So you want to run a live music venue?
If you've ever dreamed of running your own venue – from your lounge room to a 1000 capacity theatre – you need to be at UnConvention Brisbane this year. Our 'Run Your Own Venue' panel, led by Blair Hughes, features a stellar lineup of local venue operators: Joc Curran (owner/booker of The Zoo), Brett Wood (owner/booker of The Hive All Ages), Trina Massey (booking agent for X & Y Bar), Sara May (venue manager of The Hi-Fi), Nick Smethurst (promoter with In Finland).
Blair explains why he's running this session and what he hopes attendees will get out of it:
If it's the one thing I hear the most in the music industry, it's the line 'I really want to run my own music venue'. But what so many people don't realise is that this is an extremely difficult thing to do well, which requires high levels of organisation, the ability to adapt and an understanding of your audience.
It includes the highs of watching the steam rise off a well behaved crowd in a packed room and seeing young bands thrilled after their first gig to the lows of poorly attended gigs, non-stop venue maintenance and the not so glamourous task of cleaning up vomit, bloodied tampons and human faeces....because remember, never underestimate where a person decides to urinate.
It's about understanding liquor licensing and how to manage your audience by observing human behaviour, looking for the early signs of intoxication or a fight and defusing those situations.
It's understanding workplace health and safety rules and being able to evacuate everyone when a drunk releases the valve on a CO2 fire extinguisher and within three pumps the room is covered and in 5 minutes the venue is completely evacuated.
It's working 5 nights straight, trying to sleep during the day at the height of summer and then backing up all over again while seeing only the same staff over and over again.
It's about losing money and it's about making money, but not very much and when you do, it seems to go as quickly as you got it.
It's the special moments like knock off beers with your fellow staff or bands at the end of the night, and in my case it's accidently shutting Emmy Lou Harris out of her own VIP after party, serving cupcakes to Beth Ditto of The Gossip or playing pool with Jamie Hince from The Kills.
I caught a brilliant panel at SXSW last year entitled 'Welcome to the Music Business: You're Fucked' and while that is true in many situations, there are people who are here to help you before you screw it up, because you will screw something up! If you've ever wanted to run a venue, even if that's backyard gig to a 50,000 seater stadium then our panel is a must.
Tickets for UnConvention are available from Oztix.
