Double booking

[Bob Dey]

I lucked out and did the gig. A duo showed up with their guitars as I was setting up. The manager had to do some negotiating, and as a result the duo will be playing next Friday instead if me. But he will make it up to me with a booking in September.

This gig is 75 miles one way for me, so I'm just glad I played last night.

[Shaster]

One of the most important first lessons of gigging, which is something I don't always heed - get there early in case there's a double booking.

I've retained a couple of gigs by being set up early, ready to play. Then when someone comes in at the last minute, the management looks at the time and says, well he's ready to go, so he's got the gig.

However a couple of weeks ago, I got to the gig about fifteen minutes prior, because there's a lady playing piano before I go on, and it's only a five minute set-up for me (House PA, no tracks).  It turns out there was someone there all set up with his own PA, drum machine, guitars and so on. In fact, he got the date wrong, and I was able to prove it by the posted monthly entertainment calendar. Luckily, he was a friend of mine, so we just agreed to switch the date ourselves, and I took the following week. Except for the travel time, it worked out fine for me, because I really didn't want to play that day.

But I think I'm back to getting there early to beat the double bookers.

[Bob Dey]

Interesting Shaster. It's been at least 10 years since this has happened to me. I remember getting to a gig years ago and seeing someone else partly set up. So I went out to my car and looked at one of the calendars I had printed and saw that I was at the wrong place! 

At least I was in the right county, so I took off driving throught the rain, attempting a shortcut that wasn't, and getting to my gig about an hour late! I got docked for that one.