When a band and a production team are hired to play a party, and it ends at midnight, then it ENDS at midnight.

If an event planner wants the party to continue, he/she must negotiate overtime BEFORE midnight.

It's great when everyone is drinking and grooving and having a blast.  When the party is over, however, the band cannot be expected to continue to entertain the crowd on their own time.  And at 12:01 it is the band's time. The partygoers might grumble and complain, but it is extremely rude to ask musicians to keep working if they HAVE NOT OFFERED TO KEEP PAYING THEM.

And if the event coordinator, promotor, venue owner, or whomever else is shitty drunk while taking issue with any of this, then they can just fuck the ever living fuck off.  I get so damn sick of drunk asses trying to put upon me when I am attempting to get home after a long day.  You don't have to go home, but I want to go home.  Drunk fucks acting like I'm under some personal obligation to keep participating, as if my involvement in the event is in some way social.

Ugh.
 

Pick up that guitar citizen.

Play Free Bird!

 
*sticks up middle finger*


No charge.

I would agree with you 100%

I am NOT in any business that would put me in that situation, but that is just B.S. to expect someone to continue working for free. I imagine you enjoy what you do, BUT you also are there for the $ it provides for you, not just for the enjoyment it brings you.

Rock-On, but stop at Midnight!

 
I'm in the monitor engineering/stage management side of things now, and yes I really enjoy it a lot of the time.


I don't even care about stopping at the prescribed time, it's just that people are sometimes either clueless or too drunk (or maybe both) to know how and when to address the overtime issue.  They wait until things are supposed to stop and then they start demanding shit in a stupor.

I agree in principal to stopping at the contracted time, however after 35 years of playing in bands I have learned to be flexible with regards to the contracted time depending on who you are playing for.

As an example, a few years ago one of my bands played a company Christmas party. The wealthy owner was also a fairly decent guitarist and requested we learn 4 Santana songs that he could sit-in on. (Hell yea !)  Our guitarist taught the owner's son so he was cool with this and vouched for the owner's playing so we gladly learned the extra songs.

Owner played great, was a hit with his company and an all-around nice fellow. As 11 PM approached (quiting time) I made a calculated gamble to invite the owner back on stage. My bass player threw a minor tantrum ("come on man, we should be packing up !!") but luckily the owner did not notice this. We proceeded to do a 20 minute space jam and the owner was in 7th heaven. Bass player was having a fit but I told him to cool it as I knew what I was doing.

We quit at 11:20 PM and owner came over to thank me personally for the encore set and told me he would be writing each of us a check for the gig. After we had packed-up our gear we received and opened our checks as the band leader alerted us to a surprise inside. -

Instead of the $200 each we were contracted for, each of our checks were hand written in the amount of $400 !

Bass player learned a good life lesson at that gig.

 ^^^THIS^^^

In these situations it's REALLY important to be tactful and have good business sense, as The Fringe so eloquently related.

If I'm playing a job where I know for certain there's little to no chance of it leading to another job, then it's "...sure, we'll play a little late. Pass the hat and see what you come up with."

If I'm playing a big party or wedding reception which typically lead to other jobs, you bet I'll play a little late. It's paid off time and again over the last 30+ years.

 And musicians that bitch, whine and moan don't get hired again. I HATE drama on the bandstand.