shirts or jackets for high visibility for our SpotMasters who are making it happen.
We approach the local media in each market and ask them to support our efforts to create a safe fun place for people to come and learn about and enjoy ska music.
Eventually we create a SkaSpot Compilation CD every year to be sold at each event merch table......
Anybody getting excited yet?...........I know we can do this. I have deep experience in producing successful events for the last 30 yrs or so. I will create some templates and check lists to facilitate producing these events. In theory, I can coach some of you out there with no event experience and over time turn you into monster event planners / promoters / /producers who might find a career in this wacky business.
At the least you can help your local ska scene and boost the careers of your favorite local ska musicians.
Ideally we find a sponsor or two in each market to help defray poster / flyer printing
costs. After a while when this gets successful, we will need to pay a core team in each market to keep it going as it will take a pretty big comittment time wise if or when this gets big and we have full capacity shows.
We always do the safe and right thing. NOt only do we do the right thing in all cases, we need to BE SEEN doing the right thing. We run our shows professionally and properly, and on time, no sneaking friends in thru the back door, they all pay or are on the guest list for a good reason like they helped out the event somehow.
In the beginning, we won't be able to guarantee payment to the artists, just a % of door after bills are paid. We need them to support this concept because the up side is a new place to play dedicated to ska and eventually could become a skaspot tour route for ska bands.
As it grows, there should come a time when we are comfortable in guaranteeing fees to bands, allowing us to try and land dates with the major touring ska acts like Toasters, Specials, Bad Manners, Chris Murray, and all the current hot N American ska bands mentioned in other blogs on this site when they come thru town.
What do you say? Come on, let's collectively make a difference.
And after we get good at this, we can have a skaspot conference somewhere, sometime as an excuse for us all to get together and dance til our feet hurt.
If SkaSpot doesn't work for ya, maybe "Skatopia" ? as a name for our ska theme night.
Join me, anyone?
cheers,
Dan
The old ska kid
To start this conversation, I need to break us all down into 2 groups:
1. Ska fans who love the music and have no experience in organizing & promoting events / shows / concerts. (fans and friends of band members)
2. Ska fans who love the music AND DO HAVE some / any experience organizing or promoting events / shows / concerts. (Bands and friends/fans of bands, event planners, band managers, agents, technicians, etc. ?)
OK, who's in the first group? Raise your hands....(ok, please reply here w/ details)
OK. who's in the second group? Raise your hands...(ok, please reply here w/ details)
From the replies, we will put together a new group called "SpotMasters", And you do not HAVE to have experience putting on shows to join the SpotMasters, everyone is welcome but I need to know who has what skills so we can best apply our resources to this challenge.
I will now detail what I am proposing and I challenge other SpotMasters around the globe to try something similar in their home ska scene.
I am in the process of approaching local venues (clubs / community halls, etc.) looking for one night a month (to start) to turn their venue into "SkaSpot Live".
The venue must have a decent sized stage and preferably good in-house sound and lighting systems including house technicians. If the stage is too small, most ska bands wouldn't be able to put on their normal energetic stage show. So, make the stage size a priority. If the room is interested but don't have in-house production, ok, we can bring it in or book bands with good S & L systems.
I propose to the venue, that SkaSpot runs and takes the door admission $ and the venue keeps the bar receipts. The venue runs the poster for the Skaspot event in their regular advertising campaign and splits the cost of printing the posters that are put up by the Spotmasters street team volunteers. Skaspot will supply a generic poster / flyer design useable for each event (for skaspot brand continuity).
As well as other graphics to be used in promotion and display around the venue on our event nights.
Spotmaster volunteers will produce and run the event. Take tickets, man the merch table, provide security if necessary, stage manage the show schedule, count the door $, pay the bills (show expenses) and pay the bands a % of door receipts after expenses are deducted. We will dress the part, two tone look, pork pie hats, and make sure we have some "ringers" to get the crowd skankin.
Our main policy is to promote and tolerate ALL forms of ska (& up-tempo reggae, bluebeat, rocksteady, hybrid). We support and promote the genre in general. but we make an attempt to offer history and education to those who attend our events in an effort to widen ska music awareness. Our position is "Ska music is good for your ears and feet - just have fun" I plan to project old ska videos, etc around the room during set changes. Lots of signage around the room (temporary so it can be taken down at the end of the night and stored until next gig) that promotes Skaspot, SkaSummitt, Ska podcasts, Ska bands, Ska merchandise and skaspot shirts or jackets for high visibility for our SpotMasters who are making it happen.
