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I had a call from one of the bars that I have a sound system at. I rent this system to the KJ and he runs the show. The bartender called me to inform me that on Thursday night (not one of our karaoke nights) another Bar Owner (Competitor down the street) came in with a group of friends, one of them was a KJ from his bar. It was 1am and He tried to bribe the bartender into letting them do karaoke on "MY SYSTEM" and offered her $40 to look the other way. While she was telling them there was no way the could do it, this guys KJ was over setting up my system! Had the computer and everything booted up but could not figure out our setup and software so he gave up. Anyway it never happened but when I found out I was Livid

The moment I heard the story and got off the phone with the bartender I called the bar owner in question (this was the next day) I reamed this guy but good, so good in fact about 3 hours later I had a written apology hand delivered from the KJ who did the deed. It was delivered to my KJ so I did not get a chance to get a piece of this guy but he needed a good reaming too.

I'm still totally taken back by a KJ that would even attempt to setup and run someone elses equipment without permission, and especially if they did not know me. I mean what were they thinking?

I had a conversation with our bar owner and he was even more ticked than I was as this other bar owner came in and was taking control of his bar. Turns out that the bar owner has a written agreement with the local neighbors that he will limit his live entertainment to Friday and Saturday nights only. Having loud music on Thursday night would have had complaints and calls to the OLCC (oregon liquor control commission) and the bar could lose it's liquor license over such an offense.

Well the other bar owner got a good reaming from ours as well. In fact they have been 86'd and cannot return.

Sometimes the egos of bar owners can get out of control. This time it backfired

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FlipSide Karaoke
Scott

WOW is all I can say.

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I'm going to pick a time to visit this KJ at one of his shows. I just want him to know who I am and make work on his nerves a bit. I doubt if he will ever try anything again but I want to give him a good look at who will be knocking on his door if he does.

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FlipSide Karaoke
Scott

Pay him a visit, yes. but pick a time when things have cool down. You don't want to go down to his level.

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I can neither confirm nor deny ever having or knowing anything about nothing.... mrscott

Oh Yeah I will wait a while. I'm still hot about it.

I will give it a couple of weeks.

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FlipSide Karaoke
Scott

I can so identify flip...its like a pedofile touching your kids...its a violation! The food and beverage manager at the hotel I work at had the audacity to shift all my pa equip without my knowlege or permission. He didnt even shift all of it to the same place...I threw one of my famous redheaded hissy fits.
Everyone blamed the fact that I was giving up smoking...hell no...its some (&)&)%^(&%* who without permission laid hands on my gear. I loathe the guy and refuse to acknowlege his presence...which is kinda difficult at times when he is f&b manager and I am promotions and marketing manager.

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"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

What a set of coconuts...  :shock:

The bar owner and the KJ, both need knocked out.

If i were you i would make up some phoney damages and sue them for it.  That would teach them a lesson.  :dancin:

Sounds like you need some PW protection for your PC!

I'd be really ticked off too Flipper!!  But why didn't somebody in charge that night at your bar put a stop to it before the other KJ could turn your system on?  I'd be ticked off at your bar manager too!

I had a similar thing happen at a casino I was working out.  We had our equipment set up permanently in a room that didn't get used for anything but karaoke. Someone had a brilliant idea to have a jazz group come in on a Sunday night. We didn't find out until after the fact. I go in that Friday, stuff is moved...lid is off my rack, mic cords are hanging out, etc.  Luckily I had mics locked up in ammo cases in one of the speaker cabs. Anyway, I ask the F&B guy, did these guys ask if they could use my equipment? Apparently they didn't. I put a HUGE note on it, THIS IS NOT HOUSE EQUIPMENT, YOU DO NOT HAVE PERMISSION TO USE IT.  Pack everything up tight Saturday night when I leave. Come back in the following Friday and I'll be damned, same thing.  Lid is off the rack, or not put back on correctly; cords are out, speakers have been taken off the four-foot cabinet stands. I blow up at management. Of course no management is there on Sunday evenings.  

So I figure I'll just show up Sunday before they're scheduled to play.  I am a motorcycle mama so I put on all my leathers, start up the scoot, ride up, walk in in all my leathers...make my way up to the front, where they've again taken down one of my $850 speakers and actually have glasses of beverages sitting on them...BIG NO NO IN MY BOOK.

I ask who is in charge. I ask who's pop is this? Someone says, oh it's mine. I say, well oh, this is MY speaker and who the hell has been touching it? Guy shrinks down to about 3-1/2 feet tall..apologizes. I totally ream him up, ask him what kind of a professional musician is he that he would PRESUME to use someone else's stuff. He says, OH i figured it was okay....Oh, I say, you can't read then?

Just a slimy, wanna-be jazz musician. Obviously NOT professional. I was SOOOO furious. Three Times he ignored my instructions about leaving the stuff alone. I think I cured him but who knows. They didn't last longer than one week after that anyway.

I can TOTALLY relate to your anger over this incident. I was spitting mad for weeks after. I would NEVER touch anyone else's equipment, EVER! We take very good care of our stuff and to think that someone was moving it around, taking what they needed, etc., just made my blood boil.

