BandEnRoute.xyz

I love live concerts and performances. I am also an easy-going fellow and I ‘stay in my lane’, as lagosians like to say. As long as my sleeping dog is left to lie in peace, peace there will be. If on the other hand you decide to awaken doggie dearest by kicking him in the nuts…

Tough Dude

The word ‘Para’ is a nigerian parlance for disruptive attitude, a high-level disagreement, or something similar. After an unpleasant two hours, the dust had settled and the participants were smiling at each other again. One of the key actors gave me a look, raised both fists in mock salute and said ‘Para Lord’.

Did i convince you that i can be tough too? A few years ago an events outfit which i will refer to as ‘O’ engaged our services. Since Band EnRoute had played at The Headies Awards for years, ‘O’ wasn’t worried about delivery.

We met with them, exchanged terms, and came to an agreement, a verbal one. We were engaged to rehearse with the cream of Nigerian musical artistes for two weeks, and then perform on D-Day. Based on the depth of the talks, i expected things to progress seamlessly. That wasn’t the case.

Red Flags

1. Rehearsals did not start as scheduled because ‘O’ announced rehearsal dates without making any payments. We refused to do anything without a financial commitment.
2. Eventually, I let myself be convinced that they’d pay within the week, so we began rehearsals anyway. Mind you, the verbal agreement was 70% before the commencement of activities and 30% on the final rehearsal day, before the day of the event.
3. We got to the agreed venue for rehearsals and couldn’t set-up for hours because the venue had not yet been paid for. The management, refused to lift a finger until that little detail was sorted out.
4. The producer showed up and his concept was built around a twenty-man team. Meanwhile, i had a ten-man crew. Not a problem, i arranged for an additional ten people.

I was so consumed with the desire to work, and impatient with the delays. For these reasons, i ignored the red flags that had popped up and forged on.

While the band worked, i was always at ‘O’s corporate offices trying to get us paid. But, all i kept getting from the accounts department was ‘we are working on it’. I heard it so much that i began to recite it in my sleep. I heard it for two whole weeks. Before I knew it, performance day had arrived and we were still owed money.

Things To Note

A little advice. If you can, its best to get paid upfront, when you’re engaged to perform at corporate concerts and performances. Especially, if you’re not sure of the company’s reputation. Even better, find out their payment policy first. Every reputable company operates by one.

Also, find out the payment attitude of the organization from others who have worked there, let other bands’experiences guide your decision. To be forewarned is to be forearmed. If not, you may find yourself still running after your money months after the event.

Agreements should be documented. The age of agreements on a gentleman’s handshake is long gone.

Battle Lines

D-Day arrived and the producer was breathing down our necks. He wanted to do a Sound Check and have a final rehearsal with the artistes, who were already getting antsy. You know the nature of celebrities, they don’t like to be kept waiting. Meanwhile, the band was still owed money. Remember, this was D-Day.

At this point, I had a reality check. The producer was almost red in the face because of pressure from the artistes’ managers. They wanted to be done with the final rehearsal so their respective artistes could leave and go freshen up. I also looked at my twenty-man crew who had worked their butts off on this project. They would most likely return home to their families at the end of the day, with promises of payment at a later date. With this realization, i knew i had a hard decision to make.

I got everyone’s attention and said, People, drop everything and let’s go sit outside. We are not doing this Sound Check and we are also not going to perform at this concert until we get paid’.

Oh there is a happy ending to this tale. Without a word of protest, everyone filed out and continued gisting. After a couple of tense hours, we got paid. The money was there all along, it was tagged an ‘Emergency Fund’, incase something went terribly wrong. Its always fun when we are engaged to perform at concerts and performances.

Band EnRoute is a professional high-energy music band put together by Isaac Otokpa. If you need top-notch and impeccably delivered music entertainment for your social or corporate event, Band EnRoute is the band to book!