Hi everyone, I'm not going to go too much into the whole issue of whether ticket splits are right or wrong. I'm not in a band, but I manage one, and therefore I can see things from the band's perspective. I've agreed to plenty of ticket split deals for the band I manage in the past, and I do think it's a fair way of doing things. In an ideal world, every band playing every gig would be paid a massive fee and every gig in the world would be busy and all the bands would make a whole load of new fans every gig - but as we know, we live in the real world. Leaving the rights and wrongs of ticket splits aside, I would like to respond to one item raised in this thread - where a band only received tickets 3 days before a gig. I think it was actually a few more than 3 days, but what happened was: For every band we book, we want a signed agreement in place, so that both the band and ourselves knows what to expect from the gig. These agreements are e-mailed out to the bands well ahead of the gig (within one week of the booking being made) and then if they don't return the agreement then we send them weekly reminders. If the gig is getting close (i.e. 3 weeks away) then we phone as well as e-mail the bands to ensure that everything is ok. Once we receive the agreement then we post out tickets to the band (and the bands are aware of this). In the case of the band that only received their tickets a few days before the gig, it's because they hadn't returned the agreement until a few days before the gig - so it's not a case of us withholding their tickets for some sinister reason, in case that's what people were thinking! All the best, Ally Dicelines
