Be warned - dodgy venue in kent!

[dudewheresmybass]

Hi..
My band was booked to play at the Frenchman in Folkestone this evening, after they contacted us out of the blue approx 2 months ago.

On Thursday, the venue again contacted us saying that they had a private booking at the venue who did not want to have rock music played.

One of the friends of the band noticed an advert on their Facebook page for a rock band also booked for this evening, seemingly booked three weeks ago.

On the advert on their page, some of our usual suspects asked about why we were not playing, to be answered by a post saying that we would be rebooked for a show soon. (This and the questions have also been removed)

This morning I received a message from the management of the venue ranting about silly posts, and a promise of not being booked again.
We have been playing at this venue for approx. 6 years. This all seems to be due to the new management.

I know of at least two other bands that have been treated in a similar manner recently.

My message is this- if you book to play at the Frenchman in Folkestone be prepared to be cancelled at the last minute. Be careful!!

\ rant

Edited June 21, 2014 by dudewheresmybass

[JTUK]

Unfortunately this is why most bands give this place a wide berth and have done for the last few years, IME.
Has the guy there now, been there a couple of years...I could mention his name but best not to at this stage.

I know 4 bands that were 'messed' about in the last year/18 months, ( all within a few months of each other )
and to my knowledge they don't/wont play there now...
and it is left to bands that either don't know or are more desperate for a gig to fill the rosta.

If you go onto Mrgig and/or FB pages, you will hear the guy saying he doesn't do this sort of thing but
takes the opinions of his regulars very seriously, and if they say a band is out, he doesn't mess around, they are out..??
All sounds like shooting his argument for fair practice right in the foot to me.... and that did make people ridicule the place.

When I read your title, the first place I thought of was this place... and so it was...

[dudewheresmybass]

In the interest of fairness, we have now received a full apology from the management.
It seems that the staff member that contacted us was not doing so following the instructions of the manager.
We consider the matter closed, and won't be playing there again

[cameltoe]

I hate when stuff like this happens. We've been messed around a few times by a couple of places, most recently by a certain pub in Perranporth, Cornwall. Had our first booking there (to be honest, not a place we'd desperately want to play, but a new venue all the same) in the calendar for a good 6 months. Drummer rings to confirm the gig a week out- they sound cagey but confirm non the less- gets a call back within the hour to say they thought they were booking a different band, and that we wouldn't go down very well there. We play pogues-type drinking music which goes down well everywhere, and they've not heard us play there yet so I don't know how they pre-empted that, but it just so happened to also be the same night the big boxing match was on a few weeks back (which we read on FB was going to be televised there).

Thing is, if venues were honest about this sort of thing, and promised to have you back, you'd accept it. It's all the underhand bullshit I despise.

[steve-bbb]

[quote name='dudewheresmybass' timestamp='1403384644' post='2482333']
In the interest of fairness, we have now received a full apology from the management.
It seems that the staff member that contacted us was not doing so following the instructions of the manager.
We consider the matter closed, and won't be playing there again
[/quote]

Ah! The old 'blame member of staff not not understanding/following instructions' ploy

Maybe dog ate his homework too

Maybe pubs like should be treated with ... Yes you can book us for a gig but we require 50% deposit (non-refundable in the event of cancellation)

Edited June 22, 2014 by steve-bbb

[Jazzneck]

There's a certain pub in sarf Essex whose landlord has cancelled gigs at the last moment due to 'granma died'

8 grandmas so far........

[skej21]

And this is why we use MU contracts when booking with a venue... We had a venue try to cancel on us because they'd booked us for the opening England game. We gently reminded them of the contract terms and offered to play and then without any threats or arguments (or bliddy Facebook nonsense!), they honoured our agreement and cancelled with full payment. I had a lovely time watching the match with my mates and some free beer money :-)

[doctorbass]

Never did like the place