STAY AWAY from George's II in Wallingford!

[crazyjunkie]

Just a WARNING to all original bands out there:

Stay AWAY from Georges II restaurant in Wallingford. Do NOT play there! They will RIP YOU OFF!!!

The story:

I am friends with this absolutely amazing original band (we'll call them Band-X) who booked a gig there through a booking agent that represents the place. The agreement was for $350.

Band-X decided that they would get more people to the place, and have a better show if they had another band (Band-Y) use their setup and play some songs too. That way, both Band-X and Band-Y would bring people, increasing the profit for the bar. Band-Y would play for free (they didn't know it, but Band-X was going to pay them something out of their $350).

Combined, both bands brought around 35 people, and guess what? That's the exact number of total people in the place (meaning the bar would have been empty otherwise).

Band-X went on first. During the last few songs that Band-X was playing, they noticed that people started leaving, and Band-Y members were leaving too. So after their last song, they asked Band-Y what was going on.

Apparently, the Manager of George's II told Band-Y that they couldn't play because they weren't "authorized". Band-X tried to explain that Band-Y would be playing for FREE. He didn't care. Band-Y was NOT going to play.

So, Band-X began to pack up and Band-X's people began to leave since the entertainment was leaving.

Band-X went to get paid. The manager gave them $100. When they explained the deal was for $350, the manager said, "You didn't bring enough people and the people that were here weren't drinking enough. I don't have to pay you at ALL if I don't want to."

They took the $100 and left.

NEVER AGAIN!

Please boycott this place. DO NOT PLAY THERE! WARN any original bands you know to STAY AWAY from George's II in Wallingford!

Band-X is going to talk to the booking agent again, and see if he'll honor his word and give them the other $250 they were promised.

[Johnny 5]

Yeah, classic example of a bar manager that doesn't know how to run his business. I can't stand bars that book a band to fill the place up. It seems to be becoming more regular in CT. Yes, a band can bring more of a crowd in, but if you can't get a soul in the place on your own, a band isn't going to magically create business for you. The purpose of the band is entertainment. One of the perks happens to be that they may also bring in added clientelle in addition. If you book a band because you can't get people in your bar, you need to first realize why you can't get people in your bar in the first place. And then book a band to entertain the people who do come in. Most of these places seem to phase out or change management often. Probably no real reason to get too upset. It works itself out.


I direct you to:
www.ctmamusic.com/crowd.html

[honeyleather]

Personally I think musician's need to be more aggressive about enforcing these agreements, particularly where there is no relationship left to salvage. Bring a small claims action, it doesn't cost much. Guess what'll happen if every time he stiffs a band he will have to leave the restaurant for a series of small claims court appearances.

[fcmonk]

Unfortunately, if it's not in writing, there isn't a whole lot you can do.

[Johnny 5]

Yeah, definitely get all agreements in writing. If the club refuses, that's a red flag right there.

[twistdpair]

FWIW, Club 645 in S. Windsor is another to stay away from. I know of at least 2 good bands that have been stiffed there. I think the owner has the place on the market and is trying to get away with not paying since he won't have to worry about the repercussions.

[Johnny 5]

I see George's II has signed up for the board. Let's let them give their side of the story without resorting to the name calling and insults thrown around on craigslist.

[chasingbaxter]

We had a similar problem at Bank St Cafe in New London this weekend. We had been haggling back and forth on price when first trying to book the show and we finally agreed on $325 with the potential for increase if we did well. We played Saturday night and brought 30+ people - there were maybe 2 other people at the bar that we didn't bring. The bouncers kept complimenting us saying how awesome we were and that the band that played the night before (Halloween) didn't do nearly as well and there were barely any people there! So we took that as a good sign.

At the end of the night we go to collect our pay and the manager says he can only give us $300 even though we had agreed to $325. Well, we had a $30 band tab running so we thought that was being covered and hence why we only got 3. Nope - we had to pay the tab too. It's so frustrating when you deliver what's promised - or even go above and beyond - and bars still treat you like crap. We aren't jumping up and down trying to book there again, that's for sure.

Maybe we need to send all of the CT bars Johnny 5's write-up and see if some places finally will open their eyes and realize bands can't entirely run your establishment for you. Yes, bands should bring customers but they should be additional customers, not the only ones in the place. It's supposed to be a win-win situation!

