[Dixielandjazz] Fwd: How do we get to be aqn opening act for a national artist?

[tcashwigg at aol.com]

 Here is one you guys will get a chuckle out of I am sure.

  I'll bet Gary Church remembers the Merl Haggard show from the Oakland 
Coliseum back in the 70s,
Long haired funny dressed Hippies if you will.   Mc was Old Red Merle 
from San Jose Radio Station.

Commander Cody opened with Diggy Diggy Li Diggy Diggy Lo and brought 
the house down.
and did it again when they played their new hit "Hot Rod Lincoln"  then 
things got really quite after they played the flip side of the record, 
Truckin and a F$&@#%$ which they owned the copyrights to and made all 
their money from becasue the single sold about a million copies of Hot 
Rod Lincoln wit hit on the flip side.   The Truckin song did not garner 
air play on any station more than once and it was usually the victim of 
power or turntable failure before it got to the bridge.

Dave Richoux probably has a copy of it in his library too. :))

Red Merle signed off the show with something to the effect of " You 
could see and feel the goosebumps all the way to the pickups in the 
parking lot.

This was my very first Country music Concert to promote.  What an eye 
opener, good thing it sold out.

Cheers,

Tom Wiggins


 Sent: Sun, 14 Aug 2005 14:51:07 -0700
 Subject: Touring

How do we get to be an opening act for a national artist?

  My reply RE:   How to be an opening act for a signed touring act
  He contacted the acts manager but did not get a response.

 Hi Brendan:

  Just like what you did, every act in the business wants to do the same 
thing, you must work that avenue of PR just as hard as you do for 
gigs.  Mainly because it is another Gig, however it may very well be a 
more important gig career wise.

  Be careful who you approach and make certain that you fit the bill 
artistically, don't appear to be a better act than the headliner, or at 
least convince them that you won't try to blow them away on the first 
song, :))  which you no doubt will try to do sooner or later if the 
manager of the headline act does not restrain you, :))    This is a 
situation that gets many up and coming bands blown off tours and slots 
as openers for headliners.  There is a way to do it but you need to be 
subtle about how you do it and it is a fine art to do so.

  Do it before the tour gets started well and you will be bounced off 
the bus on  the next corner. :))


  Any advice on how to approach national touring acts and how to get 
them to pay attention to you and consider you as an opening act?







  I suggest thinking it out well in advance and approach the acts 
management and agent, you will more than likely have to sign an 
exclusive deal with one or both of them to get a national tour 
consideration.  They will want to continue business with you after the 
tour if it is successful, provided it is indeed successful because now 
your act has had that very much needed exposure to their National Acts 
audience and theoretically if you were well received by their fans you 
should soon be able to follow up the same venues on your own and 
command more money since you now have a solid audience base of fans in 
each area that you played.

  Managers, Acts, and Agents usually guard this situation very carefully 
especially managers so as not to kill their golden goose national act 
earning them good money.  The Agent on the other hand looks at it as a 
slam dunk situation if he can package the show and sell two acts to a 
promoter/venue at the same time, as it makes him/her double commissions 
and will result in future bookings for both  acts if it is successful.

  Try to pick your shows and acts that you can compliment artistically 
and actually relate to without being the same or sounding like their 
CLONE.

  I once made the mistake of putting a RED HOT Fantastic Bluegrass act 
on a tour with the Steve Miller Band back in the early 70s, with his 
blessing of course.  They came out the first night at the Berkeley 
Community Theater sold out show and Blew the audience away.  Took 30 
minutes to calm the crowd down before Miller would come out on stage to 
do his show.  Now Steve actually liked the group at the time and did 
not feel threatened by them or their music,  Whoops!  wake up call, he 
screamed for my ass from the dressing room and told me to get those 
&(*&@$%^@ out of the venue and cancel them from the rest of the tour, 
as he was not going to have any of that attempted upstaging shit on his 
tour.

  Needless to say that was the end of that Bluegrass acts shot at the 
BIG TIME on the Rock circuit.

  I also put Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen in as the opening 
act on a Merle Haggard show once in  a 14,000 seat sold out venue.  
Let's just say Merle and the audience enjoyed them much more than  they 
expected to but politely asked that they not be offered any extended 
tour dates after that great show.

 Hope this helps,  and good luck.

 Tom Wiggins