For me doing a concert is a form of advertising and therefore I am not a wholly dependent upon playing to earn a living. I have always found that the publicity attracted by playing can be far more valuable than the actual amount of money that you will earn from doing them so therefore I tend to do fewer but larger gigs and try to do as much advertising to maximise my time.

I have recently become aware of the amount of money some young players are paying ‘agents’ to get them gigs it seems particularly rife in the Heavy Metal scene. It costs somewhere in the region of £150 a month for the band for gigs in this country and then extra for gigs abroad where these so called tours are costing each member of a band a grand to do the tour of Europe for a week. What a con this is. These high profile gigs at prestigious venues are nothing of the sort; it is the same old story of the A and R men being in the audience, what rubbish!

They could have done this themselves and spent the money on promotional work but it takes years of experience to see through this patter. It is the same old thing; get out there and play, promote yourself get your name about, create a fan base, do not expect someone to do it for you.

It seems that even when people go to college they still fall into this trap, perhaps the courses should cover some of the aspects of what to watch out for.

Vic