The Business Of Show

Hey folks, I realise I’ve missed my usual Weekly Rewind but it’s been far too hectic around here lately. I will get back to it next Sunday I promise. One of the many reasons for my omission is because I’ve just put the tickets for my Rathole Radio gig on sale. I’m doing the whole system myself (right down to licking the stamps) rather than use a ticketing company because I feel it’s the right thing to do. Besides, the punk ethos has always been “do it yourself” and I abide by that. I hate these big companies and the way they screw over music fans, Ticketmaster being a prime example (allegedly!). Not that they’d be interested in my little gig, but I still wanted to make the process personal and keep costs down. I’ve had a few people asking questions about the organisation of the gig in general, so I wanted to clear up the details here quickly.

The tickets are for sale now though the Rathole Radio website priced at £5 each plus £1.50 per order for processing and postage. I’ve kept them cheap because it’s not a money making exercise. If I sell all 200 odd tickets I will just break even, and only then. I’m putting this on because I want to have something cool for everyone to do in Liverpool the night before OggCamp, I also get the chance to play a gig alongside some of my favourite artists and that’s my payment. I’m taking it easy on public promotion this week to give OggCampers the chance to get in first and get tickets, after that I will be promoting hard and selling to the general public, once they’re sold out I’m afraid it’s tough. The venue has very limited capacity so the bottom line is this… IF YOU WANT TO COME BUY A TICKET. A lot of people seem to feel they’ll just wander in on the night and that may not be possible.

So far I’ve sold around 40 tickets since Sunday and it’s great to see people posting on Identi.ca that they’ve received them, that’s very satisfying and rewarding. But I’m still £807 in the hole staging this (I have a spreadsheet) and that tends to focus your mind. I’m not complaining or bitching, I enjoy doing the work and I will continue to, I’m confident we’ll sell out. I just want to make sure everyone understands the situation. If you want to come along please book now before I start pushing tickets outside of our usual circle. Besides, it’s going to be a great night and you should come and celebrate music, technology and Creative Commons with us. I’m already discussing innovative ways to bring technology into this event with some hacker friends. We’re looking at message walls, live streams and perhaps a robotic (might be a slight exaggeration) audience member who can make noise based on the reaction of the online chatroom. It’s going to be something quite unique and it’s not to be missed.

I have no problem with OggCamp attendees not being interested in this or not wanting to come, that’s absolutely fair enough. But if you ARE interested book now or risk being disappointed and turned away. I want to avoid that wherever possible but limited space and financial constraints mean I have to be strict.  You can’t say I didn’t warn you.

Tickets can be purchased direct from http://ratholeradio.org/gig

If you don’t have Paypal or for some reason don’t want to buy online, email show@ratholeradio.org and we can try to make alternative arrangements for you.

Thanks for reading this rant. Take care everyone a be lucky 🙂

Dan