Happened again at another place after reassurances that everything would be fine and that no one would touch it.  Again, band played on a special night...I come in to work, one of my monitors is missing the cable. ARGGGG!!!  I march over to the bartender, must have had a real LOOK on my face...She takes me aside and asks me what's wrong. I tell her..I say where is the guy, what is his phone number, where does he live? I'm going to get my cable. Guy shows up 15 minutes later with the cable...and I am again put in the position of asking WHY they would touch someone else's stuff.  No answer.  

Must be an old-fashioned attitude we have about equipment - if it ain't yers, don't touch it.

So sorry you had to go through that!  (See, now I'm all ticked off again just thinking about it!!!!)

K

I so hear ya Karen, everytime I look at the f&b manager I seethe and want to slip a knife between his ribs

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"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

and the jerk cries racial discrimination because he is Indian...yet I get on fine with his wife and the maitre 'd and his wife...but just becos I cant stand him I am considered racist

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"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

If i set up early, i lock my stuff together with chains.  I never leave the lids off anything.    If i leave it over night, i have a cover to put over everything.   Now nothing is really going to stop someone that wants to get at it, but it will slow them down.   I never leave anything small that can "walk away."  

Your stuff is probably better than theirs, so they want to upgrade their show with your equipment.   Would the bar manager /owner be willing to pay for damaged or missing equipment?

Flipper, Morgan , Karen,

I can relate. Over the years I've had several instances where somebody for some reason decides its a great idea to use the DJ/KJ's gear.

I set up early one time and when I came back to the venue some kid had my system running full blast. (lights,fog,sound,everything)  The kid worked for a multi-op DJ service and was doing a party in the same building. He told me he just wanted to hear it and said he wasnt hurting anything.Man, I went of on him.
I sent the owner of that multi-op a really nasty letter but never got a response.

I had a band use my speakers one time after they were told not to by the club manager. They played the night he wasnt there and someone in the band told the other manager that they got it cleared. Which was BS.

I also couldnt tell you how many sm-58 mics,headphones, CD's and anything else not nailed down I've had get ripped off. I think sidewinder has the right idea about locking things up with chains.  

Just make sure in your contract, The house pays for any stolen or damaged equipment.

Mojo

My reaction would be go in the next day right after noon crank up full volume and test everything. When the bartender starts bitching I would shutdown, tear down and load up. Then I would not go back in again without a very binding contract and $100 pay raise. No IFS And Buts... I am from the old school Then there would be bloody noses.


That said never leave your complete system in the open. In my case I would put the rack with the system DAW and all small (mics etc) in a locked room.

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Thats MESSED-UP!!!  

What other bar was this that these people came from??  

Did this happen at the small bar u KJ at or the other one at the bigger bar??

Unbelievable that another BAR OWNER would go along and do this! WOW!

Especially with the noise ordinances in effect.  Could open himself up to all kinds of
lawsuits if some kind of adverse effect had happened from OLCC because of his stupidity--the KJ too!

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"You know that I sing the Blues and I do not suffer fools. When I'm on that silver mic, it's gonna cut ya, just like a knife"-The SWINGCAT

About the noise ordinance, i would set up in his parking lot on a day he could be fined and i would do a 3 hour sound check at full volume.  He shouldn't mind that.   Just tell him you want to make sure everything works right after him and his KJ messed with your stuff.  Tell him nothing personal.

This stuff is annoying, and it goes way way back before the days of Karaoke. We'd leave equipment at a bandmates home, or in a lounge (just too cumbersome to pack up and lug too and from -night after night) and unbeknownst to us, our competition would be using it nights we didn't know about it, sometimes our equipment without consent "grew legs" and traveled to other locations too, (no permission asked, and somebody else was making a few bucks gigging with my amp, etc) which accumulated bangs and bruises along the way..response to my anger, "Hmmm,  I have NO idea how that happened ?".  It's up to the owner, or individual who is responsible for the premises we leave equipment at to make absolutely certain NOBODY under ANY conditions touches our equipment without our consent, but equipment can draw people that wish to use it, just like a swimming pool without a locked fence !


Tough to do, but no useable equipment ever stays in another location anymore.  If I can't lock it or cover it and lock it making it non-usable, it comes back home after any gig..

It's VERY tough leaving anything at a bar, KNOWING few will touch it !  Especially back in the days when getting sloppy drunk was the thing MOST in bars were doing.. (pre-DUI, or other fears of getting drunk, laws that ended up impeding *some* slobs from getting as rip-roaring xit-faced)

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

The bartender was doing everything she could to put a stop to it. The KJ was on the other side of the room and she could not see him setting up. Once she did see it she went off on all of them. It was 1am she was alone and was being conned by a very slippery bar owner and his guests (4 or 5 people)

Kurt, not the small bar, the other one!

Wow DJmojo you showed a great deal of self control. If I would have caught these guys red handed, I would have done some serious butt woopin' and asked questions later.

As for PC protection.....My equipment has been there for 4yrs and have never had any problems until now. Everything is in a Rack Case with lids on, and the computer is stored in a separate case. Both are covered with a Black Felt drape cloth (floor length) and the booth is on rollers and stored against the wall. It basically fades into the wall when stored.

This was a pre planned event, otherwise he would have never brought his KJ.

I told the Bartender that if it ever happens again, call me immediatley and I can be there in 15 minutes, keep them busy until I get there. I will handle them.

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FlipSide Karaoke
Scott

In that case I won't say what I'd try to do in here   Of course street justice gets harder when you're in your 50's and have a bad knee, and are arthritic and can't move fast when fencing.

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".