Useless Pieces of Shit...

Further to my previous blog, which I was a touch late in uploading, I thought I would name some of the unscrupulous promoters that are ruining the Manchester unsigned music scene with their money grabbing exploits and blatant disregard for bands, fans, and music in general. It's all very obvious, and those involved already know who the offending parties are, but for those who may be new to the city and are planning to attend some unsigned nights, or for those new bands just starting out... WATCH OUT FOR:

V-Man Promotions - Run by one of the biggest, in my opinion, clowns in Manchester; Vuzz. He seems to have each and everyone of his fingers and toes in lots of dirty little pies with the sole intention of raking in as much money as possible. Don’t get me wrong, he's no fool... Anyone who can build up the wads he has from treating people like shit is obviously a shrewd character. If you ever have the misfortune to meet him then you'll be greeted with a hands-in-pockets 'who the fuck are you?' stare, unless of course you are offering him the chance to make some cash, whereupon you will be offered a limp-as-a-dead-fish handshake. He'll still be looking everywhere else in the room apart from at you just in case he spots someone important, or someone he thinks he can make more money from. Vuzz is one of the main players on the Manchester pay-to-play circuit that is seriously damaging the health of the local unsigned music scene and is held in extremely low regard by almost all the bands and artists that I have talked with. Unfortunately most musicians will bump into him at some point or another, and it's horrible to actually have to be nice to the fucker. The worst thing is that he hires a bunch of young and impressionable people who are fooled into thinking that working with him will get them a leg up in the music industry. They won't. They are the ones he gets to do his dirty work and who are made to hassle bands for cash before they take to the stage, and they are the ones who are forced to explain to bands that they haven’t sold enough tickets and are going on last/first/next week. It's obviously hard to do, but if bands can club together to avoid playing Vman Events shows then he would quickly go out of business. Check out the links to various Vman related goodies;

Official website - http://www.vmanevents.co.uk/main.htm
MySpace page - http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=60711480
Anti-Vman Events MySpace page - http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=331056880


Speechless with Sound - the brainchild of one Bex Evans. I can’t quite work out if she is actually whittled from the same fibre as the dastardly Vman, or that she's just a bit, okay VERY, thick. As anyone who had the misfortune to be involved in the horror show that was the May 2008 Hide & Seek Festival will attest, her organisational skills leave a lot to be desired. Who books 300 bands to play in 'over 18 venues' then does practically zero promotion (flyers, posters, radio plugs, local papers....? ANYTHING?!?!?!?) and then neglects to pay the venues in advance resulting in them refusing to open? An idiot, that's who. So far there has been no apologies to any of the bands who were completely messed around and spent time and money to play only to be stood outside a closed door scratching their heads and calling a mobile that had been turned off. As for the paying fans, they seem to be viewed as even lower than the bands themselves! Unless she has a vested interest in a band, and many people will know what I'm talking about here, then she doesn't give a shit. There's no such thing as courtesy with this woman. She'll ask bands if she can use all their equipment, yet not even say thank-you. If you need to contact her then good luck! If she needs something though, it's all smiles and promises to return the favour. Take a look at her MySpace (links below) which is extremely amusing if only for the fact that she can't even spell. Now I don’t wish to poke fun at anyone's level of literacy, but if you call yourself a professional organisation and publish things with your company name on it, then at least use the fucking spell-check option.

SWS MySpace page - http://www.myspace.com/speechlesswithsound
Bex Evans MySpace page - http://www.myspace.com/rebeccalittlevolcanoes