Page 37 - Black Velvet Issue 85

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BlackVelvetMagazine.Com - 37

What does a ruthless to the max. I am very lucky that I have
g e n e r a l gotten into this young and had the chance to
working day learn from my mistakes and learnt very fast
or week who you can trust and who you can't trust.
usually con-
sist of? Highlight(s) of your career so far?
Watching all 100% my headline gig with Snoop Dogg in
the music Middlesbrough. We did it in the city centre and
channels on 5000 people turned up and it was such a mas-
Sky, getting sive moment for me after trying for over two
on the phone years to get him. When I booked Jamie T and
and having Sum 41 for the first time as well I felt like I'd
the crack made it as they were the two acts I wanted to
Name, Age & Location: with all the book when I first started.
Ben Hathaway, 26, Lichfield. agents and managers, emailing and looking
online to see when bands are releasing new
If you could meet one of your inspirations
What do you do - or what do you aim to do? albums and playing festivals as you can gauge and ask them one question, who would you
I work within Coventry Kasbah and Middles- when they are touring from all of this. like to meet and what question would you
brough Empire and book and promote multi- ask?
genre acts into venues all over the UK. My aim Best purchase that’s helped your career so My inspirations come from people in my day to
is and always has been to work with the best far? day life, friends and family and people I work
upcoming and my favourite acts and make a My Blackberry when I first started was amaz- with so can't really say I have a key inspiration.
living out of it. ing as I could send and receive emails when-
ever I wanted! I would say if I didn't get my Advice to others that may want to follow in
How long have you been doing it for - and Blackberry and wasn't able to send impulse your footsteps?
what made you choose this career? emails I wouldn't be where I am at today. Hav- Do it for the love, passion of music and not for
I have been doing it since I was 17 years old ing a smartphone and laptop is essential in this the money, that comes later. Get yourself to
so just over 9 years now. I loved going to gigs industry. loads of gigs, listen to new music and be in-
as a teenager, going to the Carling Academy spired.
to see the likes of Klaxons, Kanye West, The
Have you had any professional training or
Streets, Arctic Monkeys and it made me want taken part in any courses to improve your Where do you go from here? Plans for the
to put on my own events and create the same career along the way? future?
electric and fantastic atmospheres. Seeing No, and I'd advise anyone to never take the I’m either going to buy my own venue or my
1000+ smiling faces at a gig and knowing educational route to get into this industry, it’s own promotion agency.
you've created that moment is a feeling I al- all about what you know and who you know,
ways love having. there is no course in the world that can pre- Website for more info:
pare you for the live industry, it’s cut throat and facebook.com/bhpagency

f f It’s not just bands that work hard, some fans do too! Every issue we shine the spotlight on
a fansite. If you devote your time to working on a website to promote a band, let us know
a a about it... and we may feature you!

Your Name:
n n Kelly Gaffney

Fansite Name:
s s FooFightersUK.com
Why and when did you decide to start your fansite?
i i I started a Facebook group in 2010 in preparation for the return
of Foo Fighters to the UK. 5 years later and we have seen num-
t t bers grow to in excess of 24,000 members. We had so many sto-
ries to tell and so many things we wanted to do as a group,
Facebook just couldn’t accommodate the ideas that we had. So
e e we created our own platform. We hold charity events, fan meets,
weekends away and in the fight against ticket touts we have re-
cently launched our own ticket exchange where fans can buy/sell can when we start one of our projects. Our website was featured
tickets at face value. There are quite a few articles on our website in various publications including The Independent, the Guardian,
regarding our #NoMoreTouts campaign and the coverage we re- Metal Hammer, Gigwise and NME.
ceived globally.
f f How long does it take you to keep the site updated? How Tell our readers why they should visit your site. What's it got?
Our site is different to most Foo Fighters fan sites out there, who
much time do you put into it? mostly concentrate on reporting news and information on the band
o o We have a whole team of people who keep our social media and and their music. Our site concentrates on the stories and journeys
of the fans themselves. Because of this, we have had articles pub-
website platform updated. Between us we probably spend around
65 hours a week. It’s not only keeping all platforms updated, it’s lished by people all over the world on our site. This is simply be-
c c collating the articles and information from fans that can take the cause there is nothing else like it out there which is purely a
platform for the fans to express themselves. There are some
time. Luckily we have a team of 10+ people across the globe who
look after different aspects of the fan sites so the load is shared. heart-warming stories on the site about various aspects of peo-
u u Does the band know about it? What 'claims to fame' has your ple’s lives, meeting the band, attending their first gig…anything
and (almost) everything. Come check us out, get involved and
site had? Coolest thing to happen to you because of the site? share your story!
s s The band do know about our website after our #NoMoreTouts Website link/URL:
campaign was covered by the media worldwide. Soundcity studios
in LA are great supporters of our site and will help in any way they www.foofightersuk.com

FANSITE FOCUS / BV CV