[TPIN] Dave Stahl Happenings

[jontrimble at suddenlink.net]

Hello Dave Stahl fans!  We have some unfortunate news to pass along.  The 
November and December Ritz on Main gigs have been cancelled due to the 
inability of the Ritz ownership and "management" to honor their end of our 
financial agreement.   The financial terms could not have been fairer to an 
obviously inexperienced and naive management.  We were set to start out 
playing the September Grand Opening at a flat rate way below our standard 
rate with the agreement in place that a new deal will be negotiated for 
October and so on.  This meant that anything above the flat amount was all 
profit for the Ritz and considering the show was sold out, plus 30 people 
turned away, shows what the Dave Stahl Big Band can do for an establishment. 
You do the math, $8 per person multiplied by 140 people doesn't divide into 
much money for 15 guys that give up an entire evening for the love of big 
band music. Then after the September gig, even after all the problems the 
Ritz had which I will mention later, we were told that our new rate was 
selfish and absurd.  In hopes to reason with Ritz team, we agreed to play 
October for the same low flat rate.  Again, another sell out and people 
turned away at the door.  Last week we started talking again to come to a 
fair rate.  Typically the band takes the door admission and the 
establishment takes all food and drink profits and we ask nothing more.  In 
turn the Ritz decided to increase the November admission from $8 to $15 per 
person!  Now we are talking absurd.  In Dave's good judgment there is no way 
that any of our fans deserve to come see a comparable November show to the 
October show with nothing special just so the Ritz can make money off of us. 
That is their goal.  Once again to try to save the gig, we lowered our flat 
cost AGAIN.  But greed has won over the owners and manager of the Ritz. 
They would only knock a few dollars off of the admission.  We had to make a 
tough decision and we did.  Under no circumstances will we work for the 
current owners again.


There were other agreements broken too.  The marquee was to have Dave Stahl 
Big Band on it for both months and SOLD OUT to be displayed to help show 
that the Ritz was the place to be when the DSBB was there.  That never 
happened.  I took many comments from our fans from verbal conversations and 
emails and passed it on to the management in hopes to help them improve on 
something new to all of them.  What I received back was a rude verbal 
lashing that "they will run their business the way they want to."  "They do 
not need us or our help."  We also tried to point out that there could have 
been many more seats available, 30-40, if the space was utilized the way the 
previous owner had it.  I was told that "they do not want to overwhelm their 
staff with that many people."  Curious for a business to say this who needs 
to make money?



I am passing this along to everyone in hopes that you will all understand 
that we tried our best and that we were not at fault.  The manager told me 
today that he plans on calling as many people that he can to put the blame 
on our greed.



In closing I would like to say that none of us are in this for the money 
obviously.  Most of the guys drive more than an hour to get there.  Setup 
guys are there three hours before the show and an hour afterwards to tear 
down.  Some of the guys are spending six hours for the pay of a two hour gig 
and then driving an hour each way.  So as you can hopefully see we are not 
greedy.  We have the very BEST musicians in the band from Pennsylvania and 
New Jersey and are led by an accomplished World Class Musician.  On a 
personal note, I have been with Dave Stahl eleven years now.  I have seen 
him take no money at all many times to make sure the guys have something to 
take home with them.



Feel free to contact me with your comments or suggestions!  This is a really 
tough time for big bands and the future is not looking very bright.



Look for another email soon with another important announcement.



Craig Kenney
Dave Stahl Big Band Personnel Manager
Webmaster for www.davestahl.com


Jon Trimble
jontrimble at suddenlink.net
http://myspace.com/jontrimble