Would you come to see Thea Gilmore in East Dulwich?

[Sue]

Admin, please move if not the appropriate place to post, not sure where to put it.

We are looking to book Thea Gilmore (YAY!) for DHFC, but she's expensive.

We have no idea what sort of numbers she might attract as we don't normally put on people who are mainly singer-songwriters.

Would you come to see her if we booked her? We have to make a decision in the next day or so.

Also looking at James Yorkston if anybody's interested :)-D

[Laurie Eggleston]

Depends when it was, but yeah!

[Sue]

Would be 19 February probably if we go ahead.

[Sue]

http://www.theagilmore.net/

[Laurie Eggleston]

Sounds good. Sure I can round up a few others to come along too. Good luck if you do decide to go ahead. It'd be good to have more things like this happening in the area.

[kpc]

Love Thea Gilmore - count me in.

Would probably go to James Yorkston too (depending on date and other commitments...).

[Jo]

I'd love to see her live again, so yeah.

[Sam]

Thea Gilmore - quite possibly.

James Yorkston - absolutely.

Loving your work...

[Sue]

Sam Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Thea Gilmore - quite possibly.

>

> James Yorkston - absolutely.

>

> Loving your work...

xxxxxxxxx

Hey thanks :)

:-$

:)-D

[Sue]

Well, 405 views and less than a handful of people who would/might come, so it's not looking too good for the Thea Fans at the mo ......

[Laurie Eggleston]

Yes but surely the gig would be listed all over London (and Thea's MySpace)? Would you not get it listed in Time Out, for example? The audience would consist of more than East Dulwich Forumites, numerous though they are.

[Sue]

Yes obviously. We get people coming from all over the country to some of our gigs in East Dulwich.

We promote our gigs very widely, but sending a listing to Time Out does not guarantee that they will include it, as any promoter will tell you. Same with the Guardian Guide. But in any case those listings don't appear until shortly before the gig.

Thea's agent will not be promoting it other than on her website as it won't be part of a national tour.

We are not convinced that the 800 punters on our Goose email list are necessarily into Thea Gilmore.

Her fee is at the very top end of what we've ever paid.

Normally when we shell out this kind of money on an artist we are pretty sure of a good audience - eg we have just booked Eliza Carthy and Saul Rose.

All I'm saying is the indications so far don't bode well. We'll review the situation at the weekend :)

[Wizbit66]

Count myself and my husband in.

[Sue]

So that's five definites and a few possibles - hmmmm

[bagpuss]

I would definitely come!

I would bring my Dad as he loves her!

[fairport]

It'll be a sellout. Stop procrastinating and get her booked!

[Sue]

You want to finance it then Fairport? :))

I was in constant contact with her agent until I asked what sort of audiences she had been getting on her tour, since when I have heard zilch.

If you know that she has been selling out venues, then please could you tell me which ones and what size they are, thanks!

[fairport]

Just say that her big brother Dave might make an appearance. That should sell a few tickets.

But seriously ... how many would you need to sell to break even? I see she's playing a lot of concerts at the moment which might mean that you won't get people travelling from outside the area because they'll be able to see her somewhere else.

I can see your dilemma. Some folk traditionalists might not be interested but on the other hand she has appeal outside the folk circuit. A bit like Martha Wainwright, who by amazing coincidence has just come on the radio as I typed her name in.

Anyway, add me to your list of promises. I just hope this one isn't on a night when I'm away, like the last two or three Goose events.

[Sue]

Yes, all you write is true (apart from Dave :)) )

An additional dilemma is that our normal promotional outlets are the folk circuit ones, we don't know how to tap into Thea Gilmore fans elsewhere and we have already ascertained that several of our regular punters have not even heard of Thea Gilmore :)):)):))

Although a few more people may get to hear of her soon as she's on a BBC4 Christmas thing with Bellowhead (watch out for the Goose in Victorian-ish costume).

Her agent won't be promoting it other than putting it on Thea's website, and as you say she's just done a big tour and consequently people are highly unlikely to trek to East Dulwich to see her again.

[SeanMacGabhann]

Does she have a forum on her website Sue? You could go on there, or her facebook page maybe?

[Sue]

Good ideas but will only reach hardcore Thea fans who are actively looking at her website etc..

We need promotional outlets equivalent to for example fRoots, Folk London, Folk and Roots, Mudcat - and we have absolutely no idea what those might be.

For various reasons the balance is tipping against at the moment.

[Sue]

Sorry Thea Gilmore fans, but we won't be booking her in 2010.

Maybe some other time.

Edited to say: Trying for James Yorkston though, waiting to confirm a date

[fairport]

So now its ok to say that I think she's a tad overrated. I've got one of her CDs (Burning Dorothy) and can't get into it at all. I'd still have gone to see her though, I might have changed my mind like I did when I saw the Smiths, but that's another story.

[Sue]

Well I don't really know how rated she is.

There are some of her tracks I like a lot, including a couple on her latest album.

But overall, yeah, I dunno.

Only time I've seen her live was a bit unrepresentative as she was doing Christmas stuff from an album which apparently has just been released in the States.

Anyway academic now, I've just booked Jim Causley (solo) for February - somewhat different kettle of fish :))

Edited to say: We definitely won't be booking Martha Wainwright, I can't bear her :)) though of course that could change ...

Edited to say: Thanks admin for allowing this thread in this section, you can lounge it now as it's reached a natural conclusion :)

[Jessie]

I love James Yorkston - I'd come see him.