http://www.jacey-bedford.com/helpfiles/helpfiles.html

There’s no way I can take on any new acts right now, but thanks for your interest if you’re on of the artists who have approached me recently. I do still have some flexibility for doing UK Certificates of Sponsorship (work permits) for acts from outside the EU.

Congratulations to James Keelaghan on being appointed as the artistic director of Summerfolk Festival in Owen Sound, Ontario. It’s one of my favourite Canadian festivals and I’m sure James will make a huge success of it. Unfortunately it does mean that he won’t be touring the UK for st least the next couple of years, so with regret he’s departuing from the agency roster. Good luck, James.

The article opens with: ‘Britain is turning away countless non-European writers, artists and performers at its borders, a result of cumbersome and unevenly interpreted immigration rules that are making it increasingly difficult for many arts organizations to include foreigners in their programs.’

The New York Times totally misses the point about the legal aspects of performers working in the UK (i.e. Tier 5 applicants). Some of the facts are correct; the interpretation, however, is mostly not, or is, at best, exaggerated by implying that what has happened to a few individuals is a widespread occurrence.

Many of the people who are highlighted as having been turned back have not done their homework and failed to get a Certificate of Sponsorship before travelling to the UK. Honestly, guys, it’s not rocket science. The new system has been in place for three years now and all the information is up on the UK, Border Agency website.

One element that some performers fall down on is that even if you are not being paid, you do need a Certificate of Sponsorship to play in front of an audience or do any promotional radio or TV work in the UK. The Border Agency regards this as advancing your career and attempting to attract further offers of work in the UK. This is where a lot of confusion occurs. It’s not explicitly stated on the Border Agency website, but it is the rule applied by immigration officials at airports. If you are going to be in front of an audience via live performance, radio or TV you do need a Certificate of Sponsorship in advance of travel.

The article talks about small organisations not being able to bring in visiting performers because they can’t qualify to be licensed as sponsors, but there’s absolutely nothing to stop any individual or organisation from working through a third party legitimate licensed sponsor. I do Certificates of Sponsorship all the time for organisations (festivals and small agencies) who only need intermittent certificates of sponsorship and therefore it’s not worth the hassle, cost and staff-training time for them to get a licence themselves.

The article says: ‘A separate category, for “entertainers,” requires that applicants promise not to make money in Britain or perform — even for no fee — at for-profit events.’ Err- no. I’m not sure where that bit of non-fact came from. Entertainers come under Tier 5 regulations for ‘Entertainers and Sportspeople’ of course they are allowed to earn money providing they’ve got their Certificate of Sponsorship in advance of travel.

It’s true that the British Government’s new Points Based System is not really designed for performers, but despite that it does work.

Yes, performers entering to work temporarily have to prove they have £800 in a bank account and have had it there for at least three months – unless – and this is relevant – the sponsor ticks one simple box to say they guarantee the performer’s subsistence (for the first month) in the UK. Performers, of course, have no right to British state benefits if they become destitute whilst here temporarily, so making sure they won’t starve is common sense, really, but the figure of £800 is a bit arbitrary..

The article also says: [Artists must] ‘pay nonrefundable application fees of hundreds of pounds; and find established arts organizations that can pay additional hefty fees, sponsor them and take responsibility for them while they are in Britain.‘ Err… not really. If they are coming in for less than three months it’s only the cost of a certificate of sponsorship (which varies depending on the cost an agent charges to get one but on balance way less than £200. If they are coming in for more than three months there’s an additional fee for the ‘entry clearance’ at the British Embassy in their own country – about £140 the last time I looked. It doesn’t have to be an arts organisation that provides sponsorship. A number of independent agents, just like me, can do it equally well.

It is true that we sponsors have to pay £400 for a licence, and jump through hoops to prove we’re legitimate in order to get it, which is why I charge performers a basic fee of £160 per application, but that £160 includes all government disbursements and is all any non-visa national coming in for less than three months will have to pay.

Let me be very clear on that one. Artists travelling in from a county where a Visa is NOT required for tourist travel to the UK (i.e. non-visa nationals such as Americans, Australians and Canadians) don’t need to send their passports away for a visa affixing before they travel. All they need is their Certificate of Sponsorship (which is a virtual certificate corresponding to the application information on the Border Agency database). They present the certificate number on arrival in the UK and that’s all there is to it. For work periods of over three months they have to get entry clearance first – which usually takes a couple of weeks – but of course, common sense says apply in plenty of time.

