HOW TO PLAY

If you'd like to play at Lumi, we need to tell you how things are around here right now. We only promote between 2-4 of the shows internally each month; the rest are promoted by external promoters who book their own acts and hire the room from us.

When we do book our own shows, and get a headliner, then try and look for support acts, we find that the agent, label and manager of the headline act end up wanting to book the supports themselves, using their own acts, or the headliner wants to bring their friend's band with them, so it's not so easy to find space for supports that we'd like to work with. And on top of that we tend toward two band bills (headliner + one support), all of which makes it difficult to find you a slot.

So what's the best thing for you to do?

Keep an eye on the events listings on this site (use the calendar on the left) and if you see a 'Luminaire presents' show that you know you would musically compliment if you were on the bill, email bookings@theluminaire.co.uk(please use this address unless you're an artist who's looking for a show. It's all it's good for) and we'll see what can be done. We get so many requests that we're only able to reply if we can help. Bear in mind that we prefer links to Myspace pages or website where we can listen to music, as opposed to MP3s or CDs.

If you can't see any 'Luminaire presents' shows, you're not looking hard enough. If you're looking really hard and still can't see any, then click here.

Please, again, only email us about a specific show that you want to support on. Even if your band is the best band in the world and you have a large bag of gold bullion at your feet, we still can't get you a gig unless we have a slot that you'll work in, so take your time looking over the listings and don't request a support slot if you know that you don't really have much in common with the headliner.

All we're concerned with is how good you sound, so if you get in touch don't worry about photographs and sprinkling your correspondence with "amazing"s and "ground-breaking"s. And don't feel obliged to say that you can bring 50 people down. We don't book bands on that basis (we just book bands we like) and there's no way you can guarantee it anyway, unless you work in people trafficking, and if you work in people trafficking we're afraid we can't give you a gig, no matter how good your band is.

Please do include the following though:

• A contact name and telephone number
• A working email address
• A link to your website where music can be heard.

Otherwise, get in touch with the promoters who're hiring the venue (all the shows on our events pages that don't say 'The Luminaire presents') and see if they can work with you. You should contact them via their own websites and Myspace pages. Be sure to make sure your music is compatible with what they do first; there's no point asking a promoter who specialises in gentle country-folk for a gig if you're a tech-metal band. If you're having a hard time getting in touch and you're convinced that your band is perfect for one of their shows, email bookings@theluminaire.co.uk and we'll try and put you in touch. Note that, again, because we get so many requests, we'll just forward your email to the promoter and ask them to contact you if they can offer a support slot.

Note that we welcome all hire queries, so if you're keen to play, drop us an email and we can see if there's a hire option that'll work for you. It'll probably be cheaper than you think.