Random thoughts on musicians’ agents

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We live in the south-west of Western Australia. We have another outside concert coming up in a month. Many of the musicians we deal with don’t have agents but some do. In general, the agents seem very casual. A group should be able to leave all the organisation to their agent but in some cases they’d do well to pay more attention to what’s being planned for them. Example No 1: A group came out from Ireland and their (Australian) agent originally had them playing in Albany, Perth, Esperance then Kalgoorlie on consecutive nights. The distances are 414 kms (257 miles), 714 kms (443 miles) and 390 kms (242 miles). Luckily things got changed around into a more logical and easier sequence. Example No 2: We run ‘house’ concerts. If we deal directly with a group, they get the money from the ‘gate’ or ticket sales less our expenses. We don’t try to make money from these concerts. If there is an agent involved, they are not usually happy with this arrangement but prefer a flat fee. One soloist came to us through an agent and we discovered he was playing for a pittance, much less than if he’d taken the ticket sales. We ended up giving him extra. Example No 3: We’ve had several really top-class groups from overseas. These were found additional gigs by their agents but mostly in totally inappropriate venues. One group played in a pub next to a noisy public bar, trying to compete with rock music on one side and a football match on the other. So if any of you ever turn into class acts and have agents, be careful who you choose. The photo is of the Bombadils from Canada in the playground in Donnybrook. I might write about them separately.