My band got kicked off the gig!

[jdgm]

I got a call last night saying our blues band has a gig tonight (Saturday) at short notice, subbing for a band called '(EDIT)' who had cancelled. It was a pub in a village called _______ near Eastleigh, Hampshire. About a 35 mile drive for me.

 

We are a man short as the harmonica player is on holiday abroad but we said we'd do it anyway.

 

Got there, set up, played 1st set.

 

In the break the bloke who booked us takes bandleader aside to 'have a word'.....upshot is we get kicked off the gig as 'it's not working' according to the booker.

 

There was some sort of birthday party going on (we weren't informed of this) and he was afraid they would all leave and go and spend their drink money somewhere else if we continued.

We are not rocky enough - it seems the bands they have usually play more metal-type stuff and we are not (and don't resemble) rock gods!

 

But we still got paid (£50 each) and I have got home a bit earlier. Plus several people who were enjoying it (and dancing) were more than a bit upset that we got pulled; one lady said it was embarrassing and even apologised to us.

 

This hasn't happened to me before. Not in 36 years of live playing.

 

We did send the guy a CD and our publicity stuff so he knew damn well what we are about. I guess he couldn't get anyone else at all at such short notice.

 

Bah. It was cramped, too hot and I wasn't getting a particularly good sound anyway. We have another gig next Friday (about the same distance) which is a return booking so that should go o.k.

 

Regards to all - anyone else had this kind of experience?

[Kaiser Bill]

Sorry for the cockup...you did get some compensation. I've never had this experience, but its a great basis for writing a new blues tune. Only look at the positive side.

[fromnabulax]

Boy, does that bring back memories...

 

I was in a band that featured members of a few other at the time fairly well known bands. For the most part these were notorious Punk Rock bands with a strong reputation for gnarly hardcore performances with a totally over the top lead singer who still maintains something of a career to this day, though largely not in music.

 

Anyhow, our congregation was almost the exact opposite. Oh, we were loud and incredibly obnoxious, but rather than the intensely well rehearsed and drilled music those other bands were known for, we would get for the most part totally loaded on whatever substance or liquid was our preferred, and go out and just improvise completely off the top of our mind blown skulls for half an hour to 45 minutes.

 

Nothing was planned, nothing was written, nothing was rehearsed. Just totally nuts off the wall wailing.

 

We even did a national tour in this fashion.

 

Don't get me wrong, we loved it and had a great time. We picked up a few fans along the way, but mostly we alienated almost everyone we encountered along the way. Such is the folly of youth.

 

One night we were booked into a club most of us semi-regularly performed at with our regular bands. The promoter figuring he knew what he was booking, though he most certainly did not, put us on the bill with a couple of other typical of the early 80's 'Hard and Fast Rules' style Punker bands.

 

To complicate things, as a special guest that night we had a second 'vocalist' that chose to drunkenly stumble around the stage while pelting us band members as well as half the audience with a 5 pound loaf of bologna. It was great fun.

 

Well, maybe you had to be there.

 

Anyhow...

 

About 20 minutes in the promoter comes up to me up front and tosses a note at my feet that read...

 

"Thank you gentlemen, that will be enough."

 

I still have the note in a scrapbook somewhere.

 

Anyhow, since most of us were in other bands that he still wanted to continue booking we were paid every cent of our guarantee.

 

We weren't at all hurt or upset, and rather we laughed our butts home all the way home that night.

 

Of course all that liquid and other stimuli may have had something to do with it.

[Silvercrow]

Good that you got paid! Oft times we hear stories that the band got "stiffed" and particularly under the circumstances you described- you deserve your entire "booking fee".

 

At the height of our gigging in the originals band I was in, there was a particular Saturday in mid-spring that we had three bookings in the same day; as an opening band, 1 set, in New Jersey (taken mostly for the exposure it provided), a second in mid afternoon for a Borough near our home, at their community day and finally a booking in Mt. Pocono, 1.5 hours distant from the community day booking.

 

We hustle out of the Jersey gig- elated because it was well received and had a real blast playing. We get to the Community day gig. The contact / booker is a "Community Coordinator" or Director. He calls as we are setting up and asks if we can postpone starting for an hour as events didn't kick off on schedule. No problem- no one else has to use this particular stage in the interim. OH...BTW-we had not received our full fee, but a "retainer" one third of our fee ($100.00) for the two set gig.

