Well, I will start by saying mine was Horrible!!!

I got booked to play two parties in one in Bellville, NJ on new year eve and the other in Philidelphia on the following Sunday. I fly with my keyboards from Atlanta on Tuesday, reherse with the singer all night, go to the Hall to setup the next evening. Party was suppose to start at 8:30pm. I was there around 7pm, there was no sound system, the guy who is throwing the party is not there, the singer is not there no one is there, I don't know anyone in NJ (it was my first time), am calling these people to show up cause its getting close to 8:30 by now! The guy throwing the party shows up with the sound system around 8:20pm!. I help him unload it to stage. He unloaded two subs and two monitors, so I go where are the speakers? He points to the subs!!! I go these are subs not speakers (mind you this guy is supposedly a singer as well). Next thing he looks at me and goes, do u know how to set it up?!!!!
I never worked with crossovers or compressors, I have a simple setup of mixer/amp/and speakers here in Atlanta. I was looking at the cabinet, and thinking OH GREAT! I think I wired things the right way, but could not get any sound! I asked him if he tested the system? he goes no, my friend is lending it to me since two weeks but i was too busy to open it!!! I am thinking ...by now one table of 10 people shows up to the party....the singer is there, and the Tabla player is there! I use the monitors as front house, yet no stands so I put them on top of the subs.

I finally decided to forget crossovers and everything else, went directly from mixer to amp to speakers....well still no sound, no matter what i did....guess what it was? The channel I was using was NOT WORKINGGGGG , I used another channel and all was fine.

Well here is were it gets ugly....by the time we got sound...it was around 10:15pm, and guess what...the 10 people that showed up! LEFT CAUSE NO ONE ELSE SHOWED UP AFTER THAT!!!....by 10:30pm the singer is gone and the tabla player is gone....The guy who booked me tells me to pack up party is cancelled. I am stuck in NJ with the guy who booked me, now saying he can't pay me more than 50% of what we agreed on....and by the time we were done arguing...we agreed to 75%, even though iwas not happy about it, I still felt bad for him in the situation he was in. Apparently he relied on selling tickets at the door and had organized the whole thing very wrong, and his original Hall booked a wedding cause he failed togive them deposit, so he books another Hall two days before new year eve! More boring details to be ignored.

The worse part was me standing there at 11:30pm on new year eve in the middle of a small town in which I know NO one, not playing, not singing, Alone, not hearing music, not with my family...that moment was one of the worse I felt for a while.

Luckily, I had met a guy the night of the rehersal who happened to call me around that time and he ended up being in a night club close by, so thats where I ended up going for that night.

Wanna hear more?
I had another party that he booked me for in Phildelphia for last Sunday remember? On Friday, I find out he is not the host of that phili party, there is another person throwing it...he already booked his own band, and does not need me, and he never knew about me coming!!! I had already skipped work on my regular daily job for a week, booked a return flight on Monday, and paid my own ticket and expenses. The guy in phili, after negotiation, agrees for me to perform with the other guys, for 80% of what we had agreed on.

So, my experience as you can tell was one I won't forget up in the northern states. I have been performing professionally for the last 10-12 years and have been booked on new year eve gigs straight for the last 8-9 years, and this is a first for me!

I have never gone anywhere and was so happy to be back lol.

So what about u guys?

I really enjoyed reading that. Thanks for a good laugh. It brought back all sorts of memories.

Here’s the secret of success regarding playing New Years eve.

DON’T

Stay at home, get yourself a few cans of beer and a good DVD. Snuggle up with your wife, and enjoy…

It took me a few years to figure it out, but no money in the world would get me up on stage for a New Years party.

Drunken fools shouting for requests when your in the middle of singing would be right up there with my number 1 hated action from the public. There’s the classic one too…. People holding a Pint of beer in their hand as they bend in over your keyboards asking for a request.

HO…. I could go on and on.

Christmas eve, and New Years eve….stay at home no matter what sort of money you are offered. That’s my advice.

Regards.
James.

