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[Bill Burford]

On July 2nd, I had 3 bands out doors.. Two hours a band with ipod in between for an hour.  It was hot and jam packed.  I was rotating ice-buckets in front of my amps to lower the temp of the air going into them..
I had tied up my speakers so they couldn't fall (Two are on stands).
Its around 9pm and its almost over and I see these 4 drunk guys and one drunk girl.. the guys have their arms around each other's shoulders.  They are right on the other side of two metal barriers standing their sort of wobbling in drunkness.
I didn't like what I was seeing but didn't want to be a douche and ask them to move..
so I have my earbuds on and I'm just listening to add delay to vocals.
I look away for a second.. look back and it was as if a magic chloraform cloud from hell descended and hit them all at the same time.. In unison, all of their legs buckled and they came crashing through two barriers right through my umbrella snapping it like toothpicks.. Barriers down.. once guys legs are aiming to the east, one pair to the west, one pair north.. and the 4th guy had sort of bounced off the top of one guy and rolled up hill over to the second then on to the third then he popped up and ran off..

I uttered "DANGIT GUYS!!!" jumped up and started picking them up and picked up the barriers..
My umbrella stand was still up bu the top was just half-way down due to snapped rods..

I was pretty aggravated.. the guys had walked away... no "I'm sorry" or "my bad".. nothing...
then I look at my board and the 3 metal insert cables on the vocals were all bent down at a 35 degree angle.
brand new cables..
Trauma to the back of the board. I was super pissed..
so now I have an umbrella with 3 kinds of glue holding it together.  SUCKO

[Tim McCulloch]

On July 2nd, I had 3 bands out doors.. Two hours a band with ipod in between for an hour.  It was hot and jam packed.  I was rotating ice-buckets in front of my amps to lower the temp of the air going into them..
I had tied up my speakers so they couldn't fall (Two are on stands).
Its around 9pm and its almost over and I see these 4 drunk guys and one drunk girl.. the guys have their arms around each other's shoulders.  They are right on the other side of two metal barriers standing their sort of wobbling in drunkness.
I didn't like what I was seeing but didn't want to be a douche and ask them to move..
so I have my earbuds on and I'm just listening to add delay to vocals.
I look away for a second.. look back and it was as if a magic chloraform cloud from hell descended and hit them all at the same time.. In unison, all of their legs buckled and they came crashing through two barriers right through my umbrella snapping it like toothpicks.. Barriers down.. once guys legs are aiming to the east, one pair to the west, one pair north.. and the 4th guy had sort of bounced off the top of one guy and rolled up hill over to the second then on to the third then he popped up and ran off..

I uttered "DANGIT GUYS!!!" jumped up and started picking them up and picked up the barriers..
My umbrella stand was still up bu the top was just half-way down due to snapped rods..

I was pretty aggravated.. the guys had walked away... no "I'm sorry" or "my bad".. nothing...
then I look at my board and the 3 metal insert cables on the vocals were all bent down at a 35 degree angle.
brand new cables..
Trauma to the back of the board. I was super pissed..
so now I have an umbrella with 3 kinds of glue holding it together.  SUCKO

Send the bill to the promoter.  You might mention the lack of security; the security specified in your contract... oh, wait, you do have a contract with a security clause, right?

[Bill Burford]

We have heavy security... but certain clients get sweetheart deals due to their status.  I could have claimed damage but decided it was frivelous in this particular case.. which was a private members only party which also had a hefty entry fee.
in the past, I have verbally convinced bands to replace pieces of gear.. or traded their mic in good condition for the one of mine they just smashed and dented.  that was without any agreement.

I'm a small fry.  The balancing act of my-price + my-requirements + my-skill/gear vs. competitor-price + competitor-requirements + competitor-skill/gear has me constantly recalculating everything from price to agreements.  With these promoters and venues, there have been times in the past where the gig went to a bigger company.  I'm sure that will be the case again at some point.. in that sense when I refer to "my clients" they are not really "my" clients.. they are just my clients when it seems to make sense.

Besides the promotors, the venues are highly involved and participate in sharing risk / reward..
In this case, the venue and promotors both were prepared to replace anything damaged.

Its growing pains.  more like sprouting pains in my case.

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