Want to see your favourite bands? Bring 'em in yourself

ON THE RECORD: JIM CARROLLon music

THERE IS one area of the music business that has remained impervious to change and disruption. The live music sector still operates the same way it did decades ago. The promoter puts on shows, the agent books the bands and the fee, ticket price, venue and other ins and outs of putting on a show are decided between the pair.

There are occasional deviations when new promoters enter the field, yet the model remains robust and intact because it suits all sides of the sector’s permanent establishment.

Still, anyone seeking to shake things up can take heart from Queremos. Tired of seeing their favourite bands not visiting Rio de Janeiro, six friends set up Queremos to bring acts such as LCD Soundsystem, Miike Snow, Primal Scream, Belle Sebastian, Vampire Weekend and many more to the city. Nouvelle Vague and Tame Impala are due to play Queremos shows in the coming weeks.

Using fund-it-yourself tools and social media to raise finance and promote the shows, Queremos shows what can be done by music fans who want to do more than just support the existing infrastructure. One of the main reasons the friends set it up was because they kept hearing that there was no demand in Rio for the bands they wanted to see. By doing it themselves, they’ve shown that the market exists to support alternative shows in the city.

With any luck, we’ll see efforts by fans elsewhere to do something similar. After all, if you’re frustrated by how the traditional players control the live music market, there’s nothing to stop you having a go yourself. Just remember that the best way to end up with a million in the live music game is to start with ten million and you’ll be fine.

#Now Playing

Bill Fay Life Is People” (Dead Oceans)

The welcome return of Bill Fay, the English singer-songwriter with the glorious voice and tender, majestic songs.

James Murphy Pat Mahoney “Beats In Space” (Beats In Space)

LCD Soundsystem and DFA Records duo drop heavyweight disco and funk on Tim Sweeney’s radio show from 2008.

Various “Country Soul Sisters” (Soul Jazz)

Forthcoming compilation of country’s most soulful queenpins, including Jeannie C Riley, Bobbie Gentry, Kitty Wells, Patsy Cline and more.

Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti “Mature Themes” (4AD)

Robust, dynamic set of jams and songs on the follow-up to “Before Today”

Two Inch Punch “Saturn: The Slow Jams EP” (PMR)

Futuristic, slo-mo, soulful electronics from Ben Ash, who plays Dublin’s Twisted Pepper tonight.

New Music

THE BLACK OPERA

Collective of "artistic freedom fighters" also producing banging hip-hop tunes. Now hooked up with the Mello Music label and working with producers Apollo Brown, Tall Black Guy, 14KT, Nick Speed and J-Rell. Check out Opera Hands from their upcoming EnterMission album. Theblackopera.com

HOLY ESQUE

Glasgow art students producing powerful, graceful, stunning sounds with touches of dramatic grandstanding ( partly down to singer Pat Hynes’s distinctive voice). A tour with Wu Lyf, an EP release and new tune, Tear, has set them up as ones to watch in the coming months.

[ Soundcloud.com/holyesque ]

RAH RAH

The second band from Regina, in Canada’s Saskatchewan province, to feature here in recent times, Rah Rah hooked us with the epic big music drawl of new single Art and A Wife from their forthcoming The Poet’s Dead album.Sparkling, harmonic indie pop à la Broken Social Scene.

[ Rahrahband.com ]

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