@ Ralphie

This was for a jazz society whose musicians were union. They get paid whether the show goes on or not. When they begged me to do the sound after they hounded my predecessor out of the position, I was so thrilled that I offered to do them for free. They said no, I'll get paid the union wage which was nice of them but I realized shortly after that I was getting paid so that they could heap abuse on me--I'm getting paid so what am I complaining about?

What happened was a guy took the cover off his piano at one show making it impossible to mic and I told him so. The other musicians sided with him--if he wants to take it off then let him take it off, they said. I kept protesting that I can't mic a piano with the cover off but to no avail. Then, of course, no soundcheck. The show was a total disaster--horrible. Of course I was to blame. Of all the shows I did for them which were smashing successes, this one was the only bad one and they were the cause. But the band was pissed off and they told the director they never ever wanted to work with me again. A lady who overheard the whole thing told me all about it. She said the director, Bill, told them, "Ok, he's gone. But don't expect me to hire him back. I'm not a yo-yo."

Then Bill had to find a new soundman and was forced to go to a professional company. These guys were more expensive than me and wouldn't put up with anybody's shit. And they demanded a soundcheck a half-hour before the show began or they pack up and leave and they still have to be paid. This pissed off the musicians who refuse to do soundchecks. When people went up to them and said, "I can't hear the piano." They got, "Go sit down!" as a response. Something I would never do--but maybe I should have.

So now all the members of this society wanted these guys gone. What was wrong with Josepp? they asked.   Get him back, he was polite and everyone liked him and his sound was great. But Bill said no. Under no circumstances would he beg me to come back after the musicians demanded he get rid of me. And I wouldn't have gone back anyway without putting the same demands on them that these other guys did but, in truth, I wasn't interested in doing it anymore.