Gordon Lightfoot Performance Contracts

These performance contracts, signed by Gordon Lightfoot in 1965 for shows in Ontario in early 1966, show the artist earning $800 CAD for a single engagement and $1000 CAD for a week – a good sum for the time. The contracts were issued by the American Federation of Musicians of The United States and Canada (AFM), a labour union founded in 1896 to negotiate fair agreements for professional instrumental musicians and protect their rights to their recorded music. The AFM is the world’s largest organization to represent professional musicians, once boasting over 110,000 members.