[TPIN] Alison Balsom

[MikeSpengl at aol.com]

In a message dated 4/23/2007 2:11:41 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
ra_eye at sbcglobal.net writes:

Mike,

Nice to read a post from this point of view. Thanks for  posting it.

Regards,

Bob Eye
Dallas, TX

P.S. Sure  would like to read about your worst experience of "management
treatment."  :-) I understand and respect your not posting it,  though.>>
     Thanks for reading it... I get a bit long winded  sometimes...
 
     There was one gig about 5 years ago. A short  one-week bit filling in 
for someone who couldn't make an LA trip with a young  "exploding on the scene" 
female artist. Her road manager was her best friend  from high school... 
oboy... didn't know when the flight was leaving until that  morning, was asked to 
stay for an additional two days to lay some tracks down at  Record Plant, but 
no one informed the hotel so was called and curtly asked by  front desk "why 
are you still here... fork over that credit card, buddy..."  Uh-uh. Took all 
afternoon trying to track down road manager to straighten it  out...
 
     Big pluses? The "in-house contractor" at the venue  was one of my 
ex-trumpet mates from the Diana days. Got to hang with  him...   And on a night off, 
the Emerson String Quartet did their  "Noise Of Time"/multi-media performance 
of Shostakovich 15th Quartet up at UCLA.  Wonderful... 
 
     Things appear different now. Artists who were big  at one time maybe 
don't command as much now. Consequently the sidepeople-  even those who are 
responsible types, only wanting to know where they have to be  when- are kind of 
shrugged off as the afterthought... 
 
     And as a road manager told me about a year ago re:  the artist: "It's 
their party, we're all just the invited guests..." 
 
     Enough about "showbiz"...... back to the  "woodshed"....  :-)            
             Mike S










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