Quote Originally Posted by Wales-Bales View Post
It's two advances which seems to be the going rate these days, one for an EP and a larger one for a followup album. The booking agents are a separate deal. It's not a massive amount though, and I'd imagine it's pretty standard with the labels spreading their cash around in the hope of landing a big fish. The obvious exception would be if a band turned up fully formed with a pile of existing material.

It will probably all end in tears for most new artists these days, and they'll be working in Tesco by the time they reach their mid-20's, but I suppose it's a bit of fun and a good life experience. It took bands like Fontaines D.C. 4 albums to get where they are now money wise, while plenty of other talented people are still struggling along, and going back to Cameron Winter he would have been one of them if he hadn't taken matters into his own hands.
In 2017 Fontaine’s DC played a pub gig in London. There were approximately 20 of us in there, including Steve Lamacq, who has ‘championed’ them ever since. They wanted to play Cardiff, and I booked them to play in Undertone (now closed) with a capacity of around 70. The next day their manager called me to say that a record company rep was also in the crowd, and that they were meeting in Dublin to sign a 4 album deal (inc a Grian solo), and we’d have to rearrange the gig after the album was finished.
They honoured their commitment, and eventually played at The Moon, probably the most people I’ve ever seen in there….the album was getting a lot of airplay on 6 music by this time, and their popularity rising.
They’ve completed the deal now, and for me the 1st and the last albums are the best, the middle ones are a bit meh, and obviously churned out to satisfy the record company.
It’s amazing to see how they’ve progressed, personally I thought The Murder Capital, also from Dublin, and starting out around the same time, were better, but I guess it’s all about being in the right place at the right time!
They are a great bunch though, and I’m glad they’ve “made it”, they recently played at Cardiff Castle, and their manager contacted me to invite me to the show, and remembered the gig across the street, just over 7 years ago.