Recently my partner and I played host and hostess to a House Warming party. Needless to say we had many Pagans and Alternative Spiritualists friends turn up. I had Clannad, Wendy Rule, Inkubus Sukkubus etc blearing on my CD player

The foot tapping and little jigs that spontaneously occurred throughout the evening but not as often as when Gaia Consort was being heard and very much appreciated.

Needless to say, I lost count of how many times that night I was asked who is that remarkable group ,,, at least a dozen converts left that night with Gaia Consort on their lips and the medlody still playing in their head.

On Tuesday the 4th November Gaia Consort will be listed as the Featured Artists of the Month in The Cosmic Cauldron Newsletter and as per my usual courtesy will get two months FREE promotion.

Gaia Consort is a magical and mystical sound of Celtic Rock Folk. A Most Remarkable Band and well worth purchasing their CDs.

When I sent a message to the band informing of them that they were to be the Featured Artists of the month I noticed a particular blog on their MySpace page. It read in part as follows:

"Our biggest challenge is getting Gaia Consort out to different towns. We really do want to come to all the places people want us, but traveling any distance with 8 players and a sound tech (and if we're doing it right, a lighting tech!) is just INSANELY expensive. The way it generally works is that Sue and I don't charge a performance fee, but still costs roughly $1000 for the rest of the crew. Then if there is any travel, you have either airfare or gas, food and motels. It quickly adds up to multiple thousands of dollars if we have to fly. And the truncated version of the band just doesn't work as well - have a liseten to Vitus Dance and there are not many songs that can do without any of the parts in them. We've had big festivals that would like us but can't afford to get us there.

So I'm trying an experiment: I've added the Eventful "Demand It" link to the Gaia Consort page and our myspace page. If we can get 100 people within a days drive of Seattle, WA we can play there. We could possibly even do a weekend of Spokane / Boise if we knew we had 100 people signed up. Same thing with Portland / Eugene. If we had 300 to 500 people demanding us in one town, we could pretty much find a way to get there and make it work. It doesn't sound like a lot of people when you think of the really famous, but at our level, 300 people in a new town would be like superstardom.

If you'd like us to come to your town, please visit http://ww.gaiaconsort.com or the Gaia Consort myspace page OR the Eventful page at http://eventful.com/performers?q=gaia%20consort and let us know you want us where you are! Who knows, we could have 500 people in Indiana that want us to come there and play. When people get together to make things happen, all kinds of stuff is possible."

So I rattled off another message to the Band asking them if there was any chance of getting them to tour downunder. Chris B just as quickly shot off a reply:

"Australia's in the air it seems - we just had Penelpoe Swales stay with us for a few days while she played around town...

I've thought about putting up a sign on our site that says Gaia Consort will play anywhere in the continental US for $15,000.00 We get a faur number of inquiries, but of course, no one has the money it takes, and I can only do so many break-even / vacation days a year.

By the time the airfare, hotel and meals are covered, that's about what it would take for the players to break even and make their mortgage / rent. It's truly insane, and it's why we haven't been able to tour.

Depending on airfare and local costs, I'm guessing you'd need to add something like another $5,000.00 for a total of about $20,000.00 - but I'd have to look at airfares first.

I'm really glad the music is doing something for you all and I really appreciate your interest - we'd love to come, but that's the kind of money that's involved to get people for that kind of time. We'e lucky to pull off as many shows as we do locally. Anything is possible, but it's rough set of expenses."

Well, I don't know about anyone else but I would like to see and hear them live. If you haven't heard of Gaia Consort, wander over to their website and give your ears some magical music.

Blessings

~ The Wayfinder ~