"Class 'A' Love Affair", from the "Flower Show Riots" album (Riot! Records/Universal Music, 2007). Written by Saiful Idris. Produced by The Great Spy Experiment, Leonard Soosay and Wayne 'Thunder' Seah.
Music video produced by Reel Loco Productions. Directed by Shaun Yeo. DP by Marc Gomez.
This is my response to a blog entry by JBarks, bassist of one of my favourite Singaporean bands, the Firefight, about the recent Singfest. You'll find similar points to the ones I mentioned in my previous entry, but hey, this is definitely an issue worth talking about twice! :)
Just to clarify, we were paid for our role in Singfest in 2007. When we were originally approached, we quoted our minimum fee for an event of such as scale. They offered us publicity (“advertisement in all media formats”) but no money (“no budget for local bands”). We have a strict policy against this so we formally turned down the offer to play the gig. This was a good month-and-a-half before the event.
About three weeks before the event, Midas got in touch with us again and offered us two options: the sum we requested but with a stipulation that we had to leave immediately after our performance, or 40% of the sum we requested. Needless to say, we accepted the former.
After the event, we sent our invoice to the company for billing. The whole time we’d been liasing with a Mel Tyler, with Michael Hoskings kept in the loop via email cc. A month after the event, Michael sent a note which said “I thought this was $xxxx?”, a sum which was a good 25% less than the agreed fee. This, even though he was fully aware of all prior discussions of the agreed sum. Thankfully, we had email records of all correspondence and were therefore able to insist on the agreed fee.
Administrative matters aside, the festival experience itself was great. We were very well taken care of, with due attention paid to our musical demands. And we did get to stay on after all - no one asked us to leave.
It became clear to us through all our correspondence with them that Midas appears to have a policy of not forking out any amount of money for a local band, which is something we are fundamentally opposed to.
The local stage at this year’s Singfest really typifies Midas’ attitude towards local bands for me. I view their supposed apparent support for local music (by dedicating a whole stage to local acts) with the greatest scepticism, for the following reasons: 1) The sponsorship leverage for having eighteen local bands on the bill is massive. Any corporation would love to be seen to support an event that supports local music in a big way, even if very little of that money goes towards the bands themselves or the cause. 2) The cost of erecting a stage for local bands, compared to the above, is minimal at best. Midas has everything to gain, the most important of which is getting those patriotic monkeys (who were overtly critical of them for the lack of local bands in the 2007 edition) off their backs once and for all. 3) This year’s event had the support of some major sponsors. Despite all the costs involved in holding an event of such a scale, there definitely was money for local bands. Them not paying local bands was more a matter of policy (choice) than it was of necessity. 4) Despite the promise of publicity, there was actually little mention of local acts in all wider promotions of the events.
I do agree with you about the numbers ratio and about getting the numbers right, and hopefully that’s something that will be put right in next year’s edition. Personally, I just hope that the organisers will see that local bands can hold their own against the international big guns and give bands like yours the stage you deserve.
Sorry for the impassioned reply to your post. Keep on keeping on!
Dave Tan of Electrico is frustrated that there are bands who still allow themselves to be taken advantage of. I understand completely where he is coming from. For those of you who have no idea what we’re on about, hopefully you’ll find this article enlightening, or at the very least, mildly entertaining.
The recently concluded SingFest 08 featured pop heavyweights like Alicia Keys, Jason Mraz, Travis, Pussycat Dolls and more on its massive stage. There was a smaller stage a distance away dedicated to sixteen Singaporean bands including Plain Sunset, Allura, the Fire Fight and more. These bands were playing at the same times foreign acts were, and needless to say, the turnout at their performances was negligible to say the least. You can’t really blame the crowd – having paid in excess of 200 dollars for a ticket, why should they choose to watch Singaporean bands (who they get to see week in, week out, and often for no money at all) over acts that they hardly ever get to see?
I’ve shared in a previous post my gripe about the treatment of Singaporean music and musicians by some errant corporations. I wrote about how their apparent endorsement of local music needs to be taken with bagfuls of scepticism.
Last year at the inaugural SingFest, we were the only Singaporean band on the bill. While that was something that we were proud of, we, like many other Singaporeans, musicians or otherwise, wondered why there weren’t more Singaporean bands playing in a festival that is dubbed Singapore’s own.
Our experience last year was generally a good one, though it was marred by what I’d like to refer to as ‘administrative matters’. We were adamant about being paid for our performance and demanded at least our minimum fee. They finally obliged just several days before the event. In the weeks it took for payment to come through, there was a final attempt by the man in charge himself to negotiate, and I’m being very kind here, a lower fee. I wonder if he did the same with the other international acts - sincerely doubt it. There was this overwhelming feeling that the organisers didn’t deem a Singaporean act worthy of payment. And it appears, not much has changed in a year. Word has it that the bands that played this year were not paid, not even a token fee.
