Home News What's On Annual Poll Photos Forums DJs Features Music Venues Reviews Links

Features Mindbenderz talk ‘Lord of the Rings’ and fishing, as well as the creation of their new album ‘Celestial Gateway’! Iono-Music artists One Function, Eliyahu, Invisible Reality and Dual Vision talk Robert Miles, kids, dogs and vinyl, while we chat about their current releases! Luke&Flex talk influences, the Irish rave scene, why Flex wears a mask and Play Hard, their new EP out now on Onhcet Repbulik Xtreme! Lyktum expands on his new album ‘Home’ – talking about his love of storytelling, creating new harmonies and the concept behind his musical works. Pan talks getting caught short crossing the Sahara, acid eyeballs and tells us Trance is the Answer, plus shares his thoughts on his latest release 'Beyond the Horizon' - all from a beach in Spain! Miss C chats about living with the KLF, DJing in a huge cat’s mouth, training her brain and the upcoming super-duper Superfreq Grande party at LDN East this Saturday, 16th September! NEM3SI$ - I Live for the Night – talks superficiality, psychopaths, and bittersweet success, ahead of a plethora of evocative, emotional, and passionate upcoming melodic techno releases! Psy-Sisters Spring Blast Off! We talk to DJ competition winner ROEN along with other super talents on the lineup! Blasting towards summer festivals with Bahar Canca ahead of Psy-Sisters Spring Blast! Shyisma talks parties, UFO's, and Shotokan Karate ahead of his upcoming album 'Particles' on Iono-Music! SOME1 talks family, acid, stage fright and wolves - ahead of his upcoming album release ‘Voyager’ on Iono-Music in February 2023! The Transmission Crew tell all and talk about their first London event on 24th February 2023! NIXIRO talks body, mind and music production ahead of his release 'Planet Impulse' on Static Movement's label - Sol Music! Turning the world into a fairy tale with Ivy Orth ahead of Tribal Village’s 10th Birthday Anniversary Presents: The World Lounge Project The Psy-Sisters chat about music, achievements, aspirations and the 10-Year Anniversary Party - 18/12/22! A decade of dance music with Daniel Lesden Earth Needs a Rebirth! Discussions with Psy-Trance Artist Numayma Taking a Journey Through Time with Domino New Techno Rising Star DKLUB talks about his debut release White Rock on Onhcet Republik! PAN expands on many things including his new album 'Hyperbolic Oxymoron' due for release on the 14th April 2022 on PsyWorld Records! Psibindi talks all things music including her new collaborative EP 'Sentient Rays' on Aphid Records, her band Sentience Machine and 10 years of Psy-Sisters! N-Kore talks Jean-Michel Jarre, unfinished tracks and fatherhood! Celebrating International Women’s Day and Ten Years of Psy-Sisters with Amaluna A Catch Up with John Phantasm ahead of his upcoming set at the Tribal Village 4 Day Outdoor Event in Kent 6-9 May 2022! 'The Maestro that is Tristan talks barn owls, Shazamming and keeping it Psychedelic ahead of his upcoming performance at the Tribal Village 4 Day Event in Kent 6-9 May 2022! DJ talk with Psyrenzo ahead of his debut set at Tribal Village, the Steelyard this Friday 14th January 2022! TENZO aka Overdrive talks freely about launching his new act which will be showcased at Tribal Village, Steelyard on 14 January 2022! A long overdue catch up with JourneyOM ahead of his next Tribal Village party this Friday 14th January 2022 at the Steelyard, London! Goa based party animal and artist extraordinaire Nirmal talks punk concerts, metal sculptures, flying and rippin' it up on a High Tide! DJ Wired talks to us about the Rise of the Hope and parties, ahead of his upcoming set at Tribal Village on 14th January 2022!

