In Australia I have been running a monthly night in Sydney. We have had the opportunity to tour great artists from all around the world. In April 2011 we spoke to a Youri Cocquyt from DeeJayBooking Agency as he was claiming to be Louis representative.

Initial conversations were had talking about per show fees and what not. We finally agreed that the fees would be $2500 USD per show + Business Class flights. After negotiating with other states in Australia – I get another email from Youri claiming that Louis will need now $10,000 USD minimum for 3 shows plus business class flights. Something didn’t feel right. So I did a bit of investigating and got Louis’ email address from an associate.

I emailed Louis asking if he knew anything about the proposed tour and here was his response:

From: xxxx@aol.com [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Sunday, 22 May 2011 5:04 PM
To:[email protected]
Subject: Lil Louis

Hi Karim. This is Louis. I appreciate your interest. For the record, there are a lot of people claiming to work with and represent me. As for Youri, (I think that’s the way to spell his name,) I don’t know him, let alone have I ever met a Youri, and thus whatever he’s telling or proposing to you, is based on absolutely nothing to do with me. I would actually like to have his info so he can speak with my representatives, (since you have asserted what he has either said or is asserting has put me, more importantly my reputation in jeopardy.) I have been in business now for 37 years (I started DJing in 1974) so I am very proud and protective of my reputation. I do have agents (three in fact) but firstly I’d like to know what you are thinking in reference to an Australian tour? I’ve been traveling quite extensively, (Leaving in two days for Europe for two weeks) on a tour based on a huge greatest Hits package I am releasing soon and a documentary I am directing about House music. I am doing live filmings everywhere I go to be featured in the film. So far I’ve covered Japan, Italy, London, Israel, Dublin, Paris, and I’m about to do twelve more countries by the end of July. Perhaps we can tie your region into it as well. Please provide a few details of what’s on your mind. Looking forward to making history with you.

Thanks

-L

At this time I was quite chuffed and happy to receive a email from Louis as I know he is quite the “illusive” character.

Little did I know the “making history” was just going to be a repeat of what he has done to many others before…

During the next few weeks emails were sent to Louis in regards to organising Louis’ first tour in Australia.

From: [email protected] [mailto:htcbworld@xxxcom]
Sent: Friday, 3 June 2011 12:11 AM
To:[email protected]
Subject: Re: Lil Louis

Hey XXXX. I am keen to rock Australia. So, why don’t you think of a few dates, then provide that along with a few pertinent details for me, then we can go from there.

-L

From: xxxxxxx [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, 3 June 2011 12:20 PM
To: ‘[email protected]’
Cc: ‘xxxxxxx’
Subject: RE: Lil Louis
Importance: High

Hey Louis,

How was the gig in Amsterdam? Tom Trago/Virgo Four/yourself — Solid lineup..

Sounds great. Let me look at the dates available and I’ll get back to you.

A quick look at the calendar and it looks like it will be most likely either mid December or Early January. We will be organising your tour with 4 shows (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide). We are looking at Sunday 22^ndof January 2012 — 30^th of January 2012. Performance will be occurring on the 25^th -28^th of January 2012.

As you have never been to Australia before, maybe it would be a good opportunity to spend a bit of time here and have the ability to work on your upcoming documentary and get to see the sites of what I call home. Also it will be summer time, so it’s a whole different ball game! I’ll be more than happy to show you around and take you to some amazing places.. I’ve made sure that you arrive in Australia and leave with some time on your hands so you can either rest/do work on the documentary, do some promo for the tour and just enjoy your time here in Australia.

In regards to performance fees I need you to come back to me with a fee per performance. Once we can agree on that, I’ll write up a contract for the tour and get you to sign that with the usual things. We will organise international + domestic flights and accommodation while you’re here.

Hope all is well..

XXXXXXX

The email was sent and no response was received. In August 2011 I was flying to Europe for work. The first stop was London. I was catching up with friends and they mentioned that Lil’ Louis would be playing a show at Plastic People. So my partner and I decided it would be a good time to head down and check it out and also introduce ourselves to Louis.

After grooving away for many hours and watching Louis play topless in 3 degree weather in London. We eventually caught up with Louis and introduced ourselves as the Australia promoters. Louis mentioned he was excited and would get back to us after his crazy European schedule.

We walked back to the Hotel and were happy that we made this personal connection.

After catching up with Louis in the UK I shot him an email:

From: Karim xxxx <[email protected]>

To: [email protected]

Date: Friday, 5 August 2011 6:49:20 AM

Subject: FW: Lil Louis

Hi Louis,

It was great to finally meet you last night at Plastic People. You played some amazing stuff and had an amazing energy and vibe.

It was pure chance and luck that we were able to meet especially that it was my last night in London and I’m on my way back home to Sydney today. I hope you got some good footage for your documentary. As spoken, I’m wondering if you have considered my revised offer.

I would love to put something together and make your first visit to Australia a historical one.

Once again, great to meet you and I hope you have safe travels.

Kind Regards

Karim

The email was sent on the 5th of August. From that point on I did not receive any messages back for a long time. We contacted people from Fabric, another agent who was doing work for Louis as well. Her name was Fleur and she was working for Soul-Heaven.

I mentioned that we were trying to get in contact with Louis to organise the tour. She mentioned she could help us do this using her – so we decided to move forward using the agent.

Communications with Fleur started on the 17/2/2012.

On 17/02/2012 02:43, “Karim Mattha” <[email protected]> wrote:
Hi Fleur,

My name is Karim xxxx and I run xxxxx xxxxx — A Touring Company here in Australia. I was in communication with Louis earlier last year in regards to working on a tour for him here in Aus. I’ve been communicating with him using his old email address which seems to be not working anymore. I’ve been forwarded your contact details from friends who have booked Louis earlier last year.

I’m just wondering if he is contactable in regards to shows?

Kind Regards

Karim

In response Fleur said:

From: Fleur xxxxx <fleur@sxxxcom>
Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2012 10:41:18 +0000
To: Karim xxxxx <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Lil Louis – AUSTRALIA TOUR

Re: Lil Louis – AUSTRALIA TOUR
Hello,
Great to hear from you!
Please send over your ideas on the booking & I will talk to him. It will be great to work something out.
Best Wishes
Fleur

Please return offer info:

Promoter detail:
Contracting Name & address:
Contact Mobile number:
Proposed date/s
Fee Offer:
Sponsored Partners
Club:
Capacity
Location
Nearest Airport
Set times
Opening times
Entrance fee:
Past guests

A response was sent back for a new tour date from the 7-11th of June for 3 shows, potentially 4 for $3,000 USD per show + business class flights from the USA.

All seemed well – Louis just wanted a 4th show. It looked like we would be all good!

We tried searching for a 4th show for Louis but it didn’t seem like it would be possible – therefore we would need to look at the cost of the flights to Australia on Business Class which were about $13,000 USD on United or $8,000 USD on Air Canada. Doing the maths we calculated we needed to reduce the costs of the performance fee to $2500 USD to make it feasible.

Shortly after all this our Melbourne promoter couldn’t go forward with the June date due to  a double booking. Therefore we needed to find another date. I got back to Fleur telling her this and she wasn’t very happy. I told her we might need to move the dates to December to get all 3 cities as it wasn’t feasible to do a two city tour.

A few days later Fleur message me back telling me that there is the potential for Louis to come to Australia in July as she is organising some Asian dates. I told her again that we would wait till all our promoters in Australia were ready to make this tour as special as possible.

Time went past – and we were still trying to organise something for this tour to occur. In May 2012 we received an email from Deejaybooking.com again saying that Louis would be available in Australia in July 20/21 as he would be touring Asia at that time.

From: Youri Cocquyt [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, 16 May 2012 1:55 AM
To: Karim
Cc: [email protected]

Subject: RE: Lil Louis Australian 2011 Tour

Hello Clarisse,

Cc: Karim

Are you still looking to tout Lil Louis in Australia ? If so, then we can offer him for july 20/21 …

This sounded great to us – though part of me was concerned that this was again going through Youri. From talking to people around the traps we found out that Louis got Pneumonia earlier in the year and wasn’t touring – therefore we wanted to know if this was real?

So after speaking to Youri – he confirmed that Louis would be in Asia in July doing a few tour dates in Jakarta and Singapore? We got back to our promoters in Australia telling them if this could work for them.

We were having issues trying to secure a third show for Louis in Australia as the main two cities for an underground act would be Sydney and Melbourne. So we offered Youri/Louis $10,000 USD landed plus two nights accommodation for two shows (Sydney and Melbourne)

From: Clarisse [mailto:@gmail.com]

Sent: mardi 29 mai 2012 13:47

To: Karim

Cc: Youri

Subject: Re: Lil Louis

Hi Youri,

I just got back from travelling and went through the below emails.

We can offer the 10k landed plus 2 nights hotel and visa for the two shows in Sydney and Melbourne.

Please confirm in the next hour as we need to know.

If you confirm I can then work on the Adelaide show as the third option.

As it’s so close to the dates need to see if they can still do it.

