You’ve got yourself a band.
Practice makes perfect and the songs have been written, the ‘live’ show will be great and “all” you now need is a manager.
Why have a manager?
Well, that‘s how it’s always been.
You play and create the music and the manager manages all the other shit.
So, at gigs, through mates, through family, you meet many potential managers.
Then one comes along with the right CV.
They tell you who they know, how they love your music and how they can open doors for you.
You love what they’re saying.
They get it, you say.
Sadly, many do not.
They’re not really rip-off merchants as there is nothing to rip off.
It’s like music companies offering 26% of royalties on sales when you haven’t sold anything which means percentages of nothing.
Not all, of course, but many of these “managers” wish to “manage” as it gives them a sense of power – some for the very first time.
It’s not unlike people wanting name cards and fighting for titles.
Again, it’s “power” mixed with ego and not having done anything in years. Or never.
So, they get the title of “manager” and the band goes back to rehearsing and recording and the new manager starts to manage.
However, like music publishing houses, you have no way of knowing how you are being represented.
And managed.
Are they really managing your interests or just pissing people off?
Over the years, I have met some great managers and who followed that Vidal Sassoon ethos of, “If you don’t look good, I don’t look good.”
There is a reason why, for example, U2 has stayed with Paul McGuiness for all these years: Mutual respect and trust and both have delivered.
While there is this “first tier” of managers, there is then all the rest.
All “the rest” are either swimming with sharks and being gobbled up or else are bull-shitters.
Or they are simply the personification of the Peter Principle and have reached their levels of incompetence.
My first rule of thumb when dealing with ”managers” is how quickly they respond to an email.
If not quick on the draw, they’re gone and there are many of these around today.
You then get a call or an email from the act asking what happened and which shows that they and their manager are totally outta sync.
They’re not making music together.
They’re putting out fries together
It’s like any company with the wong team: Nothing happens until someone goes.
A musical act and a manager must work together as a team.
And as a team, they must move together so others join this team.
Deliver and this team grows.
Falter and stumble and no one will believe you can deliver.
Those gigs promised will never come around again.
That record will never see the light of day.
You’ve been badly fucked over for working with boffins and gremlins and playing with the fairies
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