Bands Using Promotion: Reverend and the Makers

Reverend and the Makers are a band I came across at Y Not Festival, in Pikehall, Matlock over the summer. At the festival, I would say these were one of my highlights simply because of the electric and slightly chaotic atmosphere that ensued once they arrived on the stage. Reverend and the Makers are a band from Sheffield, so a lot of my friends were aware of them prior to the festival. Once they took the stage their catchy rock hit "Heavyweight Champion of the World" was a massive success and I immediately became a fan.

One of my friends at the festival, was scrolling through Twitter with me one afternoon when we came across a Tweet from Reverend and the Makers official twitter account "Anyone want this at theres?" with a clip from a performance that the lead singer, Jon Mclure, did at someone's house.

Immediately my friend was desperate to get in touch with the band, and after a few messages back and forth he was told what he needed to do in order for it to happen. All that Jon Mclure wanted was 40 pre-orders of his their new album "Mirrors" and it to be proved by screenshot and messaged to the band on twitter. The way we were able to tell this was legitimate was the fact it was the bands official twitter page, and it was verified. As well as this, they are not as big as bands such as One Direction, and are fairly local to us so it seemed more achievable to get them to perform for us.

A venue was arranged in Pilsley, at the Star Pub, and when Jon Mclure arrived, he brought lead singer from Sheffield band 'The Sherlock's' with him, who performed their hit song "Escapade" to an electric crowd.
Jon performed hits such as "Heavyweight Champion", "Open Your Window", and a few others. The reception was amazing and he had many photographs with people after his performance, sticking around for a few drinks.



I feel that the fact Jon promoted Reverend and the Makers new album Mirrors in this way, made more people feel close to him, and them as a band. Therefore they will feel more passionate about the album, feeling it is from a 'friend' and word of mouth will spread about how good their set was etc. I think this form of promotion is amazing, as it reflects how artists can give back to their loyal fans in a way that is fun for both.

Here is a video from the night of Jon singing "Heavyweight Champion", taken on my phone. Speaking as a fan, and from my experience, being that close to a singer of a band you admire and being within that atmosphere, shows how vital artists being close to their fans is if they want to sell records, and also get a reputation as being a "nice guy" in Jon's case. As word quickly spread of everyone's night in Pilsley, sparking a lot of interest for potentially new fans - which is brilliant for Reverend and The Makers publicity.