What the Opera House Taught Me

Hi there,

I recently co-produced and performed in a show 'Ladies Sing the Blues: a Tribute to 100 Years of Billie Holiday' at The Sydney Opera House, and, well, it was a sold out event! Forgive me for being boastful - but it's a big deal to me. And I really want to remember the important things I learnt from being part of this experience, so I'm writing it down:

1. Get the Best out of being in a Theatre: A theatre is a very different beast to your standard rock venue. About 50% of ticket sales are made through a theatre's own channels so their marketing is vital. However, access to their marketing channels isn't automatic. You need to be on their e-marketing mailouts, 'what's on' brochures as well as have printed and digital posters in their foyers and car parks. Asking for these opportunities once will probably not be enough. Keep asking, politely. Don't forget you catch more flies with honey than vinegar.

2. It's a Theatre so be Theatrical: Consider multimedia. We used rare audio bites of interviews with Billie Holiday between each live set, creating atmosphere and visibly moving our audience. 

Co-Producers Amanda Easton & Lady Cool

3. Maximise the Space: Most rock venues (in Australia anyway) offer you a fairly set template for your show eg, two x one hour sets starting at 8:30pm, with a 20 minute interval. As producers in a hired theatrical space, you can make up these guidelines yourself, within reason. Next time I would consider adding a Matinee alongside a night time show to get value out of the venue and crew costs.

4. Understand the Box Office: One of a producer's first jobs is 'building the Box Office'. Know what you can charge for tickets ie how many seats do you need to sell to break even and what kind of ticket prices will the market sustain/expect? Consider all your direct ticketing expenses including taxes, ticket printing charges, 'Inside Charges' (the theatre's cut) credit card costs and third party agency (eg Ticketek) fees. Consider how student and pensioner discounts, media and promotional comps will affect your bottom line. Insist on daily Sales Reports so you can see what marketing is working. We were almost at capacity a week before out event so we knew, for example, that a newspaper ad then would be a waste of money.

5. Have a great professional business team: Ours included co-producers, a patron/executive producer, commercial printer, a photographer and a publicist with great contacts in Metropolitan Media. TV and Radio give vital exposure as well as add legitimacy and prestige to an event. Social media marketing is important but not enough. You need good Marketing Collaterals, including a promo video, cast photo, press release, media backgrounder and eye-catching graphic art and strap lines.

6. Don't forget you're an Artist too: It is very easy to get caught up in the all-consuming business of putting on a show and forgetting that you are part of the show as a performer too. Having a Stage Manager helps separate your responsibilities as producer and performer on the night.

7. Don't be Scared to be Scared: The feeling (akin to dread or perhaps indigestion) I get in the pit of my stomach when I feel like I'm taking on more than I can chew - that's a good sign. They don't call them 'growing pains' for nothing.

xAmanda
www.amandaeaston.com

Shameful Tributes!

Hi there!

And happy 6th Day of Christmas.

In a newsletter I sent out a couple of weeks ago, I was promoting a show I produce and perform in, called 'The Princesses of Pop'. It is a fully costumed all-ages show paying tribute to Lady Gaga, Rihanna and Katy Perry. A friend of mine, who is a keen music fan and supporter, often passes on my newsletter to his mailing lists to give me extra promo. This time he gets a caustic reply from one of his muso mailees. Along the lines of... (Ok, I'm copying and pasting here, so this is EXACTLY what he said with name deleted to protect the innocent):

'Supporting and promoting a cover band of US mass marketed talentless artistes. I didn't think you would sink to such subterranean depths - SHAME, xx, SHAME'

Really? I know tribute shows aren't necessarily considered cool, but personally I think 'cool' is terribly overrated and I've always known I've had no cool to lose! To be honest, since first putting this show together, I've been waiting for some kind of backlash. As a friend of mine said recently, the trouble with the music business is often the musicians - they're just too cool for their own good. And there's nothing wrong with wanting to play only the music you love and deem to be 'cool' but if you want to be in the 'music', or even, gasp, 'entertainment' business, then sometimes you have to look outside yourself. 

Anyway, the 'talentless artiste' I am 'mimicking' in this show is Lady Gaga. The more of her concerts I watch and the more songs I listen to, the more respect I have for her. She's brought outrageousness back to Pop where it belongs and has many beautifully crafted, irresistibly catchy pop songs that she sings with a strong, rich, properly-trained voice - and anyway, 'pop' stands for 'popular' right? Maybe more cool muso types would like her if she were playing at the Sando...

Have a Shameless new year everyone!

xAmanda

Learn the f@#!$%^n song!

Hi there,

Recently a friend reminded me of an incident at a gig we had done together some years ago. When I say 'reminded' I say 'rubbed a bit more salt in the already open wound'! OK, that may be a little melodramatic, but this particular happening is not likely to slip out of my memory banks anytime soon. I was singing at The Basement, one of my favourite venues - mainly because I feel part of a rich heritage of music when I play there, and the audience are invariably real music lovers...Anyway, it was a tribute show, and as well as doing a few lead songs, I was singing backing vocals for a bunch of other artists, including some that were quite high profile. One particularly 'well-loved' (but not by me, now!) artist had decided, on stage, that he would do a different arrangement of the song than the one we had all tirelessly rehearsed. Well, the rest of us had tirelessly rehearsed but this particular singer is infamous for not learning his material. 

Now, regardless of who is in the right, I believe that a band and backing singers should always follow the frontperson - someone has to lead the charge after all and it's hard to argue with the guy singing the melody into the microphone. So the other bv singer and I did our parts while watching him intently to see where he was going. We did our darndest to follow him as he meandered through his unique version of this particular tune but the band

were struggling and so were we. At one stage he got so badly befuddled even he didn't know where to go next, and decided someone needed to be blamed. Publicly. On stage. In front of everyone. At the Basement! Yeah you guessed it, the poor backing singers copped it. In the middle of the song, he flicked his hands in our eager faces, yelling 'f7^&*#@n backing singers, get it right!!'. You could hear the audience take a collective breath in and I stood there mortified. Do I keep singing and smile as if it were a joke? Leave the stage in a huff? In reality I just stood there with an open mouth and the colour draining out of my face until I could collect myself for the next song. That was years ago but I still feel the pain.

Recently another tribute show was staged at a bigger, even more presitigious venue. The band were top notch and really learnt their stuff. The singers were again, 'well-loved' and didn't bother turning up to the rehearsals. Talent can get you so far and most of the gig went relatively well but there was a train wreck or two - just learn your f@#!$%^n songs! It's our job and it's fun. Don't get caught with your pants down.

See you next time - I've got to go - got some songs to learn!
xAmanda