The Jamaica Star :: Entertainment :: Open the music shop on time!

Keisha Patterson - file

I absolutely hated the start of the launch for Keisha Patterson's debut album, 'Sunday Kind of Love', at Weekenz, Constant Spring Road, on Wednesday evening. Or, I should say, I hated what was supposed to be the start, as it began two hours past the slated 6:30 p.m. She is, of course, a fantastic singer with great onstage personality. There were some crack musicians onstage and the material, standards on rockers rhythms, is great.

Few exceptions

But late and great go together. Well, only when the 'late' means dead and the person was truly great.

It is not, of course, the first launch I have attended which has started late. With very, very few exceptions they all do, and most invitees have long taken to turning up an hour past the slated starting time.

It is expected that there will be a 'meet and greet' before, but hours late is not cutting it at all.

But tardiness is a problem in the entire music industry when it presents itself for business. Launches start late, as if the persons who plan the event are surprised that it is actually happening. How can you plan a launch and be setting up when your guests are arriving? Concerts lurch off to a start close to midnight; billed performers turn up way past their slated performance time.

40 minutes late

I fail to understand why so many people in the business of music do not treat their pursuit as a business. Music is a product. It is fun, yes, but it is a business. So the plays and movies are entertaining, but don't go to Carib at 9 p.m. for a 8:30 show. You will have missed a lot, because it is going to start on time. Don't saunter into a play at the Pantry Playhouse 40 minutes late and expect to see people scurrying around getting props in place.

Banks open on time. Newspaper offices open on time. Hair salons open on time. Fast-food places open on time, all as their customers expect, so what is so different about the music business? Why do so many practitioners treat their customers as if they are at the US Embassy hoping for a visa?

And it does not have to be that way. I love covering events that the Fabulous Five Incorporated Band plays at, not only because of their music, but because at five minutes to whatever showtime is advertised, a uniformly dressed set of men will walk on to a stage that has obviously been prepared for their arrival and prepare to start bang on time. Western Consciousness and Rebel Salute are two concerts which start at their advertised time, and the Calabash International Literary Festival runs like clockwork.

No man. You can't be selling a product and treat people like they are beggars.