How To: Be a Promoter in six easy steps - Part 2 Reported by Latex Zebra / Submitted 14-11-07 22:15 OK then, you’ve got the venue, sorted out some equipment, you’ve even decided when’s best to put it on, but now what do you do? Don’t worry, as in the follow up to last month’s feature, Latex Zebra returns to help you find your feet and work out How To: Be A Promoter... Of course, it’s not easy and you’re not guaranteed to succeed, but if all the hard work pays off and you do pack out your party, the feeling is all the more sweeter. But that’s just it: it takes (almost) blood, sweat, tears and, most importantly, an innate ability to herd cats. If after reading last month’s feature you’re more fired up than scared off, read on, as a great party might just await you. The Line Up It would be nice if Paul Van Dyk would drop his fee for the night and come and play in the pub basement you have hired for the night. Chances are though you’ll be left with your mate Dave who can do a great mix of For an Angel into I’m Alive. This is not the end of the world; it could be beginning of great things for you. Anyone going into promotion is going to have a plan of who they want to book so in theory I shouldn’t need to say much here. Much as this contradicts something I said above, you don’t really want to launch an event with nothing but unknown DJs, unless you and said unknown DJs have a whole heap of friends who will come. The thing to remember is that your friends are already converted and want to hear you play; you need to get other people in to talk about your event. After all, even the best friends in the world won’t come out month in month out should you get to that stage. What you are looking for is a mixture of the DJs you are trying to support (that includes yourself) if need be and established, affordable talent. You may want to take the risk and spend £500 plus on a DJ for the launch night to help put you on the map, no problem, do it if you can afford losing the money should the event bomb. A big name doesn’t mean a big crowd, though it can earn you some respect, and they will want paying whether there are 20 or 200 people there. You ideally want DJs that you know, that pull people in and that provide the goods. Not a DJ that has a guest list of 50 people but can’t mix to save their lives. So you’ve got a line up together that you can afford to pay should no one turn up. Now what order to put them on in? Programming the night is something that a lot of promoters forget to do or think that the DJs should do themselves. You’ve spent £200 getting a star guest in, don’t give them the warm up while your mate Billy Big Tunes who has never played to anyone other than their Mum gets a 3 hour set at peak time. Know how you want the night to progress musically and line the DJs up accordingly, putting your star DJ on between 2 and 3 is probably best. Remember even if it is a night of hard house you still want people to walk in and not feel it is Armageddon. There have been many lengthy discussions about warm ups on this site so seek them out if in doubt, night progression is a big thing to many, get it right and people will talk about your event for the right reasons the next day. Promotion You could write a book on this, someone probably has, go and find it and phone me once you’ve read it. Ok, without some ideas on actual promotion this feature is worthless. Now there are several ways people find out about club events, here are some I can remember in what I feel is their order of importance: Magazine/Newspaper Listings Websites/Forums/Listings Friends Flyers Shmoozing Once you’ve been running for a while the one that is not mentioned that jumps to the top of the list is word of mouth. We’ll get back to that in a minute. Search out every possible place you can list parties, look at every newspaper or magazine that lists and find out how you get in there, what their requirements are. Then try and meet them. Likewise, find relevant forum pages and put up some details in the correct place. Don’t spam every page or demand to know why people aren’t responding. If starting anew and if nobody knows you then you can’t just expect people to respond. Set up competitions on websites such as this. See if you can get your star DJ interviewed on some websites in the lead up as well. See if anyone might interview you. Begin to build up a relationship with the forum members and staff. Next tell your friends, tell them to tell their friends and so forth. Ask all the DJs if they do mail outs, look at offering discounts on big groups if people respond to mail outs as well. If you have to spam, make sure you are at least giving the spam some value. Once you’re established you can set up mailing lists to keep people up to date. Use and abuse resources like MySpace and Facebook. Everyone else is so you might as well. Promote but don’t pester. Pissed off friends don’t support events. Flyers, again there has been many a discussion about the worth of flyering your event but for a first time party it is a must. If only because it gets the name of the event out to people and even if they don’t come, if they hear about it later through word of mouth they