running your own night

[wub]

visuals definitely help. but again, there's a fine line there. like you don't need to put on b&w pictures/videos of buildings, factories etc at a techno night.
b-movies and just plain weird shit like demdike stare's videos or the29nov stuff work really well tho imo

Or sped up driving through industrial units shot in black & white, ala every DnB night in the late 90s

[kidshuffle]

as for advertising, pr, "building an image", getting people's details etc, i feel like that's a bit too spammy and intrusive - like in those kmag articles; just felt like they were shouting "give me attention!"in your face. i don't like it when other promoters do it, so i wouldn't want to do it myself, even if that means it'll be a smaller night. vibes are better at smaller nights anyway imo.

Here's the problem with just going for vibes at small nights. Right before my promotion group hit our peak, we'd gotten a consistent few biweekly, monthly and weekly gigs. One of our nights (a wednesday) was a copromotion between us (who played anything between eyes down music to jump up dnb) and the equivalent of some five panel hipsters who were stuck on "keeping it true to the music" and didn't really care for the art of promotion because they didn't want to be in peoples faces. The key to promotion isn't getting in people's faces tho, its just about being yourself and being approachable. Most promoters I know are introverts at heart, and yet they still understand the game.

Over the next year, we'd leave that night because the floor would die every time my man SP would finish playing. He could bring 100 people easy because of how approachable he was, where the other guys went for the small night vibes, and could only pull in 20 regulars a week. Maybe. People felt that the guys were elitists because they cared more about the music than the party, and it eventually tarnished the night.

After we split with those guys, we started getting calls to help promote 700-1500 person shows, and we'd fill them. I know thats not exactly what you're going for right now, but just to reiterate what I said before: there's too many people out there to exclude off the bat. You need to try and pull everyone you can from your target demographic, then let them do a lot of promo work for you. Their word of mouth will do more than you ever will. Then you can worry about guest list and etc. For 3 years we never even had a guest list -everyone was paying. Once you get a reputation going, that's when you can start worrying about those things.

[kidshuffle]

You also really need to decide if you'd like to do this as a "job" or a hobby. To go back to my previous post, a lot of those five panel guys came from well off families, had decent jobs and etc., so DJing and promotion was just a hobby to them - money was of no importance ( until it came to them getting paid lol). And that's fine to do it as a hobby, you just dont want to get trapped in a vicious cycle, lose some money and gain nothing.

[Pedro Sánchez]

visuals definitely help. but again, there's a fine line there. like you don't need to put on b&w pictures/videos of buildings, factories etc at a techno night.
b-movies and just plain weird shit like demdike stare's videos or the29nov stuff work really well tho imo

Or sped up driving through industrial units shot in black & white, ala every DnB night in the late 90s

Iv'e seen modern twist on that a few years ago, it was a projection showing the inside of a car like shot from outside looking into the windows with the trail lights of oncoming traffic shot from varying angles that were synced up to the dj and then overlaying that were shots from varying cameras pointing at the dance floor but as the angle of the car changed, so did the dance floor shot, like the audience were reflecting on the car it was the most seamless visual/dj setups I think I have ever seen.

[Jizz]

Wub, in response to your post the other day about the importance of fixed physical nights in the development of a scene: I've been thinking about what it would take to set up not a night, but kind of a TUNA!, a place for local beats/electronic producers to play tracks. Like I think I'm looking for a dive that has 500,1000 watts, and wouldn't mind having 11 new customers, who also like to smoke weed. How would I go about finding such a place?

Hahah, do this plz. Wub is right, i mean look at dubstep and the LA beats music scene, they both came out of nights that had the same idea that you just said

I'd love to start something like that tbh. If anyone else from london is interested to start something, hmu. Noways, migrate to london imo

[ultraspatial]

@kidshuffle
fair enough. didn't mean to come off as elitist tbh. just that i've seen a lot of nights get killed off by hipster types who just go there to chat and drink wine and fill up the floor or because it's ram packed with bros. and i want to avoid both

and it's deffo more of a hobby thing atm. something do to once in a while. would switch it up depending on the outcome tho. i'm not really 100% fixated on anything

[wub]

Wub, in response to your post the other day about the importance of fixed physical nights in the development of a scene: I've been thinking about what it would take to set up not a night, but kind of a TUNA!, a place for local beats/electronic producers to play tracks. Like I think I'm looking for a dive that has 500,1000 watts, and wouldn't mind having 11 new customers, who also like to smoke weed. How would I go about finding such a place?

Hahah, do this plz. Wub is right, i mean look at dubstep and the LA beats music scene, they both came out of nights that had the same idea that you just said

I'd love to start something like that tbh. If anyone else from london is interested to start something, hmu. Noways, migrate to london imo

There was talk of a Ninja night starting up a while ago, ~18months...was when Clifford was still around? Think we even had a name down 'Dojo'...as a place where Ninjas train, obviously

[butter_man]

mates putting on a battle event tonight. he was hiring the PA from the college he attends but they backed out thursday. he was only gonna pay £50 for the PA (cheap, I know). Because they pulled out at the last minute he got stung with a £180 fee, which is a bit overpriced for the venue size. It'll only be the performers who pay though as it'll be coming out of the battle winner prize money .

