A Stomach Of Gas, nominating WTF awards for club owners and event organizers of the year.

Stumble into a few what I may call "let downs" with gigs these few months, that has raised a lot of questions regarding integrity, respect, standards issues in nowadays live music scene. The biggest question is, WTF's wrong with people nowadays!???

And here are the stories:

1. In july, I got booked and confirmed to do 3 nights in a club in KL in mid October. With my previous experiences with gigs in KL, work visa process usually takes a month's time, I have sent in all my info and required documents to the club months ahead, and they have asked me to book my flight which they said they'll reimburse me when I arrive. After chasing their musicians regarding repertoire, and got no reply for a whole month, I didn't pursue with booking my flights to KL. Along the way I have turned down another gig. Then came October 1, I sent the club another email reminding them if they still do not reply I will have to consider the gig canceled. Ha! a reply came in a flash telling me that they are having problems apply for work permit due to their immigration law. I wonder, if I never contacted them, will they ever contact me and let me know what's up?

2. August, a Jazz Festival organizer booked and confirmed me to perform this year at their Festival this November in Jakarta, they have assigned a band to play with me which I have played with last year for the same festival. They also asked me to book my flight immediately and confirm my dates. I was quite happy with the arrangement because it would fill up my November's schedule just nicely. As a habit, I usually won't book my flights until I get a written confirmation or contract from the organizers. They have been contacting me giving me the itinerary, locations and dates. Then they went silent for couple of months and there came 2 weeks ago, an email telling me that the head of the organizer is not happy with the pianist/band leaders music skills and due to budget restriction, they canceled us out. So much for the CONFIRMATIONS.

3. This last one, wins the WTF award of the year.
in August, Singapore Sun Festival, sponsored by Indochine Singapore, has booked me, Steve Thornton, Casey and Mhd Noor to do a 1 hour show tonight (21st Oct). I flew from Hong Kong to Singapore at my own expense, spent time and money rehearsing with Casey and Mhd Noor, those poor guys had to wake up earlier to rehearse with me and rehearse with other projects then gigging at night. Steve, due to his commitments in KL, he could only fly in this morning, we all did a 11am sound check, Casey and Mhd Noor had to rush to another rehearsal and rushed back at 8pm to the venue. After dinner at 9pm, we're standing by for our 10:30pm show, before us there are 2 other groups, one from KL, their slot supposed to be from 8:30-9:30, then an Australian group which supposed to play from 9:30-10:30, us from 10:30-11:30, then the highlight of the night, a group from Cuba, scheduled to perform from 11:30-12:30.

The KL group played and played until I realized it was already past 10pm, naturally, the schedule is being pushed behind, the Australian group went up and played after them. We're just sitting there waiting for our set to start, settled the song list, we were ready to go. Then the project manager came and told us that we will have to cut our set short to half an hour because there are people from the Cuban Embassy and they want to watch the Cuban band sooner. We easily agreed to the arrangement and rearranged our set list, sat down and continue waiting. After about 10 minutes, the project manager came back again, she pulled Steve aside for a long chat. Steve came over and told us that our set has to be cut out because the Cuban Embassy people and some of the guests are complaining that they're waiting too long for the Cuban band to start, and some are threatening to ask for refund of the admission fee. We had no choice but to follow, the guys were really pissed, they didn't even wait til Australian band to finish, went and told the sound men to pack their drums and we left. Luckily, we're getting our gig's money, but the time and effort will never be able to be compensated. For me, I've lost my flight fare and a week of time which I rather be at my new home unpacking, and left with a big bag of gas in my stomach which I as so ready to use it to sing, now i'm sitting at home typing this blog and farting it out from my butt, prooooootttt!!!

My words to club owners and organizers, if you have no clue how to run your businesses, go get a job as an intern or ask people who are experienced, We are skilled and professional musicians, not just any products that you can put or remove as displays anytime you wish.