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![[Nightflying Notes From The Pub]](http://www.nightflying.com/pub.gif)
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…….
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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.
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