Boutie "Volunteers" Her Services

from www.themusicalrevolution.com

Boutie "Volunteers" Her Services

Note: A tale from back in tha day with a little ranting and raving thrown in fer good measure. Tell it Bouts:

~ I had recently moved to Vancouver, a lovely city. Prior to my move I had a few interviews for some really great jobs. Unfortunatly, none of them worked out. I'm now working a crappy retail job again. But, that's not what this story is about. This story is about one of the jobs that I didn't get.

~ This job was a great opportunity for me to get my foot in the door of the music industry. It was a part-time contract position for an independent promotions company. My job would have been to coordinate the street teams for two up and coming bands as well as to establish contacts with local merchants to set up contests and other promotional ventures. The job was given to someone else. Let's call this person FUCKHEAD. I don't want to use real names. I'm not telling this story to screw anybody over. I just want others to be aware.
~ Mr. Nice Guy (the head of the independent company) e-mailed me to inform me that he had given the position to FUCKHEAD. Props to Mr. Nice Guy for at least letting me know what was going on. Not wanting to close any doors, I thanked Mr. Nice Guy, wished him luck and offered to volunteer my assistance if needed. That was just a few days before I moved to Vancouver.
~ My first day in Vancouver I found the library and hopped on a computer for some free internet time. There was already an e-mail from FUCKHEAD. The e-mail was brief and included FUCKHEAD's number. I called to speak to FUCKHEAD and to pass on my home phone number. FUCKHEAD said I would hear back within a few days. FUCKHEAD was still putting together a game plan. I tell FUCKHEAD of my experience and age. FUCKHEAD was impressed by my level of maturity and thought that it would be a great idea to make me the head intern. As a volunteer?? This comment already made me a little nervous about FUCKHEAD's abilities. FUCKHEAD seemed to be quite a bit overwhelmed for a job that is pretty easy to do.
~ The next day FUCKHEAD called, wanting to come by and drop off some posters and stickers for me to put up and hand out. I have a feeling that this was more Mr. Nice Guy's idea then FUCKHEAD's. I said, "No problem!" My reasons for doing this was to stay in Mr. Nice Guy's good books (he's well connected and you never know what it still might lead to), for the experience and for some free concert tickets. A few hours later FUCKHEAD shows up with 2 giant rolls of posters and stacks of stickers; no tape. I had to purchase that myself and have yet to be reimbursed for it. FUCKHEAD wanted me to poster my neighbourhood with one roll and then a few days later to go out with the other roll. FUCKHEAD also asked that I distribute the stickers to shops on the Drive. This part of the job, I had no problem with. What I had the biggest problem with is that FUCKHEAD kept calling and asking me to do things that FUCKHEAD should have been doing. I was asked to go in to the shops, set up the contact, keep track of who would be interested in setting up a promotional event and so on. I would have been doing what FUCKHEAD was getting paid to do for free. No! That's when I just wasn't available to help as much. I refused to do FUCKHEADS work.
~ Needless to say when it came time to do promotions for the second band I got shafted. I offered my services for posterting and handing out stickers but no luck. FUCKHEAD e-mailed me to ask if I could help out on the night of the show. I was more than happy to help. That meant a free ticket for me to go and see 2 really awesome bands. Of course, I told FUCKHEAD that I would be more than happy to help. The next thing I know I got an e-mail from FUCKHEAD telling me that some 15 year old girls really wanted to do it so I was out!
~ I still really wanted to go to the show so I e-mailed Mr. Nice Guy and explained that I hadn't heard back from FUCKHEAD (which I hadn't) and was wondering if I could get 1 ticket to the show. I got a call from FUCKHEAD that night. FUCKHEAD apologized for not realizing that I did want to help out the night of the show. I don't know how much clearer I could have been but some people are just that ssssslllllooooowwwww. FUCKHEAD said that given the oversight they would put me on the guest list for the show. SWEET! I didn't have to do any work and still got a free ticket. Wrong. I got a phone call the day of the show saying that I couldn't go because the show was oversold and blah blah blah. At least I didn't do anymore free work for FUCKHEAD.
~ What burns me the most about this entire situation is that Mr. Nice Guy has since hired FUCKHEAD on permanetly. I wonder how well Mr. Nice Guy's independent company will do with FUCKHEAD as his assistant?

Boutie, Rock 'n Roll Insider

This post was originally done for my friends web site: www.themusicalrevolution.com

November 29, 2004

Introducing... Boutie, Rock 'n Roll Insider

Boutie: "Well, anyone who knows me knows that I have had the opportunity to meet many very cool musicians. Having a sister in the business makes it very easy to meet a lot of really cool people. I have two stories that I would like to share with you."

You know those ladies that get to hang wit your favorite music types cuz they're well... ladies or maybe just well connected. My gurl Boutie has both advantages over the rest of us. She gives killer... story.

