Why are venue owners,pub land lords so difficult to get any sense out of?

[barneysdad]

W hy are venue owners, organisers and pub land lords/managers so difficult to get any coherant sense out of?I have played in a band for thirteen years and i have spent thirteen years having to to deal with retards that think everybody is as stupid as them ,out of possibly 100 venues/pubs i can count the decent folks on one hand!!!!

[andy-hughes]

I sympathise!

If you work as a 'seller' in a 'buyers' market, you will come up against this kind of attitude.

Landlords who offer bands a chance to play are constantly inundated with bands pleadng for a free gig, which makes anyone looking to (gasp!) get paid for playing look like something from another planet - and get treated accordingly.

It simply goes with the territory. These people become immune to simple notions like courtesy and respect because conciously or subconciously, they are aware that they have something you want.

As a freelance music writer with twenty-seven years experience, I have found myself up against the same sort of approach with editors, who almost gasp out loud at the notion that no, I don't want to write for them for free, and yes, I do think my work is worth paying for.

It is an utterly thankless task dealing with these people, they are like drug addicts, only less civil, and less organised.

All I can do is ask you to keep plugging, and confirm that the music industry in all its forms is like this - and we all suffer to the same degree in one area or another.

[barneysdad]

thanks andy at least i am not alone here!!! Good luck mate!

[mormess]

Hear hear! I hear this complaint from our clients (recording/rehearsal studio) all the time! It is a buyers market and as Andy says, there are plenty of musicians/writers/artists who are willing to do it for the "kudos". Kudos don't feed me though!

On a slightly different note, how about venue audiences who stare at you through the gig and then when you finish a song, don't even clap! We played a remote pub last night and there were people watching but not even clapping at the end! I know they were holding beer but some sort of recognition would have been nice! We are a covers band so it's not as if we were playing stuff they didn't know!

Sorry, rant over. Saying that, we've got a good agent who gets the pleasure of dealing with the managers for us!

[andy-hughes]

I am old-fashioned enough to think that a performance deserves applause as a courtesy, even if you didn't especially enjoy it.

Then again, I remember days before video, when people were quiet in cinemas,. and didn't chat as though they were in their own front room!