Studio Beat
Fred’s Nightmare Gig
The call came in the middle of the off-season. Fred, (not his real name) a member of our Local, was having a slow couple of weeks. The contractor told him that the show, a “Broadway-style” musical, was not a Union gig, but it offered four weeks of work. Fred didn’t like the below-scale wages, lack of pension, or the free rehearsals, but since little else was going on, he accepted it.
The show’s score was fun to play, and it was nice to have the income. As luck would have it, on the eighth night, the musicians were told that the remaining shows had been canceled. Fred recalled with resentment how he had refused a decent wedding gig that would have conflicted with the third week. “Now I’ve got no wedding gig and no show either.” he grumbled to himself. “Why was I so dumb to take a non-Union gig with no cancellation policy?”
But before Fred could get too mad, the “good news” came: there would be a studio recording of the score next week, and the pit musicians would be paid “scale” for the session. He wondered what scale they were referring to since it was a non-Union session. It all really bothered Fred, but since he had already missed out on so much cash he had been counting on, he agreed to the session.
When the date arrived, Fred noticed that a few of the principal players weren’t there. Because of the difficulties of performing the score without those parts, the session took much longer than expected, but nothing was ever mentioned about overtime. Apart from that, the session paid ok, and it helped compensate Fred for some of the work he had lost.
A couple of months later, Fred got a call from Dave, a friend in New York. It seemed that the recording of the show was being used in an off-Broadway production. The show had become a hit, and the production company was now employing just three live musicians, thanks to the “backing track” Fred had played on. The New York AFM Local found about the dark date and they were not pleased. “No wonder those principal players skipped that session.” Fred sheepishly said to Dave.
“No, man. Those are the parts that the musicians play live. Those principal players weren’t even called for the session because the company already knew they wouldn’t need them.” said Dave. Fred gulped as he began to catch on.
“To make things worse,” Dave continued, “the show’s going on tour. And one of the stops – “
“Don’t tell me…” Fred interjected.
“You guessed it–a two week run in your wonderful town. And there’s no silver lining; the three live musicians are employed as part of the touring company. Not a single local musician anywhere in the country will get any work from this show.”
A week later, as Fred was walking into a gig – this time, a real Union job with a contract – he heard a deep voice coming from behind him as a finger roughly tapped on his shoulder: “Hey, genius! I heard you played that dark date!” grumbled a thick New York accent.
“Huh? Sorry, man, I didn’t mean any harm when I played that job!” Fred sniveled.
“Honey, wake up!” said Fred’s wife as she tried to rouse him from a deep sleep. “You’re having a bad dream. What gig are you talking about?”
“Whew. Thank goodness it was all only a nightmare.” he sighed.
Epilogue: Lots of bad things can happen to you when you work without an AFM contract. To start with, you might just be replacing yourself!
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