More threatening email from the guy who had a number of double bookings, which meant my band got cancelled. (see May 17th entry).
I thought this was all cleared up, but he got an email from one of my mate's bands asking if their gig was ok. All bands should confirm their gigs with venues. It's common sense - especially when so few venues owners have the brains they were born with.
Anyway, the guy then starts on me via email again. I am going to go in and see him at his pub and see if he's so big face to face. His wife told me that all the band bookings were screwed, so if he wants to get silly about it, I have an email from him confirming that to be partially true. I can make him look very foolish if he wants me to.
I have NOT named the venue or persons concerned in this blog.
Anyway - back to the good stuff. I did one of a couple of reunion gigs booked for this year with my old band Bad Habits on Friday night. Great fun, but a little un-nerving to have all my band sat there watching. They enjoyed it, as I did, but it was strange...
Saturday night was back to the usual business and we had a good night at The Three Pigeons. The landlord has cleared a couple of people out who were ruining it for others and it was a really pleasant gig to play.
More of that mmmm... interesting.
I wrote the entry below yesterday and headed on home from work in a fairly good mood.
When I got home, I got a phone call to tell me that a gig my band was due to do at the beginning of June is now off. I dialed 1471 to check the phone number and e-mailed the venue itself via their website to see what was going on.
They came back saying they are looking at cancelling ALL weekend bands. Sorry. I could have done with being told that during the phone call. Oh well.
I had to chase up another venue that had given us three dates and found that they had double-booked us when they went back to put them in their own diary. That was simply because they didn't have the diary to hand when I had picked out three dates - and I don't blame them for that at all. They rang me asap to call in and sort it out. Nice of them. Decent people. So off I went for a little drive out.
I managed to cover one of the three cancelled dates (in November) with no problem at all and sorted out the other double booking there. Diary closed. Happy man. As I was about to go out, I had a quick whinge to the landlord about the short notice given that the other venue had dropped weekend gigs - and he put us on for the very early June date that we had just lost as well. What a sound guy!
I made a small detour on the way home and drove to another couple of local venues to see what the situation was there re bookings - and I got us 4 at one of them for the rest of the year, excellent stuff! Especially as it is only 5 minutes drive from my house, even if I'm just dawdling along!
We came out well ahead in the end...
Anyway... I went home cheerfully and e-mailed to let the band know the good news....
The last thing before I went to bed, I checked my e-mails. Another venue we had just taken a booking at a week ro so ago, had a Northern Soul night down as being on, on November 5th in their e-mail newsletter, instead of us. I just went to bed disgusted.
An e-mail back and forth this morning sorted it all out with that venue and we now have a Sunday gig there. Nice of them to sort us out. And so quickly.
It has to be asked how it is that some of these places stay in business when the management are so dumb. My diary is very straightforward. We have been hit by a couple of places with double-booking incidents in recent months. See the blog entry below for my rant on that!
Please note that I haven't named any venues or towns they are in on here, but you can spot all of the landlords concerned walking round in big white pointy dunce caps.
When I got home, I got a phone call to tell me that a gig my band was due to do at the beginning of June is now off. I dialed 1471 to check the phone number and e-mailed the venue itself via their website to see what was going on.
They came back saying they are looking at cancelling ALL weekend bands. Sorry. I could have done with being told that during the phone call. Oh well.
I had to chase up another venue that had given us three dates and found that they had double-booked us when they went back to put them in their own diary. That was simply because they didn't have the diary to hand when I had picked out three dates - and I don't blame them for that at all. They rang me asap to call in and sort it out. Nice of them. Decent people. So off I went for a little drive out.
I managed to cover one of the three cancelled dates (in November) with no problem at all and sorted out the other double booking there. Diary closed. Happy man. As I was about to go out, I had a quick whinge to the landlord about the short notice given that the other venue had dropped weekend gigs - and he put us on for the very early June date that we had just lost as well. What a sound guy!
I made a small detour on the way home and drove to another couple of local venues to see what the situation was there re bookings - and I got us 4 at one of them for the rest of the year, excellent stuff! Especially as it is only 5 minutes drive from my house, even if I'm just dawdling along!
