I'm moving the
site off this server. In future go to jonasher.netpeople with whom I won't be doing business again not to be trusted Alf Magne Nilsen Sortland Norway Norge Bisi's Schlossmuhle Piano Bar Frauenfeld Switzerland Einar Søvik Sovik Cruise Underholdningshuset A/S Alesund Ålesund Norge The Messonghi Beach Hotel Moraitika Corfu Greece
The information in this document applies to anyone who might be thinking of dealing with any of the people mentioned. It's not unknown for me to discover the people running bars where I've felt the need to leave before the contract ended are also bad at paying agents commission and other bills.
I walked out of my first ever job as a piano entertainer at The Messonghi Beach Hotel in Corfu, Greece. The conditions were worse than I'd been used to as a professional drummer for eight years and I was offered a job finishing the summer season in Monte Carlo for double the money and a nice hotel room. What would you have done? Everything went smoothly for a few years until I played at Da Capos in Finnsnes in the North of Norway. I would have walked out of that gig anyway if the agent hadn't pulled me out because I was needed elsewhere. That was a close one.
My next bad gig was at Bisi's Schlossmuhle Piano Bar in Frauenfeld, Switzerland where I walked out ofter three days of a one month contract. My next runner was from a job in Alesund in Norway working for a man called Einar Søvik Sovik who was successfully prosecuted by The Norwegian Musician's Union (Youngsgt. 11, 0181 Oslo, Tel:- 22 031492. Fax:- 22 031490. Contact: Odd Lengkopp) for his treatment of the acts he hired. I could mention other things that I have subsequently learned about his activities but should stick to what I can prove. His Alesund venue is called "Cruise Underholdningshuset A/S" and he has / had another operation with a similar name at the Inter Nor Grand Hotel in Kristiansund in Norway. Einar Sövik has also gone bust "a number of times" but tends to manage to set himself up in business again remarkably quickly.
In 1999, I was "fired" from a gig in Sortland (run by Alf Magne Nilsen) in the North of Norway. That episode is described in more detail elsewhere on this site. It's the only time I've been "fired" from a gig in sixteen years as a piano act. I'd dared to complain about the fact that anyone COULD have walked in off the street and into my room. For complaining about this, I was fired. My room in the Norlandia Hotell in Sortland had no lock on the door and the reception's response to my concerns about my £5,000 worth of programming and recording gear being stolen, plus all the other valuable stuff and personal effects in my "room" whilst I was away was "there's no crime in Sortland!". Enough people to sustain a hotel and a piano bar, shopping centre etc. but no crime! They must all be angels! The room I had been given was a part of the hotel but with an entrance divorced from the main hotel building in some sort of annex with no supervised entrance lobby or reception.
Now, bearing in mind how many gigs I've done in the last nine years as a piano entertainer, the ones I have walked out of are but a small proportion of my overall work so you can see that working abroad through foreign agents is no more of a risk than working for native agents in your own country. If I can do it, so can you! It's also worth bearing in mind that as far as the UK is concerned, a British act probably has more protection working abroad through a contract, written in English perhaps, but subject to the laws of the country in which they will work, than if they worked in the UK itself. For those of you observing this from outside of the UK, the protection afforded artistes in the UK is about as much use as a chocolate fire guard. The musicians I know who are still managing to gig at all in my home town of Hull complain of late cancellation of contracts with no chance of compensation and there's less work for musicians in Hull every year ...... but there are four lap dancing clubs in Hull! Says it all doesn't it?
I'd LOVE to get more details on everyone's most hated gigs! If enough people contribute, we could have a nice "Top Twenty / Billboard" type chart showing the gigs that get the most votes for being utter garbage. I doubt if many acts will be motivated to reveal their favourite gigs because they won't want the rest of the world contacting the venue or agent directly and booking themselves in there for cheap wages! Send me an e-mail message if you want to have your say! Be careful how you phrase your contributions. You can libel and defame by e-mail and on the internet!
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