Booking a First Gig

Describes the steps involved in a putting on a public performance by a new musical group, including finding an opportunity, preparing for the event, and doing a show professionally.

Reviewed with A. R. Schaefer's Forming a Band.

Gr. 5-8. Part of the high-interest, easy-to-read series Rock Music Library (a misnomer, since books provide advice for aspiring band members, not information about the rock genre), these volumes will attract readers for their edgy design, photos of scruffy-looking teens, and references to the real-world music scene. The content seems fairly intuitive ("Bands must practice before their gigs") and even unintentionally humorous ("Beginning bands often have difficulty getting asked to make a public performance"), so older reluctant readers probably won't be seduced by the series' hip pretensions. But the straightforward presentation of basic issues, from auditioning members in Forming a Band to the importance of self-promotion in Booking a First Gig, may inspire younger musicians to take action on fantasies of rock stardom. Each book ends with a somewhat desultory glossary and some useful resources, including a feature called "FactHound," which allows online access via a password to several relevant, prescreened Web sites. Jennifer Mattson
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