Wednesday 28 September 2016

You Can't Buy Class

The stimulus for this blog is one particular client that I did a gig for the other day. You know those people who are very particular about everything that they do? I’ve dealt with irritating clients before, but this one took the mick.

It’s not unusual for someone to request particular songs, or particular styles of music. An accommodating band would be able to sort that out; at the end of the day it’s their event, so why the hell not? Even having a rehearsal to get the songs sorted is perfectly reasonable. Personally, I think that it’s a bit of a shame if you spend the time preparing the songs to miss them out when it comes to the big day. Maybe you’re running late and you have to adapt, all fine. But for a client to just decide on the night that they don’t fancy hearing the first set of songs (that they picked and approved) I think it’s a bit offside.

I suppose it happens, sometimes people change their mind about things. For the most part, bands can be very flexible and do whatever you want on a gig (within reason, I hate the YMCA as much as your guests do). My issue comes when you’re not left to the job for which you’ve been hired. As a band, you should be trusted to do the job correctly and adapt to the event as you see fit. However, the client who I worked for the other day (who’ll remain nameless) couldn’t leave us alone! Whether it was chopping and changing songs in the set or complaining about the volume of the band (or individual singer in one case) she just couldn’t let us be!

There was a sort of Iron Lady type vibe about this woman, I don’t know if it’s just because we were in London and she was relatively well off. Maybe I’m just easily intimidated by people who are older than me. That aside, the band were extremely helpful in jumping through all the hoops that she presented us with. Ordinarily I wouldn’t have a problem with all that, but she spoke to us as if we were hired staff. Like, having money just meant that you could speak down to people who were working at your event. She created an extremely tense working environment for us, which was picked up on by other staff working at the event.

Funnily enough when we were left to our own devices, the dance floor was full and the guests had a great time. I just couldn’t help but feel that no matter who you are or what you’re worth (financially or some manufactured ladder of importance) you have no right to patronise people who are giving up their time and energy to make your event all the more enjoyable. I’ve seen it among waiting staff and their bosses before. Maybe it’s synonymous of a time where it was ok for the boss to treat their staff with such distain.

I have a lot of fun gigging and travelling to different places. I get to see some cool stuff and meet some interesting people. However, sometimes it’s just wrong for people to mess you around in such a way. This event wasn’t the first fiddly gig that I’ve done, nor will it be the last. But a bit of manners never hurt anybody. I’m not asking to be worshipped for every note that we play, but just a bit of respect and understanding wouldn’t go amiss. Anyway, that’s me for now. I must start to do more positive posts in the near future.


Al

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