1) I was visiting my sister here in Vancouver. It was about 4 years ago. Sloan happened to be playing a show here. At this point in my sister's career she had become friends with Sloan. So, not only were we on the guest list but, we had after show passes as well. Sloan was playing at the Vogue Theatre.

My sister and I were going to grab some seats on the balcony level. We get to the top of the stairs and my sisters tells me that we'll wait till the end of the song to take a seat. Next thing we knew, the power triping security guy, with his big flash light told us to take a seat. My sister explained to him that theatre etiquette was to wait for the song to be done. He didn't care, got right in my sisters face and said, "Can you see now?"

To avoid anymore conflict with this power tripping meathead we took our seat. After the show we were waiting in the lobby with our passes on and the same security guy comes down the stairs. He sees us and sees are passes and is a total jerk. "So, are you excited that you get to see them all up close now?" he said in a very cocky tone.

My sister and I just blew him off. "Yeah whatever!"

Seconds later Chris Murphy comes bounding out the stage door. Sees my sister and is so happy to see her. "MARY!!!!!" he says and gives her a huge hug. "I'm so glad you made it to the show."

The sercurity meathead had seen the whole thing. It was priceless. I'm sure that guy will think twice before he trys a power trip again.
Then I got to hang out with the whole band and ended up going for drinks with Pat and my sister. I found out how they came up with the name Sloan. Not a fascinating story, but an interesting one. Very cool experience and fun just hanging out with the band.

2)This summer I got to meet Hawkesly Workman. I really love his music. And him. :)

My roommates are in a band called Stabilo. Some of you may have heard of them. They are up and coming. Lots of great things happening with them.

In July they played a show with Sloan, 54-40 and Hawkesly Workmen. After Sloan played, Karl (bass player of Stabilo) came and found myself and my other roommate. We decided that we were going to try and get in to the VIP room. He said they had been pretty slack on the security to the VIP room. It was pretty easy. Karl and his wife both had passes and they didn't care to see if my roommate and I had passes. We just pretended like we did. I couldn't believe how easy it was. I guess it's true what they say, just look like you belong there.

While we were hanging out, Jesse (lead vocals and guitar player for Stabilo) was talking to Hawkesly, my perfect opportunity to meet him. I walked over and Jesse puts his arm around me and asks me how I was doing?
I said, "I'm doing good Jesse but, I want to talk to this man right here." And I point at Hawkesly.

I then had a really great conversation with Hawkesly. I told him about the first time I had seen him play at a COCA Conference. We talked about that for while. We talked about what I was doing in Vancouver. It was very cool.

My roommates still bug me about how I was flirting with Hawkesly. Hey at least I had the balls to go and talk to him, so to speak.

I have many many more interesting celebrity? meetings. Maybe you'll get to hear some more....

The Dust - Part 1

I have finally made a point to come back to my blogg and something!

The Dust - Part 1

Boutie meets Strange Bargain

The story begins on a Tuesday night in April 1999, in London, Ontario at Fanshawe College. I was going to the last pub of the year at Fanshawe Student Union. As a member of the FSU Entertainment Committe, I arrived early to help with set up.

I thought I was alone, but found some other girls from the committee. Everything had already been set up so, there wasn't much for us to do.

It was the Roger's Indie Pub. It was being filmed to be aired at a later date on Roger's cable TV (which by the way I still have not seen). The deal was that you could win a chance to introduce one of the bands.

This was the last pub of the year. It wasn't surprising when only 50 or so people showed up. The perk to being at this pub was that your chances of being selected to introduce one of the bands, was pretty good.

One of the girls that I had met up with that night was very excited to introduce the first band...STRANGE BARGAIN. She was going nuts over the guitar player, who had already removed his shirt. Anything to get the chicks!

After their set the band came and sat with the 3 of us. The girls were very excited to hang out with these hot musicians!

For the first time I officially met, Big Finger, Shogun and Magnus. Other wise known as Matt, Ben and John. All three of them were very funny. We instantly clicked. I was a tad embarassed by the other 2 girls. I was having fun with meeting some really cool new people. The girls were more interested in getting into their pants. (Yes boys, it's true, anyone of you could have ended up with either of those girls that night.)

We all sat there for pretty much the rest of the night, until Matt had to break up the party, because he had to go to work. He was working nights at Loblaws at the time. And come to think of it, he still is. (It's ok Matt I still love you!)

Before they left they told us that they were playing a show that Thursday at the Whippet Lounge.

Stay tuned for details of The Dust - Part 2 The Infamous Whippet Lounge

Welome to my world!

Soon to come ... through Boutie's eyes, stories of musical adventure. Touring around Ontario with independent bands, helping to promote upcoming acts and some other pretty crazy stuff too.

Stay tuned!