The dangers of thinking you are a rock star.

I was the talent buyer for a pretty good sized club here in Chicago for a few years and while it was a really, really stressful job it was also one I enjoyed immensely. It was probably the most rewarding job I've had yet. I basically threw a party seven nights a week, usually with bands I personally enjoyed, and tried to be as fair as humanly possible. I got out of the talent buying game and moved on to part-time independent promoting and found this even more gratifying. Now I only throw a party whenever I feel like it and only deal with bands I enjoy. Not a bad deal, eh?

Now I've never really had a problem with any other talent buyers -- probably because I already have relationships with most of them and understand pretty fully where they're coming from in a business sense -- but it became apparent to me during some casual conversation that most bands view talent buyers as a necessary evil they have to wage battle against in order to get a show. What's more, I discovered how terribly some talent buyers can treat bands as they think nothing of paying a band that drew a large local crowed seven bucks because they promised the headliner -- who drew next to no one -- three hundred bucks or make them jump through hoops just to get a lousy show on a Wednesday night in the middle of the winter.

I guess when I was in the talent buyer position I never fell into the usual traps. I knew when local bands offered to buy me drinks they thought it was because they had to and I always turned them down. I never assumed I was a rock star because I booked a club or hung out with people that were in fact rock stars. I always tried to pay people fairly and employed the theory that as long as the club made money off the booze sales then the bands deserved the vast majority, if not all, of the door money. Most importantly I booked a club because I loved music and let bands know the reason they were playing there was because I respected what they were doing and thought it was something special.

I mean, that only seems right...right?