GigSmart Meeting. (1 Viewer)

[Niall S.]

Hi there,

I would just like to invite anybody here who wants more info on GigSmart to our next meeting, its gonna be held in Eamon Dorans at 7.30 tomorrow night.
So if you are interested in finding out what we do then please come along, the meeting itself was a meeting that I set up originally asking people to help out and get involved as for the last while its been just myself and Tom doing most of the work.
So the meeting should be well attended with people volunteering and giving their details etc, but I'd like to invite as many people here as possible cause I feel that we aren't too dissimilar and I think that if you are in attendance at a meeting that we are spear heading ( ie, us doing all the talking and you doing the listening ) then I think that any mis conceptions can be put to bed.

So I won't bore you too much with all the details but I will just invite you all to attend and if you have any questions please ask away but at the same time I'd like to address everything thats on our agenda first so that all of the essential ellements are dealt with and any additional idea's can be talked about afterwards.

Regards.

Niall

 

[RED(tape)MENACE]

us doing all the talking and you doing the listening

Hmmm.

 

[SONYMEGADRIVE]

Hmmm.

yeah guys please fight it out again cos everyone gives such a big shit about the things/gigsmart dick measuring contest

go for the gold!!

andrew

 

[pete]

this goes here i think

 

[Niall S.]

Sorry if I came across as a little bit arrogant there its just that I attended a things meeting last night and that I left with no greater knowledge than when I went into the meeting.

I just want you to know what we are all about that is if you are interested in knowing what we are all about.
The only way I see myself achieving this is if you go to our next meeting and hear what we are all about.
We are very ambitious and when I talk about things that we are striving to achieve I sometimes label them.
Last night I was talking about gigs and said that I want to get people going to gigs and the way to achieve this is to start appealing to a wider "MARKET" as soon as I had said the word "MARKET" I might of well have confessed to murdering a nun or something.

Well anyway, last night I did all the listening and asked a few questions but not too many, but still felt like I still knew nothing more than I already did.
So I am asking anyone who goes to the next GigSmart meeting to listen to what we have to say and we can answer questions later but the most important thing for me is that you grasp everything that I am saying cause last night everything was a bit too deep for me, either that or you had to be a long time Things activist to have really understodd it all.

No offence was intended.

Niall

 

[snap-apple]

Well anyway, last night I did all the listening and asked a few questions but not too many, but still felt like I still knew nothing more than I already did.
So I am asking anyone who goes to the next GigSmart meeting to listen to what we have to say and we can answer questions later but the most important thing for me is that you grasp everything that I am saying cause last night everything was a bit too deep for me, either that or you had to be a long time Things activist to have really understodd it all.

No offence was intended.

Niall

none taken but you want us to come to your meeting 'cos you still don't know what we're about?



thingsyou'remissing = a collection of folk, some in bands, some not, trying to collectively make some of the tasks involved in various areas of independent music easier and to promote awareness of independent music and the d.i.y. ethos. thingsyou're missing isn't a set group of bands or people, its essentially an independent music resourse.

its all here http://www.thumped.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=5671

if ye have any questions just fire ahead...

 

[Niall S.]

I understand what you are, GigSmart is pretty much the same thing. But we do different things. So basically all I want to know is what it is that you have been doing????/

You see through running GigSmart for the last year and a half I would have my ear to the ground a fair bit, and I know a good bit about Thumped and Things.
But I never hear about gigs or releases or other things that you would be interested in.
Like Stoat, I have heard of Stoat but I never hear of their gigs, or releases, for a person like me thats pretty hard to understand.
If you are promoting yourself then getting the information to a person like me should be the least of your worries, but if I haven't heard of these things then its very possible that Joe Public hasn't heard of them either.
So what I am trying to say is that, I want to get to a stage where anyone who has a slight interest in independent music, has information on every release and gig in their area without having to go looking for it, it should be advertized on their favourite websites and if they are on your mailing list then why not ask them if they'd like to included on our mailing list and we'll return the favor, these are the types of things that can help us reach a much bigger audience and can help each other out.
Meaning that both the GigSmart Community and the Things Community will probably double over night.