[chasingbaxter]

Apr 8, 2008 14:37:24 GMT -5 Johnny 5 said:

Yeah, definitely get all agreements in writing. If the club refuses, that's a red flag right there.

Good idea. We've done that with some places (especially when it's a larger scale show), but we also found that once you start enforcing contracts, the bars start enforcing W-9s to have tax taken out. Technically, they're not supposed to unless you're getting more than $600 for one show, but there's always the sticklers. Just a heads up for those of you who don't wanna deal with that.

For a larger scale show, taking tax out makes perfect sense. I can understand that. But we've had some venues who were paying us very little as it is and then on top of it, make us fill out a tax form. It just pisses me off how little bars are willing to shell out nowadays.

[georgesii]

You want to get written agreements for playing at an Open Mic? Who ever heard of such a thing? Talk to the bands who played last Thursday or every Thursday for that matter. Most of them play for fun, no quams about it but I have been taking steps to make it more worthwhile. There were 150+ people last week, 3 bands whom of which all got paid, and actually, $275 for 45min of original music ain't too shabby. Even the other two bands made out pretty good themselves. I think they got $150 each. For all of you who haven't been to George's II on a Thursday night really need to stop bashing it because it ain't even the same people running it who run weekends there. The Open Mic is all about the musicians. And at the same time, it's all about making money. Until recently, nobody got paid at the Open Mic. Fortunately, I have been able to devise a system to pay my performers who have been ever so supportive and who I consider to be friends. I can go on and on about how my open mic is a huge benefit to the scene and talk about additional ways I go above and beyond but that's not my purpose for even being on here. I want to expand and find new bands to build relationships with. Give more bands opportunities. I want to introduce new genres and do something different for people to enjoy so everyone gets to express their talents. So think what you want about George's II but don't attack my character by pissing on my Open Mic that I built from the ground up. Last December when we started we had maybe 10-15 people per week, now for the last couple of months, it hasn't be abnormal to see 60 people there. May not seem like much but it's still an hell of an improvement. Thanks for listening to all of this and I'm sure I'll be responding again to something stupid in the near future. Peace out.

[Johnny 5]

I ran an open mic for a while at Bleachers in Bristol. We didn't pay any of the acts. So the fact that you're paying at all is a pretty big deal. I'll admit, when I wrote my statement above I hadn't heard of George's II and didn't know this was an open mic.

For an open mic that's pretty cool actually that you're paying acts.


It also sounds like crazyjunkie's friend's band didn't play the open mic, sounds like they played on the weekend.

[Joe]

I don't understand. How/why do you pay open mic performers? I'm just curious. I thought the point of an open mic was for anyone to sign up and play.

[fcmonk]

Great, the Georges II argument makes it's way to CTMA. Wake me when it's over.

[georgesii]

This is what I've been trying to tell people. These two subjects are totally unrelated but everytime I post anything about my open mic, that happens to take place at George's II; I get blasted. Trust me, soon I will take over the weekend stuff as well and things will be a lot different but right now all I care about is my open mic.

You can still get up and play at my open mic because technically it is still that. But if you don't arrange your slot with me in advance, I won't be able to guarentee you a spot. If you just show up, it's kind of a crap shoot depending on what I got going on that night. Like this Thursday would be a good week to do that because I had a cancellation last minute. Just to make sure we're on the same page, I can't pay everyone. I book three acts per week. They each play for 45min. There is a $3 cover and whoever brings the most people will get %50 and the other two acts will split. The other performances that take place and weren't scheduled are not part of this deal. And actually, I think I said this earlier but some bands that I'm close with, that do bring 40-50 people tell me I don't even have to pay them. In the event of that, we might not charge a cover on that night. Everybody down here on a Thursday night are extremely cool. Everyone respects one another and every week we usually have someone new that becomes part of "the family." I know this guy is saying that there is no built in crowd but he's definitely not talking about Thursdays.

[katiebelle]

I think the person who keeps brining up his experience at this place needs to grow up. Get over it!! For real. I have been there, it was not packed at all but my friends band did get paid a little. They were grateful for what they got. Why are you making it your lifes mission to argue this?