Music promotion is a tricky business, but one Brisbane-based
promoter is carving out a place for himself in the tough industry. James Geekie,
affectionately referred to by friends as “Geeks”, is a local heavy metal musician
and promoter. After an early start in concert promotion in his childhood home
in country Victoria, he has gone from strength to strength, booking and
performing ever larger shows. Today he is one of the best known heavy music
promoters in Brisbane, and is known across the country for his professionally
run metal and heavy-music gigs.
“The first ever gig I put on was when I was like fourteen,
at school,” James says of his early start. “I just organised three school
bands, charged $2 entry at lunch time and got like a hundred people there.”
This small start helped cement a plan in the young promoter/musician’s head. “I
thought… I’m onto something here, this is pretty easy to do.”
This was the first step in a long journey, as soon James was
working with local government to hold concerts for the local youth.
“I went from there to working with local Victorian council.
They had this awesome initiative down there called Freeza where they’d
basically put on gigs every month for youth because out in country
Victoria - or country anywhere – there’s
not that much to do.”
These tentative early steps were important in solidifying
the young promoter’s knowledge and invaluable with gaining professional
connections that he still uses to this day.
“You start getting mentored by the older people, and all the
guys in all the bands and stuff like that,” said James. “That’s when I first
started working with the guys from (seminal Melbourne grindcore act) Blood
Duster and stuff when they came up from Melbourne.”
“I didn’t really do much in Melbourne because Melbourne just
seemed so vast. You know, it’s really intimidating,” he says of his experience
putting on concerts in the entertainment hub. “I only put on about two or three
shows basically around my band and came up here (Brisbane)… and started going
to shows at the Basement.”
As with a lot of local heavy music fans, defunct metal venue
Her Majesty’s Basement played a pivotal role in James’ development as he
recognised a gap in the market as he realised there “really wasn’t much variety
in terms of metal shows,” and he set about to correct the problem. He got in
touch with the resident promoters and began learning the ropes, working for
free until he could learn more about his new city.
”I mean, that’s the main thing I always say to young promoters
who expect to get paid… just, learn the ropes.”
From there his work began to pick up speed, but not without
some hitches. Most notable was the loss of the Basement, Brisbane’s primary
heavy music venue.
“Basically I just started to get ready to start putting on
shows more frequently at the Basement when it closed down,” says Geekie. “Everyone
was just throwing their hands up in the air… because there was literally
nowhere to play.”
“So I got together with (HMB promoter) Scott Moss and we wrote
up… a two and a half- three page business plan of what the metal crowd can
bring to a venue and then went around the CBD handing it out to pub owners.” This
proved a hard road for the aspiring promoter. “We got laughed at like five or
six times,” he says, sarcastically adding, “You know, like, as if we’re going
to give up the trendy crowd.”
But Fate was feeling generous and soon, through pure chance,
Geekie found a viable venue.
“We threw the business plan underneath the door at Rosie’s
at 8 o’clock at night on a Tuesday and it just so happened that the brand new
owner was sitting there.” The venue’s owner saw this written business plan
flutter down the stairs and leapt on the opportunity. “I mean the place was all
closed and they just saw this piece of paper come down the steps as they were
sitting there talking about how they could turn the place into a live venue,”
says Geekie on the act of kismet.
“So we had literally December to build a stage, put in a PA
and book two months-worth of shows… It basically took off from there, and because
that sort of position of prominence, if you will, of having the only
alternative venue meant that all the touring international promoters
started to come to us.”
While that level of prominence as a venue allows a certain scope
over the larger scene, James says the backlash to such monopoly has proven
beneficial to the scene in general.
“That (monopoly) in itself becomes a negative thing as you
piss off people over the years… so people start screaming for more venues, and
that’s fine because if it was still like that today, with one venue… the scene
would be so much more inbred and incestuous.”
Today, Geekie plugs away with further promotion, including involvement
in prominent metal club-night, Monstrothic, as well as building a career as a
musician in the bands Defamer and Shellfin, and supporting Australian and New
Zealand heavy music through his independent record label, Obsidian Records.
Karl Anderson
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