Live Performance Events

Michael Lesko
Live Performance Event

Describe a live performance event you have attended including performer, venue, and capacity (approx.)
A live performance I have attended is Run the Jewels at The Garage. The Garage has three rooms for live performances: Attic, G2 and The Garage. Run the Jewels, rap duo from America, performed in The Garage to a sold out crowd. The capacity of Attic, G2 and The Garage are 100, 250 and 750.
Explain fire safety requirements for the live performance venue. One of the fire safety regulations is that the promoter and venue owner are responsible for carrying out a fire safety assessment which can be included in their risk assessment forms which covers any other safety regulations. If necessary, take action if there are any causes to potential fires. There are also various fire exits in the event of a fire, with doors in each room. According to the Fire Safety Act 2006, “specifying matters which persons must take into account when carrying out assessments and reviews in relation to substances specified in the regulations.”

Describe the planning and operational procedures.
Booking The Garage is either done through email or telephone. Email is more preferred if you are enquiring outside business hours as the office staff mostly finish at 5pm. However, if the phone is to be answered, you are receiving a much quicker confirmation, as emails sometimes may wind up in junk folders or are ignored accidentally.
Identify the licences required.
In order for the gig to happen, a PRS licence is necessary. This is because artists are performing songs in which 3% of the gross income for the gig goes to the people who wrote the songs that are being performed. In this case, all songs performed were written by Michael Render and Jaime Meline. If the licence is not put in place, then the songwriters are eligible to sue the venue/promoter for copyright infringement. Another licence the venue must have is an entertainment licence. You will need an entertainment licence if it takes place between 11pm and 8am and/or the audience is more than 200 people. If the venue is selling alcohol during the event, they need to have an alcohol licence. It is an offence if alcohol is sold to an under 18-year-old. In large venues like The Garage, not every member of staff has to have an alcohol licence. An MCPS licence will also be required. According to the PRS for Music website, MCPS sits under the broader PRS for Music brand, and licenses your mechanical (reproduction) rights and pays your mechanical royalties.

Explain the basic venue requirements to allow the live performance to take place.
There a few basic requirements for Run the Jewels to perform live: backline, PA system, stage, barrier, lighting and a sound desk. Every artist has their own specific backline requirements. From what I seen when I viewed RTJ performing, they both had microphones and no additional instruments. This means that their backline is relatively simple as they do not need amplifiers or drum kits. They did, however, have a DJ podium; which I assume is one of their requirements. A PA system is essential in any live music performance. It is an electronic sound distributor that a microphone and amplifiers are connected to. This is the machine that makes the voices from their microphones heard. A stage is important as well. This is because the audience wants to be able to see the act performing; without the stage, they would be on the same level as the audience and it wouldn’t look professional. Although RTJ perform on the stage at their gig, it is also used to store all of the tech gear, once again, so that they can be heard. A barrier isn’t essential at all live music performances, but an act, like RTJ, has a high level of demand, it is to restrict the audience from jumping on the stage and to prevent people from falling over if the audience is feeling energetic. The sound desk is what alters the sound of the artists’ performance. Usually the venues own sound engineer is behind the desk, altering the sound whether it is too loud, too screechy or if the next song needs different sound effects. With special requirements, RTJ will provide their own sound engineer that they tour with in order to meet the requirements, as the touring engineer will know their music best. Lighting will most likely be done by their touring engineer at the sound desk, in order for the lights to reflect on the mood and tempo of certain songs.
Produce a budget for chosen event to include budgetary constraints relevant to the live performance.
*Budget is attached on excel document*
Collate publicity and promotional materials and evaluate their effectiveness. http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/dec/12/run-the-jewels-review-hip-hop http://www.theskinny.co.uk/latest/news/309197-run_jewels_announce_glasgow_debut http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/photos/live-photo-gallery/run-the-jewels-in-glasgow http://glasgow.stv.tv/168570/
The links above are announcements for the event and also gig reviews of their performance. They already had a great start to their career, with being greatest album of 2014 from Pitchfork, top ten of the year from Deezer, Spotify, The Skinny, The Guardian and The Independent. It was also good publicity when they received four/five star reviews for their performance in Glasgow. What else that made the night special was that their flight from England was canceled, so they drove to Glasgow and were on stage for 21:35 for an hour (which broke the curfew for a 14+ gig). All of this was printed and it gave RTJ a good image that they were dedicated to perform at their Scottish debut at all costs.
Identify the types of box office systems (manual and electronic)
Since the gig was sold out, there were no tickets to be purchased on the door and there were none to be picked up for collection either. Most likely, the tickets that were needed to be collected were situated at Tickets Scotland on Argyle St. When I entered the venue, the stub of my ticket was torn off by bouncers which granted me entry. From what I know from promoting gigs in G2, The Garage’s smaller venue, it is a manual box office in which money is exchanged through a float issued by the venue. Electronic box offices are a great investment however. You can look back at how many tickets were put on to the system and at what price (if you were to do a flat rate and a discounted rate), it would be easily identifiable.