F*cking cancer....
I met him before he got famous-famous. He played here at a bar called the Fuzzy Duck. I'm not a fan of country music but it was the only place I could get into as I was underage. I still don't know why they always let me in.
We used the same venue for 10 years for bi-monthly dances, a ballroom in a 100 year old Eagles lodge. They gave us a sweet deal as a nonprofit and we returned the favor with volunteers painting and maintaining the place. Manager retired and the new guy sat us down for a meeting.
He kicked us out. He had a 100 year old building to keep standing and he needed revenue. It wasn't that the rent we were paying wasn't enough, it was that our crowd didn't drink. If everybody who turned up had bought one beer he's have given us the room for free. He made more from the bar at a reggae show (in Montana, mind you) than our total revenue for the evening.
So we wound up at a community center a mile away from downtown and our numbers never really recovered. They've been slowly pushing us out too, for different reasons (long story) but I'd really rather be in that old rickety building with its creaky wooden floor. If we could dismantle the DJ booth they put in the middle of it.
Yep. Sort of related is when Justine and I had our coffeehouse, we expected to have little coffeehouse acts play. It took about half a dozen of those very cool evenings to realize we were making a donation. Even if the musician just played no charge, with a tip jar, people would sit for a couple hours and not buy anything and more than once, the noisy business of operating an espresso bar brought *shush* noises from the non-coffee-drinking audience so people who wanted to meet friends and chat stopped coming on those nights. Live and learn!
And you wonder why there are "service fees" added to every ticket. But you don't have to honor that requestâyes it's high. I booked a few shows a long time ago and the first contract I got was always ludicrous. You get your pen out, literally cross out what you don't agree to and scrawl your counter in the margin. A guaranteed minimum, say 100% of sales at 50% of capacity, then 50% of the second 50% after legitimate expenses (promotion, catering, security, sound and lights). In a bar with a capacity of 500, that left a little for the promoter (me) but left almost nothing if I didn't actually promote it once it was half sold out. So I still carried a lot of risk if the show didn't sell, and stood to make some money if it did. The bar had more expenses but theoretically made a lot of money with a good crowd (but not alwaysâthe Beat Farmers were good for business ) Jonathan Richman not so much.
We used the same venue for 10 years for bi-monthly dances, a ballroom in a 100 year old Eagles lodge. They gave us a sweet deal as a nonprofit and we returned the favor with volunteers painting and maintaining the place. Manager retired and the new guy sat us down for a meeting.
He kicked us out. He had a 100 year old building to keep standing and he needed revenue. It wasn't that the rent we were paying wasn't enough, it was that our crowd didn't drink. If everybody who turned up had bought one beer he's have given us the room for free. He made more from the bar at a reggae show (in Montana, mind you) than our total revenue for the evening.
So we wound up at a community center a mile away from downtown and our numbers never really recovered. They've been slowly pushing us out too, for different reasons (long story) but I'd really rather be in that old rickety building with its creaky wooden floor. If we could dismantle the DJ booth they put in the middle of it.
There was no way to make money from selling tickets. He was guaranteed about 95% of the revenue for a sell-out. All of the risk was on us. We never booked another country act.
And you wonder why there are "service fees" added to every ticket. But you don't have to honor that requestâyes it's high. I booked a few shows a long time ago and the first contract I got was always ludicrous. You get your pen out, literally cross out what you don't agree to and scrawl your counter in the margin. A guaranteed minimum, say 100% of sales at 50% of capacity, then 50% of the second 50% after legitimate expenses (promotion, catering, security, sound and lights). In a bar with a capacity of 500, that left a little for the promoter (me) but left almost nothing if I didn't actually promote it once it was half sold out. So I still carried a lot of risk if the show didn't sell, and stood to make some money if it did. The bar had more expenses but theoretically made a lot of money with a good crowd (but not alwaysâthe Beat Farmers were good for business ) Jonathan Richman not so much.
The first and only country concert attended (as a volunteer for an organization that was mostly folk-based). He played to a near sell-out at the Penns Grove High School in Carney's Point NJ.
As Treasurer of the organization...I cared mostly about ticket sales. What I remember most is the education I received about booking country acts. There was no way to make money from selling tickets. He was guaranteed about 95% of the revenue for a sell-out. All of the risk was on us. We never booked another country act.
As a non-fan...it was OK. Better than I expected. Hot and loud...but OK.
I never got to meet him but I have a few friends who studied with him at UNCG.
I heard him at a gathering once read from his collection Shadow Box Poems with Susan reading the inner lines. It's a fascinating collection of poems. I read one called Pearl by my Mother's graveside service in 2010. Fred was quite moved when I told him and it caught me off guard. Must have been more there than I was aware of. I also acted with them in a skit once. It was crazy and fun. Anyway...
I need to find those notes and pics.
