Rage Sadler / Kaine

Name: Rage Sadler

Band: Kaine (facebook.com/kaineband)

Where: London / Colchester

I have two stories both relating to two different Battle of the Bands experiences which offered a chance for us to play a major festival last year.

The first was a show in London. I had been recommended getting on the line up by a good friend in another band so we could play on the same night and essentially do a fun gig with friends, whilst hopefully picking up a few more fans.

The BOTB rounds were meant to be specific to each genre. Being as we were two of the few bands still doing our genre on the underground circuit and we had even asked to share a bill we thought that wouldn’t be too hard to achieve…

Rob Saunders / Rob Saunders

Name: Rob Saunders

Role: Comedian (robertjsaunders.tumblr.com)

Where: Colchester

ED: Been a while, but here's the first ever WPE entry from a comedian. Seems no matter what you do, so long as it involves a stage, there's shite promoters in every walk of entertainment.

I have been doing stand up for a few years now but only amateur open mic stuff.

Myself and a few other comedians were booked to do a gig in a pub in Colchester. Myself and two other acts shared a lift to the venue and we were running a bit late - being late is what comedians do best after all.

We were worried we would miss the start of the show and we didn't know what the running order of the comedians was, but when we got there the promoter/compare of the event wasn't even there yet.

James Balcombe / Osmium Guillotine

Name: James Balcombe


Band: Osmium Guillotine (osmiumguillotine.com)

Where: London

I play drums in a 'traditional' Heavy Metal band, based in Essex. 

A couple of years back, we received a message via the band's Facebook page from a London-based promoter, saying he'd listened to our music and really liked what we're doing, and had a great gig opportunity at a well-established venue in London, with a suitable line-up of bands that would really work with our style of music and a headline band that will pack the place out.

Up to this point we hadn't played many gigs in London, so it all sounded like a good chance to play to a new crowd. I made sure to explain to the fella that as we haven’t got much of a ‘following’ in London (other than a few mates) that we couldn’t promise to bring a big crowd of people, but that we would be more than happy to play an early/opening slot for free, as it would be a good way to help us build up a local following. He agreed that this was fine, and that we’d have an early slot on the bill.

Chris Saunders / Earthmass

Name: Chris Saunders

Band: Earthmass (earthmassband.co.uk)

Where: ?

I've been in a few bands over the years, currently I find myself in 3 (sometimes 4) and this wee story involves a band I was in until last year called Another Dead Hero. We were a Prog Rock type band, not that it's really relevant but oh well!

One time we randomly got an email from a promoter, saying they wanted us for a Mogwai after show party. We were all well up for it as we were all massive Mogwai fans, and they were a massive influence on what we were doing. 

So we said we would do it. 

A few days later we got sent a contract stating it was actually a pay-to-play gig. We were instantly dubious as I am very anti P2P. The deal was we were to pay £100 for a set of tickets, which we would sell for a certain percentage of the money blah blah blah. After a heavy debate on the situation we decided, to hell with it, lets do it and at least we could play a Mogwai after show, plus we'd already said yes [to the promoter] so we just went with it. 

Tim Barclay / Neuronspoiler

Name: Tim Barclay

Band: Neuronspoiler (facebook.com/Neuronspoiler)

Where: Brighton/Bristol

ED: It's been a while since I posted on WPE, the reason being I had nothing to post, so thank you to Tim for this nice surprise in my inbox today. Remember, WPE is YOUR blog, I'm just the guy who publishes the stories whilst sitting in bed eating Cheesestrings (yes, that is happening right now for the record). So long as your story is about a shit promoter and you can put a few dozen sentences together in a grammatically correct fashion, you can post on WPE and get a nice little plug for your band too. Don't be a stranger.

There used to be a promotions company whose selling point was that they would book each band two gigs - one in their home town and then one in another town on a bill with other local acts. It was a good idea to give bands the chance to get out to other parts of the country and play to other bands' local followings. Unfortunately, when my old band, Serpent Sins worked with them, things didn't quite work out that way.

