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Re: Promoting brass bands

Alec,

A very interesting mail. I read this nodding my agreement in agreement at the
comments.

>From my own experience, my band played generally two types of concert. The
annual one where the same people come back every year to hear some of the stuff
they heard last year............and they love it!

Then there's the 'new' concert. These were twofold. Some in the vain of the
annual, others were played to a small group of punters. Your idea of a 'good
promoter' seems to hit the nail on the head. The 'small audience' concerts that
we did (and the band still do, no doubt) were often very much appreciated by the
people there. But where were the others? Probably had something better to do on
the day. I am not having a go at them, very often I would rather have been
watching some important sport fixture (sorry - I know!) rather than be doing the
job in question.

A good promoter would know in advance what other attractions were happening and
organise a suitable date I'm sure.

The idea of themes seems to be a good one. Obviously the Monty and Brassed Off
are appropriate at the moment - and why not?

Before I retired, a lot of 'good jobs' were discussed but unfortunately, most
never came to fruition for one reason or another. Things like 'Pavarotti in the
Park'  - good ideas but perhaps not the best promoters.

I reckon there may be an opening here a budding enterpreneur - (if that's how
you spell it).

Let's see who's first off the mark!

Monkey


Alec Gallagher wrote:

> Clair Tomalin has commented in divers postings about how to attract the
> 'unconverted' audience to brass bands, amongst many other things.
>
> The brass band fraternity is a notoriously introverted community, spending
> far too much of its time navel-gazing (and if you don't believe that, just
> browse through the archive of this mailing list for starters!), with the
> result that its popularity with the masses has declined greatly over the
> decades.
>
> Every weekend the listings in the back pages of the quality daily newspapers
> in the UK  carry advertisements for 'Classical Spectaculars' and the like -
> undemanding concerts of popular classics at major venues, played by scratch
> orchestras and directed by conductors from 'Division 2', which include
> things like the Old Spice aftershave music, the bit from the British Airways
> advert, and usually finish up with the 1812 Overture with  'cannon & mortar
> effect' (viz. a couple of thunderflashes in a dustbin).  You know the sort
> of thing. And everyone goes home happy.  And the names which appear
> prominently in these ads are those such as  Raymond Gubbay, Victor
> Hochhauser etc as promoters.
>
> The point is, these type of concerts play to virtually full houses - every
> week!  Promoters like Gubbay and Hochhauser (actually, I think that the
> latter is dead now) know how to SELL THE PRODUCT, and it is this type of
> entrepreneur who is conspicuous by their absence in current day banding.  It
> wasn't always the case.  Listers with a knowledge of brass band history will
> be able to supply the names of the great brass band promoters of yesteryear,
> and those of course were the days when bands played to the non-banding
> general public at large.   But  we don't have anyone like that now - and
> consequently we don't play to the non-banding general public any more.
>
> So there we are.  Find a promoter (who knows, perhap even Gubbay himself?),
> convince him that brass bands could make him a tidy sum, and let him get on
> with it.  That's my suggestion for popularising brass bands.  Adopting such
> a popularist policy need not impinge on other activities, such as the more
> important pursuit of serious music, or even on contests (pointless though
> the latter are).  After all, the LSO survived 'Andre Previn's Music Night'
> in the 1970s and the RPO (or was it the LPO?) survived 'Hooked On Classics'
> more recently.
>
> Just a few thoughts.
>
> Cheers
>
> Alec
>
> ________________________
> Alec Gallagher
> alec@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
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