SHARE YOU FRUSTRATION OF CANCELLED GIGS

[andybass23]

after having a show in town booked (for weeks!) (first gig with this particular band) the manager rings up and says "oh btw how old are all of you, cos' you have to be 18!". GRRRR!!!! inb4 "you should of told them", it the pubsa responsibility to ensure were suitable...


so tell me your frustrating stories of cancelled gigs to make me feel less sore

[MatticusMania]

Ive had various gigs cancelled, I handle it much better when its in advance, but nothing sucks so much as showing up to a gig and the venue isnt open and theres a sign on the door saying the place will be closed for a week due to water damage... um, could no one have called?

[Sizlack]

May have posted this in another thread but oh well...

I was the vocalist for a metal band at the time.
Got booked to play 2 shows in one night, luckily the venues where only about 15 minutes from each other and start times were staggered just enough to make it work.
Load in at the first gig and had to start late due to power issues, but made it through with enough time to load out and get to the next place.

Start loading into the the next gig, and noticing the crowd is nothing but wranglers and cowboy hats...not a good sign. After a short discussion with the band, we decide to start setting up anyways...manager pulls me aside and begins asking what kinda music we played, and decided that it wasn't a good idea for us to go on. Got paid $50.00 to not play, I guess we shoulda asked before we started loading in but oh well.

The guys that booked us to play there with them were asked to check with management on any future bookings.

[andybass23]

haha thought you were gonna go into the blue bro's story there, id love to get $50 to not play haha just after playing

[mrwink]

We were playing this once place regularly and our leader kept bugging the owner about adding more dates. One day he tells us we lost the gig (it was monthly gigs) including the date we had the following Friday night .

Months later after that band had broken up our guitarist and singer went back to the club to see some friends play and saw the owner - they asked him what had happened and he said that our leader had bugged him and bugged him to where the owner said to back off for a while. Our leader took it as "you're fired" and told the owner off, then lied to us about the whole thing - the owner was pissed because we didn't show for the gig we still had booked - no one else in the band knew what had happened.

Owner likes the rest of us and is eager to book our new group, so all is not lost!

[bassasaurus]

Originally Posted by andybass23

haha thought you were gonna go into the blue bro's story there, id love to get $50 to not play haha just after playing

Reminds me of this dialogue from the Marx Brothers Animal Crackers

Spaulding: What do you fellas get an hour?
Ravelli: For playing, we get-a ten dollars an hour.
Spaulding: I see. What do you get for not playing?
Ravelli: Twelve dollars an hour.
Spaulding: Well, clip me off a piece of that.
Ravelli: Now for rehearsing, we make special rate. That's-a fifteen dollars an hour...That's-a for rehearsing.
Spaulding: And what do you get for not rehearsing?
Ravelli: You couldn't afford it. You see, if we don't rehearse, we a-don't play, and if we don't play (he snaps his finger) - that runs into money.

[happycat]

We had a Saturday arvo gig - booked to play at 4pm. Spoke to the venue late Sat morning and confirmed details. We arrive at about 3:00. Another band is just finishing a set - no problems there. Checked in with the owner to confirm arrangements with the other band (to get their gear and ours sorted) - he said he would get back to me. Approach the owner again at 3:30 - we really should have things sorted by now and they just ain't. The other band are getting ready to start another set. So, when pushed, the owner says that we will start at 5:30 instead which is no good for us. Whe I tell him this, he tells me to "f%^& off". So we did.


We won't be playing there again.

I found out later that this guy has a reputation for this sort of thing. Apparently, he also abused a customer who ordered a drink that he didn't stock. What a way to run a bar.

[addylewis]

Ok - hows about effectively taking a week off work (cover needs to be found by the one working it, which CAN take upto 4 weeks with the crap staff we have working) to have the gig cancelled the day before?