Niall

 

[snap-apple]

I understand what you are, GigSmart is pretty much the same thing. But we do different things. So basically all I want to know is what it is that you have been doing????

welll,
we started with a weekly listings email promoting local independent gigs. then got together a collection of cd's and records and had them on sale on a stall at various gigs (this is ongoing). looked into distributing these records around ireland (not too much success with this but some success placing stuff regularly in dublin shops). threw together some ads and flyers to be given out at the stall and in shops with information on recent independent releases. did the website which has regular news and listings as well as an articles and resources area concentrating on info useful to d.i.y. acts. got a couple of zines out with similar content. helped a couple of acts through the process of pressing the cd/record with gzcd (czech crowd).

if you wanna find/add info about independent releases and gigs just go to http://www.thingsyouremissing.com the odd time.

 

[RED(tape)MENACE]

It is interesting what he says about not having heard of any things-related releases, despite being the kind of chap you'd imagine would have. Does this point to a failure on things' part?

 

[egg_]

Does this point to a failure on things' part?

I would imagine so
<sigh>
Another one. You're right Niall, if someone like yourself is not aware of the releases and gigs of the bands that are directly involved with things, then we're going seriously awry somewhere

 

[egg_]

if they are on your mailing list then why not ask them if they'd like to included on our mailing list and we'll return the favor

Let's do this. Conor? Want to include a thing in next week's mailout?

 

[Niall S.]

Thats what I am getting at here, people who are genuinely interested are not getting the information, and I'll have to put my hand up, I up until recent times, didn't regularly post anything up here either.

I did have a kind of idea that people here just weren't interested in anything that GigSmart was doing, so I left it be.

But imagine that if we had every music collective sharing information and being included in all mailing lists.
Information on future releases and Gigs would be available to everyone who wants to know about it.
I'm not just talking about GigSmart and Things, I'm talking about

GigSmart
Thumped
Things
Irish Unsigned
Blast
Fast fude
Phootloose
Phantom FM
SMDF
Metal Ireland
Cluas

Any musical collective that wants to know about independent releases will hear about it through one of these collectives and it wouldn't be too difficult either, just when I send out an email, I'll send it to someone in all of these organizations and then all that you have to do is forward it on to everyone in your mail account that is interested in receiving mail from us, and IU etc, etc, etc.

All that I am interested is getting the info out to as many interested people as possible, thats its really and if nothing comes of it then atleast I have the peace of mind of saying that it wasn't because of something that I didn't do.

Well thats my rant for the day.

Niall

 

[snap-apple]

should be no hass putting a gigsmart news item in next week's mailout - just post whatever content you'd like up here or submit it as a news item at http://www.thingsyouremissing.com

i agree that all these folk invovled in different collectives should know what's going on across the board. sorta sucks that someone like youself wasn't getting to hear about what was going on in our little corner of the world.

oh - you left out gz from your list

 

[Niall S.]

I have to admit that I don't know most of the collectives and there are lots more than the ones that I listed.
I know another one called anti pop in Carlow and CorkRock too there's gotta be loads and I was really only hyping the GigSmart Compilation Hype on the blast, Phantom and GigSmart websites, could you imagine how much exposure it would have gotten if all of the music collectives were helping each other to promote all the releases?????
The CD would have been in constant demand all over the Country instead of the 5 or 6 counties that were represented on it.
ie. Galway ( Pier 19 ), Wexford ( Laminate ), West Meath ( Obsolete ), Cork ( Nassau ), Athy ( The 8th Day ), Dublin ( Just about everyone else on the CD ).

My next agenda is to get some recognition from MCD and hopefully get something where if they are looking for local support bands they come to us and we'll find them a suitable band to support the act that they are trying to promote.
It might happen it might not happen, but its still worth trying.

