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.