Shaun Buswell / Buswell & The 121212 Underground Orchestra

Name: Shaun Buswell

Band: Buswell & The 121212 Underground Orchestra (121212.org.uk)

Where: Ipswich

I have to say that, in the past few years, I've had some pretty tough shows to sort out, trying to fit up to 70 people on a stage (sometimes people who have only met me and the music that day) in some pretty crazy and unique places. It's not always been easy, and people sometimes ask me how I manage to do things that are seemingly impossible.

The secret, you see, is that when things are tough, I just think back to a certain day in Ipswich and everything seems simple...

I was on tour with my band at the time, and we had just made the 200 mile trip from York to Ipswich, to play at a venue we knew little about. It was one of those stop off tours that you know you have to do (we were playing Hastings the next day and needed somewhere midway to play on the day off). So you kind of expect the show not to be the greatest. But nothing had prepared us for this show.

Aaron Childress / Look What I Did

Name: Aaron Childress

Band: Look What I Did (youtube.com/user/lookwhatidid)

Where: Nashville

ED: I have a lot of time for this band, Aaron and Barry (singer). Although I've never met any of them and they've never toured the UK, I've had many a great conversation with them as well as plugging each other's bands back and fourth on the internet; testament to the power of music and it's ability to bring people together. If you're a fan of silly time signatures and Mr. Bungle, you should listen to LWID.

[We were playing] a benefit show for a long time friend of the band, who was facing unexpected medical bills due to an incident wherin he defended his family from a home invasion.

The place was a local Nashville venue with a reputation for being professional and having good sound. Five acts that night and we went on fourth. The sound guy was a big pushy galut but he seemed good natured enough. He had that "I'm in charge of this stage so snap to it!" sort of attitude that old sound guys get, but I'd seen it all before. Just play along and you'll probably sound awesome. I did play along. Happily grabbing cables, scouting for the bass player of the third band, and scooting gear an inch to the left or right of stage as he deemed appropriate.

Myles Roland Bartholomew / Shipton / The Divorcée

Name: Myles Roland Bartholomew

Bands: Shipton (facebook.com/collectmyyears)
The Divorcée (facebook.com/TheDivorcee)

Where: ?

I can safely say that I have played my share of awful shows for awful promoters, so I've had a long hard think about a story that is interesting enough to share with you, and this one seems to keep climbing to the top of the list... 

It was the Sunday of a warm Summer’s day, the perfect night for my whiny, acoustic widdlings. I made my way to the venue early, something I always try to do, "the early bird gets the worm" and all that. 

Dan Vuksanovich / Six To Midnight

Name: Dan Vuksanovich

Band: Six To Midnight (sixtomidnightrock.com)

Where: Chicago

ED: Although I've previously had a story from the US of A by a UK band touring over the pond, this is the first time WPE has featured a band from the States. Six to Midnight are a Chicago-based cover band and this story was submitted by their guitarist Dan, who also runs a guitarist troubleshooting & advice website called Why I Suck At Guitar. Enjoy.

We showed up one Friday night at a local venue where we play regularly and usually do very well with the crowds.

On this particular night though, the venue was conducting some sort of experiment, and had both a band and a DJ. We’ve played at other venues that have had both before, but the way it usually works is that the band plays from 9pm until midnight or 10pm until 1am, and then the DJ takes over after that.

Simon. J. Sky / Rash Decision

Name: Simon. J. Sky

Band: Rash Decision (facebook.com/rashdecision)

Where: Staines

We were doing a short week-long burst around the country and we decided to bash out two gigs in one day, starting off with a set in Bristol in the middle of the day as part of an all dayer. We played to nobody... but this is not the bad part.

We then packed up our gear and drove all the way to Staines of all places. Many an Ali G joke was cracked as we made our way to the smallest venue in the known universe. We had high spirits for this show as it was sponsored by a well known Metal magazine, giving us the impression that things would be taken care off. What followed is one of the most harrowing experiences in all of my time playing music.

