A
lesson in how to get Hawkwind played on the Radio!
(it's not as hard as it might seem)
Well the single came out and lets be honest it's performance was a a bit of a let down, all of is who had any involvement in it need to learn lessons from it and put it down to experience.
Regardless though of the singles lack of success what we can be proud of is the amount of exposure that the band has received whether it be by various radio interviews that they've carried out and also by fans requesting to hear the band.
Over the last few weeks I'd like to think I've learnt a few tricks on how to get regular success in this field, it's a great form of exposure for the band and apart from your time costs virtually nothing, however like anything there is an element of "playing the system" and below are a few tips.
1) Target the right stations - Don't bother with your average independent local stations such as "Essex Radio" etc, they couldn't care less about Hawkwind and bands of their ilk, they are only interested in top 40 garbage. Far better options are specialist stations, 2 of the best being "Total Rock" and "Radio Caroline" who seem more than happy to play the Hawks and I've had pretty much 100% success in getting the band played when I send in a request, I've had both the original and new version of SOTA on Caroline as well as Silver Machine last night (Children Of The Sun is also a fave of theirs!) and Total Rock have played SOTA three afternoons on the trot thanks to requests.
2) Follow up e-mails - Hopefully we create more of a buzz around the band and in turn this'll mean that more of you will be putting in requests, if you hear Hawkwind on the radio, contact the station ASAP and tell them how "bloody wonderful" it was! (or something similar)
3) Alternate e-mail accounts - Tad naughty this one but what the hell, unlike the major labels we're not going around buying up handfulls of our artists singles just so they chart! There's nothing to stop you opening new e-mail accounts with the likes of Yahoo and Hotmail and many other free services, and what's to stop you opening them up for friends and relatives? (in reality for your own use, use made up names) The theory here is that you can send requests from these accounts to bolster interest and you don't have to rely on other to help you out. But to the station it looks as though there's a lot more interest out there.
4) Just try and shoehorn Hawkwind in where ever possible - The ultimate aim has to be to get new material played but this will not always be possible but even getting the name Hawkwind mentioned will help in spreading the word.The other day on Caroline they were asking folks to e-mail in with suggestions for cover versions that were better than the originals, I put forward the Hawks version of "Gimme Shelter" (actually the original is one of my all time faves but they don't need to know that!) and sure enough this was read out - Hawkwind got a mention, then using one of my "alternate" e-mails I replied disagreeing with my own thoughts, result a second mention of Hawkwind and whilst my second persona didn't agree he was a Hawkwind fan and was off out on Monday to buy Take Me To Your Leader, guess what that was read out as well, result - a free advert for the band!
well there are a few ideas that hopefully will spur you on, it's not definitive my any means and there are more than one way to skin a cat but if it inspires a few of you to "Spread The Word" then great. Above all else it can be quite fun.
Like
most things it helps if there's an exchange of information amongst us so if you have some
luck or have further suggestions then as ever please get in touch by -
E-MAILING HERE
One other thing, don't forget that there's a long list of potentially "Hawkwind friendly" stations on the chart trek update page, to take a look -
And scroll down.
Anyway good luck with this, lets hear more Hawkwind on the radio!
Just one last thing by way of a disclaimer, these ideas are mine and mine alone, I cannot say whether Hawkwind or Voiceprint records would approve of these tactics (but they do work!)