Thanks,

Clarisse

Youri confirmed:

From: Youri Cocquyt <[email protected]>

To: Clarisse Monahan <[email protected]>

Date: Tuesday, 29 May 2012 4:42:45 PM

Subject: RE: Lil Louis

Hi Clarisse,

I will send you the paperwork for fri and sat later today.

please send the details thursday show ASAP

wkr,

Youri

Trying to find the 3rd show for Louis seemed impossible as all the other states budgets were extremely low. We eventually found a promoter in Adelaide who gave us an offer and due to the circumstances we agreed.

We send back Youri our proposal:

From: Clarisse Ni Mhuinicain [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: jeudi 31 mai 2012 09:08
To: Youri Cocquyt
Subject:

Hi Youri,

Good news I have confirmed the Adelaide show for the Sunday night.
So it will be total $12000 landed fee plus 3 nights 5 star hotel and visa.  He will also have driver and meals on each night and his rider.
Also is he ok to do a longer set than 3 hours?  Sydney promoter wanted to know.
Adelaide details below.
xxxxxxx
150 capacity
xxxxxx
Adelaide
South Australia

The flights he will need will be

Flying into Melbourne
Melbourne – Sydney
Sydney – Adelaide
Adelaide out of Australia

Can you please get the contract back to me in relation to the whole tour today or if you want I can put this together and send through?
Thanks,

Clarisse

Youri responded with:

From: Youri Cocquyt <[email protected]>
Date: May 31, 2012 5:53:50 PM GMT+10:00
To: Clarisse Ni Mhuinicain <[email protected]>
Subject:RE:

Hi Clarisse,

Thanks for the proposal of $12000 USD landed fee plus 3 nights 5 star hotel and visa.

I will run it by Louis today and put all three gigs in the same contract in case he confirms. Please note that the full fee is to be payed 100 % in advance in our agency acount; 50 % within 3 to 5 days of contract date and the balance payment at the latest 3 weeks prior to show

Furthermore , please note that all national flights are to be payed as an extra by the local promotets and have to be organised by yourself in conjunction with those promoters. What is more, the flight itineraries have to be approved by the artist before purchase.

Set times are usually 2 hours, and Louis agreed to extend to three hours  already. I am sure he would not mind playing longer but all would depend on the vibe so i suggest to leave 3 hours set time in the contract.

With Kind Regards,

Youri Cocquyt

I guess everything seemed fine – though paying 100% of the performance fee wasn’t something that we were comfortable with especially when we didn’t know if Youri was really the agent for Louis after all that we went through last time.

From: Karim
Sent: jeudi 31 mai 2012 13:54
To: Youri Cocquyt
Cc: Clarisse
Subject: Re:
Importance: High

Youri,

By today we require:

Contracts for the 2 or 3 city show ready for signature.

Proof of Employment by Louis — either by Louis contacting me on +xxxxxxxx  or via email confirming that you are representing him and he is aware of this aranagement if this is not possible then a copy of his Agent agreement with Deejaybookings.

Once this has been confirmed we are comfortable to pay 50% 3 to 5 days once contract has been billed and we will expect the international flight itinarary to be forwarded and confirmed before the remaining 50% has been paid. We are willing to pay for national flights within Australia (though this should of been paid by yourself as the was all included in the price)

In regards to set times — please speak to Louis and confirm if we can do 5 hour within the contract — one of the things that we love about Louis is that he actually loves playing for a long time and every time we have seen him he has played minimum 5 hours and on the night we will be showcasing him alone with no support to give him the entire club to see as he pleases. Also it will be a great selling point to say “LIL LOUIS — ONE NIGHT ONLY” this stipulating he will play as long as he wants..

Again I can’t stress enough that all the things I’ve requested must be done by today as time is of the essence and we will require to announce things as soon as possible.

Thank you for understanding and looking forward to doing business with you and Louis

Kind Regards

Karim

We wanted to know that Louis was working for Youri – we needed proof before we were willing to send over $6,000 USD to Youri.

Hi Karim,

With all due respect, I was never asked this by any of our clients, ever.Deejaybooking.com is a reference. We are online and representing most of the deejays on the roster since over a decade now.

There are no records whatsoever of irregularities with our company, we always come through. The contract that i sent you is mutually binding and should be enough of a guarantee for you. We are not going to put our credibility and 10 years of work on the line by acting fraudulently over one deal.

I am afraid that i can’t produce any further documentation for you, as in this business all is based on mutual trust, and i am not going to bother Louis or his management with such demands or claims either.

I am not asking you to ask your clients either to call me or send documentation to prove that they have agreed with this deal either. I put my trust in you.

With kind regards,

Youri Cocquyt

We were back to square one. We couldn’t move forward with the tour because we couldn’t a) get in contact with Louis and b) receive proof from Youri that he was the actual agent for Louis.

What to do?

After the issues we had with Youri not being able to guarantee that he represented Louis, we needed to find out where the hell Louis was?

Looking to our networks we found out that Louis was playing at a party in London for some of our friends. We hit them up explaining the situation and they gladly gave us the “mystical” email address…

During this time Youri was still trying to get us to sign the contract with him – but we would not agree unless we could get some sort of security – even if we could pay via Paypal or Escrow to protect ourselves from fraud. We mentioned to him that in previous emails Louis did not know who he was. Time was running out with only 1 month till the show was supposed to be happening and people were already starting to promote this event..

I decided enough was enough and contacted Louis directly..

––-Original Message––-

From: Karim <[email protected]>

To: llmusic <[email protected]>

Cc: Clarisse <[email protected]>

Sent: Thu, Jun 7, 2012 4:52 am

Subject: Lil Louis – Australia Tour – July 2012

Hi Louis,

My name is Karim. We met in London last year at Plastic People and we were in communication last year in regards to a tour in Australia. How are you?

I’ve been speaking to Youri from DJBookings who has mentioned you will be touring in Asia in July. He offered my the tour in Australia during the period of July. We have confirmed though we would like to confirm with you if Youri is your touring agent as the last time we spoke to you, you mentioned that you didn’t know who Youri was?

He has asked for 100% of the fee before you even arriving which is a bit odd — and we just would like to confirm that Youri is representing you and if so then we will go forward with the Australian tour.

If so — we are looking forward to having you in Australia — it’s been well overdue.

Hope you are well and we should speak soon..

Bless

Karim

We we waited..

On the 18th of June we received:

From: <[email protected]>

Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2012 14:19:44 -0400 (EDT)

To: Karim <[email protected]>

Subject: Re: Lil Louis – Australia Tour – July 2012

Hey Karim. I am taken back that you guys started advertising me without the show being confirmed. I have not confirmed anything with my agents, and in fact, I don’t know who Youri is, but perhaps he is working as a subcontractor with my agent. At any rate, my agent knows the same thing I said to you a long time ago, the fees are too low, and there is not enough budget for business flights. I told you the same thing when you tried to book me directly. I am not flying economy to Australia. So until we get this resolved, and until you get a confirmation from me, please do not advertise that I am coming. I’ve spoken with my travel agents, and the budget is swallowed up by the travel, so I will simply need more at least for flights to consider this.

L

Understanding this – we were getting to the point where we just needed the show to occur. This was the second time that Louis said he didn’t know Youri – so this confirmed to us that we couldn’t move forward with Youri and DeeJayBookings..

We wrote back to Louis:

From: Karim Mattha <[email protected]>

To: llmusicbiz <[email protected]>

Cc: Clarisse Ni Mhuinicain <[email protected]>

Sent: Tue, Jun 19, 2012 12:56 am

Subject: Re: Lil Louis – Australia Tour – July 2012\

Hi Louis,

Youri just let me know that he is cancelling the tour.  I really would like to recifty this as I’m sure your aware a lot of time and effort has already gone into making this happen.  I contacted you directly as I wanted to make sure everything was legit with Youri as from our correspondnce berfore you had let me know you didn’t know him.  Clarisse who owns the Touring Company and who is organising this tour got your new email off xxxx from xxxxxx as she looks after their bookings in the US and Australia. Obviouly she knew you played from them in london Last month.

Can you put us in contact with your direct agent to make this happen or can we organise this direct with you?

As discussed with Youri our offer was business class flights and then he changed it into an all incluvisve offer as he said he wanted to book flights.

We can work out all your flights (business class of course with your required fee’s (3K per show) and also make sure you have extra nights to enjoy Australia)

If your willing to go forward please let us know what cities you will be flying from and we will get right back to you with business class flight options and full information on fee’s ( which will be in line with what you asked for )

I understand this is frustraing for you too but please understand we thought you were aware of all this as Youri has been coming back and forth requesting more and more requirements for the tour which we presumed were coming from you ( He asked us to extend your stay for 3 days as you wanted to see Australia etc )

If you would like to contact me via phone feel free to call +61 xxx xxx xxx

Thanks,

Karim

Louis got back to us shortly with:

From: <[email protected]>

Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2012 18:38:44 -0400 (EDT)

To: Karim Mattha <[email protected]>

Subject: Re: Lil Louis – Australia Tour – July 2012

Hi Karim. Honestly, this entire thing is crazy to me. Besides what was stated, one other complication is I had another offer for a show on July 21 that pays significantly more than the fee you offered. And btw, to be clear that was never my fee. Be that, I first have to see if I can even move the July 21 show. Then, I need to speak with my agents about this whole mess. Let me speak this matter with them and either my agent or I will get back with you in a bit.

