18th May 2008
We have decided to close our index of UK bands to further applications. Now that more than 1,300 British rock bands have registered with us, we want to focus our efforts on developing our roster.
Our main focus for the next few months will be working through programmed services with our A list bands: those bands that are already on or which are about to be taken taken to our roster of top bands.
We will also provide specific, on-demand services for bands on our B list. Such services include press and PR, media plugging, career path consultancy and promotional projects.
We are also working to develop and strengthen our relationships with record labels, producers and merch companies.
We will also be looking to take on new blood into the organisation. We hope to recruit dedicated and experienced individuals to join our management team and to forge strategic alliances with other companies.
Plans for 2008
GYBO has been developing and evolving over 2007. Our Christmas Newsletter looks at the forthcoming year and reflects on the year just passing:
GYBO wishes you all a rocking crimbo and a highly successful new year. Let's make LIVE music, the best music and here's to another rockin year in 2008.
GYBO is looking forward to a really good year, better then ever, and we plan to go from strength to
strength. Over the past month we have been planning the year ahead, signing up some really great bands, sorting out and organising the agency, so that we can be more effective than before. So here are some headlines:
BAND MANAGEMENT
GYBO is now going to be a band management agency. We have signed a roster of really good bands to
work with next year. Our main focus will be to help these bands to become commercially effective crews.
80% of our available work time will go into supporting our managed bands.
BAND DEVELOPMENT
There are always new, up and coming bands with potential and promise and we want to devote some
resources to helping new bands to get a foot on the ladder. We will be doing this mainly through our band development workshops. Bands from all over the country have headed into Leicester to spend time with us and their feedback has been very postive and encouraging. We will continue to run our Saturday workshops to help bands to get a firm foothold on what they are doing.
SIGNING TO RECORD LABELS
One of the key things we will be doing next year is to continue our work with labels, getting our key bands signed and managing their contracts to get the best out-turn for them. We will extend our contacts in the industry and establish a reputation for talent-spotting the best new bands.
LEAN, MEAN, MACHINE
GYBO plans to be much tighter and more focused in the year ahead. We tried all sort of things over 2007 and as soon as we started offering certain services to bands, we quickly got swamped and unable to do
an effective job. We have learned from these mistakes. There are still a lot of services that bands need
but instead of trying to do everything ourselves, we will select and work through specialist companies, our channel partners for the delivery of the best supplies.
We have chosen WE GOT TICKETS to be our partner for online bookings. They are the one company that is totally dedicated to live music. They stand out as being the best choice for ticketing and they are great dudes to work with.
For live music concerts, gigs and showcase events, ARTS IN LEICESTERSHIRE will be our event organisers and we will work with selected promoters to put on shows in a variety of venues.
A FEW GOODBYES
In order to devote more time to our roster of rock bands, we have had to say goodbye to our soloist roster, the talented artists who are bringing so much good stuff to the live music scene but not in the rock genre. Soon to dissappear from cyberspace are sites that have served us well: pinkangelpromotions.co.uk, which is being laid to rest in favour of our new umbrella - UK MUSIC
PROMOTIONS.
THANKS
There are so many people we want to thank for their support over 2007. Not least the many bands that have turned up and played at the shows we put on. We had some crackingly good bands at our INDIE
SUMMER shows, at PRIDE ROCK and at the various other gigs we put on, including those awesome nights at Scruffy Murphys in Brum. Thank you bands - you really gave us some stompingly good music to mosh to.
Special mention must be made to the small but dedicated team of people who have supported us at
various times through the year: Dale Draycott, our projects person (he's a legend at spotting new bands), James Shaw, who pushed the boat out as our marketing guru, Jason Westall, Nicola Reid, Ben Taylor and several others who gave up their time to help us. We are looking forward to Phillipa Hambly joining us in March. Thanks dudes - we so appreciate all that you did for us this year.
We are also very grateful for the support given to us by our principal suppliers: The Central Business Centre for our office space, Cafe Networks for our broadband stream, Paul Cowper for our excellent web
server and IT services, The Shed for putting on several of our best bands, The Sun Bar for hosting our
Indie Summer shows and many more businesses without whose dedicated services we would not have been able to rock.
Let's all raise our beer mugs and toast 2008!!
The GYBO Index of UK Rock Bands
To find out what has happened to our index of UK rock bands, go the news page about the UK Rock Bands Index.
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