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| Hi. I'm writing this to hopefully encourage other musicians to take a closer look at what they're agreeing to and supporting in our industry.
I recently, for the 1st time ever, pulled out of playing a gig at the very last minute for reasons other than illness or emergency. Not a great thing to do, and I've learned a valuable lesson.
The lesson is to read my worksheet / contract very carefully before I accept a gig. Like most musicians who are keen to get gigs and are not massive superstars (yet), I generally accept a gig if it presents a chance to play in a new venue or town. So I take a gig, then about a week or so before the show I get emailed a worksheet and I have a quick look at it to see what the load in time is etc. and check the money deal.
When I 1st got this particular worksheet, something stuck out and I got in touch with the booker straight away to let them know that I didn't accept this and if that was a problem I would have to pull out.
Here is the exact passage
-REQUIREMENTS and conditions for performing at the (name of venue withheld)…
Artists are bound by the following conditions..
The first $180 taken on the door pays for the door person -$50 and the sound person - $130. $2 per head is payable to (name of venue and booking agency withheld), if the door takings do not cover the $180, the bands MUST pay the difference.
My issue is not with the specific venue or booking agent. It is with the way that pubs / clubs that put on music are increasingly moving away from just having regular music, free to the public - where musicians know exactly how much they're getting paid in advance. When it's set up like that, the general public get used to there always being free music on, are more likely to come regularly (and spend there money on booze & gambling which keeps the venue happy). Performers, in turn, then get to play in front of new people (which is what we all want) without a sense of pressure to fulfill requirements to get a certain number of payers through the door (which there is never any way of predicting). It also divides the responsibility of promotion of gigs more evenly between the venue/agent and the performer. Of coarse sound guys need to get payed but this is something that pubs can easily afford.
There are still venues who operate like this and in my experience thy are always a lot more full of people and happy musicians. When it goes the other way - like the gig I'm talking about, a midweek gig made up of up and coming musos that 99.9999 percent of the general public have never heard of - what happens is the musician have to desperately hassle everyone they know to come to the show and feel stressed about whether they show and let down if they dont just so a pub can make a few extra bucks (which they don't anyway because gigs like this rarely pull big crowds unless most of the acts are under about 23 and still have alot of mates from uni or hi school). It also leads to bad feelings between the acts if one pulls a slightly smaller or bigger crowd than others, which doesn't tend to make performers or their friends hang around to watch the other acts.
Here's another passage from the worksheet -
Split per payer that each act brings
To make it fair to all performers playing, each act/band must bring at least 10 payers, if an act does not bring the minimum, they will not be paid and the balance divided evenly between the remaining acts. Each act MUST be there to support all other acts on the night unless previously arranged.
Having read the worksheet more closely and seeing the passage above (even though the agent was still willing to let me perform even though I said there was no way I was going to pay to play) I decided as I was about to leave for the gig that I couldn't bring my self to do it. Musicians would make more money and have a better time if they just found a couple of other acts they like, put on a gig in there lounge room for their good friends and charged them $10 each.
This is my point. As a musician, you don't want to burn your bridges or be unprofessional. However, even if it means losing a few gigs I would really encourage musicians to do the following things -
* If you get a worksheet like the one I've described, consider knocking the gig back and tell the venue or agent why (for instance, being told that if you cant make promises about crowd numbers that you have no way of knowing if you can fulfill, you will not get paid or will have to pay the venue, is ridiculous)
* When dealing with 3rd party booking agents, even if you're getting paid a fixed amount, try to find out how much the agent is getting payed by the venue for your show and if they are taking more than about 10 to 20 percent (which I know they often do), refuse the gig, tell the agent why and tell the venue what the agent is doing. (of coarse there are exceptions to this, like if an agent is providing sound equipment)
* Push Venues and agents to be totally transparent about what they're offering you relative to other acts. This is because if you seem like a push over who doesn't ask questions you are more likely to be lied to and screwed for money.
* Know your ability and trade on that. If you know you can be professional and keep a crowd entertained then you will get gigs and be asked back. You will also get people coming back to see you, which gives you more leverage to get a better deal for yourself
* Go for venues that are free to the public while you're still up and coming.
What's happening to musicians in Australia a lot of the time is that money earning potential for venues and agents is being rewarded over quality musicians.
I think that if enough musicians start standing up against some of these shitty and misguided practices then hopefully some fairer deals will be made available. Also, perhaps more quality musicians will treated with the respect they deserve and less will simply give up or become booking agents.
(Please forward this email to all the musicians you know if you found it useful )
Jimmi Carr
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| Hey. My news is that I'm on my way to having written all the charts for my new album (with help from John Stuart). It's the 1st time I've done this so it's an interesting process. This record will come out under just my name (rather than jimmi carr band) and I'll be using a whole new crew of muso's including Hamish Stuart (one of the best, has played with everyone) on drums and Alex Hewitson (D.I.G.) on Bass. I'll also be hiring an awesome keys player and probably a string section.