We came out well ahead in the end...
Anyway... I went home cheerfully and e-mailed to let the band know the good news....
The last thing before I went to bed, I checked my e-mails. Another venue we had just taken a booking at a week ro so ago, had a Northern Soul night down as being on, on November 5th in their e-mail newsletter, instead of us. I just went to bed disgusted.
An e-mail back and forth this morning sorted it all out with that venue and we now have a Sunday gig there. Nice of them to sort us out. And so quickly.
It has to be asked how it is that some of these places stay in business when the management are so dumb. My diary is very straightforward. We have been hit by a couple of places with double-booking incidents in recent months. See the blog entry below for my rant on that!
Please note that I haven't named any venues or towns they are in on here, but you can spot all of the landlords concerned walking round in big white pointy dunce caps.
Mmm, controversial..
One of the things that really hacks me off is when a local venue cocks up our bookings and either tries to rearrange or cancels them at short notice.
My band had this happen to us not long ago and it cost us £450.00 for three lost gigs. Not huge money in the scheme of things, but I was not impressed.
I won't name the venue or whereabouts in the UK it is. So.... no-one can get steamed up and start shouting 'libel' at me..... again.
So what happened?
I took the band diary into this pub in late October 2004 and arranged a set of dates for 2005 for the band with the landlady. She didn't have a diary, so - being the organised guy I am - I gave her a blank year planner sheet for 2005. I always carry the next year's planner. I have had 2006's for a while now. We put four dates in for the year, which was fair enough for us. We were therefore the first band in the diary.
Our January gig went without much event, except our usual drummer was on holiday in America and we had a reserve drummer sit in (my mate Rick, who is dynamite) and the gig went down really well. We confirmed our remaining gigs at that point.
Later on, I was checking out their website and saw we weren't on the bands list. So, I went in the next day to sort it out. The landlady was very apologetic and told me a relief manager had been in for a short while and had cocked up their bookings by double booking loads of bands for the remainder of the year.
She said there had been instances of two bands appearing on the same night expecting to play. She was beside herself with embarrassment and I felt sorry for her. She refused to put our bookings back in, though she was capable of doing so. The relief manager had been sacked and they didn't have their original bookings planner back. I left in a bit of a bad mood, but was completely polite to her throughout.
I posted on a local message board to helpfully say that bands should check with the venue, to avoid two bands turning up. I thought it was shameful that they weren't honouring original bookings and said so. I DID say it wasn't their fault that bands had been double booked.
Enter the landlord - e-mailing me and threatening libel action unless I apologised and retracted what I said on our website. There had been NO double bookings and he was cheesed off at the very suggestion. So. Was his wife talking crap? I retracted insofar as I then made it so our site said that the venue 'could not honour all original bookings' and I had been told previous info 'by someone at the venue'. I rethought that after a day or so and just completely removed all reference to it.
He then went on a local message board and blasted me there, saying we were just sore at being cancelled and we should deal with it. there were no double bookings. Etc Etc. I apologised on there as he requested and at the same time, I asked for my original posting and all related posts to be deleted. To keep the peace, you see.
I then got an e-mail from him graciously accepting my apology, saying no harm done and that he had had 5 double bookings they couldn't sort out so far. There were bands that turned up on the same night, but no actual fighting over who was playing.... Funny how he just told the actual truth in THAT email and before that he had threatened me with all sorts for exposing their inadequacy at organising a p*ss up on brewery premises!!!
What a total star! I have kept his e-mail in case he acts the goat again.
We have replaced all the show dates with new dates at far better venues now, where you don't have to share an alcove with a pool table, but it really hacked me off that he would lie on a newspaper's message board like that and try to make us look bad. They are leaving the pub in August, according to the landlady. Obviously they couldn't hack it.
I haven't named the pub, the landlord or landlady, or even the town in this blog.
My band had this happen to us not long ago and it cost us £450.00 for three lost gigs. Not huge money in the scheme of things, but I was not impressed.
I won't name the venue or whereabouts in the UK it is. So.... no-one can get steamed up and start shouting 'libel' at me..... again.
So what happened?