are likely to remember seeing the name before. If you can get them distributed for you, hold some back so you can go out and shmooze at events and dish them out after. You should also hold some flyers back so you can hand them out on the night of the event as well. Finally, shmoozing. The art of personal spamming is a tricky one. Going to other promoters events and telling the crowd how your party will be much better is likely to make them think you’re mental and have the promoter flush your head down the loo should they hear you saying it. Instead you need to tell people about what you’re doing, getting them interested, while talking to other promoters to see if they have any tips or ideas. Most promoters are quite approachable, especially if you approach them with beer. Once you’ve thrown one great event the most powerful promotion in the world should start, word of mouth. Any advertiser in the world will tell you the best way to sell anything is for it to sell itself. It make seem crass but during the night try and find out if people are enjoying themselves, if they are gently suggest they let others know, offer them discounts if they contact you for guest list before your next event. Also chat to people as they are leaving. If you've planned to do more than one event then try and have flyers for the next event ready to dish out to people. It may seem like common sense but the simplest things are those most often overlooked! The Main Event This is just the last minute things that you might forget. As soon as the doors open you’re on your own and promotion stops and being a host begins. Whether a feature will ever get written on that I don’t know, maybe you can write one should this feature prove helpful to you. One thing worth doing is putting yourself out there. Greeting people as they come in or thanking them as they leave. All part of being a good host but behaviour like that will, as mentioned above, make you and your party more memorable. By all means, get into the swing of things and enjoy yourself, it is a party after all and yours just don’t get so ruined you end up slumped in a corner for most of the night. It's not so bad if you are part of a team of promoters and you are designated mess head for the night. A lone promoter dribbling at the bar is not someone people can approach should an emergency arise; it is also looks shockingly unprofessional. On the day in question try and leave yourself as little to do as possible. Much as climbing the walls waiting for the event to start is hell, running around wondering if your camo net will arrive or if Norman the Doorman is really registered will have you crying into a bottle of Vodka before the doors have opened. Make sure everyone involved knows what they are doing, speak to all DJs to make sure they know when they are on. Check with the venue owners everything is still cool and finally get someone out dishing out some flyers near the closest tube or train station once the doors open. The rest is down to you really. Good luck! Steve Milton returns for the next instalment of How To: Photos courtesy of the HarderFaster archive. Not to be reproduced without permission Share this :: : : : Follow HarderFaster :: Other Features By Latex Zebra: From Little Acorns to Mighty Oaks - How Chilled in a Field has grown Bar 414 unveils a new dimension with Base Mosquito Brandon Block gets Funky 414 London! Dissecting Scot Project The HarderFather speaks! Meet him yourself at the HF vs The Residents Xmas Party The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable. Comments: From: ~deleted12332 on 14th Nov 2007 21:31.51 both interesting reads indeed!! Good stuff dude From: teddy on 14th Nov 2007 21:42.39 Good read - I'm launching my night on Friday so good to know I have done most of the things I should have done. From: Darz on 15th Nov 2007 04:55.35 So good, it begs the question - what info is left to put in the other 4 steps?! From: guy garrett on 15th Nov 2007 09:02.06 LZ= The party animal with brains :-) From: Adam Symbiosis on 15th Nov 2007 10:06.50 Darz - The first 3 steps were covered in part one From: ~deleted1390 on 15th Nov 2007 11:52.03 I'm glad people like it. Now lets see some people put it into practice and breathe a bit of life into the scene. From: stuarttheflyer on 15th Nov 2007 12:44.41 Cheers for the advice - loved both articles and starting my first funky night in December hopefully followed by a hard dance night in Feb. I'll be sure to let you know how it goes! From: Darz on 15th Nov 2007 21:05.38 Ah wicked, cheers Adam. Good stuff Zebra. From: Nomi Sunrider on 16th Nov 2007 14:53.47 My picture gets used again! From: suzy-q on 17th Nov 2007 04:38.18 woot!! I'll be a promotor in no time! From: Timmy Whiz on 19th Nov 2007 22:56.04 Nice work there LZ common sense and some good pointers, surprising how many believe one form of promotion is enough... From: Coops on 21st Nov 2007 23:50.18 Very good article. Do you mind if I print this off and give it to some of my promoters LZ?

All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective companies. All other content is (c) 2001-2024 HarderFaster.

Terms and Conditions | Privacy Statement | Text Mode