Since you've paid to get your band listed, you should demand a refund, especially considering he screwed up and not you (assuming there wasn't any threats made in the email that might complicate things). That guy's behaviour needs changing, not yours. Also I'd consider checking with other organisers if you can still play, as he may not have as much control over events as he thinks.
Free music is good, but if the people don't have to pay, neither should the bands, since they're the ones putting all the effort in - the venues should cover those costs. You certainly shouldn't have to put up with that sort of crap.
We are getting a full refund off the guy of our 40 quid. He is the guy in charge of it, and he has already pissed off another band by misspelling things and omitting information.
We're not all being petty about the spelling thing, As you say, we paid for that listing, so it should be accurate and contain the info we submitted. The guy only had to copy and paste (obviously that was beyond him).
We don't need to play the Free Fringe gigs. It makes no odds to us really. We were going to do it for something to do when we had no more bookings and to offer more people a chance to hear our stuff. As it happens, we will be going to Portugal a few days later and we can use that weekend to rehearse.
I agree with you to a certain extent. That's the kind of stuff we've been doing in this country. We've been playing gigs for free in the hope of some kind of publicity or further opportunity. I just don't see why we haven't got very far with it in this time. Fair enough, in Portugal we have contacts, but the people don't know that. They still come to the gigs so our music can't be crap. Making it big can also be a false economy. It's usually record companies that control the big budget publicity and gigs. Most of the time, the bands don't see all that much of the money unless they get an uncommonly good deal
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It's a pity. Whenever I've seen you guys I've always noted a remarkable difference between you guys and the other bands playing, something I can only describe as actual professionalism, and I've always noticed the people in the audience responding to that.
I don't think the problem is free music. I think the problem is the amount of artists willing to take shit treatment in order to just play.
Laughing Horse try and make out that they are the nice free fringe event orgs, but I watched them try and take the venues off the guy who started the free fringe a decade ago after they split with him two years into doing it with him, and then they outed him for his tourettes.
They just don't seem to be very nice at all. They have done the same crap to another band. He didn't cancel the gigs on them (maybe they were a bit nicer than Viara), but he failed to see the importance of spelling things correctly and copy and pasting info. With this band, they didn't have the gigs listed under the bands name at all, just under the lead singer, and they chopped the a off the end of her name to make it sound like she was a bloke. They're thinking of pulling out too.
My spoken word show is with the original people - http://freefringe.org.uk/. I have found them pretty easy to work with so far and haven't been asked for any money. My expenses go directly to the Fringe society for being listed in the Fringe programme (not cheap) and advertising/promotion.
On the subject of free gigs at all, I feel the same way about short stories. I will contribute a short story in one of three situations:
I get paid.
I don't get paid but I'm helping a friend.
I don't get paid but the presentation is superb.
You're mostly pissed off because the guy treated you badly and indeed I've had the same experience several times. I don't get paid and my story appears to have been typeset by a caffeinated monkey who is missing his favourite show on TV.
It's the same thing with taking photos - if you do it well for free you undermine the professionals. It's uncomfortable. But do I want to stop taking photos? Do I want to tell a struggling band they need to pay me to put my photo on their MySpace?
Yeah I hear that the other Free Fringe people are much better. We checked them out too and we would have been happy to pay for the advertising with them cos it looks well done and professional. I think it's the same thing with photographers too. Definitely. We have some lovely shots of our band, but they were done by students at the college who offered us free photos in exchange for us being models for their college project. This was fair enough. Even though we're definitely not well off musicians, we would rather give people a small amount of money for doing something rather than let everyone be out of pocket
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Free music is good, but if the people don't have to pay, neither should the bands, since they're the ones putting all the effort in - the venues should cover those costs. You certainly shouldn't have to put up with that sort of crap.
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We're not all being petty about the spelling thing, As you say, we paid for that listing, so it should be accurate and contain the info we submitted. The guy only had to copy and paste (obviously that was beyond him).
We don't need to play the Free Fringe gigs. It makes no odds to us really. We were going to do it for something to do when we had no more bookings and to offer more people a chance to hear our stuff. As it happens, we will be going to Portugal a few days later and we can use that weekend to rehearse.
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I don't think the problem is free music. I think the problem is the amount of artists willing to take shit treatment in order to just play.
Pain in the bum.
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My spoken word show is with the original people - http://freefringe.org.uk/. I have found them pretty easy to work with so far and haven't been asked for any money. My expenses go directly to the Fringe society for being listed in the Fringe programme (not cheap) and advertising/promotion.
On the subject of free gigs at all, I feel the same way about short stories. I will contribute a short story in one of three situations:
You're mostly pissed off because the guy treated you badly and indeed I've had the same experience several times. I don't get paid and my story appears to have been typeset by a caffeinated monkey who is missing his favourite show on TV.
It's the same thing with taking photos - if you do it well for free you undermine the professionals. It's uncomfortable. But do I want to stop taking photos? Do I want to tell a struggling band they need to pay me to put my photo on their MySpace?
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