There are lots of people here who play in bands, all over this beautiful world. There are also lots of people who promote gigs, own or work in studios, run labels or write reviews. I've been thinking for a long time that it would be great to pool all our resources. It would be pretty damned easy to construct a database comprising of promoters, labels, studios and zines sympathetic to a DIY ethic - all you'd have to do would be pass on a few details about people you know, and it could build from there.

I'd happily construct a database myself, and I've got webspace that I can host it on too. I haven't completely clearly planned all this out because I wanted to get some feedback from people as to whether they think it's a good idea first. But off the top of my head, I'd imagine you could have the following categories:

- Venues
- Promoters
- Studios
- Engineers
- Labels
- Press

Then the kind of information I would need would be:

- Name
- Address, Country
- Contact Details - email, website, phone number if applicable
- Any particular sympathies or specialisms - i.e. preferences for promoting/recording/releasing/reviewing certain styles of music

.. and that would be that. I would be loathe to include, for example, engineers' rates or labels' demo policies, because they're subject to change and I don't want to misquote people. The only point of the database would be for use as a directory by people involved in DIY music. Any further information could be found by making direct contact with the persons concerned.

The only other feature I thought of was maybe including a "recommended by" field, allowing people to get in touch via email with the recommender. For example, if you have a good experience recording with someone, you could recommend them, and then bands could email you asking about your experiences. I can see why people might not want to do this, so it's just an idea I'm putting out there.

I've been toying with this idea for a long time. It's damned simple, and could be of great use to a lot of people, I think. What do people reckon? Feeback or fuck off's would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Simmo x

Great idea!

Didn't Maximumrocknroll edit a database like this every year? Whatever! Where do you want us to send the info we have?

Sly Bug wrote:Great idea!

Didn't Maximumrocknroll edit a database like this every year? Whatever! Where do you want us to send the info we have?

Just email me at ichbinsimmo at fastmail dot fm. It'll certainly take a month or two to get up and running but I really feel we could build something good.

(Motivated Smiley)

Finally, some proavtivity (or activity as Steve would have it)! This would surely make things easier for people like us and put an end to the incessant whining you always hear after gigs 'We wouldsh bee up there, uh, if we, the band woohoo, love you guys, ish we could only find a solid plashe to record. The lasht guy totally fucked it up'.
So, let's get this rock rolling (sorry). You have a huge thumbs up from me. \m/ \m/.

<GRIN>

you can just list stuff here if you want, I can assimilate it all.

I'll start with one:


Category: Promoter

Name: Damn You!

Website: http://www.damnyou.co.uk/ | http://www.myspace.com/damnyounotts

Contact Details:

email: mnewnham at damnyou dot co.uk

postal address: Damn You! c/o Gringo Records, PO Box, 7546, Nottingham, NG2 4WT

Sympathies: All interesting alternative music, but not really whiny emo or people sitting in front of laptops

Damn You! website wrote:Damn You! are a group of young (ish) people who promote music of a certain spirit in Nottingham. The idea is to put on music we like and to use a variety of different venues - pubs, bars, houses, community halls, practice rooms, warehouses. We pick a line up designed to make the evening enjoyable and try to keep the price as cheap as possible. How much you pay on the door is a reflection of how much money the band is asking for and how much our other costs are. If we fluke it and come away at the end of the night with some money (always at the behest of the band) then that cash is recycled back into Damn You! to pay for future stinkers, improve our p.a. or to buy us a shitload of cheap foreign booze. We cook dinner for bands (specialities - aubergine parmigiana, spinach and tofu pie, ginger vegan cheesecake), make lovely posters (for sale at all the gigs) and provide a floor for bands to sleep on. We don't bite, so come and say hello!

It's as simple as that!

You can find a bunch of stuff in the Booking A Show In Town XYZ thread, here. There's some good club info there, though not complete. And some of it non-current.

Do you have a plan for verifying all the info, making sure stuff is current and whatnot?

Sounds like a great thing. A really great thing.

i think this is a fantastic idea, i have had similar thoughts as well.

there should also be a database of bands and their locations within this. this could help booking tours, etc. If you could also have links within each entry to other entries, that would make it uber powerful. for example, you find a band... one of the fields is "Label". You click on the label and it takes you to their database entry. Then in their "bands" field there are all the bands on their label, and you can click on any of the bands and go to their entry, etc. It would be cool to even have a "studio" field for bands so you can see what studios bands have recorded in, etc. maybe this was all already assumed.

maybe you should make a form that people could fill out, or at least some cut and dry fields so that we know what to give you and it will make it easy to get the info into the database.

im in, just let me know exactly what info you'll need and ill send it along

mike

this is exactly the kind of thing I was thinking of. The problem I have is that I don't know any html, but I'd like to find someone who does, and who would be willing to collaborate! The search function thing would make it so much more useful - say, for example, that you've got certain promoters listed as favouring putting on hardcore shows; if you're in a hardcore band you could just search for "hardcore" and get a big fat list of promoters who might put you on. It'd be amazing if you could do it like that perfidious website myspace, whereby clicking on an interest you could search in all other fields for a match. As I said, I don't know shit about html which is a bummer.

For now, just send me the info in the format as listed. The idea of a form to fill in is a really good one.... hmmmm, I need to find an experienced web designer with a love of DIY music....

for the moment, I have a list of around 70 labels round the world which is a start. I've also got a list of 20 plus promoters in the UK and a few in europe.

si-maro wrote:you can just list stuff here if you want, I can assimilate it all.

VENUE: Le Volume
Address: 6 rue Defly - 06000 NICE - France
Website: http://www.source001.com
Email: info at source001 dot com
Phone 1 (from abroad): 0033 493 267 520
Fax (from abroad): 0033 493 265 788
Cell phone (from abroad): 0033 663 789 402
Capacity: up to 220 people
Booking time: 2 to 3 months in advance
Style: rock
(PA and food provided - lodging possible - English spoken)

VENUE: Le Staccato
Address: 4 rue du pont vieux - 06300 NICE - France
Phone 1 (from abroad): 0033 493 138 435
Capacity: up to 80 people
Booking time: at least 1 month in advance
Style: rock & jazz
(poor PA provided)

VENUE: Indiana Coffee
Address: 1 rue Anatole France - 83160 LA VALETTE DU VAR - France
Website: http://www.indianacoffee.fr
Cell phone (from abroad): 0033 670 290 209
Capacity: up to 110 people
Booking time: 2 months in advance
Style: rock & jazz
(PA and food provided)

PRESS: Nouvelle Vague
Address: BP 62 - 06142 VENCE cedex - France
Website: http://www.nouvelle-vague.com
Email: nouvelle-vague at wanadoo dot fr
Phone (from abroad): 0033 493 585 151
Fax (from abroad): 0033 493 585 153
Nouvelle Vague is a free zine (10000 copies evry month) which annonces every gig
in the south of France. You have to send them your info before the 15th of a
month to appear in the following issue.

To call from France, don't dial 0033 but just 0 instead.

If you have trouble to get in touch with one of the above entities (because of the language e.g ), send me an email to sly at 28point50 dot com , I'll help you as much as my time table allows me to do so.