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Do Agents Earn Their Fees?

Having been an agent for the last seven years, before retiring to study in further education, I do feel qualified to have a say on this.

A good agent can weed out the bad and unreliable, and use their experience not only to find the most appropriate performers, but also help you plan the event.

The bad agents do nothing more than take your money to post your details on to anyone they can find who is free on the night; that is why I became an agent in the first place – having been sent out to play for bookings that we were not suited for. In one case, the agent refused to give us any details of the booking apart from “Don’t worry boy, you’ll be alright”. As it happened, we were able to get by as an English country dance band playing for a Country and Western evening but that is not the point – there were far more suitable groups available.

Sometimes agents will ‘sub’ out a booking – passing it on to each other, until a band is found. I played in a tithe barn in Sussex once where there were four agents in the chain, and their combined fees were more than the total paid to the actual band! The client could have a band twice as big just by booking directly.

A band is a band is a band in the same way that a car is a car is a car. A few are classics (vintage or modern!), many are smoke-belching old wrecks, liable to let you down. I was, as far as I know, the only agent in the country to not only guarantee that all performers were fully insured and using ‘Health and Safety’ tested electrical gear, but also to offer clients a full, money-back guarantee if they were not fully satisfied with a performance. I had to be very confident that anyone I represented would turn up clean and sober and give a stunning performance – it was my money on the line!

If you want to book through an agent, rather than directly, I would strongly suggest that you ask them to match these three guarantees. Ignore them if they say it can’t be done – it was, and all the performers listed on this web site still promise you these basic safeguards.

You are also now theoretically protected by a whole raft of legislation under ‘Statutory Instrument 2003 – 3319’.

Full details on:-
http://www.hmso.gov.uk/si/si2003/20033319.htm

With a partial translation into English on: http://www.dti.gov.uk/er/agency/conduct.pdf

In brief, it is now a criminal offence, potentially punishable by fines of up to £5,000 for each offence, and a ban from trading, to work as an entertainment agent or employment business without complying with some fairly heavy weight rules and regulations.

In practice however there is little chance that all agents will comply with this (when I called round in 2004 most had not even heard about it). There is even less chance that the overworked D.T.I. inspectors will get round to enforcing compliance, so don’t expect to benefit from it.

So if it is more expensive to book through an agent, and they won’t offer you the guarantees that you should expect, can they provide you with any other benefit? By going through a middle man or woman you loose the chance to talk directly with the performers, and make your own mind up about them. As I said earlier, there is a lot of difference between performers. The good ones tend to get to get booked first; an agent will only earn a fee if they can find someone still free – without a money back guarantee, there could be a risk that you’ll end up with a second (or third division) option.

What about experience? Will an agent have a better idea of what is available? Possibly, but not all are working musicians and I know of none that have the range of skills and experience that the performers on this site have. We are out working most weeks covering anything from festivals to radio, weddings to corporate events. By sharing our experiences, I believe that we can offer you a service no agent can match.

Here is a simple checklist to see if an agent can offer you a better service than you can get by booking directly:-