S-P-U-T-N-I-K
Being a staff member at Sputnik, I see lots of bands come and go. I know the whole routine: band books show; band promotes show; band plays show; and sometimes repeat.

Show promotion is an especially interesting step because of the varying ways in which different bands promote their respective shows. Most choose the tried-and-true method of creating and handing out flyers.

Hundreds of bands and flyers later, I feel armed with the knowledge that no two flyers are created equal. Some bands obviously spend more time and money on their flyers than others. Aesthetics aside, the most important factor of any flyer is the accuracy of its information. I cannot even begin to estimate the number of flyers that I have seen with faulty information on them.

The most redundant offense would be the way in which bands creatively name Sputnik. "Sputknick", "Sputnick", "Sputnic", and the ever popular "Sputnik's" have all been found on band flyers. Let's spell it together S-P-U-T-N-I-K. Sputnik. That wasn't so hard now was it? Keep this tidbit, taken from Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia, in mind when thinking of the name:

Sputnik, name of the first of several artificial satellites launched by the Soviet Union from 1957 to 1961. The goals of the Sputnik program included studying the earth's upper atmosphere, observing animal survival in space flight, and testing Soviet rocket technology. The launch of the unmanned Sputnik 1 and of Sputnik 2, which carried a dog, spurred the United States to invest more money and resources into its fledgling space program, initiating a race between the two nations to land a person on the moon.

To quote Sputnik owner Johnnie Coolrock, "It's 'Sputnik' like the satellite; not 'Sputnik's' like a delicatessen."

The most recent example I can think of would be the flyers and posters created by So Far... (sorry to publicly embarrass you but it's for your own good). The date and bands playing were all accurate; however, the most important part of the entire flyer was all jumbled:

Sputniks
1867 Dixey Highway

The flyer should have read:

Sputnik
18067 Dixie Highway

I am not unfamiliar with flyer making, as I have made many flyers myself. The last flyer I made was for the Chris Connelly show in May, which was featured in the Chicago Sun-Times. I promoted the show, made the flyers and posters, and contacted every newspaper. But before I ran off to Kinko's to get a 1000 hand-outs and 10 posters printed up, I read and reread the flyer over and over again to make sure the information was correct.

Of course, we all make mistakes. But the flyer mentioned above gets the address, street name, AND business name wrong. Such false information could potentially confuse the individual looking for the venue when he tries to find a non-existent address on a non-existent street. Thereby, making the promotion almost pointless. It may seem superfluous but it IS important. To get a decent amount of promo materials printed usually costs about $40... why waste it with such faulty information?

Granted, there are many bands (bless their hearts) that never have a problem information, specifically the name. But I still do not understand why there is confusion. No one ever calls the Metro, "Mettro" or "Metros" and "Sputnik" is a mere two letters longer than "Metro". Does the "k" throw people off?

Whatever the case, please keep in mind who we are. It's at the top of this page, on our logo, in a huge neon sign on our storefront, and even in the phone book. Sputnik.

© 2001 Sputnik