However, JIMMI CARR BAND have not split up. My reason for going this way on this album is to just explore different possibilities. The band have been doing some great shows in the past few weeks and will be touring the new album with me.
Having surveyed about 60 people about which of my many demos of the new songs should appear on the Album I've come up with a very consistent and cohesive track list. I'm stoked about this because that's what I was aiming for (as one does). Doing the survey was also a very interesting process and really helped me get a bit of objectivity about the songs. It also proved that I could have made some bad mistakes about which songs to include had it been entirely down to my own opinions. Of course in the end I have to make the final call. Out of the tracks that were close to making it I just chose the one's that either meant more to me or will give the album a bit of balance (interesting or edgy vs. poppy or safe). You can hear a couple of the demos on myspace (DONT WAIT UP & HALO) http://www.myspace.com/jimmicarrmusic.
I won't be approaching new labels or distributors until the album is complete so just for the time being you can only buy the previous albums by coming to the shows or by contacting me at jimmicarr@gmail.com.
The blue mts. music showcase i put on at the Lansdowne the other night was proof once again of the level of (largely undiscovered) talent coming out of the blue mountains. Here are some names to search out for lovers of fine music - BONNIE AND NATALIE,
EAR PROJECTOR, ALL ABOUT ME, BACK YARD LAB, DIRTY LINDY, MC IMMUNE, FLUOXETINE, RED BEE, CHRIS GILLESPEE, ....... the list goes on and on.
Take care. stay tuned. Jimmi | | |
| Hey. My news is that I'm on my way to having written all the charts for my new album (with help from John Stuart). It's the 1st time I've done this so it's an interesting process. This record will come out under just my name (rather than jimmi carr band) and I'll be using a whole new crew of muso's including Hamish Stuart (one of the best, has played with everyone) on drums and Alex Hewitson (D.I.G.) on Bass. I'll also be hiring an awesome keys player and probably a string section.
However, JIMMI CARR BAND have not split up. My reason for going this way on this album is to just explore different possibilities. The band have been doing some great shows in the past few weeks and will be touring the new album with me.
Having surveyed about 60 people about which of my many demos of the new songs should appear on the Album I've come up with a very consistent and cohesive track list. I'm stoked about this because that's what I was aiming for (as one does). Doing the survey was also a very interesting process and really helped me get a bit of objectivity about the songs. It also proved that I could have made some bad mistakes about which songs to include had it been entirely down to my own opinions. Of course in the end I have to make the final call. Out of the tracks that were close to making it I just chose the one's that either meant more to me or will give the album a bit of balance (interesting or edgy vs. poppy or safe). You can hear a couple of the demos on myspace (DONT WAIT UP & HALO) http://www.myspace.com/jimmicarrmusic.
I won't be approaching new labels or distributors until the album is complete so just for the time being you can only buy the previous albums by coming to the shows or by contacting me at jimmicarr@gmail.com.
The blue mts. music showcase i put on at the Lansdowne the other night was proof once again of the level of (largely undiscovered) talent coming out of the blue mountains. Here are some names to search out for lovers of fine music - BONNIE AND NATALIE,
EAR PROJECTOR, ALL ABOUT ME, BACK YARD LAB, DIRTY LINDY, MC IMMUNE, FLUOXETINE, RED BEE, CHRIS GILLESPEE, ....... the list goes on and on.
Take care. stay tuned. Jimmi | | |
| Hi. The band is doing a show at the Gearins on Sat. 8th Aug. This is a FREE show. It was due to be a live video shoot but unfortunately I'v busted my ankle so I'm not going to be upright or dancey enough to film the show but I will be channelling all my energies into sounding really great in a sitting down way. However, this is not a sit down gig - We'll be going through the whole catalogue , Acoustic and electric, and it's bound to get pretty heavy/funky by the end so bring your dancin boots. Supporting us is Natalie Tomlins who is an awesomely talented young mountains based singer/songwriter doing her 1st ever solo show.
In general news, I'm about to go into the studio to start work on my new album. I've parted ways with Vitamin records and am currently approaching other distributers / labels. I'll be releasing the album early next year and will be out on the road in support of it. | | |
| Hi. Nearly a year since I put anything up here so I thought I should update.
It's been a pretty weird year since chris died And I was finding motivation very hard to come by for quite a while. I'm back on track now though and have about 30 demo's almost in the bag in prep for the next album. I'm deliberately trying to create a consistent record that doesn't jump styles too much because, although that's been fun in the past, it seems to mainly suit very open minded people and leave others a little confused. I know that's not a bad thing but I feel ready to do something very user friendly that I can still be proud of. I'm a bit of a pop guy anyway and dont feel that I still have any grunty point to make.
Having said that, I am currently also working on a hiphop/metal fusion outfit called Feedus with Nick wheatley {aka mc Immune, formerly of Down under beats crew} and Nick Parkinson (drummer from jcb). We've been making lot's of grunty noises and attracting a fair amount of attention, including from Sony! | | |
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