We approach the local media in each market and ask them to support our efforts to create a safe fun place for people to come and learn about and enjoy ska music.
Eventually we create a SkaSpot Compilation CD every year to be sold at each event merch table......
Anybody getting excited yet?...........I know we can do this. I have deep experience in producing successful events for the last 30 yrs or so. I will create some templates and check lists to facilitate producing these events. In theory, I can coach some of you out there with no event experience and over time turn you into monster event planners / promoters / /producers who might find a career in this wacky business.
At the least you can help your local ska scene and boost the careers of your favorite local ska musicians.
Ideally we find a sponsor or two in each market to help defray poster / flyer printing
costs. After a while when this gets successful, we will need to pay a core team in each market to keep it going as it will take a pretty big comittment time wise if or when this gets big and we have full capacity shows.
We always do the safe and right thing. NOt only do we do the right thing in all cases, we need to BE SEEN doing the right thing. We run our shows professionally and properly, and on time, no sneaking friends in thru the back door, they all pay or are on the guest list for a good reason like they helped out the event somehow.
In the beginning, we won't be able to guarantee payment to the artists, just a % of door after bills are paid. We need them to support this concept because the up side is a new place to play dedicated to ska and eventually could become a skaspot tour route for ska bands.
As it grows, there should come a time when we are comfortable in guaranteeing fees to bands, allowing us to try and land dates with the major touring ska acts like Toasters, Specials, Bad Manners, Chris Murray, and all the current hot N American ska bands mentioned in other blogs on this site when they come thru town.
What do you say? Come on, let's collectively make a difference.
And after we get good at this, we can have a skaspot conference somewhere, sometime as an excuse for us all to get together and dance til our feet hurt.
If SkaSpot doesn't work for ya, maybe "Skatopia" ? as a name for our ska theme night.
Join me, anyone?
cheers,
Dan
The old ska kid
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Steven Denney Shafer II on -
I would be a number two, the only problem I see with this is the ticket situation. I can't think of any venues over here that would go for that.
But other than that, it sounds like a pretty neat idea.
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Permalink Reply by Rude City Riot on -
I was hoping you in particular would come on board. Yep, there are going to be challenges for sure in finding a suitable venue.
By "ticket situation" what do you mean? The Club letting us keep the money from advance and day of show tix sales? or just the Club letting us actually run the door and phyiscally taking the tix night of show? In some cases, it will be easier and or even mandatory that the club run the door, do security and maybe even the technical part of the show.
As far as us keeping the funds generated thru tix sales, I don't think the club will have a problem giving that up because together, we are driving business to the venue, we are doing most of the promotion (they spend only whatever they would have had to spend anyway) and we are bringing an event to their room that is not costing them any talent costs. They will need to rationalize to themselves that SkaSpot will bring in enough bar sales to cover their basic staff costs, remembering we are telling them that they need less staff on our night because we come with a volunteer team that helps run the event. We offer them a formula that works for both parties. If they are not interested in the formula, fine, no problem, we move on to the next venue on the list until we find a partner who sees the big picture. From a club owner's point of view, this should be attractive, a group that is interested in promoting shows in his venue and bringing in bodies that are likely to spend $ at the bar.
Or.........We find a backer or small promoter and do all age gigs in local halls with decent stages.
The two venue categories I am looking into at the moment are:
A. Newer venues that might be experimenting with or looking for theme nights (once a month or .....no need to scare em)
B. Clubs or venues that are not doing so well, basically getting their asses kicked by the new bar down the street or across town...... They are probably ready to listen to anything that might work and bring back paying customers, even if it is only one night a month .
After kicking the concept around for the next while, we will come up with a solid formula and a script for approaching the powers that be at these places. Ska spot will create helpful web pages for the spotmasters for sharing info, resources, tech details, band info, etc. as well as track our successes and encourage others to become spotmasters as well.
Thanks Steven, please ask me any more questions you may come up with or pass on ideas - it is all good and welcome.
Danno
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Permalink Reply by Steven Denney Shafer II on
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Venues around here ussually pay bands based on how many tickets they sell (if they sell more than like 50, they get 2 bucks a ticket).
I highly doubt they will go for giving all the ticket sales away.
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Permalink Reply by Rude City Riot on
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If they keep part of the gate receipts, they then should pay for the talent. That's the way it works, or should. Otherwise, how can bands, especially ones who have to travel a ways to play the gig afford to play?
