Scott Henderson Discussion

[dizzy]

Scott

Have you noticed that music bookers in clubs are now calling themselves "talent buyers". I saw that on a club owners email greeting the other day and it sounded creepy.

[Scott Henderson]

Ha ha! A lot of of them wouldn't know talent if it bit them on the ass. Their first question is "how many records did they sell?"

There are clubs that I could definitely sell out, but the club owners refuse to hire me because they can't track my album sales or they don't think my name is big enough. They're completely out of touch with the actual fan base in their town.

I played at the Palladium in Hollywood with Zawinul. During the week before the show, the promoter was insisting on canceling the show because of poor ticket sales. Joe's manager busted his ass talking the guy into keeping the gig. Of course it was sold out - no one buys advance tickets to jazz shows.

And here's a shout out to all you club owners who think you have a music club because you invested in a PA, but forgot to make your room sound decent by buying a hundred dollars worth of acoustic material to cover your fucking concrete walls.

I make a living working for them, but there's a breed of club owners who must be the dumbest people alive.

[dizzy]

Yeah, lots of club owners think they are on a different side then the musician. They don't realize that we both want the same thing which is a full club and an appreciative audience that wants to come back. So the acoustic room treatment is something they might do later to "humor the musicians". And god forbid they research what local tastes are because it is so much easier to just look on the internet and track album sales. Or what about just making the club really awesome so people want to go just because they always know the music will be good and it is a good hang. Then it wouldn't be so hard to fill the club to begin with. It wouldn't be all up to the band.
I'm getting worked up:)

[peter_heijnen]

Club owners want to sell beer and liquor, beyond that music is a hassle. Here in the Netherlands even the big theaters which are supposed to represent 'hi brow' culture are about selling drinks. In any contract between theater and artist only one thing is absolutely sacred: mid break. The mid break means selling coffee. Coffee doesn't cost a dime but you are being charged tenfold or more for it. So don't you even think about starting again before the break is over, take your time!

[dizzy]

That's funny. "Mid break"
You know what is similar: clubs don't like to book reggae bands much in my city. Why? Because the audience smokes pot and doesn't buy drinks.

[peter_heijnen]

I didn't know how it's called in english, probably just break.

Ever went to a nowadays dance party? Over here large amounts of people use xtc at these occasions, so they really want to drink water! Let alone the fact these peoples kidneys need water more than ever because of the drug.

The owners/organisers simply react by raising water prices to the ceiling. Water being more expensive than beer, can you imagine?