Band Blasts Aus Venues Taking Merch Sales Cut

Architects have taken to Twitter to insist that bands "protest" against venues that have a policy of gaining merch cuts from artists' sales. 

Drummer Dan Searle wrote, "Hey @bands when are we gonna go on strike and get rid of these insane venue merch cuts? Or maybe we don’t play until we get a cut of the bar? Can we just get this done asap please?"

The band's vocalist, Sam Carter, shared the post and claimed, "Venue in Melbourne [Festival Hall] took 15% and it took four hours for them to get our merch girl a light," accompanied by a thumbs-up emoji.

Venue in Melbourne took 15% and it took four hours for them to get our merch girl a light 👍 https://t.co/QWsZmZLrs2

— sam carter (@samarchitects) February 20, 2023

The Music has reached out to Festival Hall for comment.

A few months ago, in response to a Metal Injection article about Dark Funeral guitarist Lord Ahriman's frankness about venues taking merch cuts from bands, Fear Factory guitarist Dino Cazares wrote, "That's why this tour we are doing coming up we’ll be in a van, the cost of touring is making it impossible to make any money."

He also replied to a fan discussing merch cuts: "u [sic] may need a resellers license to sell outside and the venue owner may still try and tax u cause your [sic] selling on his property, he may also call the police cause he knows u probably don’t have a license to sell, so to avoid all that u would have to go down the block to sell".

At an Architects show in Adelaide this weekend, Carter addressed a heckler who rushed the stage and was demanding the band play old songs out of "respect" for Tom Searle, who died from cancer in 2016.  

"To turn around and see someone fucking run onstage, and fucking run at Josh [Middleton]… And fucking grab the mic and start shouting whatever the fuck he was shouting – that is fucking insane," he began, per NME Australia and Wall Of Sound.

Commenting on what was said about the band not respecting Tom Searle, Carter added, "We respect Tom every single fucking day of our lives and every single moment that this band has continued on with. So to turn around and [see] that my fucking best friend is being fucking attacked by somebody, get the fuck out of here. It’s just music."

As Carter described to The Music, the band have dealt with many attacks since the passing of Tom Searle. He told the Adelaide audience: "This is the thing that people need to understand. This shit that goes on the internet – the way that people fucking talk to each other – it can’t fucking carry on like this. It’s just fucking music. We’re just up here doing our fucking best – there’s no need for violence, there’s no need to run up onstage and do this shit in 20-fucking-23."