We've all been there. You play the gig
and then the promoter either won't pay you the money
or comes up with some excuse to pay you less. There
are lots of things you could do but we'll stick to
the legal ones for now.
First. Did you have a signed contract
specifying the terms and conditions very clearly? If
not, then it's going to be tougher for you to
document and prove the existence of the oral
agreement. If you do have a contract it's easier to
force the club to live up to it's end of the bargain.
The first thing is to try to negotiate with the
signer of the contract (or whoever you arranged the
deal with).
Why did they not pay? Was there a
disagreement about the terms of the gig? Did your
band hold up every part of your side of the deal?
More than likely, if there was a mis-understanding,
there is usually some middle ground in which to
wrestle out a solution. If the club just suffered a
bad night, perhaps you could arrange to play on a
better return gig and get compensated a bit better
for that one. If your band had problems i.e. didn't
play the full set (s) didn't show up on time, played
too loud, damaged something, blah, blah blah,,,, then
maybe you could work out a settlement for not quite
all that they owe you. Be flexible and business
like......Don't get personal!
If the club just plain screwed you, then
you have to ask yourself a question: "Does
my band ever want to play this club again?"
Yes
Then you've got a tough pill to swallow. About the
only thing you can do is to try to reason with them.
If that doesn't work, just make sure that the
problems are addressed and remedied for the next
engagement. There is no stone-cold-iron-clad way to
keep yourself from getting ripped off! Setting on the
stipulation that you'll be paid in full before you
take the stage can be tricky. You might face that
showdown right before you go on-stage and have to
make the decision of playing for your fans or
sticking to your guns. If you go over all the terms
of the agreement again, including the ones that were
the problems last time, then the club knows your on
the case and that you'll be "looking" for
any problems. If it looks like it's getting messy,
you can pull out before the gig.
No
In this case you have a few more options. You can sue
them. You can hire a solicitor to take care of it for
you. Most solicitors will only do this for a flat
fee, although you may get one to do it for a
percentage of the amount you settle for. You may be
able to sue them in the small claims court. Contact
the County Court in the county where the club is
located and get the paperwork to fill out for a small
claims action. You'll have to pay a filing fee and a
fee for the papers to be served, although you can add
these items to the amount your claiming. Make sure
that you fill out the forms correctly. If you have a
family lawyer or someone that knows about such stuff
who will help you fill out the forms for free (or
very little) then do it. That way you'll know that
the details are taken care of.
One of the most important things about
contracts is to make sure that the person who is
signing the contract has the authority to enter into
the agreement. If they are only an agent of another
person, you should make sure the agreement is between
you and the person who is actually going to be
responsible for paying you. You have to remember that
you're contracting to play FOR someone. The place
that you play is just the location. Once you've filed
the claim, you'll have an opportunity to go in and
tell your side of the story. Small claim court judges
and magistrates are usually very receptive to the
non-legal side of these proceedings. This system was
set up specifically for settling claims without the
lawyers getting involved. If the person you're suing
doesn't show up, or you win your case, you get a
judgment against them. That doesn't mean you get your
money. It just means that you won the judgment. There
are a few other steps that have to be taken to
actually collect (and you may actually NEVER
collect). The best thing is that a judgment goes on
the credit record of the person who it's against, and
it's a powerful weapon in the credit world. the
judgment stays on the credit report for SEVEN years!
If they didn't have shitty credit before, they do
now. One of the best rewards to this action is that
the word will get around that you don't take shit!
There are some other actions that you
can put into place. Picketing a club won't make many
people stay away, but it does raise awareness of your
plight , and it warns other bands as to what happened
to you. Make sure you call the police and tell them
before you just show up. There may be some by-laws
that you have to obey. The other thing you can do is
to get really big in that town and play the
competition. Or better still, make the club that
screwed you really beg before you give them the date.
About the only thing you'll get from this though, is
some self-satisfaction.
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