[kidshuffle]

@kidshuffle
fair enough. didn't mean to come off as elitist tbh. just that i've seen a lot of nights get killed off by hipster types who just go there to chat and drink wine and fill up the floor or because it's ram packed with bros. and i want to avoid both

and it's deffo more of a hobby thing atm. something do to once in a while. would switch it up depending on the outcome tho. i'm not really 100% fixated on anything

I didn't really think you came off as elitist, i just wanted to really drive the importance of public perception. Obviously the key to any party is just having a decent bro to ho ratio

[ultraspatial]

Obviously the key to any party is just having a decent bro to ho ratio

obviously. thought this was common knowledge by now.

[Jizz]

Wub, in response to your post the other day about the importance of fixed physical nights in the development of a scene: I've been thinking about what it would take to set up not a night, but kind of a TUNA!, a place for local beats/electronic producers to play tracks. Like I think I'm looking for a dive that has 500,1000 watts, and wouldn't mind having 11 new customers, who also like to smoke weed. How would I go about finding such a place?

Hahah, do this plz. Wub is right, i mean look at dubstep and the LA beats music scene, they both came out of nights that had the same idea that you just said

I'd love to start something like that tbh. If anyone else from london is interested to start something, hmu. Noways, migrate to london imo

There was talk of a Ninja night starting up a while ago, ~18months...was when Clifford was still around? Think we even had a name down 'Dojo'...as a place where Ninjas train, obviously

ahh mann, would've loved to be part of that. a Ninja london thing now isnt very feasible i think, there arent a lot around anymore are there. not many that produce much anyway

even though London is supposedly a very innovative underground scene, there actually isnt a single night thats innovative as such at the moment. They all have big names and are more about a party. Which is great ofcourse, dont get me wrong; its always good to see a healthy scene for anything. But it doesnt have much in the way of pushing forward anything new. I know two other guys who wanna start something a bit different but thats about it, seems that most cats at uni are happy with their tech house

[kidshuffle]

Obviously the key to any party is just having a decent bro to ho ratio

obviously. thought this was common knowledge by now.

Well yah, but the good thing about the real bros, is that they spend money and love doing it. I got no problems takin their funds

[Johoosh]

Roughly on topic:

My mate runs a small monthly night, always good vibes, good diverse mix of selectors/styles. The venue is almost exactly how Wub described, low ceiling, bar opposite booth on back wall, dirt cheap drinks, decent rig for venue size (100-200)

Only problem we have is turntable feedback + jumpy needles when it gets busy as people jog the booth which is fairly non-robust (made of fairly thin wood, v. close to main stack)

Any tips for makeshift/cheapish ways to isolate a pair of technics better to minimize this?

Short of rebuilding the booth/not allowing ppl near it

[tribek_]

Stick concrete slabs underneath them, If that still doesn't work add a piece of paper in the gap in the tonearm (Stops the needle shaking left to right when cueing). And never ever stick a 5 pence piece on the needle.

As for feedback i'm not to sure, i have problems with feedback at my home set up. Maybe move the monitors back a bit? or get the sound guy to EQ some bass out of it.

[DJoe]

put half a tennisball under each of the turntable's feet (those round pads, i call em feet i dont know if anyone else does lol)

[kay]

Wub, in response to your post the other day about the importance of fixed physical nights in the development of a scene: I've been thinking about what it would take to set up not a night, but kind of a TUNA!, a place for local beats/electronic producers to play tracks. Like I think I'm looking for a dive that has 500,1000 watts, and wouldn't mind having 11 new customers, who also like to smoke weed. How would I go about finding such a place?

Hahah, do this plz. Wub is right, i mean look at dubstep and the LA beats music scene, they both came out of nights that had the same idea that you just said

I'd love to start something like that tbh. If anyone else from london is interested to start something, hmu. Noways, migrate to london imo

There was talk of a Ninja night starting up a while ago, ~18months...was when Clifford was still around? Think we even had a name down 'Dojo'...as a place where Ninjas train, obviously

ahh mann, would've loved to be part of that. a Ninja london thing now isnt very feasible i think, there arent a lot around anymore are there. not many that produce much anyway

even though London is supposedly a very innovative underground scene, there actually isnt a single night thats innovative as such at the moment. They all have big names and are more about a party. Which is great ofcourse, dont get me wrong; its always good to see a healthy scene for anything. But it doesnt have much in the way of pushing forward anything new. I know two other guys who wanna start something a bit different but thats about it, seems that most cats at uni are happy with their tech house

Been kinda toying with a similar idea in my head. Bristol seems pretty amenable to this sort of thing.

[RKM]

just start using your laptop to dj like a don.

Been kinda toying with a similar idea in my head. Bristol seems pretty amenable to this sort of thing.

i would go to something like this, there's definitely a gap for a small semi regular night like that in bristol, especially one playing 140 type music

[Jizz]

I wouldn't mind travelling down to Bristol now and then if thats what it takes, it aint too far

also, might be easier to get an ideal venue for a good price in Bristol rather than London

[RKM]

there's a shitloads of suitable sized venues, take5, room2 of exchange, cosies, basement 45, the bell, where you could put in some stacks,
and sick producers like facta, hodge, lurka, young echo and tumble audio crews, it'd be raw to put on people like pev, kowton, pinch kahn etc (a little ambitious), there's gotta be demand for this

[kay]

Yeah we asked Take5 before about renting the place, didn't seem terribly expensive. The Bell seems pretty happy to just let people set-up and play records on Sundays, not asked them whether it needs renting or not.