Art doesn't always speak for itself.

For The Negotiators, drawing a crowd was always going to be a tough task for March 11, there was a lot on in Adelaide. Therefore, last night's gig at the Gaslight Tavern showed something about the relative worth of promotion media in drawing audience. We were up against the Saturday Night drawing power of the city's biannual Fringe and Festival proper, the (Greek) Glendi Festival, big shows on at Adelaide Entertainment Centre and Governer Hindmarsh, and a lot of other associated events built up on the critical mass these focal events draw into the city. To play a local inner suburban pub would, for many bands, be a recipe for a small audience and a dissappointed publican.

With everything on, we'd been offered the option of cancelling the show earlier in the week. I think that followed a show by another band the previous week which had been very poorly attended. If the option of cancelling had been made a fortnight earlier, we may have considered it for the very reasons outlined. However, with less than a week to go and a lot of work already gone into promotion, we had no difficulty saying 'the show must go on'. If for no other reason than that we had told some of our supporters of the show and you we couldn't let them down. As in any other business, it's important to do what you say in the logistical world of Rock'n'Roll.

The numbers 0f punters on the night were interesting. About 20 when we started, mabe 30 at end of first set. Then, built up to 50 through second set and remained so until near end of third. Then, numbers roughly halved, but was again close to forty for the majority of the final set. There were a couple dozen there until stumps, after we'd packed away (2 am).

The audience was composed of three 'groups', roughly a third each. One third were our loyal punters and friends, who were mainly informed of the show through word of mouth and its electronic equivalent (email). The second third were locals, of whom around half popped in because they always do if there's a band playing with whom they're familiar and who they don't mind (generally from exposure on Thursday jam nights - we've jammed twice as a band this year, you can see the posts here and here). This subgroup therefore could also rightly fit into the final third, who made a point of coming because they'd seen us in one of the gig guides or took note of the date from one of our previous shows (several came up from the Cumby).

This website took about 30 hits, most from Australia, in the last week (but I'm only now starting to think of this blog as part of the public face of the band (and hence promotional), as well as a worthy activity in its own right). A lot of locals saw the little A6 flyers we distributed Thursday night, and there was 'background radiation' from the bill posters in the pub. I know many saw us in the printed gig guides (in my experience over time, name recognition builds through this resource more than any other).

We had several queries as to when we play next. The next public show is actually a couple months away (Mothers Day weekend at the Glynde?). I'll fill you in closer to the event.