Several years ago my group (Left Bank Society Orchestra) was hired to play the grand opening to a very popular local mall. All in all it was a big event and I arrived at 9am to set up for a 6PM start expecting that there might be issues due to the fact that they were rushing to get this mall completed in time and the booking agent requested a larger than normal light system due to the importance of this opening. The first thing I did was inspect the stage area and survey the best load in route. As Im standing on stage the event planner comes up and introduces himself and I ask him where the best load in route was which he pointed out two different options. I then asked where the closest electric was in which he said he didnt know but would find out. The whole conversation took 2 minutes and we never moved off the stage. He walks away and a couple of minutes later a girl comes to the stage with a cell phone and said the booking agent needed to talk to me. I answered the phone and the agent started screaming at me to stop asking questions and to leave the event planner alone. She would be down there shortly and would answer any questions that I had. I should have realized at that time this was headed downhill, but I continued what was a 4 hour set up and finished by 1pm still waiting on electricity. The agent showed up around 4pm and we determined that there was no electricity available and she had to call in a generator and run a line into the mall from the parkinglot. No simple task at this 11th hour. At 6pm (start time) the generator shows up and we are waiting to start when the agents tells to to start playing. I informed her that our total rhythm section was electric but we could do some Dixieland jam with the horns until the power was supplied. And BTW all of these problems were being presented as my fault so I reminded them that I brought this electric problem to their attention at 9am. Eventually the power was supplied and the show went on. We were booked until midnight however the event wound down and we were released at 11pm which was helpful since my 4 hour set up took at least 2 hours to tear down. 10 minutes after we finished I looked onstage and three guys were tossing everything off the stage including music, stands, sound equipment and horns. I asked what the hell they were doing and they informed me that they were with the stage rental company and they had to get the stage torn down before midnight because they went into overtime at that point. I grabbed a mike stand and informed them that to get off the stage or....... The police were summoned. The event planner and agent came over and informed me they couldnt afford to pay them the overtime and I had to get off the stage. I informed them that the stage was put up for me and my contract was until midnight plus 2 hours of tear down time. The police agreed with me. I agreed to vacate by 2am. The agent and event planner vowed to never use me again and we all three keep those promises.
Posted on: Tue, 23 Dec 2014 18:58:47 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015