Nightflying: Notes from the Pub

    The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do…
            ---Steve Jobs

    Greetings from beneath the typewriter! It is now 3:32 a.m. in this fm day, as I sit to make my final adjustments to this issue. It is the 29th Anniversary of this publication and as hard as we try we just can't imagine a better job situation: We hang around in bars, listen to music, watch great shows, take pictures of cute babes and go to all-night parties and call it a job. Now I ask you: is this a great country or what?!!!
    Now then…the 30th year technically started on December 9th and it will be going all year long. Of course, years are funny things. Sometimes they seem to take forever. And other times they just fly on by almost without notice…where you wake up one day and it's a totally different year and you feel as though you have lost something somewhere. (Personally, I'm still waiting for Y2K…)

    In looking back through these 29 years all I can say is "Wow!" I know that's a deep concept for many of you, but bear with me here.
    It was a snowy evening in 1980 when we were finally putting the final touches on our debut issue. We'd been working on it for months. In fact, we had finished the pages and were proofing over everything to see if we could improve anything. The good folks in Fayetteville had lined up to buy ads, and I had told them we're on the press about 4 a.m., and we'd simply drop bundles of papers on their doorsteps so they'd find them when they got to work.
    Someone turned on the radio (I had turned it off to hopefully be able to think straight in the final hours). The dj interupted whatever was playing to announce that it had just come across the wire that John Lennon had just been shot. A few minutes later he came on again with the terrible news that the Beatle was dead.
    We immediately pulled up something to get that news into the pages. Then we were off to the printer.
    Many of those club people got to work and found the first-ever Nightflying, and saw the news about John for the first time.
    By accident we ended up scooping every other Arkansas publication with that dreadful news.
    Of course, in these high-tech cyber-space times such news flies around the world in seconds…but that was then and the internet was but a private dream used exclusively by the government.
    Yes, kids, as hard as it is now to imagine, media was primarily newspapers, magazines, radio and television.
    We plodded along as a local publication in Northwest Arkansas. First it was monthly and then we print every two weeks. By Summer of 1982 so much interest had been shown from throughout the state we kicked it up to statewide and dropped back to once per month. There was a budding music industry in Arkansas at the time - at least many of the elements were there - and we did our best to find the information and get it out there. That was a start anyway…

    It wasn't a difficult jump to make. I had been touring incessantly for many years and would always notice that when I was back in Arkansas the local musicians were of much higher caliber than many of the "stars" I would see throughout the country. The unfortunate truth was that our musicians - myself included - were nearly all being ignored by the local media.
    I'd always loved the so-called 'underground papers' I knew as a teenager in Seattle, especially for their penchant for getting out news that that "major" papers ignored. As I was living in a motel room in Colorado during one extended gig it dawned on me that perhaps what the players in Arkansas needed was their own all-music publication. When I got back to my mountaintop in the Ozarks I ran the idea by as many musicians I could and they all said "go for it…"
    Thus, NF was born.

    In 1983 we attended the US Festival at the invitation of the promoter, Steve Wozniak - who co-founded Apple computers. That was our first taste of national press credentials.
    In 1985 I relocated from Northwest Arkansas to Central Arkansas. The truth is, Fayetteville is an unrivaled party town in these parts, and getting things accomplished for a state-wide publication became a real challenge for those like us who tend to, um, party hard. It only made sense to be right in the middle of the state (where we still are located).
    In 1987, Nightflying teamed with 13 other publications from throughout the country to create South By Southwest - a fledgling music festival spearheaded by the Austin Chronicle in Texas' capitol city. Little did we know at the time that SXSW would grow to become the largest music and media conference in the world. That first year we showcased around 200 bands and thought it was good. Last year, SXSW showcased nearly 2000 bands from all parts of the world. We still think it's good.
    Through the years Nightflying has sponsored many artists at the fest, including Jubilee Dive, David & The Immatures, Fifth Cliff, The Gunbunnies, Richard Johnson, The Tares (times 2), Burger, Runaway Planet, Blues Patrol, Punkinhead (times 2), The Skeeter Hawks, Lucero, A Good Fight, The Franklin-Devlin Band and many more.
    All in all, it's been a great festival. While none of these artists have "broken through" as they say, they have all come away from SXSW enriched, and Lucero and A Good Fight might be on the verge of doing just that…hitting the big time.

