notoscum.org

I was on the look out on multiply to check on different scenes that might have been leeched by the scum productions last week. I came to this page of a guy named Joe (punkgotfat.multiply.com) with a production named “tubby trousers” and sent him a private message if I can ask him how he produces his gigs on the alternative, pop music side. He accepted my offer and invited me to watch his gig in 6UG in Ortigas.

I then got to speak with Barabbass and Southmisfit and we all agreed to visit the place and check how the bands and productions were doing since the Pay to Play movement was being hammered in another forum mentioning that we only concentrate on one scene – which is ours. Hammerblow agreed to meet us up on that event since he works in 6UG.

Friday night, we met up with Hammerblow in Reyes Barbecue, drank a couple of beers before heading up to the bar. Everything looked the same with gigs that we normally have on our scene except for the clothing the people wore - which did not concentrate on black. And the faces were different since we do not know anyone from that scene we visited.

After another bottle of beer, I have finally decided to talk to the organizer. I have finally met Joe. I asked him how he produces his gig and what he gets from it. Then I asked him if he lets the bands sell tickets or remit. I was thankful that he said no and mentioned to me that it was purely because of music regardless if he takes home an amount or not. He has mentioned that as long as may pang taxi, okay na. I asked him if he knows anyone from their productions who might have been practicing pay to play. “Wala naman kami ticket selling sa scene namin. Wala pa naman kami na experience na ganun and in case na meron I don’t think the bands here would support it.” From that point, I felt that I lacked opinions from a bands point of view. We have spoken to a couple of bands who played that night and asked them about how they feel about the remittances and ticket selling done in a production just to play. Lucky for the bands on their scene, they have mentioned to us that their scene has not been exploited to that extent yet and if they did, they have mentioned to me similar answers that we normally get from bands who have posted in this thread like:

“If it’s a remitting production, we would rather reject the offer and play for the productions that do not support remittances.”

What if there are no offers for you to play for free?
“Put up our own production and produce our own gigs for free.”

At this time I have thought that regardless of the genre and scene, we all agreed that having bands sell tickets or pay an amount to play for productions is considered as exploitation for the musicians. They were interested with the scumlist and would like to have a good read of the 100 plus pages we have here and have a good look at the scum list itself. It turned out that the people on their scene would like to support our cause and spread the word before the exploitation reaches their side.
Some genres may not have any idea of what is happening with our scene. But it was a good thing that we visited and talked to some people from their end so they would know what has been happening and gave them the heads up that we are trying to put a stop to it. So far, we have gained more support on this movement and hopefully we can extend more information for the others who do not know any idea of this yet.

Thanks to:

http://punkgotfat.multiply.com/