Poll: Guitarist Quits and Takes Gigs

Are there contracts between the band and the venues with the band's name on it?

S.P.

DaveLS said:

So, here's the question:

Who has the right to those gigs?

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I think the short answer is: whoever the venue decides to book. If there are contracts for these gigs, you may have some leverage.

Now personally, I think that's a pretty crappy thing to do. It seems to me that there are two things you can do about it:

1) Call up the venues and explain the situation. If the gigs were booked through the guitarist's contacts, this may not work very well. (And it may not work very well anyway.)
2) Talk it out with the guitarist. He probably won't be willing to walk away with nothing out of it, though. Maybe you could split the gigs up somehow.

DaveLS said:

No contracts were signed.

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In that case, neither of you really has the right to the gigs. Hypothetically speaking, if you left the band tomorrow and started your own band, you could have a crack at hijacking the remaining dates, even though the drummer originally booked them.

If you wanted to get dirty, you could try to charm the venues and poach them back, but I don't think you've got any legal basis for forcing the guitarist to give you them.

S.P.

Hmm...limited experience but I'll offer my own version of common sense.

The gig was booked for the band. So as long as the band is still together, I'd think that's who the gigs belong to.

But the guitarist has the contact info and originally did the booking, so he has any right to maintain his own contact with these establishments and change the information they have because he provided it to them.

As for rights? Whoever contacts first I guess, there's no real "right" to the gigs. Not exactly the most fair thing to do, but if they're paying gigs I guess the guitarist was thinking about making some money. Best thing to do economically. But were they even paying?

Let the guitarist have the gigs yoou don't want burn bridges and get rep with venues that your hard to deal with move on

It sucks, but I'd let it go. First, the venue owner has no interest in getting in the middle of a pissin' match between the guitarist and your band. Second, the guitarist already has some sort of relationship with the venue owner, and that probably trumps what you have ... a band name. Third, you can approach the same venue owners on your own, explain the situation, and see if he/she will book your band for other dates. (Maybe the guitarist will even put in a good word for you?) The connections that the guitarist made can still be an asset to your band.

Without a contract there's no "right" to a gig, as someone else said, the gig belongs to whoever the venue owner wants. Period. It's just a bump in the road of giggin' band ... don't let it get it to you. Chalk it up to experience.

I agree, the lack of contracts makes it a real toss-up.

One fact remains: Those dates the guitarist booked were dates the drummer may have been able to book at his venues before, but they may no longer be available. That represents lost revenue for the drummer and his mates.

But still, what can you do?

The guitarist is a jerk.... He should have left your bookings and gone in and booked his new band for different dates. The club has the right to do whatever they want even though they verbally agreed to the band bookings. Most bookings are with the understanding that they can be cancelled by the club if there is not a written contact.
The thing to do is go down and talk to the club owners/booking agents and explain you still have the band together and would like some bookings. Heavily adverstise, bring a crowd and play your booties off. If you bring the club more money than the guitarists band does you can be sure to have more bookings than they will.

This is why bands should plant bums on seats in the establishments that employ them every so often...

Sucks for the band missing out but maybe the guitarist wanted to make sure he got paid for the shows he booked as well as make a good impression on the members of the new act, and isn't just being a jerk as such??

If they are well paying, and if the guitarist planned on a small income "between" bands, its an understandable reaction to have to such a circumstance, IMHO. He did offer to stay on and finishing up bookings after stating he was leaving amicably, only to be shown the door almost immediately. . .

IMO, the band keeps the gigs if the guitarist quits of his own accord. If he was fired, I could see him keeping them, although they were booked under the band's name, not the GP's name.

kesslari said:

Does the guitarist have kneecaps and fingers that he'd like to keep whole and unbroken?

Not that I'd espouse violence as a means of reconciling differences, especially on an internet forum...

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I voted offer another option, too.

Blueszilla said:

IMO, the band keeps the gigs if the guitarist quits of his own accord. If he was fired, I could see him keeping them, although they were booked under the band's name, not the GP's name.

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Apparantly not, since the venue's took the GP's word on the situation without checking with "the band".

You didn't pose the question as an etiquette question (Is the guitarist acting in a polite manner?) or an ethical question (Is the guitar player acting in a morally correct manner?) , you asked a legal question. And got pretty much answered, no one has a "right" to those gigs.

Trying to get the clubowner to mediate will be an exercise in frustration - look at it this way, he doesn't care who drives the truck that delivers his beer and he's not gonna give a flying f**k about settling an argument between truck drivers as to who's "supposed" to drive.

Trying to figure out if the guitar player thinks he's screwing you is gonna be contingent on the conversations he had with the clubowners. If he called up and said " Hi, I'm with YOUR GUYS BAND , here's our demo and press kit, give us a gig." Then you should be able to call up the clubowner and say "What's up, you booked YOUR GUYS BAND and GUITAR PLAYER doesn't play with us?"
But from the way you've laid it out (GUITAR PLAYER used his contacts to get into rooms new to YOUR GUYS BAND), it sounds like the conversation was more like "Hi, CLUB OWNER WHO I KNOW PERSONALLY, this is GUITAR PLAYER. I've got a new band that I'd like to bring into your club." And guess what, he still does. Only it ain't you.

But the bottom line is, the guitar player says you don't have the gigs, what's the clubowner say? Call him up and ask him who's booked. If he booked "Steve and his band" then the clubowner himself hasn't made and changes. If he says that he booked the "new band that Steve is playing with", you probably do want to take the opportunity to let him know that you are disappointed that he changed his mind and cancelled your booking, that you'd still like the opportunity to play there and what date can you discuss booking?

You guys should be compensated since you guys could have (and did) had other bookings. If it were me, we woulda had it out! That's foul and a real good way to burn bridges. I hope his new band sucks! Send promos to that same club for your band and get your own gigs.