Category: live music

Less is more

During covid I decided that I was no longer going to play local events mid week and instead host and run events myself. The reason for this is that I’d rather not play at all than to an audience that is not really there to listen to music. Don’t get me wrong, past years of playing the local circuit has been fantastic for building up playing skills and becoming at ease in such situations. My producer always said “one live gig is worth ten rehearsals” and he’s 100% correct!

These days I organise live music events on either a Friday or Saturday night and make sure we have a great venue and excellent sound. There’s nothing worse than attending an event where the sound is terrible. Even some well known venues can have horrible acoustics and/or sound systems. I’m done with fighting against the playing environment and so “less is more” in such matters – better quality events. The other consideration is that I am finding that people are more picky about what they attend, which is no surprise in these tougher economic times.

Work with great artists who are true professionals

I set up Green Eyed Records and Music for the Head and Heart to promote and share great music. There’s a lot of great music out that that in my view deserves to reach a wider audience and these platforms assist with making this happen. At times it can be a serious financial undertaking, but I’d rather work with professional artists who can bring a great live show to an audience. Pre covid I hosted two Music for Head and Heart events with local artists before deciding to crank things up by working with more substantial artists who have established audiences. The first event was last year with the brilliant Jon Gomm which sold out. I was also pleased to invite Towse to be a support act along with my own Heartache ensemble. This was a fantastic evening and everybody brought their “A game”

This May I am hosting Martin Simpson at The Old Woollen with my band The Small Change Diaries running support. I’ve been doing substantial promotion for the event and Martin was good enough to agree to shooting a video promo and interview which is helping to drive interest. Tickets available here

Quality control and pricing for best value

As soon as you start to run live music events for hundreds of people, quality control over who you host and pricing become crucial. I hosted artists in the past who are nice folks, but totally lack the skills to work to create a great evening for a more diverses audience beyond their own limited fanbase. Some artists are terrific to work with and I’m delighted to share all my promotional contacts, marketing skills and other benefits. In contrast some are a nightmare to work with and have the unique ability to “snatch failure form the jaws of success!” You can always spot such folks as they are endlessley complaining about their lot and how unapreciated they are by the wider public!

Pricing events is also a real art and its really important to pay attention to the figures. Its important to me that everyone is financially rewarded and the audience get best value for money. Added value like free parking can really help attract an audience and I have learned that pricing will simply filter who attends the event. To date all the events I have run have sold out, but that’s no reason to take one’s eye off the ball in such matters.

This year I am running a second music showcase with the brilliant Towse and Harry Orme, where we’ll showcase a great new project. More details soon and tickets available here

My producer Carl Rosamond always says, “One live gig is worth 10 rehearsals” Never has a truer word been spoken! On Oct 7th my band Nick Cody & The Heartache with guests including Towse did a support slot for Jon Gomm to a sold-out audience of over 200 people at The Old Woollen in Leeds.

This was for me a baptism of fire for a number of reasons, some of which were self-created and some of which the universe threw in my direction! It was a true white-knuckle ride, but we were well received, and it was a joy to play with such excellent musicians and showcase some new material including the title track from the new Heartache album. With covid the band had rehearsed but not played live for a whole year, so this was quite a challenge.

Set list

The setlist was

All is fine ’til the world goes pop

That gal’s as cool as fuck

Hold that thought

Slow news day

They don’t mind

This is a pretty diverse range of material and I’m always mindful that we need to be concise in what we play when doing a support slot. Once again, the Supro Comet amp sounded amazing and to best the best live guitar sound I have had to date. Special thanks to everyone who came out to see us and for Towse and Jon Burr who sat in on the set.

Towse did a great opening set and Jon Gomm of course was fantastic as ever with his performance! All in all, it was a great night and the third Music for the Head and Heart showcase that sold out.

The last major music festival I attended was many moons ago and was the Pink Pop festival in Holland. It was a great line up and my favorite band was Morphine who opened the festival. I also got to see Crowded House and Bjork who were both superb. A few decades on, I’m less enthusiastic for a variety of reasons both as an attendee and/or a performer.

Great menu, but not perhaps the best “meal?”

One of the advantages of attending music festivals is that you get to see a whole host of acts all in one place. That can also be a minus, when the set lengths are usually pretty limited. As a music fan I like to see a full artist set and usually festival sets are massively reduced in terms of length and there’s not a great opportunity for proper sound checks. As a performer a very short set length can be challenging, which it itself is not a bad thing, but the set is under 30 minutes, these days I’m not really a fan. This is because everything tends to be a bit hyperactive in terms of artist changeovers and my own research suggests that the public also are not fans of really short sets.

A good example of this was playing one of the ukulele festivals in 2016 and 2017. It was a good experience for the band as an early outing, but on both occasions there was an issue with sound on stage. As an artist its extremely frustrating to be squeezed into doing a 20 minute set and find you can’t hear your own instrument and/or vocal!

This way of working in booking loads of artists for real short set lengths may be great for promoters who can show a big range of acts on a poster, but its in my view not the best experience for artist and attendee. Yes, you can argue that festivals remain very popular, but I would respectfully suggest that often the primary focus is not musical enjoyment, but rather a social gathering. That’s 100% a valid reason to attend, but not my personal preference!

