Rockers have always treated us well, James is an honest promoter and to tar him with a pay to play brush is to do him a missservice. To expect a glasgow band to draw ten people is surely not asking too much ? They are totally upfront about the conditions - you have to remember they are a business and they expect the bands to draw a crowd - if you want to play without these conditions, brush up on your cover versions and play to your local shithole pub for free beer - if you want to be original, get ten of your mates along and play rockers - we are talking 10 tickets here for fucks sake ! - organise your own gig and sell 10 tickets and see if you make a profit !
 

I must admit - I have just booked a band to play at Rockers via James. Although we haggled on the fee he has given us a garuntee and not asked for a cent. Can only speak as I find.
 

yeah bands should organzie their own gig and sell 10 tickets each and between the 5 they could walk away with £170 between them if they hired somewhere like the vale bar, if they sell mroe than ten tickets they'd make even more each so please don't make such rash comments

how many pay to play gigs have use played for Rockers? and how much in total have you given them/james compared to how much you've made?

on a last note funny you should talk about cover bands in such derogatory terms considering thats what prime weekend slots are held back for in Rockers featuring bands such as The Fakes who are the managers band, great way to support local original talent wouldn't you say
 

Rash comments ? Hardly ! Your maths about the vale is somewhat vague on logic, but I'm only relaying our experiences. We've played twice at rockers and been asked to sell tickets zero times - we're an Edinburgh band and dont have much of a draw in Glasgow and they've been happy to let us make up the bill. Bands should organise their own gigs, but if you dont want the hassle of that and can sell ten tickets, I dont see Rockers as being a bad deal. Its a business for fucks sake, not a charity. Like you say, there are other options. But if you hired the vale and couldnt sell 10 tickets could you make a profit ?.
 

put plain and simple it will cost bands £80 to hire the vale with full backline supplied and sound guy and someone taking tickets on the door, Rockers are asking 5 in some cases 6 local bands to pay £50 guarantee each to them to play a gig and the bands only get a 50/50 split after that, its pretty obvious the deal is terrible and unfair and saying its a business doesn't cut it what makes the costs of Rockers different from say Capitol just as big a venue yet they only charge £120 to hire out their hall or for their gigs operate a 50/50 ticket split?

anyway they must like use at Rockers because i've heard from bands from well outside of Glasgow coming down for a gig and being turned away due to not selling any tickets, i'm sure if you had experienced that you wouldn't be so quick to defend their ticketing policies
 

one other thing all but 7 dates in Rockers' bulletins that they require bands for are classed as support slots, well over 100 dates, which require bands to provide money for 20 ticks (£100 min) so don't try and say this is fair
 

I'm not saying its fair, I'm saying its a business. You dont like it ? You dont do it, its as simple as that.
 

i agree and bands deserve to know the alternatives and thats what we're providing with the list of non P2P venues and promoters in our blogs
 

bands should always try to miss out the middle men. these do no promoting promoters need to go. we should miss them out entirely and put on our own gigs, inviting guests from out of town etc. its not always about being paid either. when we played rockers, granted we sold no tickets coming from dundee, but we had to pay 2 cars petrol and we bought a dvd for £10 and played in front of about 10-15 people. we got absolutely no benefit from the gig at all.
p.s. good on ya for setting this site up as bands everywhere are being taken to the cleaners.
peace and love from hanney!
power to the people!!!
 

totally agree with use, it is an absoulte farce and yeah they do practically zero promoting considering they have over 13,000 people on myspace i don't think a few bulletins each gig would hurt and i for one staying in glasgow have never been handed or seen a flyer in the whole city centre for a gig at Rockers
 

i've had a bad experience at rockers.
i've played there with a band i used to be in, and we were told to load in about 4.30-5, but the bands were let in at 7.05. the fans were also there at our soundcheck, i didn't think it was professional at all

call that a business? businesses should try to be professional. this "business" if far from it.
 

As well as all the comments about local bands getting fucked, I'm getting a bit concerned about the touring bands they are booking. There's a few good bands coming up in Rockers, but since they do no promotion (and just rely on the support bands to bring the crowds ie to cover the main bands guarantee) there's not going to be anyone at the show there to see them.
I went to see The Hyperjax a few weeks ago (who I'm told played to a great crowd in Edinburgh the night before) the support bands were inappropriate (but they were chosen at the last minute I guess since I seen MySpace bulletins asking for support) and the crowd were friends on these bands with only a few people actually interested in The Hyperjax. This wasn't surprising since I didn't see one poster/flyer or anything advertising the gig and only found out about it myself through The Hyperjax MySpace. I'm getting the band back up in the summer and hopefully they'll play to a crowd who are into them.
 

High Five! Rockers is baws!
 

Hi guys

I came across this blog the other day and just thought I would add my ten pence

We've played Rockers a few times and I don't think we're gonna go back, we brought a coach of 50 people through from Livingston the last time we played so in Glasgow we are not a local band, and to put it bluntly we got shafted for our money, effort and time.
we used the small amount of money we made from the crap ticket deal to lower the cost of everyones coach ticket. Taking into account these people were all paying for drinks at the bar Rockers cashed in on our expense and gave us no help in paying for the coach. We're not trying to make any money but it would be nice for promoters to help us out a wee bit.
As mentioned before no promotion was done by the promoter apart from a poster at the front door of the venue. Also as mentioned before, I go to see gigs in Glasgow quite often and I'm usually handed a few flyers, however I have never once been given a flyer for rockers.
At this gig we were meant to be supporting two signed bands, one of which was from America and they had to pull out a week before the gig but Rockers kept that quiet until the night of the gig. We were one of 4 support bands two of which didn't turn up, they probably seen sense before we did...
But yeah, we're not going back there again! we'll just put it down to experience!
We have gained nothing by playing Rockers however they made a tidy wee profit out of us!
 

Like i said,James has been cool with me.
 

that is only becuase you and said band are not from Glasgow. Rockers is the no.1 P2P club in Glasgow
 

Ahah i remember ages ago we entered a battle of the bands in rockers and they tried turning us away because we never sold enough tickets lol, i hate the place one of the worst places to play in glasgow.

landon
dave