Tooting Bizarre

[Woodsie]

Here are some suggestions for running TB nights if you have taken a date.

They are suggestions - it's basically up to you.

Only thing to remember is whatever happens, there will still be the cost of the soundman to cover (£60).

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CONTRACTS, (you what?)

If anyone is feeling anal, I have a Tooting Bizarre artist contract proforma I can email through to anybody, (which is more just a bit of paper which allows people to share contact deets, etc).

Or you can just do it your way - whatever you feel.

CHARGING

We normally charge 3 squid on the door, but that's pretty much up to you. You can charge more or less, but I would suggest charging at least £3 cos that has always covered the cost of the soundman (£60) in the past and left money to spare for the bands, (and a bit left over for whoever organised the night).

The soundman is the only 'cost', which as I say always seems to get covered. You might need to put in some money for a cash float at the start of the night, but you just take that back at the end. The bar staff will happily give you change to facilitate pound coin float action.

What we've done in the past is not count heads through the door, but just do an equal split of any remaining monies after paying the soundman. So that's a split between all bands AND the organiser, (so yes, that does mean double bubble if you are in one of the bands as well)! Of course, you may want to forego this and just split between the bands, especially if any of the bands have travelled from outside London.

I would advise kitshare between bands rather than using anything at the venue - what they have available seems to depend on what is broken or what has been stolen.

SETTING UP

When I'm doing a night, I normally slope in about 6-ish or a bit later and that's fine. Gives one a chance to grab some food off the pub's excellent thai menu before engaging in a conversation with the soundman about european fantasy metal.

There's a wee table by the door where you can set up CDs etc, and take money. They should have a sharpie or similar that you can use to doodle on the hands of punters.

ADVERTISING:

Please make sure you promote the night!

Flyers: It's great if you can do some posters for the night and get these to the venue in advance of your gig.

TB myspace: What's also helpful is getting the tooting bizarre myspace login details from myself somebody else in TB so that you can attach electronic flyers to events to myspace pages - obviously you can email these to the bands you're getting on so they can spam all their friends myspace pages, etc.

Facebook: Of course, the whole facebook events thing is useful too. If you're not already an administrator for the FB group, let me know and we can set you up so you can create events, invite the core group, and then send an event link via your own FB profiles.

Alternatively, just set up an event via the hosting band's FB page if that works better for you.