The Union Gig
| Right after joining the Cameron Company, Lane was trying to book us in clubs around the area. He was looking for a house gig because he could go direct to the club manager without paying an agent. A great concept since almost all my gigs in the Boston area were run by agents. He told of of a potential gig on Dartmouth Street in downtown Boston in a club called "The Point After." This club was owned by Gino Cappelletti, the former NE Patriots place kicker. |
| Lane had scored us a one hour paid audition for $100. Not a lot of money, but it was only for an hour. Sounded good to me. As a five piece band, we were to make $20 each for doing something we liked. |
| It was early evening. We set up and then played our one hour of music. We sounded pretty good and I was hopeful we'd get the gig. When we came off the stage, however, there was this ugly fat guy in a suit and tie who wanted to speak to us. He discerned Lane as the leader, so everything initially was going at him. |
| Seems that the Point After was a union gig - as most gigs in the area were. We were playing in a Class B night club. According to the union pay scale, we were supposed to make $45 each as a minimum for 3-4 hours of playing. We were making $20 each. Oops, an infraction of the union rules. Then the ugly fat guy went around to each of us to make sure we were in the union. I had joined Local #83 out of Lowell, MA back when I was in the Field of Zaad. He asked me for my union card, but I did not have it on me. Oops, another infraction of the union rules. In our ensuing conversation, he found I no longer lived in Bedford, which Local #83 serviced, but that I lived in Boston now. Oops, even another infraction of the union rules. I had to visit the union hall the next Monday to address these infractions. |
| Monday morning, I walked into Local #9 and quickly got me an audience with a bunch of other ugly fat men, all in suits and ties. It was almost as if they were waiting for me. I guess I figured out later that they were. Me or anybody else caught in their dragnet set out during the last weekend. This was their job. |
| First, they told me had to join Local #9 - which, being in the big city, was a whole lot more expensive the little old Local #83 was. There was no way to get out of this. Since I was already in the a member of Local #83, however, I could transfer the membership and didn't have to pay the exorbitant Initiation Fee for joining Boston. |
| Second, I was fined $10 for not having my Local #83 union card on my person when I played a union gig. Third, I was fined $45 for playing under union scale at the Point After. |
| Third, I was fined $45 for playing under union scale at the Point After. |
| I made $20 for the gig and had to pay out $55 in fees + about $120 to transfer my union membership. That was one expensive gig. What was bad about joining Local #9 is that the Cameron Company ended up playing in played in Rowley, MA - way outside of Boston. A place that had a different local union. I only lived in the Boston area for another couple of months before I changed my residence back out to Bedford since I went on the road with other bands. |
| Hmmm... made $20, paid $175. The story of my life. |