Let's Talk About How Much Clubowners/Managers Suck
soulmarcosa
4,296 Posts
We all know that 9 out of 10 clubowners & managers are completely clueless and greedy. Tell your stories. Here's my latest:
I've got my bollywood club night coming up in 10 days and though it went great last month (our first at this venue), the manager wanted to get a slightly better attendance (200-250) than the 140+ we got last time.
So I've been promoting like hell for the past coupla weeks to get more people in the door (to the tune of 20+ hours of my personal time and $185 for flyers and the like). And at this point, I'm pretty confident we'll hit 200+ people, especially with 10 days to go. Not worried at all.
But last night the club manager gives me this rap:
" I know you've been doing a lot of promoting but the owners have a big event they wanna do that night instead, so we're moving you to a week later. That'll give you an extra week to promote!"
I told him no problem. Just pay me $300 for my now-useless flyers and extra time I'm gonna have to spend re-doing all the promotion, give free passes to all the people who are inevitably going to show up for the date previously advertised, don't judge the effectiveness of my efforts by the bar totals since everyone's gonna be confused on when to show up, and give me a 6-month contract for first Saturdays with a $500 penalty for every time you cancel or move my night since your word obviously ain't worth shit.
Still waiting on a response.
I've got my bollywood club night coming up in 10 days and though it went great last month (our first at this venue), the manager wanted to get a slightly better attendance (200-250) than the 140+ we got last time.
So I've been promoting like hell for the past coupla weeks to get more people in the door (to the tune of 20+ hours of my personal time and $185 for flyers and the like). And at this point, I'm pretty confident we'll hit 200+ people, especially with 10 days to go. Not worried at all.
But last night the club manager gives me this rap:
" I know you've been doing a lot of promoting but the owners have a big event they wanna do that night instead, so we're moving you to a week later. That'll give you an extra week to promote!"
I told him no problem. Just pay me $300 for my now-useless flyers and extra time I'm gonna have to spend re-doing all the promotion, give free passes to all the people who are inevitably going to show up for the date previously advertised, don't judge the effectiveness of my efforts by the bar totals since everyone's gonna be confused on when to show up, and give me a 6-month contract for first Saturdays with a $500 penalty for every time you cancel or move my night since your word obviously ain't worth shit.
Still waiting on a response.
Comments
I got plenty of stories but the one that stands out as the most absurd was13 years or so back. Old Vampyros Lesbos Party days at the now long defunct Bar XVI. This was in 1998 I think. Some friends came to the dj booth to tell me that Kate Moss had just walked in. 10 Minutes later, the bouncer came up to me and said "you're not going to believe this but I just had to tell Billy Zane to leave, he had come in with Kate Moss and they both were really confused and left". I asked why this had happened. He says that when B. Zane wanted to buy drinks, the bar manager (selfimportant 5 foot bitch, wanna-be script writer, still a barkeeper -sorry bar manager to this day) told him to remove his basball hat (dresscode to keep meatheads out) B. Zane explainend that he had to shave his head for a new movie and didn't want to run around all baldheaded. Bar manager didn't recognize him (this was about a year after Titanic mind you) and said he doesn't negotiate and calls the bouncer to escort him out. I can't believe what I'm being told and ask the bouncer to please step back outside, see if they are still around, apologize and make them come back inside which miraculoulsy happens. I tell a friend to get one of the owners who I knew was there that night. When the owner shows up, I explain the situation and ask him to get them some drinks and make sure they're cool. Owner walks away then turns around and asks me if I had any drink tickets left to give to them. WTF??? Why not just get them a bottle of something good??? Anyway, the crazyness is far from over because as K. Moss hits the dancefloor (a friend and regular later wrote a song about the experience titled "I danced with Kate Moss"), the situation becomes too much for the bar manager (Napoleon Complex) and he walks out.This is at ca. 1:30 am and the place is jam packed. The owner then has to get behind the bar and help pouring drinks. The next day, I get a call from the bouncer who tels me that he has just been fired for disobedience. I call the owner and he explains that the bar manager asked for this. I say why not fire the bar manager or what about firing me instead because the bouncer only did what I told him to do. I spend the entire day on the phone with various owners but there's nothing I can do, little bar manager guy is way too important for the business they say.
This is totally alien to me coming from the tech/accounting world where nothing gets done without a signed contract before you breath, let alone deliver a product or service.
I could understand a one off gig (essentially an audition) but if you have a standing gig at a venue why would you play without a written contract. I most certainly would not do lots of promotion without a guarantee covering my costs if the venue owners renege on their agreement.
Or, is this just the nature of the game and you are held hostage to it because if you push for a contract they can fill your spot with some hungry no-nothing that is willing to perform without such guarantees.
Educate me...
But lesson learned.
congrats on walking out of a gig ,hook_up. i have done this once or twice before. the most notable one being that the club refused to give me any free drinks. 30 minutes into my set i got the f**k up out of there.
anyway, i got called for a meeting 2 months later and they fired me citing that they weren't making enough money at the bar because so many people were coming to hang out and dance and not to drink!!! also they cited there were too many fights... like 5 in the 2 years i played there (also i kept telling them to get some big menacing dudes for security not these little jokers with glasses and suits). so, i grabbed my extra turntables (which the other dj damaged) and left. i had called that other dj earlier that day to see what the meeting was about and he never called me back and i haven't talked to him since (almost 2 years) - except he friended me on FB, which i finally just accepted.
THEN they hired this total douchebag tattooed sucker who plays techno and hates playing rap. see, the upstairs manager kept telling me to play more house and top 40 and i explained i was playing top 40 (rap from 90s to present) and i did throw some classic house joints in sometimes - just not that corny pop disney house crap he likes. the new dj soon learned that the people wanted rap and even though the crowd changed, this stayed true. he now plays all the same music that i was playing, though it took him almost 2 years to get a crowd (he's a horrible dj, i went to check him out before and dude had no sense of how to blend and read a crowd)!!! they claim they made more money at the bar in the last 2 years, even though it was dead up there?!?!?!?
and with all irony as i was typing this i just learned that my friend, who was hired by a downtown club to book their rooftop through the summer - meaning gigs for me, just got fired. guess who they hired in his place? yup, the original downstairs dj who has no real djs as friends.
cornball antics.