I MAY BE WRONG, and I usually am, but I am sure that I am hitting the right chord, on the beat and in time. In these days of downtime for artistes, both pros and amateurs, Independence and Christmas time brings to the fore the fact that we the artistes are still being taken for a ride; a ride to nowhere.
Once Independence and Christmas time roll around, we will get several phone calls from schools, churches and various organisations to come and perform for free. I believe that these people are well-intentioned but are systematically conditioned to take most artistes for granted.
More often than not, the persons chosen to coordinate this free performance are ill-equipped to so do and they will just tell you the date and location and will hardly ever get back to you. If you fail to show up, then it is published or put on the grapevine that X or Y never showed up and how disappointed the kids were.
Added to this, when you do show up, there is nothing in place to make you comfortable; some people will even tell you that they didn’t know they had to get a sound system.
The answer is simple but two-fold, my friend: apart from being taken for granted, we are “popular” and thus people will pay to come and see us! However, that is where the financial aspect ends. Try selling CDs at one of these same events that you have graciously given of your talent and time and check the end result.
One of the worst things you can do is tell them that while you will perform and not charge them that there must be an honorarium. This is because there is another salient point that is overlooked: it costs the artiste to perform – in cleaning, gas, taxi fare; there is always a cost.
Hello Barbados! Entertainers also have families, bills and other financial responsibilities to deal with on a monthly basis. We cannot go to the supermarket and say, “We are X or Y, so give us groceries.”
“Hobby class” is a Bajan euphemism that has been part of our culture for years. This is even more so when it comes to artistes. We need to be respected not only by the word itself but by the wages that other professionals are automatically accorded. Sometimes as we perform for free, we are on stage observing others making money. Yet we are considered the main event!
It is not just persons who did not do well academically who chose music. We may not all be Barbados scholars but many of us are quite equipped in that respect. For all aspects of the arts, practice is required: you are born with the talent but it has to be honed.
This applies not only to foreign artistes but the ones you grew up with, the ones you so easily take for granted simply because “I know he!” Artistes must be well paid for their working efforts like everyone else.
William “Smokey” Burke is an entertainer.