BREAD HEADS

[Dead Wood Records]

Going to start a topic about bread heads!

Money grabbing perfomers with big heads!

[jugglermatt1]

Funnily enough , just returned from the fiestas in Logroņo , which is a biggie in northern Spain . All the crew/mafia were there , and they were all so lazy .All the time chatting on the street going to bars , hanging around .Bread heads my arse , I even had to physically push one of them into doing a show .The busking was good also . Maybe all you northerners are bread heads , but here in the sunshine we can afford to pass good opportunities . Money , money money , Is that all you Dutch think about .

[Evan Young]

Work hard when the work is good, that's the rule I try and live by. and be fair to the other performers who deserve it.

[Steven Ragatz]

Personally, I see nothing wrong with performing with the sole intent to make money. Sure, there are some who say that any financial gain corrupts the art aspect, which may or may not be true, but we all have such diverse reasons for taking our energies to the stage that dictating any rules would surly be a gross generalization. Why does it matter if one performs to teach, or to preach, or to inspire, or to entertain, or even just to kill time? What's the difference if one person's reason is to feed the family, and another is to feed a habit? How does the motivation really change the performance itself?

The entertainment industry is littered with emotional snares and traps just waiting to undermine the psyche. My advice is don't worry about what someone else is making. If their rolling in dough, then be happy for their success. If it really is important to you, then learn from their example, and if it does not, then c'est la vie.

I would hope that I am able to judge performers by their actions rather than their motivations and to have faith that there is enough work/money/joy for everybody.

Steven Ragatz

[Dead Wood Records]

Some do it just for the money? Even to such a point that they do the same show every year for years with no intention of making any change to it. Some of the performers I have met who live and work their own pitches and go no-where are only doing it to pay their bills and keep the wolves from the door.

Thats why the local pitches die, the public get tired of seeing the same old stuff day in and day out. Amsterdam has had it's fair dose of that, so's York in the UK, it doesn't get enough visitors changing it around because of the bread heads keeping it to themselves.

Netherless it's alright go for the money if like you say it's fair on the others queing up. Buuuuuuuuuut I have seen the breadheads hammering the pitches and almost sqeezing them dry.

I'm talking about the known workhorses here that we know of in our planet.

[ 10-27-2003: Message edited by: Dead Woods Music Agency ]</p>

[Steven Ragatz]

[quote]Thats why the local pitches die, the public get tired of seeing the same old stuff day in and day out.<hr></blockquote>

That would seems to me to be an issue warranting site management. Lots of places try to get around this by holding auditions each year and have some administrative body that dictates what they think the public should see. Of course, if your act doesn't fit that pre-conceived mold, then you are probably out of luck, but that solution does impose a certain rotation if one is needed.

Maybe pitches are supposed to die and others be born? Certainly different venues have come and gone over the years for the reason you mention. Just in the past U.S. century, vaudeville and comedy clubs of the eighties are two entertainment genres that suffered from doing the same-old-same-old to the point of (near?) extinction. Copy-cat acts worked for cheaper and cheaper rates, that drove the quality down to the point that venues could no longer fill the seats. Vaudeville houses went to showing movies, and most of the comedy clubs just went back to cheap beer.

One of the major appeals of street performing for me is the raw energy. In some ways, I think that the establishment of "pitches" undermines that. Doesn't the regularity of doing an act at the same time in the same place defeats the spontaneity and edge? If the act is played the same way, in the same place, each day, then in some ways, it just becomes a fixture on the landscape - offering nothing special. It's no different than working in a theme park.

I can certainly understand wanting a steady gig (the volatility of street performing is what drove me away from it early on.) I can't imagine wanting to do it without being motivated by the desire to be foot-loose and a willingness to accept having to live an unpredictable existence.

Steven Ragatz

[ 10-27-2003: Message edited by: Steven Ragatz ]</p>

[Dead Wood Records]

I agree with that one totally I have seen the pitches change like this but this does not stop the breadheads as we call them come crashing down on the pitches to fill the loot bags up?

It's good that some places change with the times but there are still pitches on the planet that nevers seem to change because the travelling performers who come to town get pushed our or made to feel un-comfortable.

Years ago a particular performer tole me that I could not work the pitch unless my hat was a least 350 dollors?

You can quess what I said.

Some put pitch time down to how much money you can make and how much it's loosing the others , Pitch time is pitch time, Prime time is not the time when the best and the bigger shows want the space.

A goo example of this situation is trying to do a show and getting in the que at the MCA pitch in Sydney. The guys there are very keen to keep the novice of it and absolutely hate it when you join the que.

Thats was one of my experiences in any case.

If you were young and nieve then you would wend up like many do with their tail between their legs doing shit shows at the places they send you to in order to keep you off their workspace.

The street is in fact owned by the land owners and not the artists who play on it, we are given the grace by the councills to be there.

Busking, street performing whatever we call it still holds it's own set of rules made by guys like us. It will never change, if it did it would be a war out there. Especially if you put it down to just pure money no sense of order and nothing else.

[ 10-27-2003: Message edited by: Dead Woods Music Agency ]</p>

[Evan Young]

Last year I experienced a lot of pressure to not suck. I was pressured into the "bad" time slots or off of the main pitch entirely. Whatever, it was a good incentive to get better and learn from my mistakes. There was plenty of support and encouragement, but I felt the pressure and I'm better for it.
I have seen some performers fail shows time after time because of the same mistakes. How many times can you let your torches go out before you realize that it's killing your show and wasting the space?
A tourist pitch doesn't care if you show changes, because the locals arn't the target market.
In my experience, if you grow some balls and stand up to intimidating performers they will respect you more and even like you for it.

[Dead Wood Records]

Correct again!
__________________________________________________ _____________
If you grow some balls and stand up to intimidating
performers they will respect you more and even like you for
it._______________________________________________ ______________

What interests me her are the performers who dont grow the balls? ?
Just wonder what happens top the poor unfortunate person who hasn't got the guts to No1 take the chance and do the show against all odds or No2 The performer thats given the chance to work the pitch messes up and is told to bugger off round the corner?

In a lot of ways I have seen some of the best pitches with some of the best performers on the world on it and watched the local boys they always shun the hippis, the dogs the juggling clubs, and the guys with a joints hanging out of his mouth.

Usually the shunning is done by the local artists and not the boys who are the guests on the pitch.

Is it fair to say that any-one can be a fair judge of a persons character just by looking at them or do you have to a have a name to adorn the most prolific venues on the planet with your show?

Who has the right to put this kind of pressure on folk? You might be right that you have to work the crap places to learn before you can take up another persons money making time?

Just one edit:

Not to mention names at the moment some of us who read this forum could mention the names of who they consider to be bread heads I could name two straight away.............

One of them apparently has no respect for his attitude towards his work nor ever really changes the show unless it's some-one elses material.

Yet still they are tolerated amongst the artists and in a lot of cases personally liked as people in social contact off the pitch after work having fun.

But when they are on a working day you can see the other side of them? Split pitching, running around looking for extra slots, going for the bag full every time.

Trevor Rooney

[ 10-28-2003: Message edited by: Dead Woods Music Agency ]</p>