Yes, I do appreciate that individuals from African countries which require a visa even for holidays in the UK do have problems if their country doesn’t have a British Embassy but this applies to all travellers from that country. Performers haven’t been singled out for special treatment.

The article says: ‘Even established artists at Springsteen-esque fame levels are required to obtain temporary worker visas if they come to Britain for paid engagements. While stars like Bruce Springsteen have managers and agents to handle such matters, this rule often trips up smaller-scale artists and performers from the United States and other countries whose citizens don’t need visas to enter Britain as tourists. “They assume that because of the visa waiver program they’ll have no problem and so they just turn up,” said Robert Sharp, campaigns manager at English PEN. “But then an official spots their tuba or their cello or their paintbrushes and says, ‘You’re working, get back on the plane.”

Well – yeah. Why should a famous musician sidestep the rules? Would America waive their rules for any famous British musician? I very much doubt it. And why should it be Britain’s fault if musicians ‘assume they’ll have no problem’ and ‘just turn up’? What would the American reaction be if a British musician turned up at Dulles airport without applying for a work permit in advance? Good heavens, America doesn’t even allow Canadian musicians to cross the border to play without a work permit, even though Canada does allow cultural artists to cross in the opposite direction gratis.

I’ve been a not-so-famous musician applying for an American work permit and believe me when I say that it’s not only much more expensive (around $350 non-refundable), and open to refusal for ‘not being sufficiently qualified’ (even though you’ve been granted US work visas in the past) but also much more time consuming (up to three months), involves (before you apply) having to pay one or the other of the American musicians’ unions $250 or more just for a letter stating they don’t object to you working in the USA as a foreign musician and then – when the permission is finally granted – having to pay an additional fee (around £60 per person) and having present yourself at the American Embassy in London for an interview and for the visa affixing in your passport (and this regardless of how many hundreds of miles from London you may live). And yes, they do retain your passport and send it back via second class post unless you pay an additional fee for a next-day courier. For my trio it has cost anything up to £1000 to obtain American work permits. That cost being: government disbursements, union fees, embassy fees and travel expenses to London – and never any guarantee of success no matter how many other times we’d had P3 visas stating we were ‘culturally unique’. And to add insult to injury it’s always been a nail-biting eleventh-hour permission (twice involving our American agents to beg state senators to get the system unstuck in order to get the permits in time for the tour), followed by a further wait for hard-copy documentation to arrive (they won’t accept a fax of the permission paperwork) and a mad dash to London for an emergency 8.00 a.m. interview however far in advance we applied.

So forgive me for thinking that the NY Times is making mountains out of molehills, taking facts out of context and making the whole thing sound more complicated than it really is.

Short piece of advice: don’t make assumptions and do your homework before you travel.

And yes, anyone coming into the UK to tour or play music from outside the EU NEEDS A CERTIFICATE OF SPONSORSHIP FOR EACH MEMBER OF THE BAND in order to stay legal and not get instantly deported as they try to blag their way past the immigration officer at the airport. (That has happened to several people I’ve heard about and can be accompanied by a ban on entering the UK if you’re not careful.)

What I just don’t understand is those performers who have already carefully set up their tour, they’ve booked the gigs, they’ve booked the plane tickets, they’re about three days short of actually setting off and suddenly they think: Errr… do I need a work permit or not? Cos, like, I’m American/Australian/Canadian, so surely the UK will welcome me and my music with open arms? They haven’t been on the web and done their research. The regulations are all there on the UK Home Office website. Just google: working in the UK.

Music and dance performers are classed as temporary workers under Tier 5 regulations (entertainers and sportspeople) on the Points Based System that came into force in 2008. For tours of less than 3 months non-visa nationals (i.e. people from a country that does not require a visa to enter the UK, like Australia, Canada or the USA) can enter the country with just their Certificate of Sponsorship. This is a virtual certificate in the form of a number which corresponds to a detailed record on the Home Office’s computer system. Workers entering for more than three months or those from a country where even visitors on holiday require a visa (say South Africa) must get entry clearance at a British Embassy in their own country before travelling. Obviously if you need entry clearance before you travel, then contacting me three days in advance is just plain too late.

