Musicians, Bands & Music Fans - feel free to re-post

Dear Friends,

This following is a bulletin posted by Glen Earl Brown Jr., a well-travelled experienced musician in the Bay area who cares greatly about his musical colleagues and friends, and the state of the music scene in general.  The B-Stars are one of the bands affected by the situation at the Hollywood Showdown, and thus are doing our part to spread the word about the unfair dealings of Black Cat Entertainment and Rich Vreede;  we can verify and vouch that most of the bands that played on Sunday, including us, received only a small portion of our guarantee, and a hand-scribbled "IOU" note signed by Rich. Not even enough to pay for gas to get there.

Apparently, Rich Vreede has a history of doing this to bands in the past, and the reason the headliner (The Collins Kids) and the dance troupe The Satin Dollz cancelled their performance on Sunday evening of the Showdown was because they did not receive their contracted amount of 50% up front.  We would highly encourage any musician, band, DJ, dance troupe or entertainment act that chooses to work with Black Cat Entertainment get their money up front, or do not play. Unless of course, you are playing for free.

Here is what Glenn Earl posted:

On August 29th, 30th & 31st of this year the HOLLYWOOD SHOWDOWN 9 was held at THE KNITTING FACTORY in Hollywood, Ca

http://www.myspace.com/hollywoodshowdown

The show was promoted by long time socal Promoter RICH VREEDE and BLACK CAT ENTERTAINMENT - LA
http://profile. myspace. com/index. cfm?fuseaction=user. viewprofile&friendid=2444055

By all accounts it was hailed as a great success. It had a tremendous turnout and all seemed to be happy with the shows, music and turnout.


There is one problem though.

Most of the bands on the Sunday's bill WERE NOT PAID!!!!

This is the list of bands from Sunday involved:
The Cadets
Cari Lee & the Contenders
Scott Bruce (50's Elvis Impersonator)
Russel Scott & the Red Hots
The starlight Wranglers (Japan)
Nine Lives (Finland)
Ramblin james & the BillyBoppers
Thee Blue Teardrops
Mad Max & the Wild Ones
The B-Stars
Police & Thieves
Los Boogie Boy con Jose Pachuco
Sharp Al & the Two Tone Three
The Syde Winders

As far as I have been able to find out, the only band in this list that were paid the previously documented and agreed upon compensation was Mad Max

RICH VREEDE claimed that the KNITTING FACTORY withheld the accumulated doors charge of $34 per person and did not have the money to pay any of them. He has since told bullshit story after conflicting bullshit story to these participants about what happened and how he was intending to pay them. I SPOKE WITH THE KNITTING FACTORY management and they reported that they gave RICHARD VREEDE a net of about $30,000 in cash by the end of the Sunday show!!!. This was more than enough to pay his promised obligations to the above bands. What did he do with the money?. Who knows?


The only thing that is known is that all the PATRONS had a great time and got what they paid for. Also RICH VREEDE & THE KNITTING FACTORY had their bank accounts fattened considerably from the weekends events. But THE BANDS got screwed! Many of them such as THE STARLIGHT WRANGLERS from Japan & NINE LIVES from FINLAND had to borrow money because of this crook to get plane tickets to go home!

CARI LEE paid her band THE CONTENDERS up front (because she is actually responsible and knows the meaning of a "deal") and went in the hole considerably just to show up and get screwed!

Some of the bands have taken the steps of taking MR VREEDE to small claims court. MR VREEDE is apparently used to this because he has replied to them that the court will just order him to make minimal payments once he loses the case (plenty of experience obviously!)

SINCE THEN he has had a big show on SEPT 12th and is even having one Oct. 24AT THE RUMBLE BAR IN PARAMOUNT!

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=2444055

NOW, MUSICIANS, BANDS & FANS

It is up to you, you can lay down and get screwed if you wish. Or you can hold RICH VREEDE accountable for this outright thievery.

MANY of these bands have longtime personal friends of mine in them. Many of them you know and have played with at one time or another.
WE MUST WORK TOGETHER against this ever growing practice by PROMOTERS and VENUES of taking the money and crapping on the music!!!!

DO NOT PLAY, ATTEND OR SUPPORT SHOWS THAT INVOLVE RICH VREEDE OR BLACK CAT ENTERTAINMENT!!!! - http://profile. myspace. com/index. cfm?fuseaction=user. viewprofile&friendid=2444055

BOYCOTT, BOYCOTT, BOYCOTT!!!!

IF WE DON'T STAND UP FOR OURSELVES AND STOP THIS, IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE, REMEMBER THAT!

