Post by Nick's Silva Halo on Jun 30, 2008 13:13:23 GMT -5
rockaffairs.com/andytaylor-response.html
29 June, 2008.
Dear Friends,
I write this note with regards to Andy Taylor's departure from RockAffairs. I wish I could tell you we were parting on better terms, but sadly that is not the case. Despite many attempts by myself to resolve this quietly and amicably he has shunned every effort I have made to patch it over – and after a month of soul-searching, I can honestly say that the only thing I can see that I did wrong was express my point of view.
Following a relatively short legal intervention, I got the money Andy agreed to pay me, but since then he has been telling people ‘how I let him down’ and ‘how RockAffairs was not complete’.
In fact, the programming of the site had been complete since February – as those of you who helped me test the accounting system can verify. I did everything he ever asked me to do with a few days notice, and it was his accountants’ tardiness in setting up the bank accounts and providing the information to link them to PayPal which resulted in the 3 month delay in trading.
And that was where it went wrong... I gave Andy and his accountants some of my reasons for not wanting to work with them, the accountants were upset by my objections, and that made Andy angry. He deemed that the site was unable to account for his artists, he deleted his profile on RockAffairs, his music was removed from MySpace, and he implied that he wasn’t going to pay me - after telling me 11 days previous to that the money had been authorised. I had a lot of other things going on in my life, and I sank into a deep depression. Then all of this became common knowledge, which really upset me at the time.
A couple of days later, Andy allowed his bass player, Miky Dunn, to use his login credentials and post a statement – written as being from Miky Dunn, but posted under Andy’s name – which Miky later said had been approved by Andy. The statement caused me a great deal of emotional distress, as it said the site was only half-complete, and that it was a huge ‘fcku up’. I felt it was a very hurtful thing to post in public, and I felt it was unprofessional for them to air their concerns in such a way, as it bought my reputation into question. As an advocate of free speech, I left the statement on the website so you could read their version of events, and I only removed it when the nastiness towards Andy started again.
I decided to keep a dignified silence at the time, and haven’t responded to that statement to date. You all know that I did everything I could in public to emphasise that this was just a falling out between the two of us and to stop other people getting involved. I deleted some of the biggest offenders from the site, as it should never have been a public matter to begin with.
It is the latest demand Andy is making which has driven me to speak out and put forward my side of the story. He is trying to impose an agreement whereby I cannot contact any of the bands that record in his studio. This would seem reasonable on the face of things, if it wasn’t for the fact that I have dealings with these bands outside of their connection with A.T-S.I and there are people both in the bands and in the fanbase who I consider friends. There can’t be that many of you who haven’t met me, gone to a gig with me, or at least had some kind of correspondence with me over the last 10 years. I am honoured that so many of you still keep in touch.
Today, some of my best friends are heading to the Plugged Festival in Las Dalias whilst I am sat here typing this. It’s almost like a restraining order. Those of you from overseas know how much pleasure I got taking you guys to see The Electric City or Hungover Stuntmen when you were visiting, it was like showing off some hidden national treasure – and those of you who live in the UK, particularly those in London, must have grown tired of my demands that we ‘go and show them some support’ (not those of you in Newcastle though, you wenches are even more persistent than me). Effectively, he is trying to stop me from hanging out with my friends, doing the thing we love to do together.
I am a very tolerant person, but I cannot allow him to interfere with my social life this way. And so I am standing up for myself instead of giving in quietly. The argument was between me and him, not him and the rest of the world – and to prevent you guys from listening to his new music does not seem fair to me at all – nor does it seem fair that he is trying to stop me from doing the things I enjoy doing .
Posting this was a tough decision to have to make, I've never enjoyed being the centre of attention (many of you will disagree; it was just a role I had to take for a while through circumstance, I have never got any pleasure out of it) – but I could not let this continue without saying something to you, the people who care about him. It is very difficult to watch someone you care about act in such a way. He has asked me to delete the A.T-S.I mailing list, too - another chunk of work gone to waste.
He still hasn’t given me a valid reason for abandoning RockAffairs (do I sound like a band some of you are still rather fond of? I’m pretty sure he had the right visa to work with me...) – so I’m left holding a baby that’s got one hell of a lot of potential, but no way to expand above 200 artists. A lot of you read Andy’s last mail or blog, and you all know how enthusiastic and passionate he was about it – so it is very confusing that he has left like this, and it is very sad that he has turned his back on a project that we both put so much thought and energy into.
You can bet your life that I am going to try my best to make sure those 200 artists get the best deal and the best treatment in the music industry – and we have some great music on the site – but Andy is preventing his bands from having their ATSI songs on here, even if they want to.
You know that I have never had a bad word to say about Andy, and I can assure you that every time I defended him, I had the knowledge and personal experience to be confident in my decision to do so. Some of you said I ‘put a good spin’ on him – he needed no spin - he always spoke from the heart. That’s one of the reasons I have nothing but respect for the guy to this very day, and one of the reasons I am speaking from the heart to you right now – what can I say, the guy’s a good influence and he taught me well.
I hope, whatever your view of Andy, you will support me on the stand I am making on this particular matter. Please do stop by and say hello on the site, and enjoy what this is meant to be about – which is the music.