L

We gave it one last chance..

From: Karim xxx <[email protected]>

To: llmusicbiz <[email protected]>

Cc: Clarisse Ni Mhuinicain <[email protected]>

Sent: Fri, Jun 22, 2012 1:24 pm

Subject: Re: Lil Louis – Australia Tour – July 2012

Hi Louis,

Have you spoken to your agent about this potential tour?

We would love to be able to confirm and start booking your ticket and accomodation asap once we come to an agreement as the date is less than a month away.

Kind Regards

Karim

In response Louis wrote:

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Date: Saturday, 23 June 2012 4:49:27 AM

Subject: Re: Lil Louis – Australia Tour – July 2012

I have. You guys should have spoken by now.

We didn’t here from anyone so we asked Louis if Youri was his agent..

He responded:

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Date: Sunday, 24 June 2012 5:06:47 AM

Subject: Re: Lil Louis – Australia Tour – July 2012

Youri is not my agent.

Another confirmation.. Yet adding more confusion to all this situation.. Time was cutting thin and we were really getting banged up. Bit of me wanted to just cancel it all – but there was so much hype and excitement and money invested. I should of just listened to my gut – but I was blinded…

I was tired.. Though my partner wanted to continue the negotiations with Louis..

My partner decided to take over the reigns and get back into contact with Louis. As the time was ticking down we needed to lock this tour in. On Monday June 25th the message was sent:

––-Original Message––-

From: clarisse <[email protected]>

To: llmusicxxx <[email protected]>

Cc: Karim xxxx <[email protected]>

Sent: Mon, Jun 25, 2012 9:23 pm

Subject: Lil Louis – Australian Tour

Hi Louis,

As you probably know the entire situation with the Australia tour is getting confusing.

I just need to sort things out before the end of the week to confirm what is happening as we have 3 cities that thought they were going to get shows in Australia.

As mentioned below the dates of the Australia tour would be:

Melbourne: 20/7
Sydney: 21/7
Adelaide: 22/7

I don’t know if the Asian tour is occurring so the offer below is what we would like to do between yourself/agent and us.

Fly NY out on the 17^th of July arrive in Sydney on the 19^th of July.
Rest one night in Sydney then fly out to Melbourne on the 20^th
Play Melbourne on the 20^th
Fly to Sydney on the 21^st
Play Sydney on the 21^st
Fly to Adelaide on the 22^nd
Fly to Sydney on the 23^rd and Rest
Fly out to NYC on the 24^th

International flights are all Business Class

We will pay for all accommodation while staying in Australia.

As per our previous conversation we are willing to take the entire expense of paying for the Business class flight as we just want to make this happen.

We would need to confirm your performance fee.

Louis could you please speak to your agent and confirm this as soon as possible as we will need to communicate to the rest of the team and people if you do not want to go forward with this tour at this date.

Hope all is well..

Clarisse

Not too long after we receive a response from Louis

On 27/06/2012, at 3:57 AM, [email protected] wrote:

Hi Clarrisse. You are right. This situation is an entire mess, and I don’t like to be involved in complicated craziness. I found out about it way after the fact, and the terms had nothing to do with me. That said, I am happy that you are actually trying to gain clarity, so I shall provide you a few direct and pertinent details. The fee was never discussed with me. I had a previous conversation with your partner Kariim over a year ago, and told him his offer at the time, which was around the same per show as now was too low, and suggested he might seek sponsorship to secure enough funds. For small shows, my fee begins at minimum $5,000 per show (which would be $15,000 in this case), and I require a business class ticket and 5-star hotel accommodations. Howbeit, because this tour has already been advertised, I’m willing to reduce my fee to $4,000 per show or $12,000 total plus a business class ticket. I cannot go lower than that because I also have another offer that I am trying to reschedule. They are offering me over $!5,000 for 2 shows. If you can meet the offer of $12,000 plus business, plus a 5 star hotel, I am willing to do the show. Let me know.

I spoke to my partner and we think we could get this done. Flights from NYC were expensive but the budget was possible. We started to look at flights and found some flights that were not too absurdly expensive.

––-Original Message––-

From: Clarisse <[email protected]>
To: llmusicbiz <[email protected]>
Sent: Tue, Jun 26, 2012 11:45 am

Subject: Re: Lil Louis – Australian Tour

Hi Louis,

Totally understand where your coming from and thanks so much for getting back to me.  I appreciate you lowering your fee in these circumstances to $4000 per show for the Australian tour.

Here are the proposed flight details ( All business class from NY to Sydney and back to NY )

It is flying via Shanghai – did you want me to see if I can get you a gig there or did you just want to come to Australia?  ( I also do tours in Asia )

It would be easier to do this on the way back so you would do Sydney – Shanghai – stop over for a few days and then Shanghai to New York ( All business class and of course would only accept an offer of your usual fee )

Regarding fee’s for Australia please give me 2 days on this – I need to go back to the promoters and explain that I need the higher fee.  I’m confident I can get it all over the line I just need a little bit of time.

Please let me know about the flights below and also if you are interested in me getting you potential date in Asia as well.

Thanks,

Clarisse

incoming Flight

Wed. Jul. 18 (Arriving Jul. 20) New York, NY, United States to Sydney, NSW

New York (JFK) to Shanghai (PVG)

China Eastern Airlines 588

Business Class (O), AIRBUS INDUSTRIE A340-600

Depart 3:35pm  Arrive 6:40pm +1 day

Duration: 15h 5m

Shanghai (PVG) to Sydney (Kingsford Smith Intl.)

China Eastern Airlines 561

Business Class (O), AIRBUS INDUSTRIE A330-300

Depart 8:20pm  Arrive 9:00am +1 day

Duration: 10h 40m

Total trip time: 27h 25m

Outgoing flight

Tuesday. Jul. 24 (Arriving Jul. 25) Sydney, NSW to New York, NY, United States

Sydney (Kingsford Smith Intl.) to Shanghai (PVG)

China Eastern Airlines 562

Business Class (O), AIRBUS INDUSTRIE A330-300

Depart 11:00am  Arrive 7:20pm

Duration: 10h 20m

Shanghai (PVG) to New York (JFK)

China Eastern Airlines 587
Business Class (O), AIRBUS INDUSTRIE A340-600

Depart 10:50am  Arrive 2:00pm

Duration: 15h 10m

We were trying to hedge our bets to get Louis a gig in Asia to split the cost of the flight.

Louis hit us back with:

On 28/06/2012, at 11:27 PM, [email protected] wrote:

Hi Clarisse. I re-read my email I sent to you, and I wrote an error I want to amend. I stated below (in bold) that“if you can find at least one or maybe more shows in Australia, then this itinerary makes sense.” What I meant to say was “if you get a show in Asia, i.e. Shanghai, then I would be willing to transfer from Chicago through Asia en-route to Australia.” If not, I would have to fly directly to Australia from Chicago, using the shortest route. If there was any confusion, hopefully this clears it up. Need to know either way by tomorrow, otherwise I will have to take the other gig. BTW, there are still many advertisements saying that I am coming to Australia. We need to first confirm the show and requirements before that happens.

L

It wasn’t looking good to get another show in Asia as it was less than a month away and to get the money that Louis wanted from an Asian promoter was going to be tough.

We needed to respond quickly. As we know the more time we took the cost for international business class flights to Australia would just increase.

––-Original Message––-

From: Clarisse <[email protected]>
To: llmusicbiz <[email protected]>
Sent: Thu, Jun 28, 2012 7:04 am

Subject: Re: Lil Louis – Australian Tour

Hi Louis,

I’ve been trying to get a stopover date in Shanghai but unfortunately I haven’t been able to get a firm offer in as it’s so close.

As we’re not able to share the flight cost with Asia when I factor that into the promoters individual costs over here it has brought them all over budget by quite a lot.  These are all small venues (200 and 300 capacity) Is there anyway you would consider doing a lower fee on this occasion?  I know you have already lowered your fee already and I really appreciate that.  Its just the costs are way more than Youri advised us.  Also I totally understand that those dates shouldn’t have been announced before your confirmation (however we were going off the contract we received from Youri )

I can offer return business class Chicago – Sydney and back on the best connection times and $3000 per show over 3 shows.

Let me know if this is possible?  If so can look to book flight tomorrow.

Thanks for all your patience on this – I know it’s been a headache!

Thanks,

Clarisse

The next few emails are back and forth – but I’ll put them here because this will show we tried to do everything we could to accomodate Louis demands.

In response to the previous email Louis mentioned:

On Fri, Jun 29, 2012 at 12:33 PM, <[email protected]> wrote:

Hi Clarisse. I have tried diligently to sort this out, but unfortunately, I cannot go down to $3000 per show. That is simply too low. I guess that means we cannot come to terms.