So to return to those panic stricken emails. Help I’ve just realised I need a work permit. I’m travelling on Tuesday, is it too late? Luckily none of them needed entry clearance, so all was not lost, but it needed some very quick work.

I can do Certificates of Sponsorship within a day if I have to, but it’s really pushing it if a performer leaves it that late. They can only be done online by a government licensed sponsor (like me) and sometimes (not very often, but it can happen) the government web site plays up, or my ISP plays up and I can’t get online to do the processing. The government website was out of action for three days once, and at other times I’ve been shut out of it by a blip for half a day. One time my ISP went belly-up for 36 hours. Any one of thise things can be devastatiing for a last minute application. Even a twenty four hour delay can be the difference between getting your certificate or not if you’ve left it so late.

So far I have a perfect record. I’ve never had anyone refused, and I’ve never failed to get a Certificate of Sponsorship to a performer on time. Some of these last minute applications have taken it very close to the wire, though. One time I literally phoned the number through to the performer just 30 minutes before he was due to leave for the airport.

So a plea to all non-EU performers. Think ahead. At least month ahead, but preferably a couple of months if you can. Contact me (or your Sponsor of choice) in time to make sure everything goes smoothly.

There are some grey areas, so let me clarify. You may think that if you are coming to play gigs for which you are not being paid then you don’t need a Certificate of Sponsorship however I’ve had pleas for help from people who have been turned away (literally put on the first flight back home) for coming in to have a holiday and to play some open mic sessions. The immigration officer took the view that [person] was here on a promotional visit prior to booking a tour in the UK. I’ve also had someone contact me who was turned back because [person] was coming in as part of an amateur choir to sing at one festival for no fee. The officer on duty took the view that [person] was here to work despite the fact that the festival was only one event within a two week holiday. He was also suspicious the [person] may be owning up to one gig but intending to play more.

There have, of course, also been instances of performers showing up with their band, their itinerary and not a clue that they needed to fulfil any legal obligations to be able to play in the UK. What can I say? Ignorance is no excuse.

Adding this in an edit:

I should also have linked to this post http://efrafandays.wordpress.com/2009/06/03/allison-crowe-deported/ which discusses the deportation of Alison Crowe, a Canadian performer who arrived here in 2009 without (her management) checking the immigration regulations. Crowe’s management said the change in the regulations was ‘little known’ but if the government publishes it on its website and even on its wordpress blog – who’s to blame for not knowing?

It was arranged too late in the day to get into the Arts Centre brochure, so we’d love you to pass on the details for us word of mouth.

Norma has been very sick and still has a long way to go on the road to recovery. Martin has been by her side in hospital for the last several months and – as you know, folk singers who don’t work, don’t earn.

Box office: 01422 349422. Please support the night.

Artisan: Random Play

You want to book an artist to play at your venue – let’s call him Lawrence of Arabia, Laurie A for short – and you ask me what his fee is. I tell you it’s three hundred pounds against 80%  of the nett ‘door’ and your brain goes into overload. Am I offering you a good deal? Am I trying to blind you with science. What the blooming heck is a percentage deal anyway? What’s a box office split? What’s a guarantee?

Well, first off, it’s nothing to worry about. It’s a pretty good way of ensuring that there’s a bit of flexibility built into the deal which means both the artist and the booker get the fairest deal at the end of the night, based on how many seats were sold at the gig and for what price.

It’s customary when negotiating a percentage deal for the ticket price to be agreed in advance so the artist knows that there’s every chance of  ending up with more than the basic agreed amount. I don’t insist on a minimum ticket price for every artist, though some insist on it for themselves. I generally hope that we can come to a sensible figure based on your hstorical precedent and the artist’s usual expectations.

Terminolgy

The ‘door’ is just shorthand for ‘box office revenue’. Americans and Canadians refer to it as the ‘gate’.)

What does £300 against 80% of the nett door actually mean?
It means you guarantee to pay Laurie A a minimum of £300 but when you’ve counted your box office revenue, and deducted the direct costs of putting on the gig, if eighty percent of the amount you have left comes to more than £300, you pay Laurie A the higher figure. Legitimate expenses include: hall hire, Laurie A’s bed and breakfast bill, the PA hire and any direct advertising for the one show. The list of legitimate expenses is usually agreed in advance. Note if you advertise ten gigs in the same ad you can’t deduct the amount of the whole ad before calulating the expenses, only one tenth of it.