Niall

 

[taubstumm]

My next agenda is to get some recognition from MCD and hopefully get something where if they are looking for local support bands they come to us and we'll find them a suitable band to support the act that they are trying to promote.
It might happen it might not happen, but its still worth trying.

Niall

well now, y'see, some of us might disagree with you on that point, and also on whether it's worth trying.

have you let the fmc know about who you are and what you do? your taxes pay for them, y'know... http://www.fmc-ireland.com

 

[Niall S.]

Well you see as I said we aren't going to agree on all points, and I don't think that its important whether we do or not, I think that its important that you atleast know about our aims and goals though.

How many people hear didn't know that we were releasing a Compilation CD last month and that we were really pushing it to chart????

If you did hear about it, I am sure that alot fo you would have probably have bought the CD to support local independent music and instead of us reaching number 6 we probably could have been number 2 or 3 maybe even number 1.

Alot of you probably wouldn't even have liked the Compilation but its still important that you atleast hear about it.

Niall

 

[taubstumm]

Well you see as I said we aren't going to agree on all points, and I don't think that its important whether we do or not, I think that its important that you atleast know about our aims and goals though.

How many people hear didn't know that we were releasing a Compilation CD last month and that we were really pushing it to chart????

If you did hear about it, I am sure that alot fo you would have probably have bought the CD to support local independent music and instead of us reaching number 6 we probably could have been number 2 or 3 maybe even number 1.

Alot of you probably wouldn't even have liked the Compilation but its still important that you atleast hear about it.

Niall

again, the fmc are great for this sort of thang.

 

[billygannon]

Niall... I've sent you a mail about the FMC.
I'd strongly advise you giving Colm or Angela a shout (if you haven't already). Sounds all cool.... bands etc. should be sharing information on stuff like best places to get stuff printed, getting CDs pressed, places to play and all that malarkey. That's a no-brainer. The FMC should be used as an umbrella organisation if you will... they have the resources, the money, the time and the knowledge. So there's no need to set up some other umbrella organisation - there's one already there.

It's when it comes to promoting bands collectively that stuff gets hairy. Some bands don't want to be associated with other bands (could be down to musical differences... could be that they think they're the cool kids). That's where the cliques kick in. Some groups are better at promoting themselves than others... so be it. Some bands are better than others.
But sharing info. on basic bread and butter stuff should be done... FMC are the people to co-ordinate all this.

Not happy about this though:

You see through running GigSmart for the last year and a half I would have my ear to the ground a fair bit, and I know a good bit about Thumped and Things.
But I never hear about gigs or releases or other things that you would be interested in.

The Things You're Missing tour managed to get national radio and print coverage. The Irish Times, RTE, Hot Press and lots of other media types covered it. Kieran and Helen did a great job on that. As for the Ballroom... well, I'm pretty sure the Gigsmart address is on the mailing list, so I dunno.... it mightn't be.... check your e-mail. We could promote it more (more posters and stuff), but we get pretty decent crowds and we cover what we need to cover.... so yeah...
I've found flyers and posters cost too much money and effort and you don't get much from them (unless they're billboard posters which cost stupid money). Although we might throw a few around for the next Ballroom.

 

[Niall S.]

I seen the Ballroom advertized on Phantom and that was pretty much it really I think that the Phantom board is the only board were I'd read about things not being involved with things.
And I don't post here advertising gigs cause they get moved or nobody cares either way its kinda means that we don't hear about things that your doing and you probably don't hear about things that we're doing.

But if I hear that bunny have released a single through Treasure Island without even looking for it, I don't frequently check the gigsmart account cause its more Tom's thing.
But I will say that having registered here, you'd have gotten my email address so you could easily include me in you mailing system. Thats how I hear about everything else thats going on, ie. Phantom FM's Table quiz, Treasure Island Releases etc, New info from Skindive, Turn lots of things that have nothing to do with me, but get sent to me cause I registered on their site.

Niall

 

[egg_]

http://www.thingsyouremissing.com/php/user_system.php?action=display_page&page_name=subscribe

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