L

We needed to explain what was happening and the reason why we couldn’t do 3 shows at $4k is mainly that Adelaide had no budget.

––-Original Message––-

From: Clarisse Monahan <[email protected]>
To: llmusicbiz <[email protected]>
Sent: Thu, Jun 28, 2012 7:47 pm
Subject: Re: Lil Louis – Australian Tour

Hi Louis,

The reason we can’t do 4k for the 3 shows is that the third show’s budget is extremely low -( the only reason we added it on in the first place was as Youri said you agreed to a lower fee as it was a smaller city ) Otherwise we would never have put it in.

If you are happy to come and play only Sydney and Melbourne we can absolutely pay 4k per show plus business class flights, hotels etc.  If we add in the Adelaide show the other cities budget basically have to go to third show.

So if your happy to do just the two cities lets confirm today?

Also just to give you an update in Asia – I have Haze in Bejiing who are coming back to me with an offer today – if this is high enough and you are happy to do that extra date you can add that in.

Regardless we are happy to confirm the Australian tour with Sydney and Melbourne

2 shows
4k per show
Business class flights
5 star hotel for duration of stay

We would love to have you – there has been so much excitement surrounding your tour and I can guarantee they will be both amazing nights.

Will wait to hear from you.

Thanks,

Clarisse

Louis responds with:

On 30/06/2012, at 3:34 AM, [email protected] wrote:

Hi Clarisse.

It makes no sense to drop a show and thus, reduce the overall budget even more. Not to mention the fact that, as I stated to you on Tuesday, I was offered over $15,000 for two shows around the same date. I have tried to work with you as much as I could, in part because you guys have already advertised to my fans that I am coming. But none of this is my fault, so I can’t go much further even in negotiations with this (by coming at all, I am creating a wedge between my agent and me.) Be that as it may, I will offer one more compromise. If you can secure Haze in Bejiing for 4k, then I will do the three shows in Australia for $11,000 (Sydney and Melbourne 4k each, and Adelaide for 3K) If you cannot secure Bejiing, then I am willing to do the three shows for $11,500. But that’s it. This is the last amendment.

Listen Clarisse. I understand you are trying, and honestly, you are also part of the reason I am trying to be amenable here, but at the end of the day, my price is my price, as I’m sure your worth is your worth. So this is really as far as I can go with this, otherwise, we just have to leave it.

In response we wrote back:

––-Original Message––-

From: Clarisse  <[email protected]>
To: llmusicbiz <[email protected]>
Sent: Mon, Jul 2, 2012 11:40 pm
Subject: Re: Lil Louis – Australian Tour

Hi Louis,

I’ve been scrambling all weekend trying to get something to work.

The biggest issues we are facing is mainly to do with the time and budgets. We are cutting things quite close and people don’t have the availability in their calendars.  The third show is just not an option anymore as their total budget is $3k which doesn’t even cover your fee let alone flight share, hotel etc it just makes it too expensive for the other 2 cities.

There are two options at the moment:

1.  Two City Tour: Sydney/Melbourne. Flying from Chicago to Melbourne on the Thursday 19th — Rest one night, Play on Friday 20th in Melbourne. Fly to Sydney — Play Saturday 21st of July. Rest on Sunday in Sydney, Free Day in Sydney on Monday and then fly back to Chicago on the Tuesday.  I can raise this offer to $9k USD for two shows.

2.  Reschedule the entire tour all together to later this year.

As we are splitting the cost of the flight between just two cities — as you can see the costs grow exponentially. It’s up to you Louis — if you are happy with option 1. We will contact Melbourne and confirm. If it’s all good to go — we will book your ticket over the next day.

Thanks again for all your patience

Kind Regards

Clarisse

We were burning money on the Adelaide show – we didn’t want it to occur. But we knew Louis wanted as much money as possible for this tour. I knew I couldn’t get any more money out of Melbourne and Sydney as they were putting in the majority of the money for the tour and Adelaide was just coming in and getting the deal of a life time.

It wasn’t looking good…

On 04/07/2012, at 2:40 AM, [email protected] wrote:

Hi Clarrisse. We will have to try to reschedule this for hopefully sometime in the future. with more time, perhaps you can begin organizing the entire thing including Asia and make it special. But from this point forward, unless I point you elsewhere, you will deal directly with me. Until then…

L

In one last attempt we had to hit up the promoters one more time..

––-Original Message––-

From: Clarisse <[email protected]>
To: llmusicbiz <[email protected]>
Sent: Tue, Jul 3, 2012 10:50 pm

Subject: Re: Lil Louis – Australian Tour

Hi Louis,

I contacted Melbourne and Sydney to let them know we cancelled.  They both really didn’t want this to happen and have offered to subsidise the Adelaide show to make it work.

This would mean that we could agree to your terms below – 3 shows for $11500 cash plus biz flights, hotel etc.

If you have already confirmed any other gigs — we understand — But if you haven’t and your still up for it we can confirm the 3 shows for weekend July 20th.

Depending on your preference – Arriving Wed or thursday
Melbourne – Friday show
Saturday – Saturday Show
Sunday – Adelaide Show
Fly back Tuesday or Wednesday

Last email on this on this I promise 🙂

If you would prefer to reschedule of course we can definitely do that but obviously our preference would be to go ahead with this.

Thanks Louis,

Clarisse

We waited for the response..

From: [email protected]

Date: 5 July 2012 2:35:56 AM AEST

To: [email protected]

Subject: Re: Lil Louis – Australian Tour

Hi Clarisse. You know, you are driving me crazy. 🙂

I just told them I would confirm the show, but I know them, and I’ve been there many times already, so let me see what I can do. I don’t promise, but give me a little bit of time. (You owe me dinner and a hug if I can pull this off.) I’ll let you know.

L

A few days later..

From: [email protected]

Date: 6 July 2012 12:47:10 AM AEST

To: [email protected]

Subject: Re: Lil Louis – Australian Tour

Hey Clarisse. I think I can work out the rescheduling of the event. That said, I need to send you my rider. (It is hereby attached in this email along with my bio) Please read the rider carefully. If you and the promoters agree to the terms, then I will join you in Australia. One of the main things to note: I require sound to Get Down. So make sure they know to provide serious sound in each venue.

L

Here are the links to the Bio and Tech Rider:

LL_Bio.doc 

LLRider.doc

With everything agreed upon including the fee of $11,500 USD, Business Class Flights and 5 Star Accommodation we finally felt there may be traction on the road..

A sigh of relief and a chuckle over “Indoor Basketball” requests – we started to look into getting the flights/visas sorted..

There was an interview request by Brag magazine so we need to see if Louis was keen:

From: [email protected]

Date: 7 July 2012 4:18:55 AM AEST

To: xxxx@gmail.com

Subject: Re: Lil Louis Interview – Australia

Hey Clarisse. A few things.

1) I will do the interview, but my publicist would like to know the questions first. Please send them to me. If there are any other interviews, let me know. One thing I want to emphasize during each interview is the film.

2) For the shows, I will require all of the fee in advance. So we should arrange that asap.

3) Need to collect the Per Diem upon my arrival at the airport.

4) I’ll leave on Wednesday and arrive on Thursday, and stay a day after the last show. I need the shortest route to and from Australia.

5) I’d like to travel on my off day around Australia to shoot a bit of the scene so I can include that footage in the film along with the club footage that I shoot.

6) You should inform everyone that I will film at each show to possibly include this footage in the film.

7) Who will escort me around. Is it you? Or someone else? Please provide.

8) Because I am editing the film, I need to communicate with my editors back in the states, so I need internet access wherever I go. (wi-fi/internet to be paid for by promoter.)

9) I prefer United Airlines. So please inquire first with United, or an airline that perhaps co-shares with United. I will also fly Quantas. Look into departure from Chicago or New York. I think New York has a direct flight.

Could you please answer each in a follow up email? Attached is a copy of my passport. Looking forward to meeting you.

L

Here is a copy (edited) version of Louis Passport..

Reply was sent back and the ball was rolling..

In response to Louis request we hit him back with the following response:

On 07/07/2012, at 4:26 AM,
Clarisse  <[email protected]> wrote:

Hi Louis,

1) No problem will get questions sent over to you in advance

2) Do you have paypal or will this be bank transfer?  Let me know your details.

3) Will organise for Per Diem to be paid on arrival

4) With the time difference you actually arrive 2 days later to Australia and when you fly back you arrive back on the same day.  ( we are 16 hours ahead of you time zone wise)  So to arrive Thursday you need to leave Tuesday.

5) That’s fine – will organise this for you.

6) I have let the promoters know you will be filming.

7) I am based in Sydney so will be escorting you around here, In Melbourne it will be Steve and Adelaide it will be Shayne.

8) will ensure you have wifi paid for in each hotel

9) I have sent you through the best flight option with the shortest connection times.

Look forward to meeting you too.

Thanks,

Clarisse

Everything was good. We had negotiated the terms and conditions and would agree to accomodate Louis as much as possible. The next issue we faced was trying to search for flights.

