How to use this site

livemusic.fm is a new online community for live music fanatics all over the UK. Once you've set up a punter profile, you'll be able to create a calendar of the best live gigs in your area and, if you're sufficiently blown away (or even let down) then post a review.

You'll also be able to tell livemusic.fm about any upcoming gigs we haven't heard about, or write a review of one we missed. We're always looking for regular contributors too, so if you want to become one of our lmfm reviewers then let us know by emailing us at the bottom of this page.

___________________________________________________________________

SETTING UP YOUR PUNTER PROFILE

Setting up your livemusic.fm account is easy. All we need is an email address, where you're based, and a few details about the kind of music you like. Just hit Sign Up and follow the step-by-step process.

You can then upload a mugshot of yourself, and any great live gig pics you have, as well. You can also choose whether you want to allow other like-minded punters to contact you. Stalkers need not apply or we'll delete your dirty mac-wearing profile... or worse we'll send Lemmy round to pay you a visit!

INVITING YOUR MATES

Once you've registered and logged in to your profile you can invite your mates.
Just click the red button to invite your mates - you can either invite them by just entering their email addresses OR, if you have a G-mail, Hotmail or Yahoo Mail account you can add users directly from your address book!

You can track how many people have accepted by clicking on 'Your Invitations' at any time - and LMFM will let you know if they've already signed up! Once they've accepted and signed up they will automatically be added to your 'My Mates' list.

ADDING YOUR MATES on LMFM

To add friends already on LMFM just go to their user profile page and click the 'Add X to My Mates' button on their profile - they then get a chance to accept or reject you (just in case you're a weird web stalker or they owe you money) - and it's as easy as that!

READ REVIEWS

To read a review, just click on the Reviews section. You can narrow down the results by selecting date, A-Z alphabetical listing, or music genre. Once you've seen a review you want just click on it and get reading.

If you can't find a review of a gig you were at then you can always write one yourself. Click Post a Review, look through the listings and select the gig you want to write about (See Write a Review below).

VIEW THE LIVE MUSIC LISTING

Clicking the Listings tab gives you this month's upcoming gigs in your area. If you're not logged in it will list gigs from all over the UK, so it's always best to Log In and/or Sign Up so you know what's going on in your backyard - it will then default to the location you put in your profile. You can also filter results by searching for particular genres, having a look at LMFM featured artists, or having a look at gigs in other locations if you're going on a road trip!

Once you've found a kick-arse gig, add it to your calendar – and you'll be able to see other punters who've done the same. You can then use the bulletin board to find out if anyone wants to meet up before hand.

Don't forget to click the black Archive button if you're looking for a gig that's been and gone and you wanna look at the review - or even write one yourself!
You can then further filter results by choosing Location and How Far Back from the drop-down menus ... Which leads us to...

WRITE A REVIEW

Blown away by a great gig and want to let others know how good it was? Just check the listings and if the gig's there click on Add a Review of this Gig and write it up. And if you've got any great pics from the gig then you can always upload them as well.

If your gig's not listed in the Live Music Archive then click Add an Old Event. Once you've entered the details you can go straight through to posting your review by clicking on the Add A Review of this Gig link.

NB. You can only Add Events or Add Reviews once you're Logged In ;)

LET US KNOW ABOUT AN UPCOMING GIG

If you want to let people know about an upcoming gig just hit Add an Event in the Listings page. Give us the Band Info, Venue and date of the gig and it will be automatically added to the lmfm listings in your area. And if the lmfm big cheese or lmfm reviewers think it's worth knowing about, they'll add it to the recommended list.

NB. You can only Add Events once you're Logged In.

SEARCH FOR STUFF

Wherever you are in the site, you can search by Band Name, or Gig venue and you'll hopefully find what you're looking for. The results will list Band Info, Venues, Gigs and Reviews if we've got any in the LMFM database.

MY CALENDAR
So you're wondering what that Calendar means eh? Well, dates in RED are where there's been a gig or one coming up according to our LMFM database. If there's a date in BLUE it means you've added the gig to your own personal calendar.

Oh, so you don't know how to do that eh? Well any event in the Listings, either in the Archive, or coming up soon allows you to Add This To My Calendar (or just Add Me if it's in the Archive). You can then keep a track of gigs you're going to and gigs you've been to. You can even have a look at who else is going by clicking the See List of Punters link. If they're nice accomodating dudes you can even contact them through LMFM to meet up before hand for a sneaky sherbert!

FEATURED ARTISTS

livemusic.fm aims to keep you at the ragged cutting-edge of live music, so we'll be putting the spotlight on the unsung heroes we think you need to know about. We'll profile them on our Featured Artists pages where you'll be able to see their upcoming live listings, look through their photo galleries and listen to a few sample tracks. And because we're always scouring the land for shit-hot acts we'll keep adding artists - bringing live music to your ears.

BULLETIN BOARDS

The Bulletin boards give you a space to join in the debate, make yourself heard and let people know if you're going to a nearby gig. There's one for each location and each of our featured artists so you can hook up with fellow punters. Keep it clean tho or we'll delete your arse! Just click Add Notice to start a new discussion thread ... or have a look at someone else's post and if it floats your boat (or narks you) then hit reply!

HOT FUSS

We're not just big music enthusiasts. We're good natured souls who tramp around the musical landscape with our ears to ground - and we love nothing more than to spread the word. So we'll let you know what's going on and what's coming up in the live music scene. And we don't mean when Whatsisname's next full-frontal nude photo shoot is being published in the gossip magazines, OR whether So-and-So's sulky lead-singer snorts more cocaine than a bunch of Premiership footballers on a night out in Chelsea ...

If it doesn't relate to live music, we couldn't give a flying fuck.

___________________________________________________________________

FORMATTING OPTIONS
Ok Mr Fancy Pants , don't get too excited there's not a lot you can do when writing up your review. But you can make stuff italic by using the 'em' command in the old HTML angle-brackets, you know these ones - < > So Basic HTML is basically OK ... <strong> <em> <a> ... And don't forget to close the brackets when you want to stop formatting by using a back slash with the relevant command e.g.</strong>

Everything else just follow instructions in the page and use the drop-downs to add Genre, Location and Upload Pictures. Adding Tags, sperated by commas, helps our database find stuff so if you can be arsed put them in.

___________________________________________________________________

Still haven't got it? Or wanna become one of our roving Gig Reviewers?
Email us at info@livemusic.fm