Told you so....

A short while back I wrote a piece on dwindling advance ticket sales and the ripple effects that come with it.

The effects I don't think fully caught on or were acknowledged at the time, or what the consequences would look like further down the line.

So I'm going to scrape the surface of some of those effects and believe me when I tell you, some go deeper and are more worrying than this post might describe but try I will, and will put this out as two or three sections so you don't fall asleep after a few paragraphs.

You can still have a wee read of that one here before we progress into this.

Many probably just thought "there he goes again, ranting away," didn't pay a blind bit of attention, and went back to scrolling through TikTok or looking for funny dog reels on Facebook.

I think it did a good job at calling out what is a serious issue in the industry and hurting way more than anyone would give a thought to then go into defensive mode when some venues call it out.

The post got shared about, other venues picked it up, a few bands passed it on. The message hit home a wee bit with mostly in the industry with a fraction with the tens of thousands who follow the club on socials and beyond seeing or reading it let alone understanding the situation.

And then, like most things, it got forgotten about just as quickly.

Oh, it's easy to do, I know. Holidays, festivals, the World Cup…the list is endless, tbh, and before long we become the wonky toy on the shelf no one wants to play with again.

Again worth mentioning now that if you don't want to, or can't, come out to play any more with our wonky toys, that's fine — that's your choice, or personal circumstances driving it.

But when, or if, you do come back, it's worth knowing that everything you're reading here could or is already driving change at the venue. It has to, otherwise we simply won't be here the next time you are ready to come out and play.

Changes some of you might not notice, or won't care about just happy we're still rocking but changes others have started notice and about to throw their toys out the pram and moan.

More on that in a bit.

Here's the bit nobody wants to admit that the change in attitude and behavior towards small venues, shows and bands hasn't gone anywhere. It's still here.

It's getting worse by the month even spilling into larger and larger festivals and shows now. That might be a good thing the big boys are getting a taste of the medicine we are always left to take also might highlight the issue more.

Yet still no one seems to adjust or start to re-adapt unless of course it's a mega gig then all the work,family,transport issues always mentioned evaporate along with bank balances to secure a ticket no matter what.

And I'm afraid I'm going to have to call it out again, because whether people like it or not, this is having a real effect on how we work, how we schedule shows, who we book, what we charge for tickets, and the financial exposure we're carrying with bands every single weekend. Ultimately it will eventually effect you the most.

Some might have noticed some bands haven’t re-appeared in 2025 or 26 through no fault or effort from bands and ourselves sales at the last show just wasn't enough to hope a follow up would be better with our confidences pretty shot to bits in the process.

Put yourself in our shoes or the bands for a minute faced with those types of decisions - go for it regardless and lose money you can no longer gamble with as believe it or not we don't have a money tree out the back or a wee goose laying us golden eggs we take to Ramsdens.

All our revenue comes in those front doors.

if that doesn't happen well I'm sure even anyone that went to Blackburn Academy can work out what comes next.

A recent and very real example where Wilf from the utterly superb tribute to Judas Priest tribute messaged to chat about 2027 dates, as many bands do well in advance now to try and pick out by collectively rubbing our crystal balls together the best date that could land better than the last show which was brilliant musically performance wise as ever, but financially wasn't where we both hoped it would be.

All too many shows land like this now to be honest.

More data titbits - where people also state a main reason to hang off getting a ticket now is to see if something better is on nearer the time before deciding what to go to kinda makes our planning this far ahead like pissing in the wind to find your shoes get wet more and more.

So to our chat again, all good humored ended both deciding to leave 2027 as a fallow year for a great band with most likely no Scottish dates at all. As after running the numbers from last show where Wilf openly told me after all expenses were accounted for such as fuel and sustenance, forgetting the 18 HOUR round trip to come up,unpack, play a blinder of a show, pack the van and head home they were left with £40 each for their efforts.

Now at this point some might be saying well pay them more to come up, charge more for tickets so everyone gets a wee bit more and make it worthwhile.

Two points we agreed on that the band know we can't guarantee anymore based on current habits that I've been prattling on about and we can't expect them to play at or close to a loss. There lies the dilemma.

A point always over looked simply boiled down to not enough people in the door.

Now before anyone says well advertise it more (more costs) get a promoter on board (more costs) and more suggestions that simply don't work as they once did I'm simply going to turn this around and say why not LOOK more regularly at what is put out on socials, on our website, event guides as I feel would make the world of difference. The more who SEE, interact, even simply share, make comment, tag mates all drives exposure of events.

It makes a difference even though you might not be attending.

I know this sounds mental but YOU could actually be our social media machine. If even 10,000 of our followers did this what a difference it would make.

10,000 plus people working (granted for free but with gratitude) sharing, engaging and commenting would lift our exposure to thousands more.

Back to the main point, had there been (and say this all the time now) another 20,30 or 40 people paying to come and see them what a difference it would make not only on the night but setting up future shows where we and alot of bands are left wondering what to do, where to play or when to play now too.

All of which comes from the effect of waiting mentioned earlier.

So the told you so moment hopefully has now dropped.

Very real life examples that is happening all the time now making my life very complicated every day and year.

There is only so much that I or the bands can do to entice you to come in the door now.

I'm sorry to put this on you but alot of what happens now is down to you and the term use it or lose it branded about for years hopefully has better context in here.

What that actually looks like, in real numbers

I'm not going to sit here and tell you "it'll be fine next month" or "it'll sort itself out next year," because it possibly won't, and neither will it for the huge number of venues up and down the UK barely getting by week to week right now.

So here's a real one, from our own books, not a hypothetical.

Please note — none of our energy, water, rent, rates, insurances, licences, VAT, tax or NI, which are quite eye-watering and run into the thousands every month once you actually sit and look at them, are included in this quick example and yes I do wonder how we keep the doors open.

• What the show cost us to put on a show in past (inc. staffing/band costs on the night): £900

• Tickets sold: £120 taken in advance and on the night, and 90% of that came in during the last week before doors.

• Bar take on the night: £450

• Net loss on the night: £330

• Did we go ahead anyway: Yes — because that's what we do, hoping the last-minute decision makers come out of the woodwork to break even and the time to postpone had already came and went. I know great business strategy eh but one we have very little choice on now.

That's not a one-off.

That's one of many nights we wonder why, and look into space for a wee bit.

And it's the exact scenario I was banging on about in the last post, except now it's got a number attached to it.

How does that land now? This is for a small, bread-and-butter show, by the way. When we multiply this up with more staff, more costs, bigger band fees and promotion charges, hopefully you'll see where our confidence has gone, and why there are more small-scale shows, covers nights and tributes.

Oh and not coming to bread and butter shows also feeds into the decision making process too. As we have the feeling if you can't make a Don't come to wee £4 for a ticket show would you for a £20 plus ticket show and cover all the costs involved ?

That leads nicely into part 2.......as we take a wee break for you to absorb all this and put the kettle on for the next bit.