The 'GIGS' rule...
When I permanently relocated to Cyprus a couple of years ago, I was keen to hook up with some fellow music addicts and get down to the business of rockin’. From all of my many months spent on the island over the years it was obvious to me that Cyprus ROCKS! So, this seemed like it would be an easy task. Re, was I in for a SERIOUS reality check!
I had already made a few Musical friends here on my previous visits. So, when I hit Nicosia I met up with some of them to get the old ball rolling. When I started talking about what I wanted to do, one of the first things a Cypriot musician friend of mine told me was, “This is a small island, man. You can only really do 2 or 3 shows here a year or you won’t draw. If you don’t have new material at each show, people will get bored and won’t come out to see you.”
This statement seemed a bit extreme, but it didn’t really hit me just how serious the statement was and what it implied about the Cyprus scene/community until I heard similar views from a multitude of other musicians I met over the following months.
Telling me that my band can only play 2 or 3 times a year is the same as telling me I can only make love to my wife 2 or 3 times a year! Okay, let’s follow this idea through a bit…
If your lover only wants you to make love to them a few times a year, then there just MIGHT be some issues with how you are making love, right? And if the only way you can get your significant other to hop in the sack with you is by introducing something completely new each time, perhaps you should re-evaluate what it is you have been doing in the first place.
Yes, variety is the spice of life, but being a responsive, engaging, and fun lover who uses variations of a few “moves” will probably make for a longer more enjoyable relationship with more frequent“liaisons” than if you simply read up on new “techniques” that you are going to try to do “to” your partner each time you convince them to jump in bed.
For me, one of the greatest feelings in the world is being on stage when the audience and I are locked in a big, nasty, sweaty, coital embrace… musically speaking, of course. My band is getting the audience off, and in return they are getting us off. It is a mutually reciprocating act. Yes, the music needs to be played well, but I am not up there in the hopes of people walking away and saying, “goodness me, that chap is very adept at his instrument.” That’s the job of the music critics. I want people to leave my show screaming into the night, “that was AWESOME! When can we see them again?”Or at least singing one of our songs as they euphorically stumble their way home still high from the experience.
And as an audience member, I want the same thing! And I want it OFTEN.
Although I do expect a high level of musicianship when I go to see a band perform live, I also expect a good to great PERFORMANCE. I want to be energized by the band. Watching a bunch of people standing on a stage playing technically “perfect” music while looking like they are having a rectal probe, or worse, looking like they are methodically checking off the list of “required genre-specific cliché moves” is what makes the 2 to 3 shows a year horror seem reasonable. How can a band expect their audience to be moved by the music if they themselves look unmoved or the performance looks forced in a live show?
I have become a HUGE fan of a bunch of bands here doing a bunch of different styles in the last 2 plus years. With very rare exceptions they are all extremely good musicians technically, and the original material they write stands up to, and often surpasses, what is on offer from the rest of the planet.
Now, we want to take the relationship to the ‘next level’. You don’t need to keep trying to impress us with you have learned. We have already been wooed. It’s time to open up, drop your guard, allow us in, and let see how you have made what you have learned YOURS. If you can do that we (your audience) will *come again, and again, and again, and again! *NOTE: All puns, always intended.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
I can already hear some musicians mumbling about how the venues and promoters won’t allowing them to play more than a of couple times a year. That is a completely different issue which I am all too happy to address. And I will. But before I do, there are a couple other BAND ISSUES we should address first. Let’s try to get all the musicians/bands singing from the same sheet, and then we’ll see how to deal with the OUTSIDE FACTORS.
Next time, I want to address one of the other ‘RULES’ that a lot of bands/musicians have tried to convince me has to be adhered to in Cyprus… the ‘Covers’ rule…
When I permanently relocated to Cyprus a couple of years ago, I was keen to hook up with some fellow music addicts and get down to the business of rockin’. From all of my many months spent on the island over the years it was obvious to me that Cyprus ROCKS! So, this seemed like it would be an easy task. Re, was I in for a SERIOUS reality check!
I had already made a few Musical friends here on my previous visits. So, when I hit Nicosia I met up with some of them to get the old ball rolling. When I started talking about what I wanted to do, one of the first things a Cypriot musician friend of mine told me was, “This is a small island, man. You can only really do 2 or 3 shows here a year or you won’t draw. If you don’t have new material at each show, people will get bored and won’t come out to see you.”
This statement seemed a bit extreme, but it didn’t really hit me just how serious the statement was and what it implied about the Cyprus scene/community until I heard similar views from a multitude of other musicians I met over the following months.
Telling me that my band can only play 2 or 3 times a year is the same as telling me I can only make love to my wife 2 or 3 times a year! Okay, let’s follow this idea through a bit…
If your lover only wants you to make love to them a few times a year, then there just MIGHT be some issues with how you are making love, right? And if the only way you can get your significant other to hop in the sack with you is by introducing something completely new each time, perhaps you should re-evaluate what it is you have been doing in the first place.
Yes, variety is the spice of life, but being a responsive, engaging, and fun lover who uses variations of a few “moves” will probably make for a longer more enjoyable relationship with more frequent“liaisons” than if you simply read up on new “techniques” that you are going to try to do “to” your partner each time you convince them to jump in bed.
For me, one of the greatest feelings in the world is being on stage when the audience and I are locked in a big, nasty, sweaty, coital embrace… musically speaking, of course. My band is getting the audience off, and in return they are getting us off. It is a mutually reciprocating act. Yes, the music needs to be played well, but I am not up there in the hopes of people walking away and saying, “goodness me, that chap is very adept at his instrument.” That’s the job of the music critics. I want people to leave my show screaming into the night, “that was AWESOME! When can we see them again?”Or at least singing one of our songs as they euphorically stumble their way home still high from the experience.
And as an audience member, I want the same thing! And I want it OFTEN.
Although I do expect a high level of musicianship when I go to see a band perform live, I also expect a good to great PERFORMANCE. I want to be energized by the band. Watching a bunch of people standing on a stage playing technically “perfect” music while looking like they are having a rectal probe, or worse, looking like they are methodically checking off the list of “required genre-specific cliché moves” is what makes the 2 to 3 shows a year horror seem reasonable. How can a band expect their audience to be moved by the music if they themselves look unmoved or the performance looks forced in a live show?
I have become a HUGE fan of a bunch of bands here doing a bunch of different styles in the last 2 plus years. With very rare exceptions they are all extremely good musicians technically, and the original material they write stands up to, and often surpasses, what is on offer from the rest of the planet.
Now, we want to take the relationship to the ‘next level’. You don’t need to keep trying to impress us with you have learned. We have already been wooed. It’s time to open up, drop your guard, allow us in, and let see how you have made what you have learned YOURS. If you can do that we (your audience) will *come again, and again, and again, and again! *NOTE: All puns, always intended.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
I can already hear some musicians mumbling about how the venues and promoters won’t allowing them to play more than a of couple times a year. That is a completely different issue which I am all too happy to address. And I will. But before I do, there are a couple other BAND ISSUES we should address first. Let’s try to get all the musicians/bands singing from the same sheet, and then we’ll see how to deal with the OUTSIDE FACTORS.
Next time, I want to address one of the other ‘RULES’ that a lot of bands/musicians have tried to convince me has to be adhered to in Cyprus… the ‘Covers’ rule…
