Inside Band Management | How Lucid Liars Built an Independent Band

It's Thursday and you know what that means.

Robbo here on the blog.

“I didn’t choose the thug life; the thug life chose me.” — Tupac Shakur.

The famous phrase above comes to mind when I’m asked about managing bands, which I’ve been doing on and off since 2005.

Before I dive into my time managing Lucid Liars, I wanted to take the opportunity to clear a few things up, as I often find that people get promoters, booking agents, bookers and managers confused. So I’ll briefly touch on the first three before taking a more in-depth look at the role of a band manager.

A promoter will book a venue and hire an act, or sometimes a full bill of acts. They carry the biggest financial risk, as they have to hope they sell enough tickets to ensure everyone—including themselves—gets paid.

A booking agent arranges live gigs for a roster of artists and tries to negotiate the best possible deal with the promoter in exchange for a 10–20% commission. It doesn’t sound like much, but imagine earning 10% of a Taylor Swift tour.

A booker is someone who is usually paid a set fee by a venue to deal with enquiries from promoters and bands, ensuring the venue maintains a strong programme of events.

This brings me to a more in-depth look at being a manager.

Band management is one of the more unusual aspects of the music industry. To become a band manager, you are usually appointed by a collective of individuals to effectively become their boss.

In comparison, it’s a bit like the staff at Tesco approaching someone and asking them to come in and be in charge of them.

Imagine hiring someone who will, on occasion, critique the way you stack a shelf or tell you there’s a lack of interest in the new line of biscuits you’ve spent a sizeable amount of time setting up, and that they now need to be moved to the bargain bin.

Prior to the first lockdown, I had been approached by the original line-up of Lucid Liars about becoming involved with the band. They had played a gig in Edinburgh and, if I remember correctly, had ended up chasing a promoter for weeks for £40 they were owed. That experience prompted them to start thinking about new ways of conducting themselves within the music industry.

As desperate as that sounds, I can relate to both the band and the promoter. To borrow from the Richard Branson quote, “If you want to be a millionaire, start with a billion dollars and launch a new airline,” the same can be said about grassroots music. But that’s a whole other blog.

“The measure of success is being able to get up in the morning and go to bed at night, and in between, do what you want.” — Iggy in The 51st State, played by Rhys Ifans.

That quote has always stuck with me, which is why the first thing I asked Rikki from Lucid Liars was what he wanted for his band, such as whether he wanted a record deal or to tour the USA with The Cure.

He laughed and told me that, while he wouldn’t turn down that tour, he wanted someone to handle the management of the band and, in the absence of a booking agent, take care of the live side.

His thoughts on getting a record deal were very level-headed, as he said he had a job he loved and was earning good money, so they were looking to operate as an independent entity.

This has very much been the attitude we have adopted over the last few years and, as a unit, the five of us have encouraged each other creatively to have a DIO (Do It Ourselves) attitude, whether it be the band recording and mixing their own albums, Jacktwo designing visuals, or Rikki designing the album artwork—everything in-house.

A great example of this is that, less than 24 hours after buying a camera, having previously taken shots for the band at night across Inshes and the UHI campus with an iPhone, I was photographing the band at the Raigmore Motel, where the likes of Biffy Clyro, The Fratellis, The Kaiser Chiefs and others had played.

One of the things I quickly wanted to instil in the band was that being selective and not gigging around the same areas too often can work in a band’s favour.

People in Inverness are very lucky to have bars such as The Market Bar, Johnny Foxes, Hootananny, The Highlander and Gellions providing live music every night of the week, but this brings its own problems. If original artists perform too frequently locally, it becomes harder to attract a crowd. Even the most supportive wives and parents will eventually stop showing up.

By limiting the number of gigs the band plays, it has allowed their audience numbers to increase every year.

At the start of each year, I make a wish list with the band of venues and/or cities where we would like to take the show.

Arranging this can be difficult at times, as it involves being patient while waiting for responses from bookers. The band has also experienced numerous gigs with other bands where they seem 100% committed to not bringing any equipment and would be quite happy for an Inverness band to travel 100+ miles with a drum kit.

Outside of this, taking their music to cities such as Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen and even London has breathed new life into the band, whilst also building camaraderie and team spirit. If you ever wanted to get to know someone, try travelling eight hours in a day with them in a car.

It’s not always easy following this process, with plenty of blood, sweat, tears and, not to mention, money lost, but to me, being able to do what we want really is the measure of success.