General Music Chat

Colors,

You might want to look around and get some sort of simple performance contract. If you get an event like this again get something signed ahead of time.

I wasnt questioning your song choice, I would just suggest having some of the good dance rock numbers in your bag of tricks. An event like this pulling something stupic to you out of the hat like Louie Louie, Wipeout, or even Wild Thing can win over people.

I play a couple of times a month these days. And people always request newer material. We play Audioslave, Puddle of Mudd, 3 Doors Down and they just sit there when we do this stuff. I start Sweet Home and the dance floor fills up, Roadhouse Blues the dance floor fills up, Hard To Handle the dance floor fills up. Why I dont know, I would rather play something newer and more challenging just like you. I just suggest as you build a song list to have a few of these in there just in case you run into that kinda crowd.

I wish you luck, I really do. I just hate to see people practice for a year or two go out and noone responds.

I'd call her back and leave a message that starts with.......I would like to leave a message for that..... MORON....event lady that said she would call me.....ya may get a call back.

I got a ton of replys with that word here on BM.....just kidding.....consider it to be history and try and book another show for the 4th......or keep it simple and enjoy the 4th..........good luck..............X

I think Colors nailed this one frankly. Stop it and/or make it clear before anything goes wry on you. In fact its so sensible an idea I'm surprised I didn't offer that one up myself

From Colors.

You might want to look around and get some sort of simple performance contract. If you get an event like this again get something signed ahead of time

.

Ummm, errr, Chippy, that was from J.W.
Put the shrooms down and step away from the rooster.

LOL, Man I'm startin to think we need to call PETA, LOL that rooster bound to be gettin sore by now.

Back to the performance contracts. I cant get the one I have to load here. But for simple club gigs you probably dont need them. In fact when I mentioned a contract to most clubs it turns them off, but when you are dealing with an organization for a festival or fair there is ussually a committee in charge of entertainment. You can find out this info thru the local chamber of commerce, ussually. Thru this find out who heads up the committee and who has authority to hire bands. Get to this person, as was said earlier ussually these people are unorganized, why well cause they have regular lives like all us and they ussually are on these committes as volunteer. Which means they arent compensated. I just thought that I should add this to the thread. If you are an active band you might want to have some sort of basic contract on hand. WHen someone asks for one and you hand it to them it will make you look way more professional than the band that says "Whats that man?"

In short even if the people that you deal with act unprofessional there is no reason for you as a musician to act unprofessional. It might make you feel better to cuss someone out or leave messages or write nasty letters, but you never know who will see these. It might prevent you from ever getting contacted again. What Ive found over the years that unless you have a very established name in the business, you may have to visit a potential gig a number ot times before you actually get the gig. This past sat at our Rally gig we gave out around 10 promo packs for potential gigs. Do I expect to book something, realistically no I dont. Almost every gig Ive ever done there is always someone there that wants to book us into another club or venue or party. I always give them the info they need and how to contact us. I dont give a price until they call unless they ask. Most of these things dont pan out unless you can get to the person in charge of booking and more importantly paying you.

Good Luck

The person I was in contact with was an employee of a radio station that was in charge of this event. It was my understanding, as JW put it, there was a committee, and she was the head person in charge of hiring the band. So we had the right contact person; she just didn't call us back.

I would never cuss anyone out or berate them. Like I said earlier, I have no desire to burn bridges. I may have to deal with this person again in the future for another event, or next year for the 4th of July.

As for contracts - our drummer has performance contracts printed up. He's used them in his previous bands. We would have used one here, but we never got far enough into the negotiations to get to that point; this gig wasn't a lock. The only conversation we had was about the possibility of them needing a band to fill a time slot, but they didn't know for sure because this conversation took place prior to the deadline for the country showdown. The promise from the coordinator was that she would call us after the sign up deadline passed, when they knew how many contestants they had, and then we would know if they needed a band or not. If they needed a band, we would audition with her, and if she liked us we'd sign a contract and come play.

It's a chain of events that never got very far because she never called us back.


The bottom line for me is that this episode is over with. It didn't pan out; big deal. We're moving on. We will be playing out soon, and we're going to do everything we can to establish ourselves as a top notch local band.

Colors,

I play a couple of times a month these days. And people always request newer material. We play Audioslave, Puddle of Mudd, 3 Doors Down and they just sit there when we do this stuff. I start Sweet Home and the dance floor fills up, Roadhouse Blues the dance floor fills up, Hard To Handle the dance floor fills up. Why I dont know, I would rather play something newer and more challenging just like you. I just suggest as you build a song list to have a few of these in there just in case you run into that kinda crowd.

I wish you luck, I really do. I just hate to see people practice for a year or two go out and noone responds.

Man, Audioslave is not really dance stuff, hehe

I understand what you're saying. I think it matters a whole bunch if people can dance to a song. We do some 3 Doors Down, and I already know people aren't going to dance to that because it's not dance-friendly beat. But we have stuff in our bag for folks to dance to. Lit has a great song we do called "My Own Worst Enemy". Really easy song; good dance beat, should get people on the floor, and it's newer. And we have a blast playing it. I'm kind of hoping we can mine some more of those sorts of songs for bars/clubs.

Colors,

The last post or two wasnt aimed at you. I ussually just try to add to post that I can relate too and add my 2 cents. I often learn things myself readind someone elses post that reminds me of things I need to be doing.

I try to add little things from my perspective to these threads so others in the same boat can look at their own situations and see some of the potholes that can pop up. Im sure that there are lots of people on here that are on the verge of their own first gig and they get so excited that they forget to cover all their bases and something happens to make it a bad experience. I have been in bands that a couple of bad deals blew the band apart or ran off a member, and then we all know what happens. You are back at square one. A thread like this is a real case scenario and others that just read this may get some little bit of info that helps them thru a gig.

I think you will find as you start booking that there is no tryed and true way to lock down a gig. I have booked stuff with a third party and everything went as planned, Ive booked things with the person in charge agreed on prices shook hands and everything has blown up in my face at the last minute.

Good Luck with your band, you guys are going to rock the house somewhere real soon Im sure. Please dont take my adds to your threads as negative, Ive been in your shoes on some of these things and I would hope you have a positive experience.

Have a Great Day

No problem JW

Lit has a great song we do called "My Own Worst Enemy".

Love that song!!!! Bass player turned me on to it when it first came out and as soon as I heard it, I had to get the whole CD. Glad I did. Lots of good songs there.

One of a well known producer's rep's was supposed to call me "right back" after finishing the call she was on. After I called "the next day" and still didn't get the call I sent an e-mail that may have been a slight over reaction and not totally professional either, but that's a big pet peeve of mine and NO, it was not professional of them at all! If a supplier does that to a company, they may get replaced by another. If their attitude is "your just another...." then it's their bad move, not yours!
I've been on both sides of the business world and that is VERY unprofessional !

Sorry if this has been already mentioned because I only skim-read the comments but always be sure to get some sort of gig contract in advance sorted out. Get the details down and signed. If you have a clause that cancellations must be made within a certain time frame (say 48 hours) or otherwise incur an cancellation fee then they'll be sure to let you know in advance if they change their mind.

If they're not willing to commit to signing in the first place then this should give you some infomation about the sincerity of the booking.

Even for an amateur band it is worth getting these things done properly. The musician's union (UK) has examples of booking contracts that can be used. I'm sure there is an equivalent group in the US.

A relevent topic in another forum,

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthrea ... g+contract

Well, in summation, I would say that any response that shows one's dissatisfaction with the way things are being run, to the ppl in charge, would be even more unprofessional.

Remember that two non-pros does not equal a pro!