Good value for money?

Another reason why I’m mostly not a fan is the cost of attending such events. Even the small niche music events can be 50 – 60 sterling for to get in, but then there’s often also additional costs in, accommodation and food costs. Some of these events charge extra for workshops (which can be just 60 minutes which is not ideal for any actual learning) and so costs start to crank. Quite quickly this can become a three figure cost, which is tougher in these economic times. Of course this is 100% a personal view and clearly many will be happy to pay what I would consider huge amounts of money to stand in a field where the sound of the artists is not great. The alternative is an indoor events can also be not ideal in this covid era. I may have had a different view twenty years ago, but these days I’m far more picky!

Super fans?

In relation to UK festivals, research suggests 28% of festival goers are festival super fans, attending an average of four festivals a year. To define the true festival super fan, its useful to look at several factors including their average festival ticket spend, how many festivals they attend, how influential they are in getting friends to go, how often they go back to the same festivals. The following stats are interesting to say the least –

1. Festival Super Fans (28% of all festival goers; attend an average of four (3.9) festivals
   each year)
2. Moderate Festival Goers (34% of all festival goers; attend two festivals each year),
3. Casual Festival Goers (38% of all festival goers; attend one festival each year).
   

The effect of covid

Although covid 19 is not highlighted so much in the news, covid remains a real problem for many artists. Here are just some of the artists in 2022 who have cancelled festival appearances – https://www.billboard.com/business/touring/2022-concerts-canceled-festivals-covid-19-1235017924/

In recent discussions with Jim Glennie from James, Jim confirmed how covid remains a real problem for major artists. As Eric Clapton discovered, regardless of your vaccination ideas, the virus really doesn’t really care and you can find your entire schedule cancelled often at short notice.

Conclusion

Of course these are totally personal views and I’d rather be say in The Village Vanguard with 125 capacity, all seated and excellent acoustics! On leaving the event I can hail a cab in 5 minutes and not be queuing for hours to exit the festival location! My interest is always for the love of music and seeking out the best environments for this. I’m not ruling out attending any such events or playing at such events in the future, but I’ll be pretty selective in my choices.

Covid 19 put the world on pause and for the last few years. After many years of playing local gigs, UK festivals and overseas festivals and gigs, I’m now rethinking opportunities for playing live. There’s a real joy to bringing music to a live audience and to date we’ve had many superb live opportunities with different ensembles, including playing at The Lagoa Guitar Festival in Portugal, a number of sold out album launches and some solo appearances in New York and Nagoya.

One live gig is worth eight rehearsals

My producer Carl Rosamond always chanted the mantra “One live appearance is better than 8 rehearsals” I never really understood this until we started to play out in live venues. Its been a fascinating journey from the initial baptism of fire, when after a few local gigs, I found myself on the main stage at an international music festival. On that occasion, I learned more in 45 minutes than in the first year of rehearsals. When I look back at the footage, aside from playing everything at speed, the performance even in these early days was pretty solid.

Less is more

In the last two years, I’ve only to date so far arranged one live outing, this time with the new Heartache ensemble. This was an opportunity to try out some of the new material. I’m pleased to report that the set was well received and the material stood up really well in a live setting. One of the benefits of playing live is that you discover very quickly how well material is received by the general public, especially if its not your typical fan base.

To date its been fun playing local venues, but it can be a lot of work and crank up some costs, especially if you have a policy of paying the band regardless of income from any venue. The benefit is mostly a massive education in what its like to front a band to entertain an audience. I’m lucky to be playing with many superb musicians, which has meant that I’ve really had to up my game musically, especially as I am fronting all these ensembles and we are playing original material.

Selecting future venues and creating “musical events” v gigs

After a number of years playing the local circuit, I now far prefer to organize much bigger live opportunities, through the Music for the Head and Heart and Green Eyed Records platforms. This means starting to host more established artists and providing evenings of entertainment, rather than simply doing gigs. This doesn’t preclude doing future gigs, but now I’m adopting a policy of “less is more” and being more selective about where and when we play. This means a great deal of planning as great venues are in short supply and established artists will plan ahead for live appearances. Also this means a lot more personal investment in signing contracts with artist’s managers who understandably want the assurance that events of properly marketed.

Previously I ran two Music for the Head and Heart events pre covid and am now planning a series of much bigger musical evenings starting with a showcase event October 7th with Jon Gomm.

Creativity through collaboration

In keeping with the Green Eyed Records “creativity through collaboration” I am delighted to be offering Towse from California as well as my own Heartache ensemble. In April I already have signed another major international to play in Leeds as part of the forth Music for The Head and Heart showcases, with one of my ensembles supplying support.

We’ll be looking at “The Old Woollen” in Leeds again, as it is covid friendly, has free parking, full bar, fully seated and crucially a superb sound system. Crucially we have a great sound engineer for these events and none of the constraints in terms of curfew and audience limits which in my opinion hamper playing at some other venues in Leeds.