Obviously the ticket price enters in to the calculation, so ticket prices are agreed in advance too. It’s important for everyone to know at the time of the booking what the potential revenue is from the gig. If the hall seats 100 and you are only charging £3 per ticket, there’s no way a percentage deal can kick in. But if the hall seats 100 and ticket prices are £10 then there’s every chance of smiling faces at the end of the night.

An example.

You book Laurie A for £300 against 80% of the nett door.
You sell 80 tickets at £10 each meaning your gross box office take is £800.
You hire a hall for £100 and pay another £100 for a PA system, but Laurie A stays in your granny’s spare room so you don’t pay for B&B on this occasion. You take out an ad in the local folk magazine, but it advertises 6 artists and only costs £20 so you write that off. Therefore your total direct costs are £200

Deduct your direct costs of £200 from your gross box office of £800 and your nett box office is £600
80% of £600 is £480
You pay Laurie A £480 instead of the £300 guarantee.
This means that you keep a clear £120 for your club/venue/pocket, in addition to the £200 for expenses. (You also keep the proceeds of the raffle if you have one, that doesn’t enter into this calculation).

BUT
Say you only charged £7 for tickets and all your expenses and Laurie A’s fee remained the same the figures would look like this:

Gross box office take (80 x £7) = £560
Nett box office (after deductions of £200) = £360
80% of £360 = £288
You pay Laurie A the minimum guarnatee of £300 as agreed.

Let’s try that again

You book Tinkerbelle Tailor for a fee of £200 against 90% of the nett door.
Your folk club room costs nothing and you don’t use a PA. Your only expense is £20 for the local folk magazine advert which you took out just for Tink (as you didn’t have any other guests that quarter).

You charge £6 on the door and get 47 bums on seats, but you let 2 of them in free because they are the support act. So 45 tickets at £6 each equals £270. Deduct your expenses of £20. The nett is £250.

90% of £250 = £225.
You pay Tink £225

BUT if you only get 30 paying people in at £6 per ticket, your gross is £180, yet you have still guaranteed to pay Tink £200, so you still have to do that on the night as agreed.

I hope that helps. If you are booking an artist through my agency and you are still puzzled call me on 01484 606230 and I’ll explain it all again.

When I was a performer I used to play at Mr. X’s folk club regularly. I even stayed in his house after the gigs. We got on just fine. Once I became an agent he stopped returning my calls and never answered my emails. Mutual friends have told me that it’s because he thinks that if he books an artist through an agent it will cost him a lot more money, therefore he’s pathologically afraid of negotiating fees with an agent, even me.

I want to set the record straight.

An agent works for the artist and is paid by the artist. Yes, it’s in the agent’s best interests to get the artist the maximum amount for the job because 15% of £1000 is always better than 15% of £100, however the fee must not be at the expense of the venue or event because that’s counterproductive. The venue must not lose money on the gig.

Getting a single gig is reasonably easy, but building up a relationship with a venue and getting multiple gigs for multiple artists and then repeat gigs for those artists is much more difficult. It can only be achieved by being scrupulously fair to both venue and artist. Sometimes you sacrifice a short term gain for a long term good relationship. In the end you don’t lose by that and neither does the artist.

Artists’ fees vary. Some are negotiable, some aren’t. Some are a flat fee and some are a basic guarantee set against a percentage of the box office income. The artists are the ones who set the fees and conditions or give me the power to negotiate with a certain upper and lower limit. Some artists insist on a rider, others do not. Some artists insist on hotel accommodation, others are happy to stay with the organisers and a few prefer to arrange their own accommodation because they like to get away after a show. As an agent, all I can do is work within the guidelines the artists set me. (Note that I do discourage the sort of riders that ask for champagne and Smarties in the dressing room.)

So if Mr. X books an artist through me he’ll pay the same as if he (theoretically) books direct with the artist. My percentage comes out of the artist’s fee. And since I have an exclusive deal with my artists, they don’t actually deal directly with a booker. Instead they pass the enquiry on to me. Why keep a dog and bark yourself?

The only time Mr. X might get a cheaper deal from an artist is if he pulls the old pals act, tries to go direct and browbeats them into a fee that’s lower than their minimum. Some artists are pathologically afraid of refusing a gig even if it’s not paying enough to more than cover their expenses. He might feel as though he’s put one over on both the artist and the agent, but this kind of deal doesn’t foster a good working relationship. Mr. X becomes known as a cheapskate pennypincher and artists avoid working for him.