Now flights to Australia on Business class from most places in the US cost around $13,000 USD with most US Airlines. With China Eastern you probably can get it for about $5,000 USD. So we shopped around and looked to find which airline could give us the best deal. We gave Farebuzz a quick call to see what they could offer us and we received a great deal with Air Canada.

From: Clarisse xxxx <[email protected]>
To: llmusicbiz <[email protected]>

Sent: Fri, Jul 6, 2012 7:15 pm

Subject: Flight Chicago – Sydney

Hi Louis

This is the most direct flight I could find.  You arrive on the 19th as requested and leave on the 24th.  All business class.

Thanks,

Clarisse

Below is the flight schedule that we were quoted.

Now there were a few options..

1. American Airlines – $13,000 USD for Flights – 24 Hours in Transit (Link to Rating)
2. China Eastern – $5,000 USD for Flights – 28 Hours in Transit (Link to Rating)
3. Air Canada – $7,000 USD for Flights – 24 Hours in Transit (Link to Rating)

So all three are 3 starred according to Skytrax and I’ve personally have flown on Air Canada before with great joy. Reviews for business class flights were great for Air Canada so we knew it was ok.

Louis got back to us shortly with:

From: [email protected]
To:[email protected]

Date: Sunday, 8 July 2012 1:34:36 AM

Subject: Re: Flight Chicago – Sydney

Hey Clarisse. Please hold this flight. But also look into flight from New York. I may have to leave from NY. Will let you know by Monday. Also, you can wire money. The account is attached below. Please make the wire “Attention” to Steven Burns. He handles all my business affairs. Speak soon.

L

Bank Name:              Chase

Bank Address:          69 Fifth Avenue

New York NY 10011

Swift Code:               ChasUS33

ABA:                         – Details have been blanked for privacy reasons
Account No:             – Details have been blanked for privacy reasons
Routing No:              – Details have been blanked for privacy reasons
Account Name:         A Man’s Diary, Inc.
Attention/Contact:     Steven Burns
Account Address:     – Details have been blanked for privacy reasons

New York, NY 10011

Understandably – we waited as Louis lives in both Chicago and New York. Though we did find it very strange that Louis wanted us to wire the money into his brothers companies account? Why couldn’t we transfer the funds directly to him?

We spoke about this and we did not feel comfortable about paying the full fee + business class flights and the eventual domestic flights too..

From: Clarisse x <[email protected]>

To: llmusicbiz <[email protected]>

Sent: Sun, Jul 8, 2012 4:38 pm

Subject: Australian Tour

Hi Louis,

Hope you had a nice weekend.

The Canadian flight only has a limited number of seats left so I have to book in the next few hours or we lose the ticket. Re New York I had a look and the flights all longer from there – minimum flying time is 28 hours on the way and 31 hours on way back.

Re payment I will do up a contract between you and me just before sending. Can transfer 50% of payment tomorrow which is $5750 and the remaining balance will transfer on Thursday the 19th when you arrive in Australia.

You ok with this? The money will be in your account by Friday which is before you play your first show.

Thanks,

Clarisse

Wanting to book the seats on time and with less than 2 weeks left – we needed to get this happening..

Louis responded with:

From: <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Date: Mon, Jul 9, 2012 at 2:34 PM

Subject: Re: Australian Tour

Hi Clarrise. Hope you’re well.
RE: flight.
What kind of prices are you getting? Because I could also have my travel agent try to put together an itinerary. Either way, see if United is a co-share with Air Canada, if the flight is still available. Either way though, let’s solidify the ticket by tomorrow.
And please don’t forget, I need window seats on all flights.

RE: Fee: I require everything in advance. You should know though, I have never missed a gig or a flight, ever. So, if I say I will be there, I will. Speak soon.

L

It’s amazing. Those words that came out. “I have never missed a gig or flight, ever” – words that still make me laugh today and I know make many other people out there laugh as well.

We checked to see if Air Canada was code sharing with United (Star Alliance) – (Link here) Great! Those frequent flier points will add to Louis account. It was game time. We purchased the ticket and got Louis window seats as requested. Ticket can be viewed here

Bit later on Louis messaged us back:

From: <[email protected]>
Date: Mon, Jul 9, 2012 at 8:27 PM
Subject: Re: Australian Tour
To: [email protected]

Hi Clarrise.

RE: Flight: I was just told that Air Canada does not have a direct
flight from Toronto. It has to stop in Vancouver as well. I did not
want to stopover twice. Please inquire and let me know. If that is the
case, I would like perhaps a flight from Chicago to LA, then LA to
Sydney. My United Airlines frequent flier number is DDXXXXXX
RE: Fee: I am supposed to leave on Tuesday, so I think they are
pushing it very close. FYI, I just had a bad experience a few months
ago with a promoter that sent me phony proof that they had sent the
wire (a day before I left) but when I returned it hadn’t, so I think
you should make tell your promoters to send it a bit earlier, so it
definitely hits the account. You and I have put quite a bit into
making this happen, and I think perhaps we can do some things together
in Asia, so I don’t want this to be a show stopper, but I will not
board the plane if it does not.

Lastly. My publicist told me that I am being advertised in Bangkok
Thailand at this club called Bed for July 12th. Could you inquire and
let them know to cease using my name?

L

Great. So now Louis wants us to change the flights because he doesn’t want to stop off in Vancouver for a refuel? We were not in the situation to change the flights – the budget was simply not there. The flight had to be taken. The fees on the other hand were another story. We had to speak to all the promoters to get all the fees paid up front. This was going to be a big task as we were already pushing boundaries. Eventually we got everyone to pay. With no Paypal account and only this “company” account from his brother, we were diving into the unknown.

––-Original Message––-

From: Clarisse Ni Mhuinicain <[email protected]>
To: llmusicbiz <[email protected]>
Sent: Mon, Jul 16, 2012 6:20 pm

Subject: Re: Bank Transfer

HI Louis,

Can you please resend your bank account details to me.

Sorry, I thought I had it saved and I can’t find it in my emails.

Will make the transfer for $11,500 now. I just got the final payments through from the promoters.

Thanks,

Clarisse

In response Louis mentions:

On 17/07/2012, at 6:14 AM, [email protected] wrote:

Clarisse. I am a bit perturbed by what has transpired. I checked today
and there was nothing, and now after the fact, I’ve just read your
email. I don’t understand why the promoters are just now giving this
to you, seeing that I’ve already told you that everything had to clear
the account before. And I am not going to be chasing this down at the
last minute. So, for clarity, if it doesn’t hit the account by 11A.M.
Tuesday morning, I am not coming.

Also, don’t I need some kind of work permit or visa? And I also don’t
have a confirmation number for the flight. At any rate, I am resending
bank details below. As I stated before, make the transaction attention
to Steven Burns. He’s in charge of my business affairs. I hope to see you there.

L

Flight details were sent to Louis including his domestic flights within Australia

From: Clarisse <[email protected]>
To: llmusicbiz <[email protected]>
Sent: Tue, Jul 17, 2012 3:37 am

Subject: Itinerary for Australian Tour

Hi Louis,

Here is your full itinerary attached including all domestic flights.

Also here are the links to the facebook events if you want to add them to your fan page.

Sydney
https://www.facebook.com/events/238759732893040/

Melbourne
https://www.facebook.com/events/402291033139911/

ADELAIDE
https://www.facebook.com/events/368293749902675/

Thanks,

Clarisse

The funds on the other hand needed to be processed at the bank.

Time was running short and I knew that international transfers wouldn’t process – therefore we shot the money across to Louis and took some scans of the document proving the payment had cleared and been made.

For the larger image please click here

Louis was paid to come and perform..

It was time to get on the plane for Louis and as the money hadn’t hit his account yet he messaged:

From: [email protected]

Date: 18 July 2012 3:12:57 AM AEST

Subject: Re: Itinerary for Australian Tour

Hi Clarissa. So you know, though I have received your email with the proof, it still hasn’t hit the account. You want me to trust you, but I don’t know you, and the last time I got burnt, they sent me fake proof of a wire. I‘m torn however, because I honestly felt pretty good about you, So, on your word, I will take a chance. This is only for you. See you in a bit…

With hopes up and a few sleepless nights – we were excited to know that Louis was finally coming to Australia..

Or was he?

So July 17th rolls up and Louis is meant to be flying from Chicago O’Hare at 16:00 to Toronto. The flight is a simple stop over to fly to Vancouver where the long haul journey begins to Sydney.

We get an email that evening..