James, it sounds as if you have all the money you need! New Year's Eve is the night of the year you can get pretty much whatever you ask for money-wise. I can't afford to miss it. Also, it depends on the venue in which you are performing.
I think lessons to be learned from Mosiqaar's experience are: Always get a contract, and a deposit for big jobs.
Always take your own p.a. system, even if you never get it out of the car. (I know, he flew so it wasn't practical.}
Our next big season here in Louisiana is Mardi Gras. Even way up here in the North (Shreveport) there are endless parties. Mardi Gras makes New Year's Eve look like Easter Sunday!
DonM

This whole story reminds me again of why I went both solo and instrumental (having had similar "where's the singer?/where's the PA?" episodes). My NYE was a repeat of last year: a nice nearby regime beachhouse with about 250 people, a three hour gig, excellent money (about 2x what I get for a normal party) and no problems. My employer had a good idea: a dinner was held at a nearby golf club at 7:30pm and then at 9pm dessert and champagne was served at the beachhouse with me for entertainment. Lots of dancing. I did the gig with my usual simple setup: a Yamaha 9000 Pro and my Motion Sound KP-200s - more than enough volume easily and everybody was happy with the music. As soon as I finished, the host wanted to book me for next NYE. It doesn't get much easier.

[This message has been edited by The Pro (edited 01-08-2004).]

My New Years' job is always my restaurant "house" gig. I never take a higher paying job at another place or ask the management for more money, even though I normally get asked...usually by a regular customer. Regulars expect that I will be there. An additional $150.00 is generally offered by the owner and acepted with gratitude, but not expected. The best part of being at my regular job is enjoying the company of regular customers and the staff. We all party a little after the place closes. The main difference is putting up with customers who only go out once a year. We call a lot of taxi's at the end of the night.

Russ

James I guess I understand what you say but first of all am not married to cuddle with my wife, and I would have been out being one of those drunk people ur talking about . Second as DonM said (even though music is not my main job), I was getting paid 10 times what my weekend gig pays. 10 times is alot of money, plus I was getting that other party which paid twice what I make on Saturday nights. So in this one trip, I was going to make what would usually take me 3 months to make from music. I could not let it go. At any rate money wise i still made almost 10 times what i make on the weekend, rather than 12 times, but what mostly upset me was that feeling on that night of new year eve being alone in the middle of no where!

DonM, I try to do contracts usually but this thing happened so quickly, I had to trust the guy. Luckily he didn't not screw me all the way, cause the deposit I had was only 25% of the price, so he still paid another 50% on top of that (it took 3 days to get the money though lol so i was kind of nerveous).

Any other interesting new year eve gigs out there?

Our band has played the same gig for the last two years, and they want us back again for next New Years. Good crowd, about 225-250. Not the greatest room. Very low headroom after the risers are brought in, and under the lights we were cooking... literally.
The only weird thing was this one woman who seemed to take a liking to me. She danced in front, and I mean right in front, of me all night. Obviously she wasn't feeling any pain. I was on guitar and she kept stepping on my pedals, so I was getting some interesting sounding licks. All in all, the night was good, the band got fed, the band got paid, the band got asked back next year. Nothing wrong with that. Dragged by butt home at around 4:00am after packing up.

Well my story is not that much of a thrill either.

I played chritmass eve in the normal venue that is in a Hotel maint suit, well by 11.45 all was over and done with, nobody botherd to even stay till midnight because they wanted to go to midnight mass.

I played both christmass day and New Years day Lunches well a bit of fun but nothing special either.

New years eve is another story. I was playing in a big Hotel and I had my singer with me so she'll help me out for it was a long night, what happend it seemd the entertainment at the two other venues that were going on in the same hotle where really bad and everyone ended up where I was playing, and guess what? my singer ended up enjoying herself along with the rest and poor me had to stick till 4 am in the morning doinging it all by myself, that's what I call a new years eve.

I must say I enjoyed it but I was really tiered after that.

I have to say that the spirit of christmass is GONE, what a pitty.

Tony

After playing out for many, many years you develop a sixth sense about things. I can't help but think if I was in Mosiqaar's position, I would have either a signed contract in hand or had a track record with this individual.

At our New Years Eve Gig, the owner of the venue charged $10 per person at the door for All you can eat buffet style Irish Food, with Noise makers, hats, balloons and live music. They literally had to turn people away because of occupancy issues.

We ended up getting booked next year, and two additional gigs from folks in the audience. It was so successful, the owner shared the profits from the door with us. He made a killing in Champagne and drinks.

We play this joint once a month and were reluctant playing this venue for New Years wanting rather to play a fansy smantsy Hotel for big bucks in the Catskills.

Now I feel we wouldn't trade this gig for a big Hotel.

O.K. now you're just BRAGGIN' Gary.
DonM