NO. The N-word is really difficult to say, but it’s more difficult for an artist than for an agent.

“Ah, but…” Mr. X might say. “Whenever an act signs to an agency their fees immediately go up.” That is sometimes true for a few acts who are rising through the ranks, becoming more popular, growing and pulling bigger audiences. A long established act knows his worth, knows his audience and his fee is not likely to go up when he takes on or changes an agent. An up and coming act is still discovering their value and may well have been woefully underselling themselves prior to joining an agency. Upon joining the agency the artists and the agent might sit down together and review fees and may well set different fee limits. With the new fee limits set, however, Mr. X will not get the act at their old pre-agency price, no matter who he talks to. So I urge all the Mr. Xs out there to lose their fear of agents. We’re here to ensure that every booking is a win-win, or between artist, agent and booker a win-win-win.

Let me say that again. Though I may from time to time make helpful (or unhelpful) suggestions, I do not manage an artist’s career.

An agent is also not a tour manager. (Yes I know what my agency is called and I will tour manage for artists, but at a substantial additional cost.) It’s generally the artist’s responsibility to get to the gig on time. An agent does not arrange transport to and from the gig, or book overnight accommodation except where accommodation is part and parcel of the remuneration for the gig. An agent does not arrange accommodation on days off.

I am not a publicist. I am not responsible for sending out or paying for artist advertising. I do not send tourdates to magazines and websites. Artists retain the responsibility for promoting their gigs to the world at large and their own mailing list in particular. An agent is not a publicist. It’s up to artists to do PR work and to crank out adverts and gig publicity or employ someone to do so.

I don’t have any artistic input or any say in an artist’s show. I don’t arrange for venues to provide elements required for shows. If an artist needs a xylophone, they’d better have one in their kit. (The exception to this being negotiating the use of a venue’s grand piano if required.)

Beyond what I need to sell a show to a booker (which I generally design and have printed myself) I don’t have any responsibility for designing, arranging for or paying for an artist’s print promo, though I do require that it’s available in the required quantities for venues and that it’s good quality and apropriate for the job and I will send it out to venues at my expense.

I do not deal with an artist’s taxes (though I will provide the necessary duplicate contracts and information). Artists touring from abroad can get withholding tax waiver forms from the Foreign Entertainers’ Unit of the Inland Revenue. Your personal finances are really not my business and I don’t need to know your personal financial details – which is why I like taxation issues to remain between the Inland Revenue and the artist and (possibly) their accountant.

So remember, your agent might collect you from the airport, cook you dinner, nurse you if you’re sick, arrange for you to stay at her mum’s house when you’re not gigging,  sort out your parking tickets and generally be your friend, BUT YOU MUSTN’T EXPECT THIS! The contract only says that she will get gigs (or try) in return for an agreed percentage of your gig fees. More than that is good nature or an additional pre-agreed service which you will be charged for.

An agent will solve all your problems…

Hah!

OK, so it’s an agent’s job to find fee-paying performances for an artist, negotiate the terms, send the contract and send the posters, flyers and promo as supplied by the artist. In return for which the agent receives a percentage (commonly 15% in the folk world) of the negotiated fee paid by the artist.

That’s the theory anyway. But please understand that even the best agent in the world does not guarantee to get gigs. An agent does not have a bucket full of gigs hidden under the desk ready to dish out for the asking. An agent has to go out and find those gigs – different gigs for different artists. There is no guarantee. All an agent can do is try.

Unless the artist creates a demand by a) being bloody talented and b) letting his audience and his potential audience know that he is bloody talented, even the best agent will not be able to create gigs.

It’s up to the artist to create a demand for their music. An agent does not make an artist famous. An agent does not, cannot work miracles.

Sheesh – if an artist can’t get gigs for him/herself, how do they expect an agent to? Let’s be realistic.

And even if an agent does manage to get a few gigs for [unknown artist] if the audience doesn’t turn out to support the gig that’s it, no repeat booking, ever. That venue is closed to that artist and it will also make the venue more wary about booking another artist from that same agency. I don’t want to hear: “Oh, sure these guys will get a good audience, you said that about the other ones and I had an audience of three.”