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Band booked their schedule with two different sound providers


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I've been running sound for a popular local country band for the past few months, and they apparently like my service and sound. So they gave me their entire 2013 schedule and told me to pick which gigs I could do for them. I chose 27 and left six dates on the table that I had conflicts with. They seemed happy with my choices and we moved ahead with several gigs.

Then out of nowhere, their old sound guy emails everyone and says "Hey, I'm committed to all these dates below for 2013, and I was wondering if you had any more dates to add?" He listed most of the gigs that I had already booked on my schedule for the band!

The band then confessed to me that they had given the old sound guy their schedule prematurely and then decided that they liked my service better. I don't know if they thought their former sound guy was going to just forget about the gigs or what. In the end, I had 19 gigs pulled back off my schedule, and was given only eight gigs instead of the 27 - and they were the unwanted and difficult gigs.

At that point I told the band that I was not interested in just the unwanted gigs, but rather, I was willing to take their entire schedule on (as offered) because there were a lot of good and bad gigs in the package. Then the band accused me of cancelling a gig on them tonight (one of the VERY difficult ones up three flights of stairs) because I didn't accept their newly-revised offer.

I told the band that they cancelled 19 gigs on me, and I simply rejected their newly-revised offer of eight lame gigs - I didn't cancel any gigs on them at all. They still insisted that I was "cancelling a gig tonight on short notice" and said if they used me again "we will need a written contract with penalties". I replied, "Don't blame me for your booking the gigs with two different sound providers because you got buyer's regret on the first guy. I didn't cancel any gigs - I just rejected your newly-revised offer. If the gigs were never offered to me and accepted to begin with, how can I cancel one of them?"

They obviously wanted to make the switch but botched the attempt to ditch their old sound provider. When he started getting in their face about the gigs they had already committed to him for 2013, they caved in to him and pulled 19 gigs back from me... but expected me to just put on a smile and climb three flights of stairs tonight with enough sound gear to entertain 800 people.

Any thoughts? Would you take the eight lame gigs after losing 19 of the 27, or just reject all of them?

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What are you thinking about the situation right now? It sounds like the bridge has a hole in it and needs to be patched or you walk away and find another bridge.

Or you write up contract(s) for the remainders you do have and charge extra for difficult shows and be sure you put that in the terms and conditions of the contract. 

Hiring out labor does not enhance profits but it does have pros when it comes to difficult jobs. 

Now if you committed to this difficult job verbally and then back out cause of old soundguy, I do see your point in using the show as collateral so to speak but I would have done the gig anyway (even at a loss) and used that in negotiations for the other deals that you booked. Musicans talk to other musicans and so on down the chain, last thing you want to do is have your rep and "brand" dragged through mud. 

Do you have an email stating they were hiring you for the 27 shows? Emails can be used in legal disputes if you really want to get dirty. 

I am curious as to how this pans out and what other think as well :) Good luck!

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I sympathise with you. I assume this all went down today or yesturday.  And now the band expects you to just eat the crappy gig tonight because it was part of the original deal. Realistically if you dont do the gig tonight I  assume that they will look elswhere for the 8 gigs they are willing to give you.

Get a contract, in writing.

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I had something kind of similar happen this summer on a fest I did for 10 years with  great praise for a job well done.

Walk away and do not look back. Do not bend over either.

Seriously...walk away and move on to new horizons.

Year to year my date was set by a hand shake and a  great job done on all sides, and do I have the gig next year...oh yes!

Surprise..................

Life is to short for that kind of bs.

 

 

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Was the gig you supposedly "cancelled" one of the original 27 you agreed to? 

If so, then you should have done the gig and renegotiated for the remaining 7 gigs.  Even if you rejected the new offer of 8 lame gigs, you had accepted this 3 flights of stairs gig as part of the original offer.

If not, then you had already rejected this date as one of the six conflict dates, and were under no obligation to perform services for this gig, nor should the band have any reason to expect you to take this or any date that wasn't in the original agreement. 

Either way, it's probably a blessing in disguise that you aren't working with this band, but I hope it's the later scenario.

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InACanProductions wrote:

 

 

Was the gig you supposedly "cancelled" one of the original 27 you agreed to? 

 

If so, then you should have done the gig and renegotiated for the remaining 7 gigs.  Even if you rejected the new offer of 8 lame gigs, you had accepted this 3 flights of stairs gig as part of the original offer.

 

If not, then you had already rejected this date as one of the six conflict dates, and were under no obligation to perform services for this gig, nor should the band have any reason to expect you to take this or any date that wasn't in the original agreement. 

 

Either way, it's probably a blessing in disguise that you aren't working with this band, but I hope it's the later scenario.

 

FWIW, I don't agree with this. If they book a package deal for 27 shows then pull all but the 8 worst, they've done nothing in good faith. At that point you're back to asking me A) If I want to do the next show...as in the 1 show and B) what is the price for that (1) show. Every other show would be booked the same way. You ask, I tell you the price. You can bet it will be worth my time so if it's up 1 flight of stairs or 20, you'll pay accordingly. If you want a package deal then you'll be signing a contract with penalties for cancelling. In return you'll get a volume discount as agreed to.

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agedhorse wrote:

 

Contractually, if the agreement is for 27 shows, that's what it's for. Which they changed it to 8 shows, that's a material change and the original agreement is no longer valid.

 

What you say is true but at that point, everything was VERBAL. If he reneged on doing this one show only on the VERBAL understanding that he wouldn't be doing some of the other shows. From one point view it was the OP who breeched the contract first. I can't say that I blame him though (what contract was that - a verbal one - try that one out in small claims court? :-). In the end though, doing business (even with a written contract) is still based on trust. If someone breaks their word (as was the case with this band), who's to say they wouldn't breech a written contract as well. The perfect quote here is "People are only as good as their word."

Guess it's time to re-assess the situation and either refuse to do business or get non-refundable money up front.

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