I just saw this post by Record Store Day
And I’m curious if record store gigs are a good thing during a time when grassroots venues are struggling? They’re often free shows (or included with a purchase) and although some shows take place in grassroots venues, I can’t help feeling a bit conflicted about them
Went to one last week that was in a venue in the afternoon, was packed and I bought a drink as many other people did, can’t see how it would have hurt them
I’ve never seen an instore that has obviously supplemented or replaced a regular headline show.
Record shops are also generally seen to be on a perpetual knife edge. How do we decide who is more worthy?
Think they’re really important for record stores and bands, and are in general good for the local scene and musical infrastructure. In my experience they rarely ‘take away’ from other local shows.
Your subject line says grassroots music but your post says grassroots venues. Which is it?
The ones I’ve been to get labelled as ‘outstores’ and happen in smallish venues that either have a really nice reputation for getting good acts (Pryzm) or were once great venues that now just have endless tribute acts and Slade (O2 Academy Zodiac Oxford). Can’t see any issue with Ash/CMAT/Public Service Broadcasting/whoever doing a cheapish gig there. The venue gets paid, artists get exposure, record shop sells extra copies. Good for everyone.
Proper instore events are either very London-centric bigger audience affairs or small, stripped-back performances by bands playing full shows later that day anyway.
I think having a healthy infrastructure where upcoming bands can get exposure through gigs and record shops can only be a good thing. It seems to be that currently there’s a gap between the instores and the tour. The ones I’ve paid attention to at Resident recently have been Gwenno, who played a solo half hour set and is also playing a solo piano gig in a church in November, The New Eves, who played in August and are playing at the Concorde in October, and Billie Martin, who did an in store but isn’t stopping in Brighton on her tour in November.
When she was promoting Prioritise Pleasure Self Esteem did an instore the same day as her gig at Chalk, but that was sold out, so neither gig was treading on the others toes.
That said though, maybe Brighton has a healthier scene than a lot of places, so it isn’t a problem here
main advantage to me is it seems quite a lot of bands will hit up a smaller city (say, Edinburgh vs Glasgow, Liverpool vs Manchester) on the out store tour, then come back to the more trad main music cities on the full tour. Seems like a solid way to connect with more of their fans and give people in more places access to the bands they like
Think the entire concept of “grassroots music” is actually itself pretty damaging, just reinforces the idea that the industry has to give you some level of approval. You’re a band, just get on with it imo.
(This isn’t a dig at Sean, it’s a widely used term, it’s just one I really dislike)
Yeah it’s a decent catch all but I hear ya
Anecdotally I’ve noticed a significant increase in gigs in Liverpool mostly being promoted by Rough Trade and Jacaranda Records. Got tickets for Confidence Man, Jamie xx, Black Country New Road, Sasami and Wolf Alice all through these two promoters which were all instores / “outstores.” Probably wouldn’t have bothered for any of them if they were a £12.55 return to Manchester away.
This wasn’t an error
Grassroots music is a whole ecosystem
Grassroots venues in particular are pointing out how challenging it is
In stores can help make a scene healthier but when there’s so many shows, and artists are at a certain level, I can imagine it can dilute ticket sales for their headline show
I’m genuinely curious as I’m conflicted about them and I sort of wish in stores could find some formats that aren’t just a live set. It used to be acoustic sets for instance but now it’s usually a full band show and obviously if you’re Wolf Alice level it’s not gonna hurt ticket sales but for smaller acts selling maybe 1000 tickets in London and 300-600 regionally, I can imagine doing a free show for 200 fans may eat into potential sales. Or having a show on sale the same night as instore for a similar artist in a city with a small scene
@JaguarPirate makes a good point that outside of London a lot of the record store shows happen in places where the band wouldn’t otherwise play. Home Counties are a good example - they’ve got a five date run of record store gigs and then a nine date run of headline shows a month later. The instores are all in towns that don’t get a lot of gigs at that level - someone playing Scala doesn’t usually play in Southsea or Liverpool.
I think the acoustic ones especially are very helpful for smaller artists who might skip your town on the usual tour due to costs. For example, I saw Patrick Wolf at Rough Trade Notts this year. He said he had just grabbed a couple of instruments and got in his car and drove himself around. So hopefully sold some more records from it and the shop made money from bar sales.
I also saw Fontaines DC do an in-store around their first album, wouldn’t have gone if it was in another town as only knew a few songs at the time but worth taking a chance buying the album and checking it out when it’s so close.
From a fan point of view it’s great not having the expense of a Manchester or London trip all the time.
Aren’t they very often much shorter and more stripped back than a full show anyway?
I know Pryzm ones often seem to be more like a full gig but most of the ones I’ve been to have been a handful of songs, often solo acoustic
This feels like something that eventually one band is going to come clean and say “you know what, bands lose a fuck-tonne of money on doing these and we all grumble about it”.
Surely it helps them shift quite a few records?
Which helps their label and might get them some royalties in the long run, but I suspect the financials of basically being forced into this mini-ecosystem now are not particularly friendly to their finances in the short term. If headline touring itself is unsustainable for many low-mid level bands I don’t know how it works when they’re essentially doing free gigs for a week.
Yeah, in my experience (granted I’ve only done, like, 5 instores) but generally they’re quite good for shifting merch because even though the audience are small, they’re kind of primed to go home with a few records. And often the stores themselves will take a few (if they aren’t already receiving your records from distro or whatever). It is then hard for me to not spend that money on records from the store, too, though.
To add to what I said above. I think they are good for grassroots music, yeah. For bands they’re a great opportunity to play for a new or slightly different audience, and to see how the material comes across in a different space. They’re also useful for filling in a bit of dead time in an afternoon when you otherwise might just be kicking around in a city waiting to load in at a venue.
I think the events themselves are good for fostering that community and building up the connections between stores, touring bands, local bands, record buyers, and gig goers. Sometimes in a town, there might be folks more inclined to go to record stores than gigs and vice versa. I’d definitely try and use the space for live stuff/DJs if I had a store.
