All dressed up & nowhere to go. . .

[SGraham]

Over the past couple of years, our band has played in a local coffee bar in South Pasadena about 7 or 8 times. Recently, the owner booked us for a once-a-month Saturday night gig for this entire year. #He gives us a nominal fee of $30 and food/drinks, but we usually do well on tips and sales of our pathetic but well intentioned CD. #Our first gig this year was to be on 1/28. A couple of local weekly papers advertised the gig, and it was even promoted on a small local radio station.
# The day before the gig, a friend called us to say that the place had just changed its hours. It was going to close an hour before we were to start playing. Not a word from the owner. They were going to let us show up at a dark, locked-up venue and have us figure it out ourselves. A call to the owner on the morning of the 28th brought a reply of, "Oh, yeah, well, it's cool dude, like I was gonna start calling people pretty soon."
# We've brought this place plenty of free advertising and a good bit of business. I was also looking forward to playing my Eastman 615 with its new Tone Gard (mando content!) for the first time in public. I'm thinking we're released from the rest of our year's gigs. What would you folks do? Has your group ever been treated like this? Do bluegrass players get treated cheaply since they're willing to play for so cheap?
Steve

[ronlane3]

Steve our group traveled about two hours for a show last year only to find out that we had been replaced in the lineup. We were told that they called to confirm and that we had canceled. Well, since only two of the band actually can do the canceling, and they did not remember a phone call, we were pretty shocked.

[manjitsu]

As Sartre wrote... "Hell is other people." Every now and then he's correct.

-Chris Rorrer

[chovie d]

you bluegrass and country people make good money.
I still have the receipt from a rock show in NYC for $10, played to 3 people in Birmingham AL for $8 and some change, drove a bazillion miles the next day to NOLA where they informed us the gig had been cancelled for over a month "didnt your booking agent tell you?".

Dont sweat the coffee shop gig too much. Gigs come and go, there will be something else down the pike much better for you.

[Jim Yates]

Steve,
You've just illustrated one good reason for a written contract. We will sometimes play with only an oral contract, if we get a really good feeling from the venu owner/promoter, but no one's ever been offended when we asked for a written contract.

[SGraham]

I'm sure you're right, chovie, but it still burns. I've played a couple score of gigs with a classical trio (violin, cello, guitar) and we've never once had an experience like I, you, chris, & ronlane have listed. Why do you suppose that is, apart from Sartre's observation?
Steve

[sbarnes]

always get a written contract with a sizeable deposit...then if they cancel you keep the deposit....
voice of experience talking here....
too many screw jobs to list

[mrbook]

The New Year's Eve before last I got a call in August from a town a couple hours away to be the primary entertainment for their New Year Celebration. People had just heard us at a bluegrass festival, and she was told to get us "at all costs." We agreed on a price (reasonable considering her directive) and I sent a contract and publicity material. When the contract didn't come back by mid-November, I contacted the woman and was told the town had cancelled the event. She assumed I would figure it out when we didn't get the contract back.

A week or so later, one of the guys in the band stopped by to see me, and we decided to look up the town's web site. We discovered that the event was still on, but that we had been replaced by a local band. All we had was a sad story to tell.

One of the band members with a telephone listed in his wife's name did call the town to order 60 tickets (at $30 each), but cancelled when they told him we weren't playing. They told him the other band was good, but he told them that he and his friends were fans who followed us everywhere we played.

[chovie d]

yeah i hear ya Steve. Never having played bluegrass or even the mandolin for money, I cant comment on how BG players are paid or treated. But having dealt with alot of club owners i can tell you that is my least favorite part of playing music. Eventually i figured out that our drummer was the guy to handle getting us paid. He always got our money for us mostly thru charm, and on the rare occassions he couldnt I decided it was best to just forget it rather than let it drain all the fun out of playing for me. i havent booked a gig or talked to the bar owner in years thank goodness. Maybe there is someone else in your group who can take some of the burden for you, or who is better at diplomacy (not sayin you arent)?

You got evey right to be miffed Steve. If you really wanna keep the gig still just go in there and talk to the guy, maybe it can be worked out?

[diamond ace]

We always use writen contracts and require a 50% deposit within 2 weeks of booking the event and it is non refundable if the date is cancled less than 14 days before the event is to take place. If for some reason we were to show up for a show and have not been informed of a cancelation we are then entitled to the sum balance that would have been payed if we played. We have yet to run into this situation but it is all covered in our contracts just in case.

[SGraham]

Thanks for the good input. You know, we take Gabriel, sbarnes, & blep's advice on written contracts in our classical gigs. Our violinist says to the person booking the event, "It would be embarrassing for you to have me chasing you around at your [wedding/corporate event/fill in the blank] asking you for money."
Our bluegrass band has also used a written contract if the fee is what we consider sizeable. We just haven't done that at coffee house/restaurant kinds of things where the fee is nominal and most of the compensation comes from tips. Would you use a written contract in this kind of venue? The point in this case wasn't really the money; we had people coming to the gig, and we wanted to PLAY.
Steve

[GTison]

call ASCAP and report that he has live music. That'll end that gig forever if they call his hand on it.

[mrbook]

Don't get ASCAP or BMI after anyone. That's just being mean, and doesn't help anyone.

