General Music Chat

Lately I have been out trying to book the band in some new venue's we are getting kind of tired of playing the same old places while it is a lot easier to play the usual venue's because those gigs just come to me (I have a good repore with them and they call me) thats really the lazy way out. So I have been out there hustleing and as usual it seems the more things change the more they stay the same. While because of our reputation and years of playing a lot of the new places have heard of us and I have been having some success. I have been hitting several venue's a week dropping off press packs and meeting and greeting club owners and managers. any way I dropped off a press pack about 3 weeks ago at this one place and I always call back about a week later to follow up and see if the manager had a chance to listen to it yet and maybe book us and this place called me back to book us as they had a band cancel well 2 days before we were supposed to play they called to say they had double booked and needed to cancel us as they had already booked some one else first and were giving the gig to them, the manager didn't even have the nads to call me she gave the dirty work to a sub-ordenate and when I asked if we could book another date to make up for this cancellation she told me to call the manager and now she won't take my call. Well about an hour before they called an agency we work with had called asking if we were open for that same night and I told them no because we had this gig lined up (by the time I called them back to try and book the one from the agency they had already booked it).
Oh the trials and tribulations of leading a band

Sucks, dont it.

Yeah, when some ppl flook up, they get embarassed & don't wanna face you at all. They're the ones who have others handle the dirty work of informing you, & then, of coursem they're afraid to face you to apologise or work out a new date.

It's happened to me a few times over the years too, & all you can do is keep on keeping on.

Better luck next time, JH.

I was double booked one time. They still paid me. I explained that all my bandmembers were rather counting heavily on that income and needed to be paid. You got to teach these idiots not to do that sh*t.

ALWAYS make em sign a contract. Problem solved.
I should of course take my own advise, then I would be suing for one years salary plus 3.5% of second year profit's off of the shitbag club owner that just screwed me, Instead of suing in small claims.
He verbally agreed to my contract but he never signed anything... My mistake!


www.myspace.com/blunderingeye
www.myspace.com/445175001
http://ezfolk.com/audio/bands/6039/
http://bandmix.com/hayden-king/
hayden_king2000 on yahoo messenger

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We do a lot of outdoor gigs...festivals and whatnot. Have a signed contract with the 'Act of God' clause. Get paid for not playing...how cool is that?

We also do a lot of outdoor gigs festivals and we do have a rainout clause where we get paid 50% of the gig pay if we can't set up due to the rain, and if we set up and play one song and then get rained out we get payed all of the money. These are under contract, but these small little dives I mean how many of you guy's out there get them to sign a contract, I have found if they are going to screw you and I have been burned under a contract by a rather large Corp. (Banana Joes) it doesn't matter whether or not you are under contract they are going to screw you anyway. I know, I know but if you have the contract you can take them to court and sue them, well I am not going to let myself get that worked up over $400.00 just let it go, LET IT GO MAN this sh!t will give you a heart attack if you let it just move on. I had a similar situation do this in the past and I was going to take them to court but a friend talked me out of it and I am glad he did because this one venue 1099 me last year for $4000.00 thats what we made from one venue, so you see some times it pays to swallow your pride
This one place that cancelled on us is a small biker bar venue and I thought if I just be patient and work with them maybe we can get in, the pay won't be that great $400.00 of which is our minimum $100.00 a man but right now we are 3 piece so the money is splitting up a lot better. This venue is very close to all of us and I am trying to keep all gigs close of which I have managed to do so far the most any of us drive to gigs is about 20 miles but I am not going to call them I'll just wait and if they call well I'll have the upper hand. There are plenty of places around here to play the competition for these gigs is fiece because there are a lot of want to be's playing for $250.00 or $300.00 and these bands sound pretty bad but they have a lot of friends. So for now I am going to just stay focused on the big picture and move on and LET IT GO MAN!

Don't LET IT GO. I assume your band has a decent following/songlist. Tell the shitbag owner that you are going to inform all of your fanlist what the shitbag owner did to you and your fans are to BOYCOTT that club. Also I assume you know other bands and musicians that play in that club. Tell them also to BOYCOTT the club owner UNLESS he pays you what he owes. Use your influence. If somebody hurts you then you hurt that somebody. Make him hurt or think he's going to be hurt and he'll come around and pay you.

