Unsigned special: Realising your musical dreams - gigging

So you’ve been working hard on crafting your music and have a plectrum-ful of songs you want everyone to hear.

You've written your songs, now you want people to hear them

Your friends say they rock, the inner musician in you is itching like the worst case of chicken pox to get up on stage and deliver.

But which stage do you get on? And how do you get permission?

After last week looking at songwriting as the first hurdle you have to scale in order to be recognised as a musician, this week we turn our attention to the next process in the cycle – getting yourself some live shows.

The natural step is to look at venues around you. Your hometown is the important first rung on the ladder as you can flood the venue with friends and family, make others take notice and grow your popularity from there.

This is the view of Richard Morgan, from Dudley, a promoter for online publication Indie Midlands and the manager of Shropshire-born-Birmingham-based former The Ticket Unsigned act The Sunset Beach Hut.

“It's very important to crack your hometown,” he says. “When you first start out, naturally you are going to be unknown and most likely first on the line-up. This is when you may find yourself playing to one man and his dog as the majority of the crowd are waiting until the headline or better-known support act come on before they enter the room.

“This is where having friends and family along can help as it gives you some bodies in the room to play to, which is going to give you more confidence on-stage. And this is something you're going to need for a quite a few gigs before you start to build your own crowd. Keep going, as if you're good enough a fanbase will eventually start to build.”

His band made the move from Shropshire to Birmingham, which is where he first spotted them live. So they know just how difficult that switch of focus can be.

“It can be tough to get promoters to give you a go, knowing you may not sell many tickets," he adds. "Even for an opening slot somewhere, if a promoter knows he can put a local act on who will sell 10 tickets compared to the five you may sell he is going to go for the local act nine times out of 10.”

For another former The Ticket Unsigned star – teenager Tom Barras from Bridgnorth – those initial stages should not be seen as a slog, but a real chance to hone your craft.

“For me it’s all about audience reaction - you just need a few people who are really up for it,” he tells us. “Some of the best gigs I have played have been in small venues.

“Sometimes the best gigs are the ones where you have to work hardest. Slowly you find the right songs and by the end of the night the whole place is singing along. And when you step back from the mic and the place takes the roof off you know you have done a good job. There is no feeling like it.”

And for Tom, selecting your venues carefully to suit you rather than just aiming for the biggest crowd can be another weapon for your arsenal.

“Picking venues is tough. You really just have to get out there and gig, play everywhere and anywhere, then slowly you can start to be a bit more choosy.

“It’s important to learn what sort of crowd and venues suit you best. Work out what works for you, know the audiences you work best with and then find out where those audiences are. Get out and visit venues to see what sort of music works there.

"Perhaps the best advice is to be flexible, play what the audience wants to hear and, most importantly, believe in yourself and be fearless.”

Once the local scene is starting to fit into your pocket, then you can cast your eyes further afield and impress those bookers. Last year, former The Ticket Unsigned band Karkosa, from Birmingham, made the headlines when they found popularity in Korea. This was following some well-chosen targeting of social influencers on Instagram who took a liking to their style and promoted them to their followers.

It gave a jump-start to the process for frontman Michael Warnock, but there was still some big effort needed to convince the Korean bookers, as alluded to by Richard earlier.

“I’m not going to lie it was a long and difficult project to get off the ground,” he tells us. “Although we had this big social media fanbase, Korean promoters just hadn’t heard of us and, understandably, they were sceptical about how many tickets we could sell. We had to ask our fans if they would buy a ticket, they responded, and a Korean promoter took a gamble on us. That first gig sold out in four minutes.”

The buzz has continued to grow. And Karkosa now find themselves signed to Beeline Records in Korea. Could you be next?

Before then, Birmingham might be a more realistic proposition for bands/solo performers.

“There’s a lot of great promoters in Birmingham that are really supportive to the grassroots music scene,” Michael adds, before naming Arthur Tapp, The Future Sound Project and Tom Holloway as examples.

“At the end of the day it’s their business, if a band can sell tickets, the promoters will be interested.”

So get going and nab a gig at your local pub which your friends and family can attend. Once music fans are sniffing around your material, the Black Country, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Birmingham (or Korea) are there for the taking.

Next week, The Ticket Unsigned will be moving on to look at the third link in the journey to being a musician – recording your material.