Thursday 5 November 2015

The Funkstick Plan

The Funkstick Plan 03/11/2015 I am currently developing a Funk, Soul and MOBO band. The band is based around music created by Lane and Lane.

Band line-up and requirements
We're currently fronted by the superb vocals of Kes C. We have a keyboardist and a bassist. Ideally we need a drummer and a guitarist, and it would be good if one of these was a vocalist. Other potential members could be percussion and brass. At the moment, no-one is automatically included or excluded, it depends on people's willingness to go with the programme and ability to contribute.

Track creation
Tracks are currently written and part-produced by Jane Lane, aiming to stick within a broadly funk/soul remit, a MOBO pop style.

Pre-Tour Tracks
We're on the verge of releasing two tracks for review next week: "When Tomorrow Comes" and "Real".

Promotional Plan
These tracks are going out in advance of the tour with a promotional package to a number of radio stations. We have a wide circuit of stations to send them to, and when we send them out we'll negotiate interviews for next year.

Tour Schedule
An ever updating tour schedule is on the next page.

Format
The plan is to interview at a local radio station and go on to a big local shopping mall, promoted by the station. Then possibly a proper evening gig. We do this in each area we cover.

Support
If we have no support we'll be going under the banner of "Action on Hearing Loss", which will enable us to book the shopping malls. So this will entail further calls to them to work with them and establish what we can and can't do in their name. We also hope then to enlist a signer.

Order of Events
Briefly, we plan to write, rehearse and record until around January/February. We will develop a multi-part backing for each track. At the same time we'll fill up our diary and send out the two flagship tracks and a few funky jingles to announce our coming.

Press coverage is critical at this stage and throughout.

Prep
In our rehearsals we will need to enlist other musicians. If we succeed we can remove some backing parts. This may happen at any stage of the tour, we'll keep on searching for those reliable enough and with a strong enough contribution to make.

We'll complete a CD for sale to add to band profits.

We will also develop an interview with a great interviewer to save too many actual visits, with a space saying where the gigs will take place or pointing to our website list.

Performances
Performances will improve our skills and I guess at the shopping malls we can play as often as we like.

Profits
We will have to agree the balance of split for the charity and us, and develop a reliable strategy so that performers get something and we get something commensurate with the cost of recording etc. Agreement must be in place about all funds.

Further Activity
We'll also make a video if our numbers grow enough. As the tour continues we can book more serious second wave of events. Contact should be made with the serious pluggers we made contact with last year, who may want a piece of what we're doing.