I doubt the guy cut back hours to hurt you. Business may be slow and he's having a hard time, and you might have been the last thing on his mind. You might talk to him, suggesting that since he closed the hours you were scheduled to play he might have another time available. Being at the lower end of the food chain myself, you can't always work with contracts or get non-refundable deposits (for a $30 gig you get $15, right?). Most small gigs go on a word and a handshake.

[mandocrucian]

It's the cosmic inverse relation between money and garbage.

The lower the $, the more garbage you've got to deal with to get it. And vice versa.

[chovie d]

contracts are great , but as you said Steve, probably unrealistic in that situation. One time we pulled into this place to play and they had all these towels laid out for us, two cases of beer (for a three peice band!), rolling papers, a lighter, bottled water, nice tray of food and fruit, a small boombox, clean socks, all sorts of weird stuff. We said "what is all this stuff for? Us?", and the guy goes "yeah its in yur contract rider, sorry i couldnt find the small statue of budda you guys wanted". We had never seen our contract and the booking agent had thrown on this elaborate rider as a joke. It was halfway thru a two month tour and no one had attmepted to adhere to this rider except this guy (god bless him)!

[SGraham]

Chovie d: I laughed so hard my lunch went up my nose. Thanks a lot! Anyways, I guess we saw mandocrucian's law in action. Oh well, back to picking.
Steve

[jim simpson]

Once our band showed up to an outdoor gig at an orchard to discover the owner who did the bookings forgot he had hired us for this event. The other act (a soloist) was already set up in the main performing area. Thankfully the owner scooted him off to a low traffic area and ushered us onto the stage for our bit. We had played there before and since. He has always payed our asking fee even as we've had to bump it up over time (maybe we started out too low?).

[Roydw3]

Twice...once, we were to play a gig for the Restaurant Association program that was being held in the civic center. They were having a huge event where people come eat from just about every restaurant in the surrounding area. Thousands of people attend. We had played it the two previous years. Well we showed up...and began to set up. Then a jazz band showed up and wanted to share the stage. The president came over and said they booked the jazz band to play during the bulk of the event as they were having it a more formal event this year. Well, they let us set up the sound, provide all the sound equipment, mics, etc., and they let us play during the first few minutes before anyone else arrived (mostly just employess). Then they asked the Jazz band to play. We never did get back on the stage. We didn't get paid. They used all of our equipment. We were supposed to just accept the free food and drinks (doesn't help me much as I don't drink...but some of the guys got their money's worth if you know what I mean). We will never do that again.

The second time, we were the main event for a big one day festival that was set up to help a firefighter who had been injured. They were raising money to provide for his family. I set up most of the equipment, did all the mic checks, etc. We rehersed earlier in the day. Then because this was a charity event, they had contacted several different stles of bands. The first band, again using our equipment, was a hard rock band that was friends of the firemans son. They were sooooo loud and causing so much vibration that people started leaving and complaining. The owned of the hall came and told them to turn it down and back off the hard stuff. They were a bunch of snot nosed kids. They instead turned up the sound...we cut off the sound system completely, yet they had their amps turned up so loud we couldn't do anything. A few minutes later, the police came in with the owner and shut down the event. We ended up having to break everything down and didn't play that night. It was tough just keeping people from fighting. Later in the year, we had another benefit with just two country bands so that we didn't have the problem. We didn't raise as much as we had hoped to help the family, but at least we were able to play.

I have also played a couple of restaurant openings and senior citizen things where we weren't allowed to play all of our sets because people were ready to go home or because of business was slow. We had one event rained out.

Probably one of the biggest dissapointments was that we used to play at the fair and have a huge response, but they have now gone to almost all Tejano music and you have to buy a special ticket to go into the music venues. Attendance is way down at the fair in general and we haven't been asked to come back because of their new efforts. They want that alcohol, dance party, and rides revenue. They don't care about making the masses happy.

Oh well, now as a relatively new mandolin player, I am not with a band and don't know if I will ever be good enough to be in a band. This is certainly harder than playing bass and drums. I will keep jamming and someday, maybe somebody will give me a shot.

Denny

[SGraham]

Thanks for the perspective, everyone. I guess we're in good company.
# My son has been telling me recently that he wants to be a professional musician. I think I'll let him read this thread as part of his career exploration.
Steve

[GTison]

[QUOTE] It's the cosmic inverse relation between money and garbage. #

The lower the $, the more garbage you've got to deal with to get it. #And vice versa.

I love that.

We played for an event that everyone used our sound. We got 400 bucks for an all day event. Some would like this kind of money,( I guess from reading here). It was hot. And I didn't mind them using our sound that much but I didn't agree to this before hand. I like every thing to be spelled out in a contract. We didn't get one this year and we got shorted about 100 bucks from the verbal of 500. I think we may give this event up. They are always so disorganized. They had a flatbed trailer you could put a crane on covered with about 6 inches of clay/dirt. That was supposed to be the stage, no covering no nothing. We took out the EZ up tent and that was the "stage" for the Whole event. Nobody could stand in the sun and perform like that. That was work and worth a lot more than 400 bucks.

Next event we play 2 hours straight get $800. An event put on by a posh golf club w/stores. Sound provided. Got a contract, gotta pay taxes but I bet it's no hassle! Mandocrucians Law of Garbage and Money! We need more gigs like this. Don't play cheap it ain't worth the trouble.