PRE-GIG PROMOTIONAL THOUGHTS...

UPDATES: There are a few people who appear determined to reimburse me for the “Broken Record” CD, and since I have no job and no money, I guess I will not stand in their way. I have one extra copy of the CD, and I’ve sent it to Brian, head of the Just Plain Folks organization, suggesting that he auction it off as a fund-raiser.

Poster’s done for the Bay City gig, and it’s getting its first little distribution; the Arts Center has it, and so does the Tillamook Library (and I’ve gotten the okay to distribute it to the rest of the libraries in the county). I’ll print up a bunch more posters, and hit the businesses in town with ‘em—most of them know me.

Then the other towns, where I don’t know as many people, but do know some folks in potentially strategic locations. (I can drop off some at the North County Rec District, for instance, where I was rejected for the manager job—and emphasize I’m still interested in doing them a benefit concert, and this’d be a chance for them to see what it would be like. That’s a lesson from the days I had the grahic-design business—every job I did, I tried to use as a springboard to get more business from other people.)

I’ll feel less paranoid about this promotional activity once the band has gotten together and practiced (we won’t be doing our first practice until Monday)—though they all are quite confident we’ll do good, and that attitude is infectious.

It occurs to me I actually know quite a few people in strategic locations, including nearly every public official in the county, and I should take a couple of days and just go visit all of them personally. (It’d have to be personally. This is the country, and even though everybody’s got Internet, business is always done face to face.) Then, we visit the press and radio. The Arts Center can maybe hold 250 people (though I don’t think they have chairs for that many). Might we actually pack the place? That would open some eyes…

And we definitely want to film the performance. (The Red Room gig is being videotaped, too.) I haven’t heard from the guy who videoed the last Bay City open mike (lesson there—always get people’s business cards), but I’ll want to make sure he’s at the Arts Center concert, and that we get a tape. Len Amsterdam (Whitby Shores TV & Radio) wants a copy, and I’ll post it on YouTube, of course—but this is also a chance to put into practice the idea of DVDs for band promotion and getting gigs. Nobody I know is doing this, and I think somebody should.

If the promotional thing actually does work, the follow-up question is whether I could do it for somebody else. Maybe—one of the things I’m relying on to help me is that a fair number of people in this area do know me, and know the weird kind of stuff I write, and that reputation is part of what’s going to drag the audience in. I guess the question I’d have to ask anybody else is “Who knows you?” I can provide gravy, as it were, because I know how to reach people, but you have to have your own meat and potatoes.

That said, Outside Services Ltd. could end up being a rather full-service house for those that need it. (This is definitely way premature thinking.) Nope, I can’t get you gigs—but I can promote you: do the posters, and press releases, and get ‘em into the right hands. I can produce you a record to sell (I know people who can do all phases of that, and they’re good), including cover art and liner notes (I can do that, and I’m good). And yes, I know enough to be able to publish you, too. One of the things I’m told publishers do is handle that [expletive deleted] paperwork so the musician can just go off and play music. Me, I’m a paperwork artist—I love that stuff.

So I’m now playing—I think—with two bands, and it’s very likely they’ll want to continue playing. At some point, they’re going to need names. (“Southern Pigfish” comes immediately to mind.) We’ll see how tonight’s gig goes. Today was the deadline for three (or was it four?) of the city-manager jobs I’ve applied for, and I am expecting rejection letters from all of them. I might as well be playing music.

Joe