Phil Gates Blog

Getting ready to play

admin — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 22:17:13 +0000

Getting everything together to go play in Memphis this weekend. Should be a lot of fun!

What were we thinking?

admin — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 04:00:49 +0000

We musicians, venues and societies have had so many free admission gigs that we’ve trained a huge portion of the audience that blues music has no value. For the people that support live Blues music, by actually paying to go to local clubs to see local bands, buying our CD’s and merchandise, Thank You!

The rest of the Blues audience just seems to wait for the next free event, as if the bands are getting paid by lovely blues fairies. With the recession, and people not drinking as much, the venues are either having a hard time, or closing. I bet you can probably count at least a few in your area that closed in 2010. Most venues only offer 20% of the bar as pay now.
It seems odd that the only way to get paid is to go out of town. So we do. If we had an earnest consolidated campaign to educate people that by not supporting live blues music, they’re killing not just live Blues music, they’re killing Blues music.

Nobody wants to see it go away, Everyone agrees and says “Oh I know, that would be terrible!” But many still just wait for the next FREE Blues event instead of paying to what amounts to a six pack of bottled water, or a cup of Coffee. Amazing. Times are tough. No doubt. So escape into music. Go see some folks that have worked really hard to play Blues music just for you. They’ll be happy to play for you, and it will be fun.

I LIKE Blues Music. I LIVE by Blues Music.
It has a value, and people should support live music.

New business models. Keep the old, and add the new.

Thoughts?

Even worse CD and music sales

admin — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 08:47:39 +0000

http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/amplifier/70991/2010-album-sales-way-worse-than-2009-album-sales/

OK, so what’s the new business model? There are great bands and not so great bands, we all know that, so let’s not make it about that. Yes, marketing is a huge part of it. In as far as the actual sales end of town to get a more people to say “Hey I LIKE that, I’ll pay .99 cents for it.” or “Hey, I’ll go pay to see live music” There has to be a new paradigm, and it’s pretty much up to us to invent it. Labels are closing in many cases by earlier greed, CD Sales are down, touring is down, festival sponsors are slipping away leaving less places to see live music. Concerts prices have topped out. If the trends follow then everything predicated on some artist creating songs in their heads will follow: music equipment sales, retail sales, agencies, booking agents, recording studios, music magazines, venues, clubs, etc. Many of my friends here on FB would be affected by this. We get the better music part, how do we get to the better industry part? How do we get to the audience part that will spend .99 cents for hours of some artist’s work? What would it take to get to the new point of balance in the industry?

Ideas?

Switzerland 2

admin — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 01:50:48 +0000

Had the first show tonight. It was a cool outdoor show at the Hotel Alter Banhof in Gossau.
It was a fun show, and as it was the first show, we as a band got to really play a set, and figure out some of the kinks. It was fun to finally be performing in Switzerland.
So much time has been put into the arranging of things and set up. Most all of that being done by Nucci Solazzo and Werner Sprenger. Without them, literally none of this would have happened.
Tomorrow is another day and we’ll actually have time to rest. Nice.

Switzerland 1

admin — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 02:27:12 +0000

On my way to the UK on the first leg of my trip to Switzerland. A long, ten hour flight from Los Angeles. Then a shorter one to Zurich.
My buddy Nucci is the bassist for this tour is already there and getting the other musicians rehearsed. He says things are going well, which is good news, as I recently had another situation where a band was put around me that didn’t rehearse, and weren’t ready.
I wasn’t able to bring my band on this trip. I’ve got a really good band. For this trip though, it’ll be Nucci on bass, and local Swiss musicians Ernst on drums, and donmax on keys.
We have one day of rehearsals then we hit it. I’m looking forward to this. It should be a lot of fun. These local guys are great players, so I’m psyched.

Monterey

admin — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 02:25:52 +0000

Blog 1 Monterey
It is incredible to me how some things come to pass. As a kid and aspiring guitarist, I used to watch Jimi Hendrix footage at the Monterey Pop Festival. It was his first big festival in the States under his name. You know, it’s where he burned his guitar.
As I would watch, I would, as many kids do, imagine myself playing the same festival, under the lights with my own band. Playing my music as he was his.
Last Saturday, June 26th, I did. I played the Monterey Blues Festival at the same fairgrounds where Hendrix played. It was awesome.
I’m still buzzing from it. I’ve attached a couple if pics from it, with better ones to come.
The arc of life can be amazing. I’ve done lots of gigs and local festivals. And I’ve toured over fourteen countries with other groups. But this one was special. And now, 48 hours later, on the heels of that-my first national festival performance, I’m on a flight to my first international tour in Switzerland under my name.
You could say it was a good weekend.

We’rs on the charts!

admin — Mon, 10 May 2010 03:54:26 +0000

Thanks to all of our fans, and the very cool radio stations, The “Addicted To The Blues” CD is currently #22 on the Roots Music Report for Blues. Thank you so much!!

http://www.rootsmusicreport.com/index.php?page=charts&name=blues

And #11 on the Roots Music Report for California.

http://www.rootsmusicreport.com/index.php?page=statechart&state=CA

Uh-oh

admin — Wed, 05 May 2010 17:49:11 +0000

You know, airplane flights and me are always fun. Except for my back. It is on fire right now. Thankfully I have something to take for it. Looking forward to getting to Memphis, just not the second leg of these flights.

Starting the trip

admin — Wed, 05 May 2010 12:33:02 +0000

5:30am, waiting at the airport the plane to get here. Looking forward to the trip. I was up late last night, so I’m going to seriously going to sleep on the plane!

What have I forgotten?

admin — Tue, 04 May 2010 23:52:42 +0000

Trying to check my list twice as I get ready for this weekend. Guitar? Check! Clothes? Almost. Some are still drying. My favorite shirt wasn’t ready.
Everyone will be at this event. Gotta be sharp.
Thanks to you all that have the app. Now if you could go to my sites page (via this app)for either facebook, Twitter, or reverbnation and post about this iPhone app, the music, and this blog, it would be awesome!
You can also reply to tweets via this app @philgatesmusic or hashtag #PhilGatesBand
Stay tuned!