From start to finish It was a mess. The promoter flew me (from TEXAS) and the other DJ Simon Daymon from Aorta (from UK) on Wed Night. We stayed at his house because he wanted us all to get a feel for eachother. We were told that we would be fed 3 meals a day, and that we would have a way to get around in Utah. that was a lie. We ONLY were given 5 meals the whole time we were there. that was cash out of pocket. Simon and i had to paint speaker boxes that werent finished and i offered to paint 8 foot crosses on the drop sheets(that was no issue... i like doing stuff like that!). Keep in mind he flew us in on Wed and the gig was on Sun. He left us at his house several times for hours at a time leaving us there with nothing to do and no way to get anywhere... so Si and I rented a car with our OWN money. one family from the church was nice eneough to take us up into the mountians one day while we were there(that was one of the best parts of the trip). He (the promoter) also had a stack of almost 1000 flyers still sitting at his house just days before the show... asking us to hit the streets and hand them all out over the days before the party.... the way i figured... all of the flyers should have been out at least 2 weeks before the show. thats just one example of how good at promoting he is! anyway.. long story short. come time for the show we go to the venue and this guy has no idea what he is doing.... at all. most of the work setting up was done by Simon, My lady, and Me. Oh there was this awesome guy there named Shane... he did ALOT for us... didnt mena to leave him out (truly a great guy!). The church that sponcored this even was little to no help. Their pastor was a condisending {mmm...tasty} to me and my gal. he had this whole thing he wanted to do to tell people about Christ prior to the party starting.... but when only 17 people other than the people from their church showed up (because it was promoted so well) he decided it wasnt eneough people and he wasnt going to speak... he would rather pout in the corner of the venue. correct me if im wrong but shoulent he have done that even if only 1 person would have shown up??? I question his motive. it doestn stop there mid way thru simons House set they kill the sound and patched in this horrible techno track with one of the pastors sermons overlayed on it... i saw people leave the party when this happened. this wasnt the last... then the promoter askes if he can spin for 15 min before my set. me being nice i say sure... (bad idea) in the span of 3 songs all but about 7 peopel left... the people who set the whole thing up... yes that includes me. so i spun to an empty room! whoooo hooooo!!! to top it off the promoter shorted me and the other dj on our promised pay... by $40 each. The only good thing about that night was right before the disaster of the event... i poped the question and she sayed YES! so it was a beautiful NYE! So what om trying to say is... NEVER EVER DO A GIG WITH OR FOR GETiT2GETHA PRODUCTIONS!!! there is sooooooooo much more i could disclose, but i think i made my point!

...thanx for sharing. Stories like this make me feel  :hurt: :police: >:( :smiley34: ??? :D :'( :(
Congrats on the "she said YES" tho!

wow. That's a harrowing adventure!

man, reading this, small part of me says Im glad I didnt go, but Im sorry you had to go through that, of course I can relate, I spun at a gig in May and even though it was a mixed concert of genres and the crowd was a little larger, it had potential.  Hate to hear about the event, I was having a blast at Passion '07, but congrats on your proposal. 8)

WOW! I am SOOOO Glad he miscommunicated things with me and accused me of not being down with the vision for this event and cut me out of the line-up! If you remember, I was the original headliner for this event and somewhere along the lines, he jumped top a crazy conclusion that I was not interested in doing this event for no reason other than the fact that I wasn't on the phone with him every other day HELPING HIM PLAN the event!.

Thank you Jesus!

I can't trash him for how things eventually went down, but I can say that from the beginning I could sense that things weren't on the up and up. Every email from him had a different plan or was asking me to contact other DJ's that I was friends with to have them on board. I didn't do that for him but I did tell him to come here and do some research about who is near him and would be available. Sorry he was lead to you solshur.

He just seemed to expect far too much from the DJs. I tried to explain to him that everybody serves thier purpose. The DJ's spin the records and the promoter plans the event and makes things happen. He seemed to think that everybody was responsible for everything. The fact that he made you guys paint and promote the event days before the event and that he ditched you guys for hours and failed to see that you were totally taken care of is completely unacceptable. We may be the body of Christ, but the fact is you were booked as the talent, not the set-up crew. It's like asking the eyeballs to pick up a fork and eat. It's stupid. I really tried to get this through his head months before the event. I even felt bad thinking that I was possibly wrong for trying to tell him how to plan an event. I know now that I was absolutely right and that he refused to listen to my advice.

Bad promotions + bad planning + bad management always = bad results + bad feelings.

It was a HUGE letdown... after it was all over i was like.. "what did i go up there for again?" I still feel 100% that the Lord led me there.... and i may not know why for some time to come. I made a greeat friend (Simon) and learned alot about these whole things and got some great DJing tips from the 10 year vet... I think im going to start putting on partys here in Houston... starting small and building up. My church had me do a party in November last year and with a budget of zero dollars and with a week to plan. I threw a better party than GETiT2GETHA Productions who had 9 months to plan and a $6000.00 budget!!!  Its sooo sad, because it could have been great! I may throw a Valentines party for our churches youth and singles depts called "The Greatest Love Story" (John 3:16) and focus the party on the love of God.