Daniel Callis / Housefires

Name: Daniel Callis

Band: Housefires (wearehousefires.co.uk)

Where: A town in Hampshire

ED: So, as finally promised, yours truly who runs WPE is submitting his own story. I'm actually leaving Housefires this month to pursue other things in life, so I thought I best get it up now so you people can check them out and (hopefully) support them beyond my departure.

DISCLAIMER: I’ve been in bands since I was 17 (I’m 25 now). In that time I have got more and more hectic in the live setting, to the point where I’m starting to worry how many years of cuts, bruises, aches and pains I have left in me. I seem to have a reputation for being a bit mental/fucking idiotic live (this isn’t me blowing my own horn, I get told this a lot by others). Yes, there’s been a few dropped microphones, PAs climbed and bars jumped on/off but that comes with the music I play. However, I’m also composed enough to know what I’m doing and be aware of my surroundings. Out of the 100s of shows I’ve played throughout the years I’ve only broken one microphone and ripped one XLR lead in half. My point is that I’ve never intentionally acted like a dick or aimed to break things or upset people, put it that way. Some venues are cool and “get it” I suppose you could say, other venues panic at the idea of a band even daring to step off the curbed floor they call a “stage”. It’s always been that way and I'm used to it.

I suppose you’re wondering why I started with a diclaimer now, aren’t you? Don’t worry, I’ll explain later…

Nathan James Campfield / Breathe In The Silence

Name: Nathan James Campfield

Band: Breathe In The Silence (facebook.com/breatheinthesilence)

Where: Swansea

ED: I did a bit of research before posting this (Nathan told me the name of the "promotions" company) and realised these same people tried to book a date on my soon-to-be-former band's November tour. Luckily they were mega slack and by the time they got back to us to confirm the date (a week before the tour started and about 6 weeks since they'd said they'd put the show on) we'd been offered a decent support slot in Milton Keynes instead. Funny how things work out.

Basically, there was a gig in a Swansea city centre venue. A half dayer event with a good headliner and pretty sick bands throughout. On the promoter's part looking at it on paper, not bad. My band were also on the bill, and we were pretty stoked for it.

We knew beforehand these promoters owed our friend's band money from a previous show, but in this industry you sometimes bite your tongue and have to take what you can get. That same night, the venue also failed to receive the £100 hire fee that the promoter was supposed to pay, but they were let off under the condition that when they book again they have to pay upfront. 

Selwyn Jans / Mash Attack / S.J. Creative

Name: Selwyn Jans

Band: Mash Attack (mashattack.co.uk)

Management: S.J. Creative (sjcreative.co.uk)

Where: ?

Hey, I'm in a band called Mash Attack and having read some of these blogs of people's horror stories it just gave me a flashback of a festival we once TRIED to play.

To set the scene, the festival itself was a slightly more intimate crowd of maybe 1,500 people in total over two stages.

The main stage was awesome. There was a hill where people could watch and dance comfortably with a bar, food, yadda yadda yadda. 

The other stage though… Oh god. The other stage was in a barn, but don't judge it yet because we've played in some pretty nice barns. This one however turned out to be the barn from hell!

Gavin Miller / Ghosting Season

Name: Gavin Miller

Band: Ghosting Season (facebook.com/ghostingseason)

Where: Rostock, Germany.

When it comes to gigs, we've had our fair share of dodged bullets over the years: the time we nearly played for a Ska Punk-loving Nazi sympathizer, or the time we narrowly avoided playing Swindon on Boxing Day, or perhaps that time we walked out of an empty show in Sheffield after the promoter pushed back our set from 10pm to nearly 3am.

However, we've also done more than our fair share of utterly horrendous gigs: the one for the promoter who got sectioned, the one in front of one person (the support band's Mum, incidentally) in Milton Keynes, or the one in Oxford on May Day, in which no-one turned up and we didn't get paid or even a goodbye from the promoter.

Matthew Rigby / Waves

Name: Matthew Rigby

Band: Waves (facebook.com/wavesuk)

Where: London, UK.

My name's Matthew, I sing in an acoustic project from London called Waves.

