On an average day, we have three or four bands expressing an interest in playing at the Love Apple. We offer the following background information to help you decide whether and how to proceed from here on.

This is offered in a spirit of honest transparency, to explain how we operate. Feel free to pass it around. 

Our capacity is limited (by fire regulations) to 250. We have an in-house PA system – technical specifications below; bands bring their own instruments and backline equipment (guitar amps &c.). We positively prefer bands that do their own original material; Bradford has other venues that like cover or tribute bands. We have absolutely no openings for bands with a sexist or racist agenda.

INDEPENDENT PROMOTIONS

The Apple itself promotes hardly any of the live music nights it hosts; they are run either by an independent promoter, who agrees terms with the bands with no interference from us, or sometimes directly by a band, which is free to strike its own deal with supporting acts and DJs.

We try to keep things as simple as possible. The promoter/band decides what to charge on the door, and the door take is all theirs.
The promoter/band is neither charged nor paid by the Apple, subject to these provisos:
(1) If they use our fancy PA, we expect them to use our preferred fancy sound engineer, Marco, and pay him whatever they agree with him (his charges are modest and vary according to how many bands are on).
(2) If it's a Friday or Saturday, meaning a 3am close, that will require us to have at least two licensed professional doorstaff, and the cost will be assumed by the promoter/band (usually about £300). The late finish means if you have DJs on after the band(s), you can charge an extra quid or two on the door for people arriving after 11 or so.
(3) Of course, if it's a Wednesday, Thursday or Sunday, finishing at or before midnight, there's no need for door staff: overheads are substantially smaller, but so might the audience be - it's a speculative old game, this.
(4)The promoter/band do their own posters, flyers etc, and have people to collect on the door. Alternatively, we can provide someone to take the door money, for a small pecuniary consideration.
(5) We have no objection at all if you want to sell CDs or band merchandise at your gig.

Let us know what you think of this deal. We reckon it's one of the fairest on the scene at present. Plenty of venues charge a hire fee to the bands or demand a big cut of the door take, without assuming any share of the risk. Instead, we share the risk with the promoter/band, by giving them the incentive to market the gig and pull in the punters in exchange for 100pc of the door take, paying only for unavoidable extra overheads. The risk we share is that the gig might not pull in enough punters to cover, via improved bar takings, our own extra costs such as keeping bar staff on late shifts. So while some musicians understandably reject "pay to play" deals, that's emphatically not what we are offering. We're not charging for the use of the venue and we are sharing the risk with the artists / promoters.

If you are a band from outside the region, you may find it worthwhile to team up with another that has an established local following. Work out the running order between yourselves (and obviously, if you can share items of kit on stage, so much the better).

EXISTING PROMOTERS

Rather than take on the responsibility of your own promotion, you might prefer to collaborate with one of the independent promoters currently booking gigs at the Apple. These are easily identified. If you look at our Myspace page, the event listings usually name the promoter (e.g. Granadaland presents, Casbah Club featuring, etc.) and as a rule that promoter will appear among our Myspace Top Friends.

Before approaching one of these promoters, please take the trouble to check out their respective Myspaces or websites to gauge whether or not your music is likely to fit the style of night they put on. Have a look through their respective Friends pages for an idea of what kind of thing they like. The same applies to the club nights that feature live bands. These promoters receive, as we do, many more approaches from bands than they can handle.

AVAILABLE DATES

Nearly all of our Fridays and Saturdays are filled by a rotating series of club nights, only a couple of which feature live bands. Therefore, the main nights we have available for live gigs are Thursdays, Sundays and Wednesdays. At the time of writing (July 2007), there are loads of such dates free between now and September. Remember, these are the nights when you can save £300 on door staff by going for a midnight finish.

If you are a band seeking to book (and run) your own night, you may wish to team up with another act (or two) in a compatible style. Here again, you might find our Myspace page a useful fishing ground. Unlike some Myspacers, who seem to accept every "friend" request they get, as though it were some kind of competition, we at the Apple turn down requests from people who are of no interest to us.

One last note on dates: please don't ask for a date at the Apple if your diary has another central Bradford gig within a fortnight on either side.

TECH SPECS

Here's an outline of the Love Apple's in-house PA.

7.2kw full range system 2.4 kw bass down to 20hz 10 channel xlr input Allen & Heath desk with 2x parametric e.q per channel
2 monitor sends 2 fx channels returning to reverb submixer with 6 channels multicore
4 channels of gated compression on TRS Inserts
2 channels (send mono) stereo fx (return to stereo mix)

1 x kick drum/bass dynamic (on stand)
4 x vocal dynamic microphones
2 x sm57 dynamic instrument mics
2 x pencil condenser mics
2 x clip snare/.sax/inst mics
3 x di boxes (2 passive 1 active)
Graphical E.Q for monitors (powered Wharfedale full range x2)

multitude of mic stands/xlr cables/power cables etc

+ highly experienced sound engineer, the Maestro Marco. 

AND FINALLY…

All this info should save time all round. If you wish to carry on with your approach, please get back (preferably not via Myspace but by emailing us at info@loveapplecafe.co.uk). Please give as much detail as possible about the proposed date(s), whether you'd be playing with another band(s) (names please) or DJ, any technical specs, anything else we should know about you - or you about us.

If we don't already have them, we will need one or more contact numbers/email addresses, and details of your website(s).

Thanks for reading this far! You are free to share all this info with any friends in the music scene, and feedback would be welcome.