Now don't get me wrong, I've got nothing against a polite "no thank you" - at least they bothered to reply - but in this last week I've had a couple of really odd responses. Firstly there was the blues club who would consider booking us if we had a different vocalist. Now I'm not prissy about my singing. I sing like a white man, but you know what? I AM a white man and I'm cool with that. As I read in a review of the last-but-one White Stripes record 'white men can't play the blues, but it doesn't matter because great things still happen when they try'. What got me was the forwardness of this unsolicited advice. A bit like telling a plumber: 'I'd hire you, but only if you get a better tool kit'. It may be what you're thinking but it seems odd to be sharing it uninvited with someone you don't know but are supposed to be communicating with as a fellow professional.
The second one came from a promoter whose day job is as the organiser of a major arts festival (via their email system - which is how I know). It came without a single full-stop, comma or capital letter. Now, I was somewhat taken aback that someone, who I imagine is probably university educated and has communication as a major part of their job, would send out something so unprofessional looking. I had to read it three times to get the gist (which was that he did like our stuff but didn't want to book us at the moment).
Still I continue firing away trying to get gigs...I had this great idea of trying to book a short tour around a gig we're doing in Portsmouth in March in order to save on the petrol, but that currently doesn't seem to be going too well.
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