Cancelled gigs

Teetonetal

We had 5 gigs booked over the next three weeks.

3 have been cancelled in the last 2 days for economic reasons. I.e they can't afford it.

So feckin annoying as I had to argue a lot with my other half to accept them in the first place.

Sign of economic stress I guess.

As they were all under contract, at least we'll see some fees for broken agreements but still, would rather play

thomasross20

We've had a £150 3-hour gig downed to £100. 

I wouldn't mind (I'd play for free!!) but feel they've been a bit cheeky!

HAL9000

thomasross20;882260" said:

We've had a £150 3-hour gig downed to £100. I wouldn't mind (I'd play for free!!) but feel they've been a bit cheeky!

No problem. Get the money beforehand, then play a two-hour set. If they get arsey and demand a third hour then it's going to cost them £50.

Bod

Can you cancel Tom? I would. They wouldn't try to get the bar staff to work the same shift for less money, so why the band? I know that you just want to play, but they shouldn't be allowed to get away with it! Grr!

thomasross20

Unfortunately it's a bit late as we've got about 40-50 people coming - a sort of Crimbo night out for them. 

Complete con artists, though. 

Half tempted to mention it online somewhere where they can read about it!!

thomasross20

Initially it was to be 7:30pm - 12 midnight (!) so we were looking at getting another band, maybe doing a raffle and getting tunes on the ipod during breaks.

We're not going to sweat it, though - will start playing at 8, have two 40 min breaks and hopefully finish around 11pm. 

The floor we were meant to be playing on had flooded so we're now on the lower floor that is smaller (cramped for the band) and can only hold 80 people. Still, not our fault!

Danny1969

thomasross20 said:

We've had a £150 3-hour gig downed to £100. 

I wouldn't mind (I'd play for free!!) but feel they've been a bit cheeky!

Is that £100 each mate, can't be £100 between all of you surely ?

thomasross20

Yes, between all of us!

jd0272

thomasross20;883950" said:

Yes, between all of us!

That's a bit of a piss take mate. Really.

Moe_Zambeek

That's why I gave up regular covers gigs round Edinburgh. It's just not worth it when the material isn't completely enthusing you, especially if you also have to put up with band tensions.

Instead I focused on originals where you get paid less and the band aggro is often worse

thomasross20

I'd gig for free (and we recently did the free 40 min slot at Binkies) but when people start dicking around with the rate, it's a put-off. If it weren't for the fact that so many people are going....

Previously I was stressing a little as it's a lot of time but we're just going to do our set, not worry too much, then get out of there. 

--> I was thinking of writing a review on tripadvisor to say that they screwed us over with the rate and that similar bands should think twice about playing there. Do you think that's a step too far? It is fact, after all.

A few venues have now shut, others don't want you to be too loud (noise rules), others pay so little - it totally sucks! I'm enjoying the band more now but I don't think it looks good for gigs next year.

lloyd

thomasross20 said:

I'd gig for free (and we recently did the free 40 min slot at Binkies) but when people start dicking around with the rate, it's a put-off. If it weren't for the fact that so many people are going....

Previously I was stressing a little as it's a lot of time but we're just going to do our set, not worry too much, then get out of there. 

--> I was thinking of writing a review on tripadvisor to say that they screwed us over with the rate and that similar bands should think twice about playing there. Do you think that's a step too far? It is fact, after all.

A few venues have now shut, others don't want you to be too loud (noise rules), others pay so little - it totally sucks! I'm enjoying the band more now but I don't think it looks good for gigs next year.

It's a fine line between slagging venues off for being unprofessional and looking unprofessional yourself.

With this I'd chalk it up to experience and not play there again. If any of your band are on FB then they could put out a warning in one of the bands groups-local or national stating what has happened, rather than a trip-advisor-no one going there will give a shit what they did to your band tbh. 

A truthful account of them knocking down the cash by £50 (in a FB group for bands) is fair enough and will give bands a chance to make their own mind re gigging there-not bothering, taking the risk or getting a contract drawn up.

A venue my band were supposed to play at on a Friday night changed the deal a couple days before-putting us on at 2pm or something because they had a private party booked that would make them more cash, so we just said we weren't going to do it. We'll now never play there and put it on a FB group. No hard feelings, they're running a business but I won't have anything to do with them again and I'm sure they lost out on some bands playing there due to the FB post.

Danny1969

£100 between the lot of you is just a joke, I can't believe a venue would expect anyone with any kind of quality to play for £20 each 

I split £150 last night with another guy banging out Beatles covers on acoustics guitars in a pub. Tonight is splitting £400 between 5 of us at a club, tomorrow is splitting £200 between 3. I mean none of that is great but £100 between 5 is ridiculous ! 

John_P

^ agreed,  I got  more than that doing a dep last night with a pub band, so splitting it seems low. 

If a landlord drops the price I'd usually say we won't do it then,  if they try that stunt on the night then I'll pack up or insist on the agreed fee.    I know times are hard but if you are bringing a crowd then they'll make money...

Just say - ok, if you definitely won't pay the agreed fee we'll start letting people know the gigs off.  That usually changes their mind, and if you do have 40 people coming then the beer sales would cover the fee and more.    

thomasross20

That's the state of things up here, though! 

thomasross20

Will wait to see if they book us again but yeah, good suggestion about posting it on facebook

lloyd

thomasross20 said:

Will wait to see if they book us again but yeah, good suggestion about posting it on facebook

There's no way I'd get booked by them again.

As said above-you're bringing (whether you know them or as a band) 40 people to the pub-even if they only spend £20 each that's £800 in extra sales...

thomasross20

OK, don't put me off or I'll be raging all night lol

lloyd

thomasross20 said:

OK, don't put me off or I'll be raging all night lol

Haha sorry mate! I get angry with things like this.

I did a gig in Liverpool last month and the owner of the venue was a real arsehole to us when we turned up-bad attitude. I walked off and said I wasn't doing the gig and my band had to beg me to play it-I did but won't go back.

ash96

Yeah we always make sure everything contracted / in writing so they can't pull out last minute.

For me this is my full-time job, so if we take a booking and they cancel it late notice, chances are we've turned down other work for that night so they've still got to pay up.

We always say if we can fill the date and don't miss out on earnings they don't have to pay of course.

But yeah, too many pubs piss musicians about with money, thats why we tend to just stick to the wedding / corporate market!

thomasross20

It's ok

Like I said, if it weren't for the fact that we had so many people going...

It sucks because it undercuts rates for others, too. 

Getting somethig in writing - that's a good idea but how often does that work out?