On the back of last year’s outing, the organisers did get a lot of flak for having only one Singaporean act. Hence the larger Singaporean presence this year. Yet, for all their apparent support of Singaporean music (sixteen Singaporean bands this year, fifteen more than last, and a whole stage dedicated to them!), it seems there isn’t enough in the budget to pay the bands even a tiny fraction of what they’re paying the 'foreign talents' (doesn't this sound all too familiar?). You can see how this works beautifully for the organisers though. They put in a bit of money to erect a stage that no one would bother about, and in return get sixteen bands for free, credibility and those patriotic monkeys demanding more support for Singaporean music off their backs. Oh and you can imagine the kind of leverage they’d get from potential sponsors if they mentioned that they had sixteen Singaporean bands on the bill. Afterall, sponsors love nothing more than to be seen to support local musicians and causes, even if very little of the money they put in actually benefits the bands themselves.
This is how things should be: 1) SingFest should feature a comparable number of Singaporean and foreign acts, all sharing the same stage or stages. Naysayers might argue that Singaporean bands don’t deserve to play on the same stage as the likes of Alicia Keys or Pussycat Dolls. Well, if they’re good enough to be on the bill, they’re good enough to be on the same stage. Plus, some local bands really do know how to rock it, and if you haven’t discovered at least one Singaporean band that does it for you, then please do check out more gigs. There are some amazing talents out there. But I digress.
2) Singaporean bands should be paid at least their minimum fees. It’s not all about the money, hell no. But it sure helps the bands out a lot. Publicity in small measures doesn’t. Plus, with huge corporations backing the event, there is no way in hell the organisers don’t have the money for it. It’s whether they think it’s money well spent.
3) There should be some representation of Singaporean acts in promotional materials and events. There was none of that this year. Name me four Singaporean bands that played at this year’s SingFest. Can’t? I rest my case.
I know this is a rather abrupt end, but I’m spent.
For those of you who are on Facebook, I've created a group called National Education, the description of which reads below.
'National Education' is for
people who are interested in broadening their understanding of
Singapore politics, policies and governance, beyond what is readily
available in the local media. Content found on linked websites reflects
the views and opinions of independent authors and is meant to inform
and initiate thought and discussion, and may or may not reflect the
views and opinions of members of this group. Please feel free to share
links to relevant websites/articles/etc. Discussion on the group wall
is welcome, but do keep it friendly, concise and constructive.
Do drop by if this is something that might interest you. :)
This is my response to a blog entry by JBarks, bassist of one of my favourite Singaporean bands, the Firefight, about the recent Singfest. You'll find similar points to the ones I mentioned in my previous entry, but hey, this is definitely an issue worth talking about twice! :)
Read his blog post here.
Hey J,
Just to clarify, we were paid for our role in Singfest in 2007. When we were originally approached, we quoted our minimum fee for an event of such as scale. They offered us publicity (“advertisement in all media formats”) but no money (“no budget for local bands”). We have a strict policy against this so we formally turned down the offer to play the gig. This was a good month-and-a-half before the event.
About three weeks before the event, Midas got in touch with us again and offered us two options: the sum we requested but with a stipulation that we had to leave immediately after our performance, or 40% of the sum we requested. Needless to say, we accepted the former.
After the event, we sent our invoice to the company for billing. The whole time we’d been liasing with a Mel Tyler, with Michael Hoskings kept in the loop via email cc. A month after the event, Michael sent a note which said “I thought this was $xxxx?”, a sum which was a good 25% less than the agreed fee. This, even though he was fully aware of all prior discussions of the agreed sum. Thankfully, we had email records of all correspondence and were therefore able to insist on the agreed fee.
Administrative matters aside, the festival experience itself was great. We were very well taken care of, with due attention paid to our musical demands. And we did get to stay on after all - no one asked us to leave.
It became clear to us through all our correspondence with them that Midas appears to have a policy of not forking out any amount of money for a local band, which is something we are fundamentally opposed to.
The local stage at this year’s Singfest really typifies Midas’ attitude towards local bands for me. I view their supposed apparent support for local music (by dedicating a whole stage to local acts) with the greatest scepticism, for the following reasons:
1) The sponsorship leverage for having eighteen local bands on the bill is massive. Any corporation would love to be seen to support an event that supports local music in a big way, even if very little of that money goes towards the bands themselves or the cause.
2) The cost of erecting a stage for local bands, compared to the above, is minimal at best. Midas has everything to gain, the most important of which is getting those patriotic monkeys (who were overtly critical of them for the lack of local bands in the 2007 edition) off their backs once and for all.
3) This year’s event had the support of some major sponsors. Despite all the costs involved in holding an event of such a scale, there definitely was money for local bands. Them not paying local bands was more a matter of policy (choice) than it was of necessity.
4) Despite the promise of publicity, there was actually little mention of local acts in all wider promotions of the events.
I do agree with you about the numbers ratio and about getting the numbers right, and hopefully that’s something that will be put right in next year’s edition. Personally, I just hope that the organisers will see that local bands can hold their own against the international big guns and give bands like yours the stage you deserve.
Sorry for the impassioned reply to your post. Keep on keeping on!
Saiful
GSE