On 18/07/2012, at 3:46 PM, [email protected] wrote:

Clarrisse. I cannot believe what has transpired. I get to the damn airport for the 4pm flight and the flight was delayed for about two hours, due to first a late arrival, then mechanics. It arrived in Toronto too late for the connection, and to make matters worse, my luggage could not be found, and the airline does not know where it is. In addition to my clothes, I had some camera equipment, and my music in that bag! I was at the airport for about two hours trying to sort this shit out. I dealt with a supervisor with Air Canada, and he apologized, then they rebooked me for Friday, and put me in a hotel. But before I get on any flight tomorrow, I first need to find out what the hell is going on with my bag, because I have no fvcking music, so I can’t play even if I made it out there. I also have no clothes, shoes, toiletries. This is a nightmare. I asked you about this airline, and everyone here talks about how awful this airline is. Even people that work for Air Canada dog it. They said this happens all the time with this airline. The reason I got a supervisor was because the agents were simply not trying to help. It took about an hour for me to see a supervisor. So bottom line, i have to try to sort some things out myself. Firstly, I can’t just sit and wait on a bag when they have no clue where it is. So in the morning I will try to get a flight to Chicago to copy over some music, then try to get back to Toronto by early afternoon to make the rebooked flight. I have receipts for everything that has happened, and none of this shit is my fault. I have never experienced such madness in all my life. I understood you were trying to save money, but we should’ve booked on United. That’s why I fly that airline. Even the supervisor said we should’ve gong through LA. At any rate, I’m going to sleep and try to sort this in the morning.

This is the start of the adventure..

As the time difference is crazy we were handling all this in the morning. So the first thing we do is ask Louis for the tag numbers which you get when you check in your bags..

From: Clarisse xxx <[email protected]>
Date: 18 July 2012 4:05:52 PM AEST
To: [email protected]

Subject: Re: Itinerary for Australian Tour

Hi Louis,

Can you please send me the tag number for your bag.  I’m on the phone to them now.

I will make sure its get’s to you in Toronto tomorrow so you can get on your flight.

Thanks,

Clarisse

We asked Louis for this but he said he did not have them..

This didn’t sound right? Everyone has there docket from checking in – you usually put it on the back of your passport or on your boarding pass..

We spoke to Air Canada and they mentioned that no bags have been claimed as missing. That there was nothing unusual and if that a bag was missing that Louis would need to contact them to make a claim.

Louis stayed in a hotel for the night while he waited for the next flight to Sydney.

From: Clarisse xxxx <[email protected]>
To: llmusicbiz <[email protected]>
Sent: Wed, Jul 18, 2012 7:08 am

Subject: Itinerary for Australian Tour

Hi Louis,

I hope you got a good nights sleep. Hopefully we can get this all sorted asap.

I have spoken to Air Canada you have been booked for the next flight at from Toronto 8:25pm to Australia to Land in Sydney in the morning on the Friday. In regards to your luggage which is very important — you need to contact Air Canda Lost Baggage on 1-888 689-2247 to lodge a claim so they can find it. I called them and I couldn’t find out any more about your bag without your Luggage code (The code you get on your bags when you check in) if you want me to do this for you pls send me the code and I’ll call them straight away.

Theoretically the bag can be in only 3 places — 1. Still in Chicago 2. In Toronto or 3. In Sydney. Therefore we have about 12 hours till we find out.

Thanks

Clarisse

We get back a response

On 18/07/2012, at 7:55 PM,[email protected] wrote:

Hi Clarisse. Been trying to reach the baggage dept since I woke up. Just got hold of this guy named Ray. He said the system was down for at least an hour. He asked if he could call me back. I told him I didn’t have a number because the hotel staff is throwing me out now. I will wait here a minute for your reply, but honestly, it is about time I just head back home. I’m tired, and have no change of clothes or toiletries. I am wearing the same shit since yesterday morning. I can’t deal with Air Canada’s fuckery any longer. I will sit in the lobby for about another hour or so, then I’m gone. I think you can understand that I am not coming without my luggage, or music, which is in that missing bag. We will just have to figure out something else in the future.

L

Great.. So you travel to the other side of the world with your CD’s and USB key in your checked in luggage with nothing onboard? This is crazy. It was not like he was playing vinyl. He plays CD’s.

We were on the phone to Louis for a while. He wanted to go back to Chicago. Louis said there was no way he was getting on the plane to Australia without his bag.  Strange thing is that at this stage he still hadn’t even lodged a missing bag claim.. Where was this bag?

The nightmare was unfolding.

We spent more time with Air Canada trying to locate the bag and eventually we were told the bag was found. We were given a reference number and a name of a person to speak to..

0014ac441283

Ray

We called Louis telling him the information and to get down to the airport ASAP!

Not having heard from Louis in hours we wrote:

–– Original Message ––

From: Clarisse xxxx <[email protected]>
To: llmusicbiz <[email protected]>
Sent: Wed, Jul 18, 2012 6:53 pm

Hi Louis

Have you picked up your bag yet?

They have confirmed it’s at Domestic arrivals area A at Toronto.

Thanks,

Clarisse

We still had time on our hands – he could still make his flight to Australia.

From: [email protected]
Date: 19 July 2012 10:33:18 AM AEST
To: [email protected]

Subject: Re: 

Hi Clarisse. So I went to the airport and the bag was not there. They told me that the agent who told you that the bag was in Toronto was located some remote place in India. The agents at the airport searched all over, and the bag could not be found. I have the documents to confirm such. I got all kinds of guesses from a bunch of baggage agents and two supervisors. Some said it could be in Vancouver, or on the way to Sydney, or still stuck in Chicago. But the bottom line was, as per the supervisor, they could not locate it. Of course I cannot come without my bag. This is the most frustrating experience I have ever been involved in. I did every thing I could. I am going back to Chicago. Will speak to you when I arrive there.

L

Our hearts sank. It seemed there was nothing we could do.

We knew Louis was going back home – though there were some difficulties that the God’s might of planned.. It seemed like their was an electrical storm in Chicago which caused delays – nearly up to 12 hours!

We sent Louis this email once he mentioned he got home..

Hey Louis,

First of all, both Clarisse and I are happy that you are safe and sound. We were both concerned when we couldn’t get any flight information from you heading back to Chicago. I was speaking to Chez Damier yesterday and Chez went through the same issues with delays in Chicago due to the weather.

In regards to your bag and belongings you need to contact Air Canada in regards to this. As with everyone who travels these things happen and are up to the traveller and the airline — please keep all your reciepts — Clarisse spoke to Air Canada and they have advised us that you are eligible for reimbursement and that we are unable to process it ourselves. You will need to send to them a copy of all your reciepts within 21 days with the forms that can be downloaded from: http://www.aircanada.com/en/travelinfo/airport/baggage/delayed.html

How to claim interim expenses

If you were authorized interim expenses by an airport agent or the Central Baggage Office Call Centre, you may request your reimbursement by providing Air Canada Baggage Claims (see contact information below) with the following documents within 21 days of returning from your travels:

• Your completed Baggage Declaration Form or a letter summarizing your claim for compensation;
• All original receipts;
• Your WorldTracer File Reference Number;
• Flight information and passenger names; and
• Baggage tags and boarding passes.

In regards to another tour — both Clairsse and I are moving to Barcelona in August till December. We will still love to do something — though as you mentioned we need to make this a full complete Asia Pacific tour to make it feasible.

I’ll speak to Clarisse in regards to possiblities though we would probably be looking at January/Feb date 2013.

We will require the full payment of the fees within the next 48 hours as we have had to reimburse Melbourne and Adelaide for the shows.

Could you please use the following account details:

Account Name: Karim xxxx xxxxx Pty Ltd
Business Address: xxxxxx, xxxxxx, xxxx, New South Wales, Australia
Phone Number: xxxxxx
Account Number: 240xxxx
BSB: 032 xxxx
Swift: WPACAU2S

Amount: 11,500 USD

Also Louis could I get a message that I could send to your fans here in Australia — just an update to say that you are still excited to come to Australia soon — something to make them feel better..

Hope you are doing well and looking forward to speaking to you soon.

Karim

The show wasn’t occurring anymore – obviously the funds needed to be returned. Any costs incurred by Louis should be sort out with his travel insurance company and the airline. There was no wrong doing on our part.

We had no response from Louis..

From: Clarisse <[email protected]>
To: llmusicbiz <[email protected]>
Sent: Thu, Jul 19, 2012 6:05 am

Hi Louis

I heard there was really bad storms in Chicago and your flight got redirected.

Please let me know if there’s anything I can do to get you back to chicago as soon as possible?

Can only imagine how your feeling. Baggage claim have said that they have found a bag tag match but they have to confirm with airport staff in the morning. They have your ny address on file but should they send it to your address in Chicago? Let me know.

I found out today that Chez Damier was playing this weekend in Australia too and the same thing happened with him his flight was delayed from Chicago due to the storm and he missed connecting flight and ended up getting to Australia a day late.

Obviously if the airline hadn’t of lost your bag we wouldn’t be in this situation

So sorry you have had to go through this.

