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HERE'S SOME OF THE CLAP-TRAP THE BISHOPSTOK BLUES FESTIVAL PUTS UP ON THEIR OWN WEBSITE:
"The Bishopstock Music Festival has messages and attitudes of which we can be proud and that we should respect. These ideals encompass our respect for, and sympathy with the community at large ...."
APPARENTLY NOT ALL OF THE MUSICIANS.
"Bishopstock prides itself in the continuing high standards of not only the artists who perform, but also on the reputation it has merited for its unique, intimate and safe environment."
APPARENTLY IT'S NOT VERY 'SAFE' TO ACCEPT A BOOKING WITH THIS FESTIVAL.
"The logistics of moving the event, together with maintaining the integrity of the existing bill, creates all sorts of work for everyone involved, but the organisers are working flat out to bring you the same high standards already achieved by this event."
THEY HAD TO POSTPONE THE FESTIVAL, THAT IS PERFECTLY UNDERSTANDABLE. GUY WAS AVAILABLE AND ASKED TO DO THE RESCHEDULED SUNDAY, AUGUST 26TH.
"We look forward to welcoming all current ticket holders. All tickets previously bought will be honoured."
OF COURSE, IT'S UNLIKELY THAT ANYONE BOUGHT TICKETS TO SPECIFICALLY SEE GUY. WE REALIZE THAT HE'S ONLY JUST GETTING KNOWN IN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND THESE LAST TWO YEARS. THIS FESTIVAL WAS HOPEFULLY GOING TO EARN HIM NEW FANS.
HOWEVER, IT SHOULD BE NOTED THAT NOT ONLY IS GUY NOT APPEARING, BUT THAT THE FESTIVAL COST GUY BOTH WORK AND HE PURCHASED TWO NON-REFUNDABLE AIRLINE TICKETS FOR HE AND HIS TEN YEAR OLD SON. GUY WANTED TO INTRODUCE HIS SON MARTIAL TO THE COUNTRY OF ENGLAND AND TO ANY OF HIS NEW-FOUND FANS. (Martial is mentioned in Guy's albums and is the inspiration behind the current album's title, "Butt Naked Free".)
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THE STORY ***************************************************
I mentioned that GUY was screwed twice.
The first time came in May when, despite having a contract signed by festival "Queen", Helen Myers, and having promoted his appearance in press releases and on posters/flyers, they tried to cancel Guy's appearance.
They blatantly told us that this was to make room for another artist. When they tried to bully Guy off the festival, it was made abundantly clear to the festival organizers that this was an extremely serious error on their part, and it was completely unacceptable.
The original booker was John Bruce, and it was he who had the enviable task of explaining all of this to the charming Ms. Myers. She had to be made aware that you simply cannot UN-book someone just because you want to buy a bigger piece of candy.
I can only assume that Mr. Bruce must have run into alot of that sort of crap and got fed-up and quit. When he left, sometime shortly after this incident in the Spring, he was replaced by John Martin.
Poor Mr. Martin had the rotten luck to take the helm of this listing 'Titanic' of a festival just as the "Foot & Mouth" problems intensified to outrageous proportions.
Now, of course I generally agree that it is only prudent to err on the side of caution, and quite frankly, "Foot & Mouth" is a subject a little out of my league, but I do know there were those who argued that authorities were "throwing the baby out with the bath water". I learned it was the area officials that caused the festival to have to postpone.
Funny, but from what I know, Bishopstock was the only major British festival to have to postpone their event.
It also fell to John Martin to now, after moping up the spilled water, re-book the festival for this new date. Naturally, in instances like this, it is only natural to try to reschedule as much of your original line-up as possible.
And so it was that he made the offer for Guy Davis to be scheduled for the August Sunday. There was lengthy discussions between John and Mark Ringwood, Guy's UK agent about whether it would be for Saturday or Sunday. They arrived at it being Sunday. This was confirmed with a fax from the festival to Guy's agent.
Sometime during the week of July 23 John Martin called Mark on his cell-phone checking that Guy was still OK for the Sunday. Mark returned his call and reconfirmed it, at which point John asked if Guy could do the Saturday instead, as they wanted to make space to take Van Morrison on the Sunday (quite the irony since Van's old guitarist, John Platania, is now Guy Davis' record producer).
Mark told Mr. Martin that Guy was available for the Saturday and agreed to switch the date. Before heading off on vacation on the 27th, Mark notified me of the date change and the circumstances behind it.
I immediately contacted John Platania to ask if he could arrange a backstage meeting between Van Morrison and Guy since Van is aware of Guy's work and Guy wanted to meet Van.
Meanwhile, Mark was fully expecting to have paperwork waiting for him upon his return from a brief holiday. When he got back and there was nothing waiting for him he called Bishopstock and was told John Martin was no longer working for the Festival.
Another John down the drain.
Graeme Harris, Helen Myers' "personal assistant" was now handling what John had been doing and he told Mark that he knew nothing about Guy being on the bill. Mark explained to him about what had been agreed with John Martin. He said he couldn't do anything about this. Mark asked to speak to Helen Myers, but she was away until Tuesday, the 14th.
Mark spoke to Graeme several times on the 14th, and e-mailed him. They spoke again at around 18.00 on the 14th and he told Mark that he was discussing Guy with Helen that evening and would call him the next day, on Wednesday.
Originally Mark was concerned that he had no documentation from Bishopstock to support Guy's work permit application, but Graeme told him a permit wasn't needed to play at Bishopstock - implying that it was 'status free' (which was confirmed).
But he received no call back from Graeme.
According to an e-mail Mark sent to me:
"I called Graeme 6 times on Wednesday 15th, and twice on Thursday 16th, despite leaving messages with Julie asking him to call me back he has not done so."
I myself tried e-mailing the folks at Bishopstock telling them that it would be far easier and cheaper to just honor the commitment they made to Guy Davis.
At 17.00 (East Coast US time) on Friday, August 17, we had to make the decision that it was obvious, sad to say, that Bishopstock was not going to do the honorable, correct thing.
So, it was time to start warning and notifying others. This website was thought to be the most effecient method.
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After all of this, the people of Bishopstock Blues Festival continue their complete disrespect towards one of the nicest Blues musicians you'd ever want to meet and a very talented performer.
One of our favorite quotes comes from "The Scotsman" back in May 2000. They certainly love Guy up north !
"he has got a voice like Howlin' Wolf dipped in honey.... He is fabulous."
So, we've created this website to get Guy's message across to fans and the media - beware of these folks.
We will shortly be registering it with all of the major Internet "Search Engines", making it easier to locate. And we'll also be adding other ARTIST'S and FAN'S problems as we have heard that Guy is not the first artist shown this sort of disrespect by Bishopstock. (Hey, maybe we can get the two John's stories....)
It is not only the financial losses that concern Guy, but this seemingly over-abundant lack of respect shown to artists like Guy. Is it because Guy is not on some agency's 'power-house' Blues roster ?
Is this prejudicial treatment something overt, or is it simply ineptitude ?
Don't know if we'll ever know, because we can no longer get a response out of the festival. I guess if you're really dying to find out, you could write to them at:
production@bishopstock.co.uk
And by the way, they always claim for themelves to be "the biggest blues fest in Europe". They're not. And certainly, on the superficial surface, they put a really bad spot-light on things as representatives of the British Blues community.
Guy knows first-hand that these folks don't even come close to representing the true Blues community in Great Britain from his own, previous experiences around the island.
------- Thom Wolke (manager) 17-8-01
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