Homecoming: Behind the Scenes

Hello blogosphere! The music committee is absolutely thrilled that Rogue Wave and the Ting Tings agreed to play at William and Mary, but I want to take this chance to give everyone a closer look at the process that went into booking them.

The music booking industry, as I'm sure many of you know, is complicated and at times really quite frustrating. We've been discussing the Homecoming show for four months and putting in offers to bands for the past three. As a committee, we always strive to: 1) ensure that we bring W&M a spectacular event, and 2) appeal, whenever possible, to sections of the campus that have not been represented by our past acts. Being turned down several times before finally having an offer work out is an entirely routine part of this process.

We put in several offers this fall that were declined (whether due to scheduling conflicts, our low budget, or various other factors). Spoon, M.I.A., Old Crow Medicine Show, Rilo Kiley, Girl Talk, Flobots, Michelle Branch, Death Cab for Cutie, De La Soul, and the Cool Kids all turned us down. De La Soul even did so twice. This is nothing to take personally in the music business, it happens to every venue all the time.

In addition to formal offers that were turned down, we also contacted agents about well over 100 other bands that students routinely request. The agents were able to tell us right away that these bands were unavailable. Among these were: The Decemberists Fleet Foxes, the National, Ben Folds, Sarah Bareilles, Sufjan Stevens, State Radio, Eric Church, Matt Nathanson, Feist, Andrew Bird, My Morning Jacket, All American Rejects, Matisyahu, Queens of the Stone Age, Robert Randolph, the North Mississippi Allstars, Gavin Degraw, the Hold Steady + the Drive by Truckers. The simple fact is that 95% of bands we contact agents about are either unavailable or uninterested.

This blog post, though it might seem a bit glum, isn’t. These are the realities of the music booking industry, and UCAB has been coping with them for years. Keep giving us feedback, and we’ll keep trying our absolute hardest to bring what you want to William and Mary! It’s taken hours and hours of work and frustration to arrive at Rogue Wave and the Ting Tings, but we are ecstatic with the result.

Stay tuned: next week I may have an announcement about a show later in the semester. If I don’t, expect a post about who I think would win a battle between the greatest musicians of all time: Bruce Springsteen and Prince.

sean o'mealia