Let's hire...

[AngelEyes]

Thought you might find this interesting.

About 5 years ago, I audited an organization closely related to one of the nation's first musicians union.

It was very interesting to talk with the people. We got on to the subject of contracts, and they showed me some of the recent contracts.

I remember reading the contracts, and they were surprisingly quite simple. Some were one page, and others were a few pages.

The contracts basically said, you're playing, this date, this location, you pay local dues, you get these bucks. There was also a section for special requests, such as lodging, or other miscellaneous demands.

When a band came to town, and they had not paid local dues to the local union, they did have to pay. But, it was about $15 or so, per year for the dues. Surprisingly, they made a big deal about this, despite the fact that it is very immaterial.

Contract prices were very interesting. Some of the smaller names, such as Jason Bonham, were paid $10,000, plus x% of the ticket sales over $x. Overall, a pretty low take.

The bigger names, like Rush/etc., would be paid right around $300,000. But, a local Fortune 500 company would sponsor a private party with the band, and pay the band another $100,000. In addition, the band would receive materially higher %'s on ticket sales, with a substantially lower floor.

Only the top 1 or 2 country/western singers of the year would receive a base of $100,000. This kind of money, however, consistently went to big rock stars. Rock definitely brought in the most money.

One more thing. The place where I held the audit was in the very building of the musicians union. Pavaratti came to town, and did visit the musicians union. It was an out of the way place, very quiet. He practiced there for a while, and then wanted an Italian dinner. The union called to make reservations, and asked all patrons to leave the restaurant. The restaurant agreed, hoping to make big bucks off the Pavaratti party. Later, Pavaratti left no tip!

So...how much do you think it would take to hire Dave for a backyard BBQ? I figure with 2,000 people here x $200 each, we would have $400,000 to offer!!! Anybody interested?

[Glenn]

$200 to get in??? Sounds good, where do I sign? And Dave can feel free to bring, say, three friends.

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