For the purposes of clearing up an issue with payments at a number of venues I thought I'd create a blog open for discussion for bands and anyone wishing to comment.
Recently the paying arrangements at various pubs, including the Coopers Arms in Chadwell Heath, Towngate in Basildon and Fatling & Firkin at Hornchurch were changed as the head office has chosen to use a company called EVENT UK as paymaster. Whilst a company taking care of the finances is a good move there were concerns that the payments to the bands would be delayed by 4 weeks, paid by cheque and there were initial concerns that Event UK would take commission from those payments. A number of bands were not happy with this arrangement and cancelled gigs because of it. However, tonight I received the agreement forms detailing the new arrangement.
Bands are required to complete details of address, identification, bank account details and declaration by signed agreement and are to invoice Event UK direct. The band will be paid the usual fee direct to their bank account the Friday following the received invoice (assuming the agreement has been received by Event UK). All bookings will continue through the pub management.
On Friday 25th May Undercover play the Fatling & Firkin, Hornchurch, under the new arrangements and we will be reporting how the system worked for us in the assurance it may inform others.
We're hoping that the venues don't suffer as a result of this new arrangement but as we frequent some of these pubs we feel there's a loss to all if some of the top bands decide no longer to play at these venues. It's noticeable from livebandphotos that perhaps that has already become the case.
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7 comments:
Good idea - be interested to see how it goes. We are also doing a gig at the Fatling & Firkin to 'test the water'. Not sure of the date but we will get it up on the Livebandphotos site.
You may not know but the Valentine is also now going through Entertainment UK.
Cheers
Exposé
We've played at the Firkin under the new arrangements. As I recall we got our payment in about 2 weeks. We'll see how it goes as were back there this Saturday.
Scooby
We haven't sent our agreement off yet nor our invoice as there's 3 points we're trying to clarify and 1 we'll probably opt out of. The T&Cs are available here and we've raised these issues with them via phone call: http://www.eventuk.co.uk/index.php?p=terms
Apparently they don't have many bands on their books at the moment (3+) as they are mainly covering DJs. The point we're concerned about (from their T&Cs):
"Should the ‘artist’ cancel a booking under circumstances not covered by 'force majeure', the ‘client’ may pursue unlimited damages from the ‘artist’ as they see fit."
This leaves a band rather open eg. loss of trade due to a band not turning up which could obviously run into £1,000s and therefore far outstrip the original payment to the band. Whilst we're very reliable and have never cancelled a gig without at least 2 months notice we feel this could lead us open against unusual circumstances. Its also of note that there's no mention of compensation should the venue cancel bookings.
After the Firkin gig we were approached by another band who have agreed the arrangements and played the Valentine. They were paid within a 3 week period direct to their bank account.
Would the Inland Revenue come knocking on the door of the person who signs for the payment?
What's in it for the venue?
Well today I posted off the Undercover "Artist Agreement" to Event UK. In it I said that I was signing on behalf of the whole band and that we didn't accept "unlimited damages" against us should we have to cancel a gig. Watch this space for any comeback. As we have already played the gig (25 May) and we want our cash there does not seem to be any risk as we can cancel the contract after this if we want to. It is the future gigs and what you are signing up to that concerns me as I could end up homeless if we cancel our Wembley Stadium gig!
When I spoke to Event UK they said that they were just acting as a payment processing centre on behalf of the brewery. They do not take a percentage and I guess that they charge the brewery for the service (which the brewery claims as an expense in their accounts no doubt).
The problem the pub has is that every week they pay out hundreds of pounds to bands and at the end of the year the taxman asks them to prove that they have spent £50k (say) on band entertainment and at the moment they can't so the taxman tells them they can't claim the expense without proof and the brewery gets stung for the tax on an extra £50k.
The information given is protected under the data protection act but whether the taxman will come knocking on the door of the person who signs the contract remains to be seen!
The payment hit my account on 15 June 2007 and so it would appear that Event UK are prompt with their payments. I have not heard anything from them regardng the amendments I made to the contract either so I'm assuming that they are ok with that too. I think as a band we will continue playing the Fatling & Firkin as we are now signed up to Event UK and can cancel the contract at any time. Hope this helps.
Hi Pete
We played at the Valentine and had to use Event Uk for payment.
I can only say the the guys at Event UK are friendly, helpful and quick with the payment.
Once you set up your account (which is no trouble) your sorted.
Regards,
Nigel DRAGON
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