Apparently pop duo The Veronicas have refused to refund a booking deposit of $17500 for a charity do. And now they’re copping flack for it. Being made out to be heartless, with a headline in one newspaper – ”A pop betrayal”. The concert was being held to raise money for a boy battling a brain tumour, but got cancelled because they couldn’t sell enough tickets.
Oh what a sweet thing. A kid with a brain tumour. I had a mate in primary school who had a brain tumour and I didn’t see her getting any concert. There are so many charity concerts for different things now – but what makes a concert? Music. That’s your draw card. Crowd-pleasing music, from a live band. What organisers of these events don’t seem to realise is that musicians do it for a living. It is their occupation. Nobody else gets letters asking them to work for free for a week for some charity on a regular basis. The people organising these things seem to have stars in their eyes and no practicality any more. They’ve got their heads up in the do-good angelic clouds and expect everyone to throw money and free products at them because their cause is more deserving than the chosen causes of the rest of the do-good angelic cloud dwellers.
It happens all the time. About a third of the gigs I’ve played have been fundraisers of some description. And we got fucked over countless times, to the point where we usually asked for a booking fee up front. For reasons just like this one – the events were poorly organised and usually fell down on the advertising side. Heartless? No. Practical, yes. We knew where our wages were coming from. You have a booking for a charity do for months, and turn down fifteen better offers for that particular date and then the do gets cancelled because of lack of interest. Whose fault is that? Not the people who’ve donated and lose out. Not the people who need to make a living at the end of the day.
Why don’t we have a Doctor’s charity week? Where you can go see your doctor and they will donate their earnings for that week to charity instead. Or Plumber’s charity week? Get the blockage in your pipes fixed so we can fix the blockage in this kid’s head!.
Maybe there should be a charity for traumatised musicians who’ve done too many charity gigs.
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4 comments:
You are right, artists of all genres have done their part, and more than once, on the charity side... and I so agree about turning to other professions who are in so better situation to make a difference...
Glad to know it's not just like that in the States. The other biggie--weddings. Not the reception (though "friends" expect a break), but musicians during a ceremony (you charge HOW much???). Or the wedding reception out of town that balks at allowing the band through the dinner line (or other arrangements), regardless of whether the band had a chance to stop on the way there, or that they had to sit at the hall from mid-afternoon until late night without the chance to sneak away or something.
But I'm not bitter. Really.
Well said, Vic.
Having retired from music I now work for a charity and I get paid for what I do.
Yet people seem to expect musicians to play for nothing, while the charity fundraisers wouldn't dream of donating a day's pay.
That doctor's charity thing isn't a bad idea...I can play the triangle.
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