FINALLY, for those bands that haven't been paid. Please take RICH VREEDE to small claims court and get a judgment against him. Attach his bank account.
Repossess his vehicles, RUIN his CREDIT if you have to! (Cari Lee can walk you through the small claims steps - you can even file on-line)

You can direct your legal documents and subpoenas to his address at:

Richard Vreede
382 N.
Lemon Ave 146
Walnut,Ca. 91789

AND FOR EVERYONE!.
Don't be afraid to go to the above links and tell him what you think of him! (although he has set the "Black Cat Entertainment" Page to private and blocked bands from adding him!)

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE - REPOST!

We've kept pretty much to ourselves these last few months, with not so much as a whisper as to what we've been up to. Heck, maybe you even forgot we were here, buried under the "B" section of your hundreds (thousands) of friends. That's quite alright, as it is, we've been busy tinkerin' down under the hood in Redwood City Studio B, re-tooling, re-shaping, and re-writing old songs while adding new ones to the set.


We've got two new B-Stars to introduce to you - we hope you'll come out and say hello to both of them at our next show, make 'em feel welcome. Billy Zelinski joins us on drums, and David Finch on fiddle. Both bring years and years of experience and a whole heckuva lot of talent and energy to the band. We're thrilled to have them both on board, and can't wait to introduce the new lineup.

The new songs: check out the demo's we've put up and let us know what you think. We are planning to go into the studio and hope to have a full length release for you all by the end of the year, if not sooner.

That's it for now - calendar updates will be coming soon, as we are booking up for the summer, see you all soon.

It's been quite a year, no?  For The B-Stars, it has gone quickly, starting off with a show at the cozy lil' dive in the Sunset The Riptide (ok, so that was on Dec. 30th of last year, but who's really checking?), and a memorable show at Club Deluxe on Haight, when Bill's amplifier caught fire during "Broken Down and Blue."  Yeah, he doesn't gig with that particular Fender amp anymore...

We played a handful of Twang Sunday shows at Thee Parkside, along with Glenn Earl Brown Jr. and The Sweet 'n Lo's, a couple of shows at the newly-reopened 23 Club in Brisbane (thanks Tyler for booking a bunch of great bands at the bandhall, again), played the newly refurbished stage at The Knockout more than a few times, and even ventured out of town to such faraway places as Berkeley, Pt. Reyes Station, Fairfax, and finally, LA. We hope to be returning to LA in the near future, as the reception we had down there at The Safari Club for one of Jeff's hillbilly brunch shows and opening for Deke Dickerson at The Juke Joint was terrific.  For anyone down in LA that isn't supporting Jeff W's shows at The Safari, you are missing out!

We started inviting guest guitar players to sit in with us on a number of songs, mostly those that Bill plays steel, and really like having another B-Star in the band. Maurice Tanny, Dave Gleason, Pierre Laik, and Steve Merritt have all jumped in with minimal (or no) rehearsal, and really added to the sound!

I think I can speak for the rest of the band in saying that our show with Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys at the Red Devil was the highlight of the year. Steve Merritt from Carrie Lee and the Saddle-ites sat in with us that night, and for whatever reason or reasons, everything was just "on" that night - the PA sounded great, I didn't forget too many lyrics, and all our friends were there too.  I'm sure it was just to see us, but Big Sandy might have had something to do with that...
We finished up the year in honky tonkin' style, with a terrific show in Berkeley with Dave Gleason's Wasted Days.  fun fun fun.

other news for 2007?  well, Bill keeps buying steel guitars...

2008 is shaping up to be a good year... we will be going into the recording studio soon, and laying down the original tunes we've been writing for the past 2 years. Our first scheduled appearance of the new year isn't until Leap Day, when we play the annual Johnny Cash tribute show at The Knockout on Feb. 29th, but look for some changes, special guests, new songs and maybe even a new suit or two.

see y'all soon!

so we had a great night at the Riptide, in the outer Sunset a month back, and met a new friend, Eric Hooten, who happened to be sitting right up front, nursing a beer or three.  well, that was us. Eric came up to us at the break, and asked if he could shoot some pictures. Never ones to be shy for the camera, we obliged, asking for a copy of the pic's.  Mosey on over to the photos section, and check out his work!  the pic's are great, even if the subject is just this little ol' honky tonk band at the local dive.  If you like his work, make sure you let him know:

myspace.com/photagan

And.... it is our pleasure to announce, B-Star T-shirts are here!  I'll post an image in the near future, but come on down to our next show, and get your dirty lil' hands on one!  girl t's too.