Hi
Am wondering how people here manage there gigging schedule with them and there bandmates.
I am in a band and we have done a couple of gigs but it's turning into a minor nightmare trying to agree dates that everyone is available, half of this month is booked up as holiday, most of August also booked up as holiday.
We have already turned down a few gigs in the past couple of months due to people being away, am wondering how other bands manage it this time of year when everyone is booking there holidays.
Thanks
Let me say that in my area, unless I'm subbing-in, the lead time or timeframe to schedule gigs is usually 5 months or (usually a lot) more, and almost never less, unless there's a last-minute cancellation or a cancellation that occurs in less than a 5 month timeframe before a gig. So given that lead time, in some ways it is easier to see if people are available to do a gig or to find gig dates. In my experience, the kinds of things that might compete with that kind of long-range planning are weddings, vacations, big sporting events... the kind of things one tends to put on a calendar 5-6 months or more before the date and are stable... which in turn helps me be able to make musical commitments 6-12 months in advance.
It IS a challenge to get people scheduled and lined up to do a gig. It takes someone to spearhead getting planned and tentative blackout dates, booked dates, free dates and to almost doggedly keep up on that, and to receive the same commitment as much as possible from the other bandmates to be doggedly determined to communicate that information and those developments as much as possible, as soon as possible. ALL parties have to make a commitment. A shared commitment of shared information and in this case, the band is certainly only as strong as its weakest communicative chain. That part takes a LOT of work and often incredible persistence and eye on details practices by EVERYONE.
Summer months if not planned correctly or early enough can really be hard to get people free for a gig. At a certain point they have kids, family or other obligations as well as opportunities without school schedule to do some things. It's a double-edge sword: Summer months can be full of musical opportunity, but also challenge of people trying to take advantage specifically of non-musical activity in the summer months in a way they don't or can't for the other 8-9 months of the year.
I don't know in your case but it's my suspicion that either: people's schedules (and sometimes all it take is ONE person to unfortunately turn down a gig due to unavailability) were not known well-enough in advance to be able to offer clubs or whatever target dates of full availability, or maybe that longer-term information was known but the gigs that became available were coming up too quickly to move things around to do the gig- the last minute (or relatively) gig or short order chef phenomenon.
It's not exactly clear your band's methodologies and priorities and what the lead times for gigs normally are and other details so it's hard for me to comment further.
If you're asking about specific methodologies, techniques and so on to capture, retail and update schedules like with Google Calendar and so on, that's a different response, but I'm not sure you're asking about that. Maybe you are.
