Kavelle Anglin-Christie, Staff Reporter

Promoters are usually the ones complaining about artistes; they are too late; they don't arrive at all; their huge entourages take up space and sometimes cause trouble.

However, sometimes the artistes also have problems with promoters.

These range from being advertised for a show they know nothing about to promoters who are unwilling to pay them the balance of their performance fee when they get to the venue.

This isn't only a local problem; it seems it's one Jamaican entertainers constantly encounter when they travel overseas. Recently, at a show called the 'Best of Both Worlds' in Trinidad, a riot broke out after some Jamaican acts scheduled to perform didn't because the promoter failed to pay the balance of their fees. The performers included Richie Spice, Busy Signal and Elephant Man.

In a recent edition of THE STAR, Devon Wheatley, Richie Spice's manager, said the promoter tried to deceive them. "He collected the people's money and didn't pay us and we can't seem to find out who is actually the promoter," he said.

He said Richie Spice and the team were waiting at the hotel for the promoter to come and take them to the show, when at 3 a.m. two men who claimed they were the promoters told them that the show had ended. Up until that time, the remaining 50 per cent of Spice's performance fee was unpaid.

The same was said by Q45, Elephant Man's manager. Both managers pointed out that their artistes were willing to perform, but the promoters had not been honest with them, reporting a poor turnout and that, as a result, they were unable to pay the remainder of the performance fees. "We want to apologise to the people. Even if things went wrong we could have worked out something. The promoter just needed to come talk to us," Q45 said in the article.

Similar situations

Julian Jones-Griffith, manager of Busy Signal, Mavado and Bounty Killer, told The Sunday Gleaner what occurred in Trinidad and said a similar situation occurred when Busy Signal went to Savanna-la-Mar recently for a show.

"In Trinidad what happened was we received 50 per cent balance and Busy flew to Trinidad and the promoter there just didn't make any effort to pay the balance despite the show being well supported by patrons. There was a riot (and) people were tear-gassed. No artiste got to perform or got paid, so it was a waste of time the same thing (happened) in the country. Busy and Assassin were on a show and the two of them drove clear to Sav and the two of them decided not to work because they did not receive the balance of the payment. Once again the contract meant nothing," he said.

"The artistes fulfilled their contractual obligations by presenting themselves for work, but the promoter didn't ... Promoters can make a lot of money, but they can lose a lot also. Promoters will sometimes bawl when you reach a venue and ask you to take off something if the show didn't work out in terms of patrons," Jones-Griffith continued, saying sometimes the artistes bare this in mind and cut their fees.

Jones-Griffith said, however, try as they may, they sometimes encounter unethical promoters.

"It doesn't happen very often when an artiste is hot, because shows usually work out in terms of crowd turnout so the promoter can find the money from the gate to pay the balance of the artiste. However, any manager or booking agent will tell you they prefer to work with 'real' promoters who do not depend on the gate to fulfil their contractual obligations to pay the back end of the money. Then you also have the odd situation where the promoter is just unscrupulous and doesn't intend to pay up the balance anyway, whether or not it worked out," he said.

Artiste and promoter of 'Manchester Fiesta', General Degree, is able to speak from both points of view. "Sometimes they (promoters) are unscrupulous and they are gonna be unfair. Another time, some of them can genuinely only come up with the 50 per cent down payment that they paid you and can't pay the rest because the show nuh go too well. When yuh see the place full that doesn't always mean say everything is going well; I should know. Then sometimes the artistes have one set way of doing things and that's why I don't approach it as a friendship; I do it in a business-like manner," said Degree.

Jones-Griffith spoke of his ideal situation. "Well what I would love to happen is upon signature of contract we would be able to collect the entire payment up front instead of half on arrival at the venue or before leaving the hotel or whatever. That would make the contract mean more, but very, very few promoters would be willing to work with it like that. The show business has been running this way (50 per cent deposit, balance on night of show) for years, so it's become standard practice. But we all understand it's not an easy road for any of us in the business, so we all have to roll with the punches and sometimes you have tohave an understanding of everyone's situation," he said.