Failure to meet financial obligations Uwe Treitinger
On April 7, 2024, Flamborough Head played at the ArtRock Festival organized by Uwe Treitinger in the Neuberinhaus Reichenbach im Vogtland. Uwe Treitinger has (so far: 30-08-2024) failed to meet his financial obligations. Here a timeline in which we indicate the steps Flamborough Head has taken to contact Uwe Treitinger to adequately handle this:
– On 01-11-2022, Flamborough Head and Uwe Treitinger agree that Flamborough Head will play at the Artrock Festival 2024.
– A year later, on 02-11-2023, Uwe agrees to €500,- reimbursement of expenses (bus rental & diesel) and that he will provide overnight accommodation. Only reimbursement of expenses is fine for the band; there is usually little money in the prog scene and on the festival website there are two logos of charities (Namaste Kids & SPI For A Strawless Ocean) which suggest that Uwe supports these organizations with the festival.
– On 12-11-2023 Uwe asks Flamborough Head to arrange and advance the accommodation themselves. He agrees to a new expense allowance of €800,- (now incl. overnight stay).
– Because we have heard from several sources that Uwe is not paying some bands, we ask him for a deposit of €400,-. Uwe agrees to this on 12-11-2023 and promises to transfer the amount in December 2023.
– On 24-12-2023 Flamborough Head sends a first reminder email in which Uwe indicates that he will transfer €400,- that same week. – On 23-01-2024 Flamborough Head sends a second reminder email in which Uwe indicates that the amount will be deposited into our account the coming weekend.
– A month later, on 29-02-2024 Uwe had the amount transferred. Without this payment we would not have gone to Reichenbach. It also meant that Uwe ultimately kept his promise of payment, albeit with a rather strange timeline.
– On Sunday 7 April Flamborough Head opens the last festival day in Reichenbach and after the performance Flamborough Head and Uwe agree that he will transfer the remaining amount of €400.
– On 10-04-2024 Flamborough Head thanks Uwe by email for the fact that the band could play at his festival. We also remind Uwe of his last payment obligation. Uwe does not respond to this email.
– On 19-04-2024 we send a second email as a reminder, again no response from Uwe. – On 20-04-2024 we receive an email from the Scottish prog band Comedy Of Errors who also played at the ArtRock Festival and were not paid. They start a Facebook campaign with two pages (Armer Mann & Reichenbach Bad Debts) to put pressure on Uwe to pay. It also becomes clear that the Greek band Verbal Delirium was not paid. Comedy of Errors: “It will be 7 weeks tomorrow since we played the festival and despite repeated reassurances, we still haven’t been paid the agreed fee. (…) More depressingly. Since we’ve started to speak out, it has now become apparent that we are far from the first band to have this experience. Many have gone before and had the same experience. (…) One or two have spoken out, but over the years most have licked their wounds in silence and, possibly because of some misjudged shame, have remained silent. The victims were shamed into silence.” – On 29-04-2024 Flamborough Head sends a third reminder email to which Uwe now responds and promises to pay within two weeks.
– That payment does not come, after which Flamborough Head sends a fourth reminder email on 23-05-2024. Uwe does not respond to this either.
– On 21-05-2024 Vladimir Lachout of JazzAgency publishes the following message on his Facebook page: “Cancellation of concerts in the club in “Bergkeller Reichenbach”. The owner of the club – Uwe Treitinger – did not comply with the conditions in several booking contracts. He also did not pay the fee for Jack Moore’s (MOORE PLAYS MOORE) concert and since then the owner of the club has not communicated. He canceled another band’s concert 4 days before the event. And also for other negative messages from other (independent) bands… I have now decided to cancel the following concerts at this club “Bergkeller Reichenbach”. In response to this, Thomas Thielen wrote on his Facebook page on May 22: “Sorry, Leute, ich sage es, sehr zum Unwillen vieler, seit Jahren: Uwe Treitinger ist mitnichten ein Wohltäter für die Szene. Uwe prellt seit Jahren immer wieder Gagen und erpresst subtil, aber bestimmt damit, dass allein seine Gunst Zugang zum ARF bietet. Warum das nicht viel früher breit zur Kenntnis genommen wurde? (…) “, after which a discussion starts with experiences of other bands, including that of the Dutch band Realisea. Band leader Brian de Graeve: “Adding to this I can also tell you Uwe has never paid Realisea for their gig last year”.
– On June 16, Flamborough Head sends a more compelling message via Messenger, including measures . The band demands payment by June 20th, to which Uwe responds “dieser Monat”.
– On July 1st, 2024, Flamborough Head assumes that Uwe will definitely not pay. Nevertheless, we email Uwe on July 13th that a few band members will be present at the Loreley festival and that if he is there, he can also pay us cash. No response to this either. In the meantime, as far as we are concerned, it has long since ceased to be about money, but about reliability, honesty and keeping promises. The question is whether prog lovers can still go to concerts organized by Uwe, knowing that he does not pay all his bands? The question is also whether bands should still do business with him? The live prog scene is vulnerable (few visitors, cancelled concerts due to too few advance sales and an aging prog audience), in short, not a live scene where Uwe’s behavior is very helpful. Of course, there are bands very happy with Uwe, will also get paid but that is not the point – all bands must be paid as agreed. Just like we did with all bands at ProgFarm; more than 60 – all paid properly according to the previous financial agreements.
– The two charity logos on the website do not have a link to the official websites of these institutions. Uwe does not explain anywhere whether these organizations are sponsored by proceeds from the festival. Namaste Kids (https://namaste-kids.org/) is a charity organization from Göttingen that supports children in Nepal in the field of education and health care. SPI For A Strawless Ocean (https://spisessions.com/) is an activity of a summer surf school in Texas, USA with a Facebook page that was last updated on June 15, 2021. On Uwe’s webpage ‘Partner & Sponsors’ the organizations from which Uwe receives support are mentioned but there is no explanation about Namaste Kids and SPI. Nor about how much money the ArtRock festival has raised for the charities. Now it seems that Uwe supports his charities by not paying certain bands (in full).
– The question is whether the sponsors of Uwe Treitinger (among others Samsun Cymbals, Cube Drums – both from Plauen) and the Neuberinhaus theatre hall, Reichenbach know about Uwe’s practice of not paying all performing bands? That is why Flamborough Head is posted a letter to the management of the Neuberinhaus theatre (29-08-2024) asking what mediating role they can play to keep Uwe Treitinger to his obligations. Uwe’s behaviour takes place in this theatre and does not comply with the code of conduct as stated on the theatre’s website.