About 18 months ago, whilst under our previous name, we were asked to play a fairly well known venue in South East London as main support. With the chance to play close to home and to bring all our mates along we thought we'd give it a pop. 

In the build up to the show, I was getting phone calls every other day [from the promoter] insuring we were bringing enough people to the show and explaining our payment on this basis, he even woke me up at 6am on a fucking Sunday.

Michael Kasparis / Please / Apostille

Name: Michael Kasparis

Bands: Please (ouse.org.uk/Please.html) Anapostille (anapostille.blogspot.co.uk)

Where: Porto, Portugal.

ED: Michael was the first person to email me expressing an interest in writing for WPE without being prompted or contacted by myself first (I fired a few Facebook PMs over to band d00dz I knew Sunday night to get the ball rolling obviously).

Europe is far superior to the UK when it comes to touring. The amount of shitty promoters I've encountered on this island outweigh the good ones, but they're kind of boring shitty. Either they're obnoxious, arrogant, full of coke/beer or just crap. What happened in Porto on the 2010 Please / Beards Euro tour was quite different.

We arrived at this anarchist squat that doubled as the city's unofficial community centre and the email replies from the 'promoter' were sporadic and vague.

Sam Thredder / Slabdragger

Name: Sam Thredder

Band: Slabdragger (facebook.com/Slabdragger)

Where: Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA.

ED: Two days in and we have our first USA submission. I read this story via a comment Sam left on Dean (Witch Cult)'s Facebook and asked him to send it over.

I played a terrible show at a pool hall in Springfield, Missouri with my old band Frightener and Pulled Teeth. It sucked so bad. The promoter was a fucking jock dick so we thought "yeah, let's go to our next destination and sleep in the van."

Next destination was Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was about 2am on a deserted country road in Oklahoma and we noticed a Jeep behind us. It pulled up to the side of us at some traffic lights and some woman poked her head out the window and shouted "HEY!! ARE YOU THE GAAAAHS IN FRAAAAGHT'NER?" 

Joe Anderson / Ed Wood

Name: Joe Anderson

Band: Ed Wood (facebook.com/Ed-Wood)

Where: Devon, UK.

My first experience with a terrible promoter was a harrowing reality "slap to the face" when I went on my first ever tour last year during the Summer.

We were all excited heading out on our first date and weren't even phased that we had to pick tour buddies (Rash Decision) up from Newquay, a 5/6 hour trip in itself from Portsmouth.

Josh Redrup / Palm Reader

Name: Josh Redrup

Band: Palm Reader (facebook.com/wearepalmreader)

Where: Neath, Wales.

ED: Palm Reader are rad. I like Palm Reader a lot. So much to say that, along with Chick Rides Artist, they're one of my favourite UK bands of 2012. I once threw grated cheese at them in Weymouth. It's an "in" joke, you had to be there.

I’m Josh, I play bass in Palm Reader.

We’ve had a few interesting incidents with promoters, one promoter actually offered to stick chillies up our arses after he’d climbed across the roof of his flat. We respectfully declined.

Danny Garrod / Bastions

Name: Danny Garrod

Band: Bastions (facebook.com/bstns)

Where: Somewhere in the UK.

ED: I put Bastions on in Southsea with Our Time Down Here and Kerouac around 2010 time; 15 people showed up. Me and my co promoter Adam lost a few buck. Still, it was the first time I saw BSTNS and it's been a love affair ever since. I'd like to hope Danny would class us more like the first promoters he refers to in the following rant...

No one ever begrudges a bad promoter with enthusiasm. In fact, those are the ones we always let off the hook and usually end up giving a second chance. You know the sort; the sort that are really hyper, plug the gig loads on Facebook but precious little else. The sort that look heartbroken when all the promises of attendance inevitably fall through and the gig is a standard midweek mildly attended bust. You can never fault good intentions and enthusiasm. Those are the people who will probably be first in the line buying your merch, both online and at the show. We like these people.

You can, however, fault any promoter that doesn't even come to the show.