Several of you already know me as the Chairman of Herne Bay Organ & Keyboard Club. For my sins I am also the Concert Secretary.
At our recent Committee meeting the subject of Concert Artist's fee's and their programmes once again was a point of discussion at the table. I would value feedback from both artists and other club members on the following.
It is something that has been covered on several occasions before but I am hoping to be able to help both parties. Firstly due to the geography of where we are, we accept we will always pay a premium to artists that visit us. However, with the ever increasing fuel costs artist's fee have risen dramatically over the last few years. Inevitably I have to be very careful and spend wisely the budget we set aside for artists.
We are finding ourselves in a position where we are paying top dollar for our artists but all so often their programme and even dialogue (inc jokes) remains the same for several years to the point where on occasions one can predict what is going to be played. It has been fed back that some of the popular people on the circuit have become "stale" in their repertoire.
Would it be helpful for the artists during the booking process that we request a genre or style that we would like to have included during the evening? And even request songs that "We don't want to hear". After all, surely " He who pays the Piper......". It is fully understood that many months of practise and registration programming takes place just to perfect one tune. Being the professionals that artists are, surely it is within their capacity to play music outside of their usual fixed programme without requiring the depth of registration changes that appears to restrict the repertoire.
Many artists do try to vary the styles and genre but all to often with the same old "Circuit Favourites". I am so often begged to book specific individuals but now am becoming reluctant due to the above....Do I need to start searching for fresh blood?
Another point is that within our location we have two other fairly local clubs. Being proactive I try to book our following season's concerts well in advance. It is becoming more evident that other local clubs often book the same artists because they offer a reduced fee as they are already in the area (Yes, our club). That is good for the artist to reduce their costs but because the local club members often attend neighbouring clubs they won't go to hear the same artist twice in a month (and of course the prog will be identical). This then means that one of the clubs will lose revenue.
I know this could be a local issue and a resolve maybe for the clubs to get their heads together and agree not to book the same artists close to each other. But all clubs battle for revenue to survive so there is obviously going to be a little rivalry between them. It was suggested at our meeting that if an artist books with a club within a certain radius and timescale we should reserve the right in the contract to cancel that booking.
I don't want this post to sound whingy as this isn't my intention.. I am just seeking positive comment and feedback that will hopefully help all of us to survive into the future. We have a very hardworking committee that is dedicated to seeing the club survive well into the future. Those that have visited us I am sure will agree. We also want to support or Organists & Keyboard players too as their future is also ours.....Looking forward everyone's responses. Phil.