I took the band diary into this pub in late October 2004 and arranged a set of dates for 2005 for the band with the landlady. She didn't have a diary, so - being the organised guy I am - I gave her a blank year planner sheet for 2005. I always carry the next year's planner. I have had 2006's for a while now. We put four dates in for the year, which was fair enough for us. We were therefore the first band in the diary.
Our January gig went without much event, except our usual drummer was on holiday in America and we had a reserve drummer sit in (my mate Rick, who is dynamite) and the gig went down really well. We confirmed our remaining gigs at that point.
Later on, I was checking out their website and saw we weren't on the bands list. So, I went in the next day to sort it out. The landlady was very apologetic and told me a relief manager had been in for a short while and had cocked up their bookings by double booking loads of bands for the remainder of the year.
She said there had been instances of two bands appearing on the same night expecting to play. She was beside herself with embarrassment and I felt sorry for her. She refused to put our bookings back in, though she was capable of doing so. The relief manager had been sacked and they didn't have their original bookings planner back. I left in a bit of a bad mood, but was completely polite to her throughout.
I posted on a local message board to helpfully say that bands should check with the venue, to avoid two bands turning up. I thought it was shameful that they weren't honouring original bookings and said so. I DID say it wasn't their fault that bands had been double booked.
Enter the landlord - e-mailing me and threatening libel action unless I apologised and retracted what I said on our website. There had been NO double bookings and he was cheesed off at the very suggestion. So. Was his wife talking crap? I retracted insofar as I then made it so our site said that the venue 'could not honour all original bookings' and I had been told previous info 'by someone at the venue'. I rethought that after a day or so and just completely removed all reference to it.
He then went on a local message board and blasted me there, saying we were just sore at being cancelled and we should deal with it. there were no double bookings. Etc Etc. I apologised on there as he requested and at the same time, I asked for my original posting and all related posts to be deleted. To keep the peace, you see.
I then got an e-mail from him graciously accepting my apology, saying no harm done and that he had had 5 double bookings they couldn't sort out so far. There were bands that turned up on the same night, but no actual fighting over who was playing.... Funny how he just told the actual truth in THAT email and before that he had threatened me with all sorts for exposing their inadequacy at organising a p*ss up on brewery premises!!!
What a total star! I have kept his e-mail in case he acts the goat again.
We have replaced all the show dates with new dates at far better venues now, where you don't have to share an alcove with a pool table, but it really hacked me off that he would lie on a newspaper's message board like that and try to make us look bad. They are leaving the pub in August, according to the landlady. Obviously they couldn't hack it.
I haven't named the pub, the landlord or landlady, or even the town in this blog.
The first day of the blog
I'm writing a blog again. I have done this before, but it was on my band's website and my thoughts were misinterpreted as being theirs.
So, if people get a bit steamed if they spot themselves?
Well, maybe I'll just NOT name any names....
So. Who is the guy writing this?
My name's Ian.
I'm 46-ish, (I think I am anyway! I don't care about age - it's just a number).
I play bass in a band in the UK. Pubs and clubs and stuff. I'm not out to be discovered anymore. I just do it cos I like playing in a red hot little band that goes down well and to make a little money, as I also like to spend it.
I'll come to personal stuff about myself, as I get a feel for this blogging stuff, but don't expect deep stuff. While I'm happy to communicate a bit, I don't intend to invite ongoing rambling one-to-one dialogues with people, however, as I am married and don't want to get involved in anything that will cause me endless earache!
I'll be back to write again soon.
So, if people get a bit steamed if they spot themselves?
Well, maybe I'll just NOT name any names....
So. Who is the guy writing this?
My name's Ian.
I'm 46-ish, (I think I am anyway! I don't care about age - it's just a number).
I play bass in a band in the UK. Pubs and clubs and stuff. I'm not out to be discovered anymore. I just do it cos I like playing in a red hot little band that goes down well and to make a little money, as I also like to spend it.
I'll come to personal stuff about myself, as I get a feel for this blogging stuff, but don't expect deep stuff. While I'm happy to communicate a bit, I don't intend to invite ongoing rambling one-to-one dialogues with people, however, as I am married and don't want to get involved in anything that will cause me endless earache!
I'll be back to write again soon.
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