Speak soon

Clarisse

Few hours later – we get a message back from Louis:

On 23/07/2012, at 12:51 PM, [email protected] wrote:

Hi Clarisse. Got the message from Karim, and given all I have
endured, I am quite upset by his email. Firstly, he told me about Chez going through the same thing as me. That is a crock. Chez did not lose his bag, with all his music, clothes, and camera gear in it. Secondly, after being a bit too matter of fact about the situation, Karim told me that I had to deal with being reimbursed for the stuff I had to purchase because of this craziness. I should not have to chase this airline down, in fact, they didn’t even want to give me food vouchers. And I purchased basic necessities only after you offered to reimburse me because of this mess. So, on your word, I still expect that from you. Lastly, regarding a refund. I am flabbergasted that he would ask for the monies back given one, it wasn’t my fault, two, I told you I would reschedule, and three, I gave up another higher paying gig to do this. A refund is not an option, and I am starting to feel that you guys don’t really give a shit what I went through either. I feel his correspondence is insensitive and honestly disrespectful, and i have been more patient than any other DJ I know about this. By now with most DJs I know, this situation would have been on blast on facebook, and reputations would take a big hit. And i have said nothing, really because of you. Right now, with the way I am feeling, a letter to my fans in Australia, as he suggested is not what you want from me. I think you need to handle and resolve this better, or it probably will not end well.

Argh! Tread lightly – we knew that Louis was prone to tantrums though when he has $11,700 AUD of your money you need to know how to harness a person and make them feel important! The funniest part was that Louis claimed not to have any credit cards/debit cards/saving cards nor cash on him during his travel?

Clarisse replied:

From: Clarisse  <[email protected]>
To: llmusicbiz <[email protected]>
Sent: Mon, Jul 23, 2012 6:37 pm
Subject: Re: (No subject)

Hi Louis,

In relation to your email – I feel really upset. Of course we understand what you went through but it was nobody’s fault. You told me on your word that you would be here and not miss the gigs (dates of the performances were the 20th, 21st and 22nd of July 2012).You did not make the gigs so therefore you need to refund the money you got paid for in advance for these shows. I know this was a situation beyond your control but it was also beyond my control so it’s nobody’s fault. I am already down all the money for the flights and hotels and I am not sure if I can even get a refund on the international flight as they are saying that technically you started the journey so I have to go through that whole process now.

Every single one of your fans who bought a ticket has to get a refund – this is how Resident Advisor who sold all the tickets for the shows handles cancels tours. RA has a timeframe of one week to give the refund on tickets hence why this needs to be resolved asap. As I’m sure you can imagine these shows costs the 3 individual promoters a lot of money and they were looking to recoup their expenses on the night of performance. As you didn’t make the shows they couldn’t recoup any money hence why you hanging on to the 3 full fee’s until the rescheduled date wouldn’t work. Once we reschedule the dates – you will get paid for your full fee one week before you have to fly as per your requirements.

I understand that you went through a lot but this was not anyone’s fault – your flight was delayed due to weather in Chicago and the airline lost your bag which unfortunately happens from time to time on all airlines.

I told you that you will be reimbursed for your expenses and you will be. What is the total of your expenses from Toronto? Please send me the receipts from Toronto today and I will lodge the claim for you to make sure this happens asap.

Your bag is in Chicago airport. They have no forwarding address for you and the number you gave they cannot get through to ( The NY number ) Can you please send me your Chicago address and cell number so they can get your bag to you ASAP as I’m sure your anxious to get it.

Louis I have been upfront and honest with you throughout all our communications and I personally don’t want this to get all complicated as it wouldn’t end well for any of us including the promoters here in Australia. This tour has been nearly 2 years in the making and it’s quite sad that it ended up like this as we were so excited to have you this weekend.

Thanks,

Clarisse

Louis in Response:

On Thu, Jul 26, 2012 at 3:37 PM, <[email protected]> wrote:

Clarisse. Let me be real clear. I am not going to go back between you and Karim. I dealt with you, so I will either speak with you and sort this mess out or you guys can speak with my reps from here on out. You guys keep trying to pass the buck on everybody else, but against my wishes, as noted per my emails you booked that wretched airline trying to save money, and because of that, I was not able to come, and my bag was lost for over a week. And just so you know, my records were missing! I have to buy blank CDS and make new copies of my whole CD case, and my vinyl is gone! Not to mention, they ransacked my damn bag! Still, I told you more than once that I would reschedule. No artist under these circumstances would give a refund.

My reps in fact, think it is insulting that you would even ask. And the promoters, if they’ve done this, understand it too. So a refund is not an option. I held up my end, period. For clarity, there is only one option, to reschedule, with additional legs of the tour in Asia, and a reimburse of the monies I had to spend to get whole again. There is plenty of time now to do this right. u over to my agent, and things will get complicated, because I’m sure she will ask for her fees as well. I feel that you are focusing so much on your energy on these promoters and whoever else that you are being inconsiderate with me, and burning an unneccesary bridge with me. Perhaps you are forgetting, I am the talent. And the way you and Karim have behaved with me, do you think I should actually be excited to come? I will howbeit be professional and reschedule. But I will not take this antagonistic approach from you or anyone else for something I did not create. If you would like to get this back on a positive track and figure out how we can reschedule, I will await your reply. If you don’t wish to continue the dialogue with me, then I will forward you over to someone else. It is your choice.

This wretched airline! Blank CD’s and some sort of Vinyl?? Ransacked bag? Sounds like the bag was left somewhere unattended? It was clear that Louis did not want to return the cash – and it was clear that we did not want to reschedule. It was time really dig deep and see what the hell we could do..

Louis did not hold up his end of the deal – he did not make it to Australia and perform 3 shows. Though now he wanted us to do his complete tour + find him Asian dates and get him a new airline because he believes Air Canada caused all these issues?!

We decided to contact our promoters to see if they wanted to reschedule:

From: Clarisse xxx <[email protected]>
To:[email protected]
Cc: Karim xxx <[email protected]>
Date: Friday, 27 July 2012 3:49:07 AM

Subject: Re: (No subject)

Hi Louis,

I have spoken to all 3 promoters in relation to this situation.

Your services weren’t performed and they do not want to go forward with a reschedule date so hence we need to get a refund.

Please advise when we will be receiving this.

Regards,

Clarisse

It was clear – we didn’t want to go on..

Louis didn’t respond. It was like he disappeared.. In that time we called Air Canada to get a full investigation to what happened and it was amazing what we found out.. This is the email we sent..

From: Clarisse <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, 1 August 2012 4:21 PM

To: ‘llmusicbiz’

Subject: Lil Louis – Australia Tour

Louis,

It’s been a few days since our last email and we still haven’t heard back from you. We have requested for you to refund the performance fee, as you did not complete any performances on the dates required.

Since then — we have spoken to our legal council in Australia and the USA and they recommended to us to actually call Air Canada and get a full investigation in regards to this trip.  We contacted Air Canada as we were trying to get a refund for the ticket as they mentioned to us the following:

1.      Your flight from Chicago to Toronto while delayed — was on time to make the next flight AC33 to Vancouver — Sydney. There was no reason you should of lost your bags as they would have been put straight to the next flight. By the time you would of got off the original flight — you had more than sufficient time to get onto your Australian flight
2.      Your bag was never considered lost as you never filed for a lost bag reference.

3.      Air Canada has no records of your flights being delayed.

4.      Below you will see screenshots of your trip — as mentioned you could of made your flights.

Flight 508 — Chicago to Toronto — Was delayed though arrived nearly 2 hours later.

Flight 33: Was rescheduled. Shouldn’t of been a reason why you couldn’t of made it.

Therefore we find it very suspicious that you were not trying to get the connecting flight for some reason and suspected your bag was missing even before getting onto the AC33 flight? Something doesn’t sit right?

Following this, the way that you behaved and acted to me on the phone claiming that your bag was lost and that you were doing everything in your power to get it back was over exaggerated as both Karim and I were on the phone to Air Canada all morning and they didn’t even know that your bags were even claimed as Lost.

Moving on from all this, both Karim and I feel that something isn’t right. Your behavior and responses to both our emails and phone communication was quite unprofessional and we have tried to accommodate you as much as possible.

All we have asked is for the performance fee — which is $11,500 USD to be paid back as this is both the promoters and our money.

Now there is two ways to play this game — you can try and keep telling us that you want to reschedule, though we do not want to reschedule or do business with you ever again.

We require the full amount — of $11,500 USD to be paid within 7 business days to the bank account below.

Account Name: Karim xxxxxx Pty Ltd
Business Address: xxxxxxxxx, New South Wales, Australia
Phone Number: xxxxxx
Account Number: 2xxxxxx
BSB: 032 xxxxx
Swift: WPACAU2S

If you do not comply with this we will be required to do the following:

1.      We will start our legal preceding’s against you and your company in the USA. Our legal council has recommended to us that we should start this straight away. Though we would like you to have the opportunity to actually see if you want to take it this far. If you do decide that you want to go down this path and not return the fees within the time allocated we have been advised with all the email correspondences and evidence that we have put forward that we will have no problems winning this in court. As well — we will not be suing for just the original $11,500 but for additional compensation for all damages lost from you not completing the tour or even attempting to fly to Australia as per our conversations with Air Canada

2.      We will release to the press both domestically and internationally a full press release with all the pertaining details of our business and your behavior. We do this only to warn other promoters and clubs about how you have dealt with this issue. Please do not think that we do not know anyone  – both traditional newspapers, online music communities and large multinationals will have open pickings to all correspondence.

