Southsea Community Cinema and Arts Centre - avoid!!!

[Steve Browning]

A band I play in played at this small venue in Southsea last Fridy night. Blazing hot load in and subsequent load out. Very few people about and so a very low turnout.

 

Long stort short (as you will have guessed, I bet), the lady is refusing to pay the band any money at all (a fee was agreed in writing). She was pleasant on the night and watched as we played all evening, presumably having decided she wasn't going to pay us anything. I will be going to the Small Claims Court, but any locals who may get a gig there, I would be inclined to not play there. 

Edited 12 hours ago by Steve Browning

[SimonK]

Sorry to hear this - especially given I work very close by (I'm often at the Queen's hotel in Southsea).

 

I've seen this post while (avoiding) sorting out my own invoices and quotes (not music related), and was just struck by how most of us would probably never do any normal work without formal quotations/invoices, and yet for music this is so common - I don't think I've ever had more than an email/text message agreeing payment, albeit I am very much on the amatuer side of things. Hopefully your agreement is/was a bit more robust!

[Steve Browning]

Thank you. The email we have is enough to form a contract for services. Apparently, she is entirely brazen about it and there is no discussion about any kind of (agreed) reduction she would agree to pay.

[Beedster]

We had a similar thing happen with what looks like a similar type of operation Steve (large community arts centre). They did it in a slightly different way, that is every person we spoke to directed us to someone else. When we found the person responsible for payment they tried the 'Your quote wasn't in the correct form' thing. IIRC our singer just persisted, went to everyone about it (local council etc), and after a couple of months we got paid. What really annoyed us was the the gig was rammed, with the businesses in the space itself (food, bars, retail) telling us they'd never had such a large crowd in, in fact one of them ran out of food, but the people who run the place are just creating bad PR for those businesses by ensuring that bands like our will never play there again 😡

 

Hope you get it sorted Steve

[Dan Dare]

7 hours ago, Steve Browning said:

Thank you. The email we have is enough to form a contract for services. Apparently, she is entirely brazen about it and there is no discussion about any kind of (agreed) reduction she would agree to pay.

 

Please don't discuss or agree to any reduction. Add expenses plus a grief fee on top when you take her to SCC. Chancers like her bank on bands being afraid to pursue them so give her a good kicking (in court, obvs). Good luck.

[Beedster]

2 minutes ago, Dan Dare said:

 

Please don't discuss or agree to any reduction. Add expenses plus a grief fee on top when you take her to SCC. Chancers like her bank on bands being afraid to pursue them so give her a good kicking (in court, obvs). Good luck.

 

....I'd also let her know in no uncertain terms that, having first spoken to your solicitor, you will within the bounds of the law name and shame on social media