UK Bands Use New Technologies To Promote Spontaneous Guerrilla Performances

From Wired.com: “Punk is back, and it’s got a laptop. A new breed of alternative British rocker is once again giving the finger to the corporate music machine, thanks to an arsenal of do-it-yourself new media. Organizing using the Web, cell phones and instant messaging, upstart guitar bands are staging secret, spontaneous concerts at unconventional venues in the latest online music craze, dubbed “guerrilla gigging.”

The lifeblood of a resurgent London music scene, guerrilla gigs came to prominence when one of the capital’s hottest new acts, The Others, last month commandeered two London Underground carriages to perform an impromptu set for 200 fans. While better-established bands might have needed several months and a costly marketing campaign to pull it off, The Others summoned the crowd in just a few hours, with a cryptic message to the band’s Web forum members to meet at a local pub.

Once assembled, fans used SMS messages to tip off friends across town before moving to a nearby tube station to pack an eastbound train for a furious 30-minute set — belted out using a megaphone while onlookers crowd-surfed in transit. While free concerts are not new, unknown acts’ recent success in distributing music, building a fan base and calling ad hoc performances online eschews the marketing channels of the increasingly risk-averse major record labels, whose support was traditionally seen as critical to finding fame.

Building on the spontaneous public gatherings that are flash mobs, guerrilla gigs took off in November, when Jane’s Addiction flashed notices of London performances to fans using SMS cell-phone messages. This year, celebrated English rockers The Libertines joined in when they started using a fans’ forum to announce concerts for their most loyal followers at the last minute.

Now more and more new artists are finding their relationships with fans, won by giving away MP3s and mingling in message boards, are as rewarding as any pre-planned tour, producing an immediate and energetic crowd for even the most hastily arranged performances.

hypebot: Using technology to liberate your music from corporate constraints, connect with your fans, and bring back spontinaity. That is smart, cool, and rock ‘n roll all at the same time !

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