3.      We noticed that when you asked for the 100% of your fee to be paid that you ask for the money paid into your brother’s name and company. It seemed a bit suspicious so we feel it maybe in the best interest to speak to a few agencies that may be required to be notified of such transactions taking place.

We will not reimburse you for anything that occurred between Chicago and Toronto. This is not our problem — you should probably invest in travel insurance if you ever want to travel internationally again on business.

If we do not here from you and receive payment of $11,500 USD in 7 business days as per the date of this email, we will endeavor to go forward with everything and more.

Sincerely Yours

Clarisse.

It was on – we knew something wasn’t right and after speaking to Air Canada they had no idea why Louis didn’t make his flights.. Flights were naturally delayed. As can be seen with the screenshots above there was more than enough time for Louis to get on ALL connecting flights. No bags needed to be picked up – it was as simple as disembarking and getting onto a connecting flight – walking to a few gates? So why didn’t Louis get on the flight? Why did he claim his bags were missing? They were being transfered onto the flight that he was supposed to get onto!

The story kept unravelling – small details like Louis not making a claim for lost baggage, nor giving his address for his baggage to us or Air Canada was an indicator that someone was stalling this procedure. It felt like smoke screens.

This was our very final correspondence with Louis – till this day besides a message on Facebook yesterday we have not heard from him nor his apparent agents, nor from his publicist or brother. The only people we have heard from are other people that he have been affected by his actions..

From:[email protected]
Date: 2 August 2012 5:56:24 AM AEST
To:[email protected]
Subject:Re: Lil Louis – Australia Tour

Clarisse. Since it is apparent that you are now threatening me, I will respond with clarity. I have been compliant with everything I have agreed to as per the terms of this agreement. You, have in fact breached the agreement, and certain acts performed by you have prohibited the execution of this agreement, and caused irreparable harm to me and my track record. Despite that, I told you I would reschedule the tour.

You are, with your unprofessionalism and bullying tactics, now crossing the line into eggregiosness. So you know, I can easily substantiate everything I’ve stated that occurred with documentation, so I welcome you and/or any of your reps to take this as far as you like. As recourse, I am prepared to go as far as I need to legally to male myself whole, and will seek any and all relief and damages from your breaches and harmful acts. Likewise, as per your unprofessional threat of taking this public, feel free. I have thus far remained professional and kept this madness private, but trust me, you don’t want to go down that road. I have been in this industry for over 38 years, and I have an immaculate track record for making shows and performing, and I have the respect and admiration of nearly every DJ and pioneer in this industry„ many of which I helped launch and/or influenced their careers. Bottom line, I do what I say, as did I in this case. Be that, if you carry out your threat, your audience will see who breached the terms of this agreement and how unprofessional, disorganized and petty you are. Please understand that neither you nor your threats scare me. I will reiterate that if you would like to negotiate the only option, rescheduling, which now, because of your unwarranted responses and antagonistic position is hereby, subject to terms, we can speak on that matter only. Howbeit, since this climate now exists, and I now feel your intent is to harm me and/or my reputation, I will not respond to any more of your correspondence. Feel free to provide the information of your rep or counsel.
L

It was clear that Louis was well versed in this process. It felt like he has been in this position before (over his 38 year career).

Since that email – we have not seen a dollar from Louis. He has not responded to any of our emails – nor has he responded to our calls.

The fact that someone can demand a fee – yet not perform the services and believe that he is owed the money is crazy. No one in their right mind would be like this.

I presented you the facts – nothing but emails and a bit of commentary to give them some background. To some of you – you have said we are unprofessional and that we had moving dates and what not – the truth is that to get a tour of this magnitude to work with an artist like mentioned isn’t a simple task. The money, time and logistic involved are immense. That’s why it took almost 2 years to get done.

All we want is what is rightfully ours (fellow promoters)..

We will not be blackmailed, put up for ransom or taken as a fool. We will use with our full extent of international reach and make sure this does not happen again.

If you have read all this, I thank you. Please feel free to post this site to your friends on FB and other mediums.. As one friend said.. “Be wary of your idols” and no better advice can be taken..

Peace

CK

—-

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That’s the end of what you can find over on their website, this is back to timw_brap talking now. Not sure if you managed to read it all but if you got bored about halfway through it gets really good when he’s actually about to go to Australia so maybe check out that part before you come back and read this one.

Did you do that? Good. So yeah, it seems like Lil’ Louis is being a bit of a twat about all this – especially because it seemed like he lied about getting delayed in Toronto and losing his bag. He also seems like a bit of a dork to get so pissy about his ‘expenses’ when he got held up in Toronto. I’m pretty sure that that has happened to me in the past and the airline or my travel insurance has just sorted it out relatively effortlessly. But he is a DJ and after reading DJ’s complaining on that twitter, it’s not really that surprising he would be that much of an asshole about it. Of course, this is assuming that any of this actually did happen. Most of the rest of the time, aside from being a bit of an ass to begin with and not replying to emails he did act fairly normally during the email exchanges, at least as normal as I would expect someone who is a professional DJ to act i.e. making a bunch of demands that weren’t really that safe but he can get away with because he’s a big DJ. You could maybe argue he was a bit off on the original demands and took a while to reply, but there is a 16 hour time difference which slows everything down and originally some guy had advertised  him on a tour of Australia that he didn’t know about which is bound to piss anyone off.

On the flipside, the agents seemed to act fairly decently throughout the whole exchange, although I think it’s kind of weird how they got involved with another dude who claimed to be Lil’ Louis agent but actually had nothing to do with him not ONCE but TWICE during this exchange, and still continued to talk to him and try and do a deal with him despite the fact that Lil’ Louis didn’t really have any knowledge of him and he had no proof that he actually represented Lil’ Louis. I don’t even know much about DJ”s or anything but I know it’s usually fairly easy to find out who someone’s booking agent is – it’s usually on their website or Facebook page because they WANT people to book them so need to get that information out there. It’s really weird that if they’re professional promoters they didn’t know someone who could have figured this out for them.

That is kind of unimportant in this exchange though as Lil’ Louis seemed happy to come over anyway once all his requirements were met and the initial confusion was over and having said that, it seems as though everything else they did was above the board and they did try to accommodate Lil’ Louis throughout the whole saga so I think it is kind of outrageous that Lil’ Louis thinks he deserves to keep the fee for this, even if all the stuff he says happened actually happened. I mean this guy is DJ’ing all over the world he obviously knows that sometimes flights might get fucked up and that’s hardly a reason to throw his toys out of the pram and go home and demand to keep all his money. Also it’s kinda lame to try and get the promoters to sort it all out when they’re in fvcking Australia and he’s right there in Toronto airport and it’s way easier to sort it out face to face. In short, it seems like Lil’ Louis is a bit of a bell end.

A couple of inconsistencies with the story though. At the start of the article it seems that the promoters are claiming that Lil’ Louis has pulled this type of scam before but at no other point during the course of the article is it mentioned about any other instances where this has happened. If Lil’ Louis did this regularly it seems weird that something like this hasn’t cropped up before, or that he doesn’t have a really bad name within the industry already. It also seems weird that Lil’ Louis would spend so much time emailing them back and forth if he didn’t have any intention of coming and was intending to steal the money the whole time. I know it doesn’t really seem that bad but when you’re involved in these stupid disagreements over booking a show on email the back and forth and not being able to make a decision really takes it out of you. If he wanted to just steal the money surely he would have just agreed it a lot quicker than he actually did. I guess he did get more money this way for very little effort but still, it seems kinda fishy that he would bother asking a lot of the questions he did  (about the documentary, who would be looking after him etc) if his intention the whole time was to scam them. It would also take a huge slice of luck for his plane to be delayed (as it actually was in Chicago) for him to pull his plan off as these things can obviously be checked.

If I was to hazard a guess, I would suggest that Lil’ Louis was reluctantly going to do the Australian tour (it doesn’t seem like he really wanted to that much at any point in the correspondence) and turned up to Chicago airport that day ready to leave. He saw his plane was delayed, figured he couldn’t be bothered to deal with that as he PROBABLY would miss his connection in Toronto (it was kind of tight) so he just decided there and then to stay at home and make up some elaborate hoax that he didn’t think anyone would bother checking up on. He might even have gone and played that other show he was getting $15,000 to play. But I guess the thing was that he got greedy by keeping the money (and asking for more ‘expenses’ for his stay in Toronto)  and these guys decided to fight back and it could end up with him losing a lot of money if he gets successfully sued and with all the negative publicity this is going to generate.

Again, on another flip side though, although Lil’ Louis is being a bit of a prick about keeping the money the only evidence the promoters have that Lil’ Louis is lying is from the airline themselves saying the flight wasn’t cancelled and there was never a lost baggage claim. If they are as lame and inefficient as Lil’ Louis was making out though,  this could perhaps be a big mistake on the side of the promoters as it could be an error on Air Canada’s part. It does look more legit than anything Lil’ Louis has been saying though. I guess we’ll have to wait and see what happens, but what do you guys think about all this? Is Lil’ Louis a prick or is he being victimised by these promoters? It’s an interesting question. Let us know in the comments.

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