With love to all and hope for the future,
Sarah xxxx
29 June, 2008.
Dear Friends,
I write this note with regards to Andy Taylor's departure from RockAffairs. I wish I could tell you we were parting on better terms, but sadly that is not the case. Despite many attempts by myself to resolve this quietly and amicably he has shunned every effort I have made to patch it over – and after a month of soul-searching, I can honestly say that the only thing I can see that I did wrong was express my point of view.
Following a relatively short legal intervention, I got the money Andy agreed to pay me, but since then he has been telling people ‘how I let him down’ and ‘how RockAffairs was not complete’.
In fact, the programming of the site had been complete since February – as those of you who helped me test the accounting system can verify. I did everything he ever asked me to do with a few days notice, and it was his accountants’ tardiness in setting up the bank accounts and providing the information to link them to PayPal which resulted in the 3 month delay in trading.
And that was where it went wrong... I gave Andy and his accountants some of my reasons for not wanting to work with them, the accountants were upset by my objections, and that made Andy angry. He deemed that the site was unable to account for his artists, he deleted his profile on RockAffairs, his music was removed from MySpace, and he implied that he wasn’t going to pay me - after telling me 11 days previous to that the money had been authorised. I had a lot of other things going on in my life, and I sank into a deep depression. Then all of this became common knowledge, which really upset me at the time.
A couple of days later, Andy allowed his bass player, Miky Dunn, to use his login credentials and post a statement – written as being from Miky Dunn, but posted under Andy’s name – which Miky later said had been approved by Andy. The statement caused me a great deal of emotional distress, as it said the site was only half-complete, and that it was a huge ‘fcku up’. I felt it was a very hurtful thing to post in public, and I felt it was unprofessional for them to air their concerns in such a way, as it bought my reputation into question. As an advocate of free speech, I left the statement on the website so you could read their version of events, and I only removed it when the nastiness towards Andy started again.
I decided to keep a dignified silence at the time, and haven’t responded to that statement to date. You all know that I did everything I could in public to emphasise that this was just a falling out between the two of us and to stop other people getting involved. I deleted some of the biggest offenders from the site, as it should never have been a public matter to begin with.
It is the latest demand Andy is making which has driven me to speak out and put forward my side of the story. He is trying to impose an agreement whereby I cannot contact any of the bands that record in his studio. This would seem reasonable on the face of things, if it wasn’t for the fact that I have dealings with these bands outside of their connection with A.T-S.I and there are people both in the bands and in the fanbase who I consider friends. There can’t be that many of you who haven’t met me, gone to a gig with me, or at least had some kind of correspondence with me over the last 10 years. I am honoured that so many of you still keep in touch.
Today, some of my best friends are heading to the Plugged Festival in Las Dalias whilst I am sat here typing this. It’s almost like a restraining order. Those of you from overseas know how much pleasure I got taking you guys to see The Electric City or Hungover Stuntmen when you were visiting, it was like showing off some hidden national treasure – and those of you who live in the UK, particularly those in London, must have grown tired of my demands that we ‘go and show them some support’ (not those of you in Newcastle though, you wenches are even more persistent than me). Effectively, he is trying to stop me from hanging out with my friends, doing the thing we love to do together.
I am a very tolerant person, but I cannot allow him to interfere with my social life this way. And so I am standing up for myself instead of giving in quietly. The argument was between me and him, not him and the rest of the world – and to prevent you guys from listening to his new music does not seem fair to me at all – nor does it seem fair that he is trying to stop me from doing the things I enjoy doing .
Posting this was a tough decision to have to make, I've never enjoyed being the centre of attention (many of you will disagree; it was just a role I had to take for a while through circumstance, I have never got any pleasure out of it) – but I could not let this continue without saying something to you, the people who care about him. It is very difficult to watch someone you care about act in such a way. He has asked me to delete the A.T-S.I mailing list, too - another chunk of work gone to waste.
He still hasn’t given me a valid reason for abandoning RockAffairs (do I sound like a band some of you are still rather fond of? I’m pretty sure he had the right visa to work with me...) – so I’m left holding a baby that’s got one hell of a lot of potential, but no way to expand above 200 artists. A lot of you read Andy’s last mail or blog, and you all know how enthusiastic and passionate he was about it – so it is very confusing that he has left like this, and it is very sad that he has turned his back on a project that we both put so much thought and energy into.
You can bet your life that I am going to try my best to make sure those 200 artists get the best deal and the best treatment in the music industry – and we have some great music on the site – but Andy is preventing his bands from having their ATSI songs on here, even if they want to.
You know that I have never had a bad word to say about Andy, and I can assure you that every time I defended him, I had the knowledge and personal experience to be confident in my decision to do so. Some of you said I ‘put a good spin’ on him – he needed no spin - he always spoke from the heart. That’s one of the reasons I have nothing but respect for the guy to this very day, and one of the reasons I am speaking from the heart to you right now – what can I say, the guy’s a good influence and he taught me well.
I hope, whatever your view of Andy, you will support me on the stand I am making on this particular matter. Please do stop by and say hello on the site, and enjoy what this is meant to be about – which is the music.
With love to all and hope for the future,
Sarah xxxx
