So, after the first time in about 5 years of gigging covers (and 15 years of gigging), Ive had a venue get shirty with me and refused to pay.
Background:
THe covers band I am in is essentially rock and pop covers. FOr example, our set is:
You Got The Love
One Way Or Another
Get Lucky
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
Oops I did it again
Cry Me A River
Beat It
We are have a professional female singer (worked as a Gaga tribute for over 10 years etc) and we are using proper decent quality PA gear (Mackies all round)
Travelled an hour up the road to a working mens club. Turned up at 6pm on the dot for load in and to assess the venue. Super high ceilings, large capacity venue (500 people are least) with a decibel monitor. Loaded in decided to make sure we fill the room, we miced up our drum kit and DIéd very thing else. We were told by the venue that the decibel monitor would set off a light if we went over the sound threshold (which apparently is 80 db) and we'd get a bollocking. Sound check is all sorted and a few early punters say they its too loud. Bare in mind, we are the act that is on before and after the bingo. Yes, the bingo. Check with venue owner that we they are happy with the sound levels and that we have not triggered the light at all. He says everything is fine and that it'll be good.
Show time comes. Our set ist is mainly stuff from 1980s onwards with our earliest track being The Kinks You Really Got Me. Im already thinking at this point its the wrong band for the wrong venue. Sadly, this is what happens when a booking agent is involved. So, first set starts and about 5/6 songs in, they ask us to turn the drums down (Venue representative). We do so straight away. Another 3/4 songs in and another request so we do the same again. We cut a song out of the set and finish the first set early because we are abit concerned that we are the wrong band for the venue so we just rush through our last song and go from there. During the bingo, our drummer and bassis go out front to mingle and see if anyone is going to Boo at him as what happened when we did our band introductions. They both speak to the rep AND club secretary and we agree to turn things down. We decide if they arent happy with the drums, we shall cut them completly out of the mix FOH and monitors so its purely acousticly.
Second set starts and we start with Get Lucky (Daft Punk). The venue rep stands up half way through the song walks in front of the stage waving both his hands telling us to stop and "forget it boys". Essentially,they have canned us. Drummer is furious but wants to find out what the story is so we walk over to discuss it and the rep says "Drums are too loud, do you need those mics? etc etc" But essentially, we've been told to stop. We start to pack up as he's put the house lights on and put his DJset back on (the same 4 tracks over and over) so we duly pack down and put stuff away. Our singer then goes and asks about payment to which we get the reply "We're not paying you.." Oh realllllllly asshole? So, this goes on for about 3 hours of back and forth trying to sort it out. As the club secretary is there, we have to deal with this guy and this rep and they have to talk between each other to sort things out. So, first off, its no payment at all as we were too loud. Ishould mention at this point that in the dressing room it says that if you are too loud and set off the decibel monitor, you will be asked to stop, paid off and told to leave. So, after much arguing, the club sec says that theyll pay £200 of it and we have to discuss it with our agent to get the rest back. We disargee with this so after another HOUR, they say they'll pay us £175 as we should have taken the deal in the first place. So we decide as all our gear is in the cars and we are good to go, we'll stay until we get paid what we are owed and is in the contract. The agent who booked us agreed that the venue should pay us our fee of £300 and he would waive his cut (£50 which would have meant we got £350), so we could get paid and go. Our big argument was that we started our second set and they stopped us, they should pay our full fee. F they'd said after the first set to go home, we'd have be happy with that as we;d have been home much earlier. THe bingo took an hour ffs...
So, to wrap this up, the club steward made an appearance at 1230am (baring in mind we'd been there since 6pm) and was just listening. At this point, I was point out that we'd set up, played and never set of this warning light as he'd warned us. Ipointed out the message in the changing room and the club steward said " Id like to see this sign " as he was properly shocked and I dont think he realised it was up, We got the sign in from the room and showed him. 30 seconds later, £300 appeared and we were on our way.
We did everything in our power to turn the drums down and there was nothing ele to be done... comments welcome on this one!
Comments
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
It's a Clubland thing...
We have kicked the WMC's into touch nowadays as they are often so much more hassle and tbh they are often big rooms with very few people in them...
That and playing second fiddel to the Bingo and the odd meat raffle... please...
Our singer has done working mens clubs for years and shes said theres always something up. Come back grotty pubs, all is forgiven!
Both me and our drummer believe that the drums should always be mic'ed up - for the reasons @stickyfiddle sums up perfectly above. Many's the time our singer and/ or bassist have asked the questions "Are we gonna bother mic'ing the drums tonight?" when they feel the smaller size of a venue negates the need for it..but for me it should never even be an option not to.
HOWEVER...and it is a big however... When there's a sound limiter ALL BETS ARE OFF.
My personal belief is that if a venue has a sound limiter, they should not have live music at all - wedding venues in particular ought to be very clear with their clients in such instances that a live band is not an option, yet instead they are happy to take the big bucks for the wedding parties and still expect us to be able to do our job properly.
We have to suck it up and compromise as best we can - no drum mic's, no mic for the guitars, everything turned as low as possible and drums tickled rather than played. Makes for a very unsatisfying playing experience, makes for a very subdued dancefloor, an anticlimactic night for the punters and a general sense of "Really...why bother?" And even with all those provisos...the sound limiter will STILL be tripped several times during the night...it's just impossible not to set the things off! The audience clapping at one gig set it off, FFS!
With wedding venues, it's just tough luck - if we get there and there's a limiter, it is what it is. Can't expect the couple to postpone and use another venue at a later date!
On the club circuit, however, it's different as someone's big day doesn't depend on it. They should know better, and if you can't do your job, it's their fault and they ought to compensate you for wasting your time.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
It went down well and everyone assured us it sounded fine, but the idea of miking the kit for "spread and balance" (ie, trying to crush the reverb with sheer volume) would've got us paid off and thrown out, and rightly so.
I'm sorry, but fully miking a drum kit for a bingo gig is not just ego, it's pure Spinal Tap.