Eh up! Jason here. I haven’t posted anything on this blog yet, so I thought I’d write a little bit about what I want handshakes promotions to be.

I remember when I was about 15, my older brother had just started doing gigs with his first band “The Starfish”. They’d play a lot of different venues around Norwich, The Marquee, The King Edward, The Catherine Wheel, The Ferryboat (RIP) and every show seemed to have such a different energy to the ones I go to now. It may of been because I was young and the whole thing was new to me, but I think something changed in the Norwich music scene.

I blame the death of The Ferryboat for a lot of that. It was an amazing place to hang out, and the perfect place for local bands to play. There was just something brilliant about it. It felt like when it closed something changed.

When my brothers band played, they would play with a bunch of different bands, they’d become friends, start doing gigs together, their fans would hear both bands and another band would come along. Rinse and repeat. Before you knew it, fans of the other bands would start to show up at Starfish gigs and vice versa, even if their friends bands weren’t playing. There was a real community to it. Ironically this was before social networking websites had even taken off.

Kylie picked the name “Handshakes Promotions” but I can’t think of anything which fits better with what I hope we can achieve.

I want like minded bands to meet. I want their fans to meet. I want them to start playing shows together and for those communities to form again. I want new bands to have a good chance at playing at a good venue with well established bands, and for them to get their own fan base quickly.

So far we have heard from loads of bands who are looking for gigs, and I can’t wait to get them all playing and meeting other bands they can work with to put on their own shows.

Too often I go to gigs, and as soon as a band is finished, they pack up, leave and take their friends with them. The crowd dies down and by the time the head liner gets to the stage, they are playing to a room of their own friends. Its always fun to play for your friends, but what is the point unless you are reaching new people?

If you are the kind of band that plans to do this, you need not apply, and if you do apply, we won’t book you twice. Obviously not everyone can always stay to the end of a show, but its so important that you support the bands you are playing with, and ask your fans to do the same. You never know, you might hear something you like and get some gigs out of it.

I am going to be printing and handing out fliers at each gig, with the bands who played listed. It will include their websites, facebook pages and myspace addresses. If you like the band, when you get home, like them on facebook, friend them on myspace, and check out more of their shows if you can get to them.

We can put on as many gigs as we like, but its you people, the bands, the fans and the venues which makes the whole thing worth while. We don’t want to make any money out of this. We want Norwich to be THE place to play, and if we find some awesome new bands to listen to on the way, then thats just gravy.

See you at the gigs soon. Its going to be epic.