I'm with Bob. Don't take that crap.
Because then he'll be encouraged to keep handing out that crap to 100 more bands over the years.
Don't encourage him, or you'll be helping him to hurt a lot of people.
Geez . . stand up for yourself, man . . . don't help him . . .

You could name the club and contact on every site you know, so others are wary. Maybe we should have a ban the club board!

Don't LET IT GO. I assume your band has a decent following/songlist. Tell the shitbag owner that you are going to inform all of your fanlist what the shitbag owner did to you and your fans are to BOYCOTT that club. Also I assume you know other bands and musicians that play in that club. Tell them also to BOYCOTT the club owner UNLESS he pays you what he owes. Use your influence. If somebody hurts you then you hurt that somebody. Make him hurt or think he's going to be hurt and he'll come around and pay you.

that didn't work in this town. I called the other act I'd booked and told them the club owner ripped me off and didn't pay me... they immediately called him and made sure that they could still play. Posers will stab their mother in the neck to get on stage. They'll do anything except the work that it takes to do it right.

In a town with an actual music community you can count on other artist's to back you up.
Sue the bastard and spread the word among the other act's that he's a rip off club owner!

www.myspace.com/blunderingeye
www.myspace.com/445175001
http://ezfolk.com/audio/bands/6039/
http://bandmix.com/hayden-king/
hayden_king2000 on yahoo messenger

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It's the same thing down here HK the posers are just the same! It won't do any good

I disagree it won't do any good. Let's say 10-20 of your fans regularly visit this club and spend $10-$20 a night each on food/drinks. Let's say they stop showing up. Within a few months your dirtbag owner is down HUNDREDS of dollars. Let's say your fans tell their friends not to show up, your dirtbag owner stands to lose many thousands of dollars over time. We've got a dirtbag owner in K.C. who actually went on the local prime time news to beg people to patronize his establishment. Boo hoo. The word is out (spread by ripped off bands) that he's slime. Boo hoo. He's going out of business. Boo hoo. Did you know that bad news spreads SEVEN TIMES FASTER THAN GOOD NEWS? If somebody's dealing sh*t he'll get it back in spades IF you spread the word my friend. You did your part (I assume), now it's time for Mr. Dirtbag to do his part, if not it's time for Mr. Dirtbag to end up titties up. Boo hoo.....

Oh and another thing. What possible incentive is there for underpaid or not paid bands to promote their shows? If you're a dickbrain who regularly plays for free why even bother telling anybody about it? Don't these idiot owners understand that paying bands is an INVESTMENT like PAID ADVERTISING? I don't get it. I get all juiced up when we land a new paid gig. I contact everyone I know and tell them to tell their friends etc. Paying bands, especially good bands with a following, is a DAMN INVESTMENT. GET WITH THE PROGRAM!! (Sorry for the rant, this sh*t REALLY pisses me off (Can you tell?))

You could name the club and contact on every site you know, so others are wary. Maybe we should have a ban the club board!

Im sorry to get in the middle of this. But this is the last thing you should do. They will find out and you may find yourself blacklisted from not just this club but others as well.

My opinion but this is very bad judgement and you obviously havent been in this business long. CLub owners in an area are a small group of people and Ive found thru the years that they do talk to each other and discuss bands.

My advice is dont burn any bridges cause sooner or later you will run into this same person again. Do you think they will hire you if you slander their name all over the place? I wouldnt!

This situation sucks Haley, but it goes with the territory. WHen I have issues with a club owner or any business problem in general I go and talk to them face to face and see if I can resolve it. I have one club that for some reason will not hire our band but I go back any chance I get and see the guy in charge so he knows we are interested and ready to rock his world when the time comes.

Not to defend a club owner, but a lot of them have a lot on their plate going on and have plenty of groups that want to play their venue. When I book a date I try to see people face to face and try to watch them write my dates on their calendar. Most of them use some sort of calendar.

I have tryed contracts but Ive pissed more owners off suggesting this than I ve been able to get to sign one. If you grow above the club stage Im sure its a standard thing but at the club level I really doubt you are going to get many to sign one.

Good Luck and just keep plugging away. Sounds like you are doing a great job getting gigs in new places.