Hey bro - not sure what stage youre at in your music career but - after 10-15 years everyone has a whole slew of stories like this.  Every band out there has a big list of crazy crap like this.. from truck breakdowns, to being underpaid, to playing in peoples basements, sleeping on floors.  I guess a lot of the time you expect it, and Im really sorry that you were let down and surprised by it.  But - now you have a great story to tell at least.

I know it sucks, sorry again.  At least you can find some good in it.

If you think youre in a position to do this, at some point it is a smart thing to do to put contracts in place.  Just a thought.  If youre going to fly all over the place and expect payment, etc, putting paper in place will at least ensure you get what was agreed upon and eliminate bad surprises.

Best,

- - Dan

Dan- thanx... im only a year and a half into this whole thing. It just really sucked because i talked to this guy on the phone for 6 months... building a friendship, or so i thought... then to get up there and to be screwed over just made me feel taken advantage of. I even designed the flyers for the event free of charge... i did alot for the event, took off work with no vacation days, etc... the whole thing cost me alot of money that i didnt have... then to be shorted on pay at the end was just adding insult to injury. Im sure this happens all the time but i dont want to see it happen to anyone else on the board.... or at lest let them know what they might be getting into doing a gig for this guy.

Hey, on a side note, if you do a Valentine's Day event, I would love to drive down and hang out. I can sleep on your floor, eat very little and help you set-up the event. hey, I'll even spin for you if you like. Bottom line is, I would love to come down and hang out.

Ever notice that the initials for Valentine's Day are V.D.? I'm just sayin'.

I think I need to relinquish my Tangent Man title to Mr. Richards. ;D

Yo 404! do you live near Texas? If you could make it out that would be awesome. Im not sure of the size of the event (40-80 ppl), but this will be the second one... (the first one wet really well) and i plan to keep doing them during the year... building and growing it to do a BIG one at the end of the year. I have big plans, but, this is all in Gods hands for him to use how he wants.

I live in Kansas, near Topeka. According to Mapquest, that is a pleasent 10 hour drive (http://www.mapquest.com/directions/main.adp?go=1&do=nw&rmm=1&un=m&cl=EN&ct=NA&rsres=1&1ffi=&1l=&1g=&1pl=&1v=&1n=&2ffi=&2l=&2g=&2pl=&2v=&2n=&1pn=&1a=&1c=Osage+City&1s=KS&1z=&2pn=&2a=&2c=Houston&2s=TX&2z=&r=f). I've driven that much to go to Cornerstone and I love road trips. I have friends in OK that I could stop off and say hi to.

All right man. Im going to start the planning this weekend. I have to make coem calls to make sure that we can reservr the ball room at the fitness center and ill e-mail you with the low down. do you have a recent mixset that i can check out?

Um... take yer wife too. ;)

yeah, he would be in the dog house for sure, if he ditches her on Valentines Day.

yes I have two in the mixset section from the last month.

I think a lot of times, people are just clueless and bite off more than they can chew. Not sure if the $6,000 budge was for this event (man, what'd do with that budget. Usually $600 has been the tops for most events I've worked with).

But I'm just going to encourage you to take the higher road brothers on this. Realize, the individual probably had no clue what they were doing.

It might be good to write a letter, try to admonish in love, encourage with reference to what they did do right and what they endeavored to do right.  And give them insight in what needs to be done to improve things.

---

Another thought, it wouldn't be too bad of an idea if Tastyfresh composed a "Advice Sheet" for churches looking to do such events. What is commonly expected. Sure it varies from event but addressing the communication aspects.  Stressing that it's important that any commitments be clear, and followed thru. What the role of a DJ is versus promotor, versus venue.   How these may have over-lap but such should be discussed.

Then make it available as a PDF or web page. It might help give some insight and would provide a place to direct interested parties to.

Just a thought...

- Saj

Geez...With a $6,000 budget,  I'm doin it up proper!  Some of those cool things I wanna do out of budget could be unleashed!

Fat guys pole dancing in kilts?

:laugh: :-X :laugh:
I agree with Saj! I might write him (promoter) a heart felt letter... but all in due time. Like i said, i really felt taken advantage of... i dont want to say anything mean... ya know... it wouldnt be Christ like. Hes a real hard guy to talk to... if you know what i mean.

I totally agree! The Feb party will be much better babe!!!

hahaha! my gals on the board now! WELCOME bebe.

There wont be a feb party... were pushing it back to get it planned better... and we hit some snages with the PA and lighting.
 

and that was just a wild weekend visit to Dan's house!  ;)

that's a bummer,man. like Dan said, we've all been through stuff like that.  but on the upside, i've also met the coolest people on the planet.  keep plugging away,man. 

Sorry to hear things went sideways.