Gig Management 101

It’s one thing to try and book a whole bunch of gigs, however managing your time and schedule is just as important.

Some may call it planning for the future, however in the world of live music and touring it’s known as Gig management.

At the early manager-less stages of any bands career when you’re forced to do everything on your own, gig management is a crucial part of keeping your touring schedule together.

When I started managing bands, a mentor of mine who had previously managed world class artists, taught me a very simply gig management 101 skill – write everything down

in a monthly schedule on a piece of paper – with a pencil……No pens allowed!

It’s that simple!

Forget palm pilots, blackberry’s, pocket diaries and anything else you might think will make you look more professional – gig management comes down to having a pencil and a montly schedule on a piece of paper. The real trick now is to keep the pages updated as your plans change…..hence the pencil.

All these pocket sized gadgets are great however when your on the phone trying to book shows you need to always have your schedule infront of you and be able to see everything at once, even three months ahead of the present day.

Gig Management Lesson 2

Ok, so you’re probably thinking that were touching on really basic stuff here, but gig management involves diarizing a few other important key dates that need to be noted in order to shine through as a professional live touring act. These include -

Sound check times
Show times
Deadlines to make sure you’ve got your sound guy organized
Promotional deadlines – dates to submit gig listings in entertainment guides
Ticketing requirements if your pre-selling tickets
Advertising deadlines and booking dates to make sure the shows are promoted properly
Press release dates to get stories or editorial done
Postings on websites and mailing lists etc

For every gig your band plays there should always be a list of tasks such as the above that need to be scheduled and arranged within certain time frames to ensure successful gig management.

Additionally, this task list must remain separate to the original touring schedule sheet. That sheet must only contain booking dates. Use another planning tool to write out all the extra tasks for each show individually.

So there you have it. Two very simple yet highly effective gig management ideas.

Sometimes it’s the simple things in life that we fail to actually do or acknowledge, but writing a booking down in a structured way on a piece of paper (with a pencil no less) might seem a little nomadic in this technological day and age, but don’t fool yourself. It could save your bands career on the organization front.