 

You can guess, 10 minutes, literally, before we are to go on, the harried Comm. Dir. runs up to me babbling something about he's sorry, we have to clear the stage, the "main" afternoon band refuses to relinquish time and has another gig scheduled afterward blah blah. I ask, since we are set up, if we can do at least one set. "No" says he. I say "OK- just offering as you owe us the entire fee, whether we play or not. Just making the offer..." He looks like a deer-in-the-headlights. Not a lot of money at stake, $300.00 total, but he starts saying that this is not fair. Our manager, who is standing a few steps off chatting with someone, is requested by me. She (great gal, my wife incidently...LOL) whips out our contract, which he has signed. It is clear the money is owed and remainder of payment in full is to be paid directly upon our leaving the stage. There is a moment of staring at each other and he reluctantly hands over the check, already made out, to us. Thank you very much. We break down and prepare for the trek to Mt. Pocono.

 

Sucks but there were times previously where we took or attempted to take the stage only to be pre-empted (rarely-not often)but enough to cause us to contract with everyone except "charity" or freebie dates.

 

Thankfully, it's been my experience that booking guys, especially those who regularly book live acts, realize the time taken to travel, set up, not to mention the rehearsal time, and they act professionally. But of course, the exceptions always govern the safeguards. Develop a contract and use it- it protects both the venue and the band.

 

Brian

[Silvercrow]

Boy, does that bring back memories...

 

I was in a band that featured members of a few other at the time fairly well known bands. For the most part these were notorious Punk Rock bands with a strong reputation for gnarly hardcore performances with a totally over the top lead singer who still maintains something of a career to this day, though largely not in music.

 

One night we were booked into a club most of us semi-regularly performed at with our regular bands. The promoter figuring he knew what he was booking, though he most certainly did not, put us on the bill with a couple of other typical of the early 80's 'Hard and Fast Rules' style Punker bands.

 

To complicate things, as a special guest that night we had a second 'vocalist' that chose to drunkenly stumble around the stage while pelting us band members as well as half the audience with a 5 pound loaf of bologna. It was great fun.

 

Well, maybe you had to be there.

 

Anyhow...

 

About 20 minutes in the promoter comes up to me up front and tosses a note at my feet that read...

 

"Thank you gentlemen, that will be enough."

 

I still have the note in a scrapbook somewhere.

 

Anyhow, since most of us were in other bands that he still wanted to continue booking we were paid every cent of our guarantee.

 

We weren't at all hurt or upset, and rather we laughed our butts home all the way home that night.

 

Of course all that liquid and other stimuli may have had something to do with it.

 

WHAT A GREAT STORY! Thanks for sharing this!

 

Brian

[4Hayden]

35 mile drive for $50 wasn't worth the drive anyway , the guy should have atleast gave the band gas money too . Good luck on your next gig

 

4H

[kidblast]

some great stories here,

 

and this,, Cracked me up : while pelting us band members as well as half the audience with a 5 pound loaf of bologna.... "Thank you gentlemen, that will be enough." hysterical..

 

 

 

the only thing that I recall that came close, didn't involve the people I was playing with, but, the story is in this vein so what the heck..

 

about 5 years back, I was in a "pickup" band working a benefit, we'd all done similar gigs together prior so it wasn't like we just set eyes on each other. Everyone knew who the other guys were and we'd done a few rehearsals to sort out the songs and who'd do what etc. It was a real good sounding band, great players, real good vocals and we had collected lots of upbeat dance music (classic rock/ blues etc) all very well known covers and popular rock songs.

 

The night of the benny the place was packed, had to have been 500+ people there. the plan was for us to do three sets, but in between our 1st and second set, a group of young guys that were either friends or relatives to the folks the benefit was for, finagled a short 20 / 25 minute set between our 1st and 2nd set. We knew ahead of time and said it was fine. So the first set goes off great, eveyone's digging it..

 

up come the kids.. woa Nelly... it's a train wreck. they started out playing some really obscure grunge cover song that I had never heard of before. if A S S could make a sound, this was it.. (this was mixed attendance, from 50~60+ to mid 20s) So we're standing off to the side while they're up there, we're just watching people walk out.

 

with in like 5 minutes, the organizer of the benefit comes up up to us and says "can guys get back up there right now we're loosing the crowd..." (cant' sell raffle tickets if no one is there..)

 

So I said, sure, but who let these mooks up there, she says "I did... I had no idea they'd do this" So we told her, wait for them to end this song, and then walk up to the front guy and tell them, Thanks! but you gotta stop. She did, but they asked her if they could do one more song, she pointed to the room and just told them, we can't afford to loose anyone else,.. please.. just stop.

 

Given they were just kids, you could see they were a bit embarrassed. While they were taking their stuff off the stage, we went up to help, got to chatting and they told us it was their first gig, and they'd been waiting for this event for months, they get to do two songs, and we're told "enough"

 

We just told em, "it's ok, this is how everyone starts" encouraging them to keep working at it. I actually felt bad for them. getting kicked to the curb can sort of s u c k especially in front of that many people, among which were either friends, family or both...