Al Gomes of Big Noise a&r based in Providence, RI., put an advert in the Bandit newsletter seeking new acts to work with.
According to the owner of Bandit, he said he did his work for a fee AND commission work.
My daughter, an unemployed aspiring r&b singer, contacted him, submitting several songs as requested and was delighted to receive the reply below:
Hi Amanda:
Thanks for your email. Checked out the tracks — you
sound amazing.
Call me today when you get a chance: 401-274-4770 USA
Looking forward to talking to you.
All the best,
Al Gomes
Big Noise
Notice how, unlike just about any blue-chip company, he asks her to foot the bill and phone him - this is what got me wondering in the first place as it's usuallly the way conmen/sharks work - they pay for nothing.
On phoning him, he told her he'd be back in touch in around 6 weeks with a price. As he mumbled quite a bit, she couldn't make out all he said.
She repeated what he had said to her and I got straight on to him enquiring if she would be required to pay money. He hurridly replied she would and stuttered and stammered trying to qualify the reason why and talked crap about definitely not offering a deal where he would take a percentage of any deal he got her as such deals often fell through or gave him hastle etc.
Any competant manager or a&r person would draw up a contract that guaranteed them their agreed percentage without any trouble at all as it would be bound up in a watertight contract - I got the distince impression Mr Gnome - sorry, Mr Gomes, was at it.
I asked him how he expected my daughter to pay anything as she was unemployed and he replied she could always get back in touch if things changed.
I told him she would not be getting back in touch and that I'd be reporting him to the owner of the Bandit newsletter, informing him that he was asking for money up-front and guaranteeing nothing.
On speaking to the owner of Bandit, he informed me that our man Al, had told him he did commision-only deals as well as paid and that is the reason why his advert was accepted - had he told him it was payment or nothing, his advert would not have been allowed.
Unfortunately, however, I'm sure some unsuspecting, naive artist/s may go into debt to pay this person up-front money and, eventually, have nothing in the end to show for it.
Stuart
glasgow
United Kingdom
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