    That same year (1987) I again relocated, this time to the wilds of Little Rock. At this point we began to add venues in our neighboring states, essentially kicking out the state line to include such areas as Southern Missouri, the Memphis area, Eastern Oklahoma and even northeast Texas. Then, when the casinos began operating on the west coast of Mississippi we added that info, too.
    Essentially things went exceptionally well, until I looked out the window one day and actually watched a man get shot to death. I remember thinking then that 'I'm paying for this privelege, and I get to watch this kind of entertainment.' It occurred to me that we tend to go to our advertisers and there's no reason we can't do this from the country. We then relocated once more to our farm near Petit Jean Mountain - The Nightflying Compound - where if you hear gunshots at night (or any other time) people aren't shooting people…they're maybe poaching a squirrel or raccoon or rabbit or something. Indeed, the only time they're shooting other people is when they probably deserve it (it IS the country, you know…)

    Many folks have asked about our format, and especially why we list so many venues in our pages. The answer is quite simple, actually. When I was touring the country the single hardest thing to find was where to play. I depended mostly on referrals from club owners and managers for where to book gigs in the next city. Hey, you can spend your whole life on the phone in your search (and keep in mind these were also pre-cell-phone days, too, and calling Long Distance was prohibitively expensive to say the least.) In making the plan for this publication the main thing was to create a work-guide for musicians…and it still is. This is why we list the addresses, phones and the contacts whenever we can. (Some bar owners don't wish to have their names listed…but then some folks are wanted…) After all, even the best musicians need to know where they can work, as well as how to contact the buyers, and where to send the press materials.
    Another question I hear all the time is "Why do you list all these concerts many states away?" If you look at a map of the state you'll see that every one of the concert dates we list is actually only hours from somewhere in Arkansas, and people will drive great distances for the right shows. True, the internet now provides most of these listings along with many others that we don't list. Fact is, we tend to weed through the plethora of show dates we find and narrow the list down so that we only provide the best concert dates, as well as those with specific interest to our readers (as in Arkansas musicians doing well).
    It also helps us to assist in concert-routing for many of our local venues who pick up on national tours of name artists. Oft-times the names are, essentially, unrecognizable to the general public, so we try to point to those up-and-coming bands that we think will be breaking through.
    This has been the case with many, many players through the years. A good example was the band Bela Fleck & The Flecktones back in the 80s, who did a show at Juanita's. Sure, your hard-core music fans probably knew the name, but the general public did not as the group had no top 40-type hits on the radio. Fast-forward to now and Bela Fleck & The Flecktones are in great demand the world over. That also happened with some guy named Dave Matthews early on, and at the same venue.

    Another comment I hear often is something like "How do you make any money giving away your publication?" Consider that if you sell something you have to be concerned with stuff like sales tax and all the accounting nightmares that go with selling a product. As a free publication it falls into the category of promotional item…you don't have to account for every copy…you don't have to mess with sales tax…and what's more, after each run any old issues simply get recycled.
    Truth is, we find very few old copies left when we distribute each new issue. On average we pick up less than 200-300 copies to be recycled, and many of these are simply ragged or yellowed or have had beer spilled on them. Not bad if I do say so myself.

    Nowadays we spend our days on the road most of the time, but are close enough to make it on home virtually every night. That's a misnomer. Usually I'm coming in about the time folks are sleepily heading off to town to go to work. It's a great feeling to know that while I sleep they will be handling the world with all its issues.
    So.
    As mentioned in last issue, this year we decided to pass on the usual anniversary parties. December is just too full of activities as it is.
    Instead we're planning to throw 5 parties this year, celebrating 30 years of Nightflying. These will be in Central Arkansas, Hot Springs, Fort Smith, Fayetteville and
Eureka Springs…our five primary areas in Arkansas.
    We'll definitely let you know when and where so keep your eyes on these pages.
    We'll see you again toward the end of January so watch for us.
    I wish for everyone to have a wonderful Holiday and just think, this strange year is just about outa here.
    We'll see you again, then, next issue and, gasp, next year…….

Nightflying Publications
P.O. Box 250276
Little Rock, AR 72225
Phone: (501)354-8577
Fax: (501)354-1994
For advertising information (print or electronic), call, write or
E-mail to: info@nightflying.com.