How to start a Band and not get Screwed

Rip It Up, Issue 27, 1 October 1979, Page 8

How to start a Band and not get Screwed

BY 808 GELDOF

Way back in my head I can remember hearing this plastic freebie my sister had years ago. It came in the first edition of some short-lived rag called Serenade. It had Cliff Richard on it saying things like, "Well hi there this is Cliff. I don’t know about you but right now I’m excited, (Oh really Cliff? I thought that was a sin.) Yeah it’s an exciting business making records.” Now listen I don't agree with Cliff Richard about anything but this time the sentiment remains true even if the situation has changed. It is exciting. I’m not about to start denying that I love playing rock’n’roll in front of a couple of thousand people at the Rainbow, the Marquee or anywhere else. It’s a gas (if embarassing) seeing yourself on TV, hearing yourself on the radio. Just like when you get your picture in the local paper for being at a match or wedding or whatever, we get a kick from seeing ourselves in the weekly music comics. I love it and so do most other guys in the other bands even if they don’t admit it. I’ll tell you one thing it’s a helluva lot better than any other jo I’ve ever had and that’s for sure.

I mean the whole point of this thing is fun. The whole point of anything should be fun, aitiusement anything that keeps the biunt teeth of boredom away from the brain. Look, we didn’t start the Rats to be “rich an’ famous”, we started it for a laugh, something to do on Saturday afternoon. There was no positive motivation, no huge philosophy, no giant idealism, no cause, only six guys who hung out in someone’s garage and in some south Dublin record shop. We were playing at being big stars we still are. But at least we were playing. That was the loosing end of 75. We played in Ireland through 76 and made it to England with a bunch of songs in time to contribute to the greatest year of rock in the last decade. Over these past two years, we have I suppose, as much as anyone else, run the rock’n’roll gauntlet. When you, eventually, as a band, move into the record making area of rock the rarest word in the vocabularly will be ‘music’. The most common ones are ’nett’, ‘gross’ and ‘percentage’, you understand? Learn fast everyone wants to screw you. Now look, assuming you like the music and you check out the bands and you read the papers and listen to the records etc., assuming all this why don’t you actually play in a band? Listen, you follow football you play it with your mates, follow rock'n’roll play it with your mates. It’s e-e-e-zee. All ya need is ... a little bit of gear, maybe a couple of acoustics to practise on or better still an electric and amp. Quality doesn't matter. If you can actually play, great. If you can’t, follow the "Geldof Duff Guitar Players Guide to the Stars”. Learn a chord let’s say ‘A’.

Hammer that out together then learn another

say ‘D’ do the same thing with that,

then learn ‘E’ Hey when’s your new album coming out maaaan?

Listen, you can play almost any rock song with those chords. For example, "l-l-l don’t wanna be like you” E E E A from that brilliant classic "Looking After No. 1” reproduced by kind permission of us. If you can, try writing a few songs of your own. If you can’t, learn something right. Now you've got a bunch of songs together, try and get a few gigs, You don’t need a manager for a good while yet, but if there’s a mate who’ll do the job for a while fine. If not get one of the band to do it, someone with a good enough business sense, because when you actually begin playing as a working band that’s all people want to know about business. Whether you’re gonna make money for them or not. You’ve just got to be better at business than they are it’s easy. Now the next bit seems really stupid, but getting a good name for yourselves is really hard. We had a bitch of a time finding one. We were called Mark Skid and the Y-Fronts for a day, the next day we were the Dockside Demons. We actually played half a gig as the Nightlife Thugs. We were always farting around with names until we got the Boomtown Rats which seemed to fit. And that’s the important thing. It’s kinda like naming a kid you might be stuck with it for a long time. You’d better like it, it’s you who’s got to live with it. The only way to get gigs is to check out the local pubs, clubs, schools, dance-halls etc., give them a ring and try not to be your normal obnoxious self. You must brown-nose for a little while, a little bit of smarm goes a long way ... well it might get you onto that bit of plywood they probably call a stage. It doesn’t matter if you're crap. It doesn’t matter if people are shouting abuse at you forget it. It’s a helluva lot better to be playing in a band than to be watching one. At least you’re living your dreams. They say in sex you should always enact your fantasies same in life Chester. Any way you’ll get better as time goes on, let’s face it you can’t get any worse.

Once you start getting a name, obviously you’ll find it easier to get gigs. You get to know the managers and other-people from the clubs. Always do a lot of publicity. I think all the new bands understand that. Most them have bigger hype jobs than Grand Funk Railroad and the Rollers put together little more subtle maybe but unfortunately in a lot of cases it’s worked. Try and get some posters done. Get a mate to design them, save about S2O if you can and go down to the local instant print. You should get a thousand done for that. Plaster them everywhere. We printed our own cos Simon (the drummer) had a small silkscreen press. There might be one in your school. Anyway you can always get a spray can. If you can, put most or all the money you’re making back into the band. If you're doing it strictly as a hobby and a once-a-week is fine for you, great. You should end up with a lot of good gear and a bit of beer money, if you find that the band has gotten too big for your area, then maybe it's time to get a manager to get the gigs (later through an agency) and the highly-prized record contract. It’s best to find a mate you can trust and who has his shit together. The chances of being ripped-off are very slim, and it’s the best method. If you can’t do it that way, find out about someone (a guy who’s managed bands before etc.,) check him out and tell him he has to give your band 24 hours a day. You do, so why shouldn’t he. He’ll ask for between 10 and 20% of your total income, and you’ll have to start dealing for a figure. For that sort of money expect the world. It might be only 12% of S6O now but what about later after your smash American six million selling album? It's about now you start thinking about giving up the job or whatever. One rule stay on the dole, you're gonna need it (Dal. Bob Geldof

Back in 1978, when the Boomtown Rats were already well on their way, Bob Geldof was asked to write an article with some basic advice for would-be rock stars, wanting to start a band. The resulting article appeared in May '7B, in the first issue of a , magazine called Rock On! Geldof tells us the mag was simply a tax write-off for a large publishing house. Rock On! vanished without a trace after only a handful of issues, and Bob says he ‘‘never got a cent for the article. However, he graciously gave his permission for us to reproduce it here. Read and learn! M