I was at the first one. The idea in theory and the intentions were pretty admirable and sincere;however i do recall that virtually ALL the music press (i.e hotpress and many newspapers) refused to advertise it didnt they? given that it was independantly promoted? Thats just Ireland and the middle aged students that run the U2 Loving s**te that is CrapPress I guess....
And afterwards, very few wrote and published reviews? I do remember that the night itself was a success in that the bands got to play in the olympia and hundreds showed up...the standard was really good..
However, i think the reality is this; promotion of gigs is a royal pain in the arse for which the costs in terms of time allocation, financial costs and benefits there of really dont add up at the end. Ultimately unless it is done in conjunction with a label as a development showcase of sorts; where a&r guys show up to watch 7/8 groups play or the whole thing was at least semi financed by someone in main stream media....it probably wouldnt be any different to any other gig except it would cost 5 grand....
What you could do, and this is probably really cynical..is take a band, from scratch...document them for six months....gig them around the country....pitch it to a tv station to follow them around...finishing in a big gig supporting an established band...
but that maybe defeats the whole purpose i dunno
Gigs are organised every other weekend and the folks organising them do it for the love of new music....
Heres an idea; perhaps run a gig on the same night as a