Many venues could care less about the local music scene or anything else for that matter, we just have to find the one that cares. A smart club owner could corner the local ska market without having to do the foot work.
Maybe in your local market, hall gigs make more sense that licensed clubs. I am not sure which is best until we study and learn more about each potential skaspot city. The best thing we can do is come up with a good working business plan and talent / show formula that could work well if we can find the right partners. It will either work or it won't. If we can't find the right ingredients, it just means the time is not right for that particular market place and we try again later after we have some successes elsewhere to point to as examples of how it actually can work.
Trust me, offer them good talent, staged and promoted in an intelligent manner, they will consider our proposal.
Especially, if they don't have to pay anything for talent.
DC
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Permalink Reply by Steven Denney Shafer II on
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It's extraordinarily hard to make any money in a band in my local area.
In total, my band has lost about 1-2 grand because we have to pay for expenses and don't get money from shows.
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Permalink Reply by Kyle Williams on
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I'm a number 2...or to a limited degree, I've been putting on gigs through my uni's RockSoc at a couple of local venues around Birmingham (UK) for a couple of years. The general principle we work on is find a bar/club with an event room and see if we can rent it for free (if we make a set bar tab) and then we keep all door money - though we do have to pay for tech (L+S). However as a techie I'd probably work the show so long as i could get equiptment from somewhere.
As for the plan - me and some friends at uni were looking into doing something very similar on a small scale around birmingham next year anyway, trying to spread the local scene, so I'm sure we could liase and work out something together.
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Permalink Reply by Rude City Riot on
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Perfect, Steven, Kyle and myself. That's 3 x number 2's on the team so far. Not bad, and we have 3 interesting points on the globe as starting places.
WE are not going to change the musical landscape over night but we can share the same goals and be resources for each other as we find the right conditions to move our project forward.
We welcome others to join our cause as well, you don't have to have event experience, just the desire to help and get involved.
Danno
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Permalink Reply by Rude City Riot on
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Hi Chad,
Don't worry about the no experience thing, you can always ask me questions or run ideas by me, we can support each other. When you are ready to put on your first skaspot live show, I will create a production schedule and check list for you to work from that will make it easier as far as remembering what all to do and in what order. Mostly, it is going to take footwork and energy on you and your friends part but that is the fun part, creating something from nothing.
Welcome to the spotmasters team. There are 4 of us now. 3 on the west coast of N America and one in the UK.
I am hoping Loonie shows up with a plan for down under............?
cheers,
Dan
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Permalink Reply by Rude City Riot on
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Hello Skaspoters,
I just wanted to add an up-date to this particular blog about SKASPOT LIVE -
Great News! - I am announcing the first in what we hope will be a continuing ska concert series called SKASPOT LIVE -
the first event is in Vancouver, BC on the west coast of Canada on Friday March 28th.
Per my earlier posts on this subject, I looked around town for a venue that I could get interested in the concept of a monthly SKA NIGHT at their club. Once that was accomplished and a deal made for rent, bar staff, security and use of the in-house sound and lighting systems, I made contact with the major movers and groovers in the local SKA Scene and told them what I am up and asked for their support and involvement. The response has been universally positive and supportive.
The first event and launch of SKASPOT LIVE is a SKA-A-THON with up to 6 of the top ska bands in British Columbia.
I will be posting the event poster and more up-dates for this event in the near future.
SKASPOT / SKA SUMMIT members receive a discount on ticket prices to SKASPOT LIVE EVENTS. SKASPOT LIVE TEAM MEMBERS who work this and specific other SKASPOT events receive cool SKASPOT LIVE swag (Shirts/buttons). Join now and be a local SKASPOT TEAM MEMBER.
Dan
Spotmaster Vancouver
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Permalink Reply by Roots on -
No expereince here, but might be interested in volunteering for some of the details that would be needed to get something going in Orange County. Keep me in the loop..
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Permalink Reply by Rude City Riot on
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Hi Roots,
Welcome to the team. When we get to the point of trying to launch a SKASPOT LIVE in Orange County we will need your help big time. What you can do for now is check out possible venues that might be interested in our concept.
So far, we have our first SKASPOT LIVE show scheduled for March 28th in Vancouver, BC Canada. I have 4 local ska bands booked and hope to confirm 2 more for the SKA-A-THON that is our first show.
Thanks for wanting to make a difference.
cheers,
Dan
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