OK. Enough.
The Coverville 500 Concert was exactly a week ago, but I'm afraid the past week of fallout is casting a dark cloud over what was really a good time and an amazing experience for me (and everyone else who attended). The concert, which was the culmination of the previous ten months of my life, was what I consider to be a success, and I'm worried that the current issues, which I'm taking very seriously, are getting out of hand and threaten to be the only thing that people remember from that night.
The issue stems from a performance by Richard Cheese and Lounge Against The Machine at the end of the night. Todd Cochrane, the CEO of RawVoice and Blubrry, had an altercation with Richard Cheese during his performance, which I think all parties would agree, should have been handled better. For those who haven't been following the blogs that describe the issue, let me bring you up to speed.
It was fortunate that the other performers were generous enough to allow cameras and other recording devices in the audience. It's an artist-by-artist choice, and I totally respect that. In his contract, Richard Cheese asked that I not record his portion of the concert, for podcast or web distribution. Again, I respect that. And had there been physical tickets sent to attendees who purchased their tickets online, I would have been able to indicate that preference on the tickets. Since there wasn't, we posted signs around the show, provided by Richard Cheese, which indicated, among other things, that his portion of the show couldn't be recorded. This comes down to licensing. While I pay my ASCAP, BMI and SESAC licenses to air covers on my show, the average YouTube poster doesn't, and unauthorized covers making their way onto YouTube can cause problems for the fans who post them, as well as the performers themselves. Honoring the agreement with Richard Cheese, the podcasted version of Coverville 500 will not contain any material from his performance.
A fact that needs to be cleared up is the text message. Prior to Richard's set, he did text message me to let me know that the volume levels and the house lighting were too high, and asked me to have them both turned down prior to his set. The primary sound guy was, to say the least, difficult to work with, and had been arguing with me about the volume and the lighting even during the sound check earlier. When I asked him to lower the volume for Richard's set, he told me he had already, and I showed him the text message to indicate that the most recent message had been sent after he claimed to have lowered the volume. I can see how the misinterpretation could take place, as it has been reported, that Richard was complaining about the volume levels of the other performers was too high. The last message I received took place while I was on stage during the end of Chance's set, right before Richard took the stage, and I received no messages during Richard's set.
What I and others are identifying as the primary issue, though, is the altercation between Richard Cheese and Todd Cochrane. As Richard took the stage and was performing his first song, he grabbed the camera out of Todd's hand, and fumbled to turn it off. This I know from seeing the video taken with Todd's camera. At this point, multiple people have stated that Richard shouted something like "free phones!", and threw the camera back at Todd, then telling the crowd "Seriously, don't record me." I was in the back of the ballroom and didn't see it happen, but regardless of the situation, I don't agree with the practice of just grabbing the phone out of somebody's hand, let alone throwing it at them. If this is the case, I think that this should definitely have been handled in a better manner, and as I was paying for security at the show, easily could have.
Todd's video ended up on his website, and as a personal favor to me, he removed it. But not before people saw it, and started forming their own opinions of the night. This has led to negative comments, Wikipedia entries containing second-hand descriptions of the event, and other infringements. Honestly, I'd love for Coverville 500 to be an article on Wikipedia, but not as merely the location of a fight between a performer and a guest. Looking back, I see that Richard's performance may have been incongruous with the rest of the night, and recording lenience granted by the other performers should not have been automatically extended to Richard Cheese. I apologize to those who Todd Cochrane and others who were affected negatively by Richard's set, and to Richard himself for unleashing him on an audience that wasn't adequately warned about his wishes.
As a favor to me, if you've got audio or video taken during Richard Cheese's performance, delete it. Please honor that request, not for anyone else, but for me. The rest of the performers have welcomed and encouraged their performances to be recorded and shared, and many of them are already appearing on YouTube. Do a search for them, and enjoy. I'll have some to post myself next week, and I'll point to them on this very blog.
Let's move past this, all of us, and remember Coverville 500 for what it was intended to be: a celebration of varied and great performers, and camaraderie among New Media professionals and music fans a like, as well as a chance for me to show off what I consider to be a damn fine jacket.
Thanks for your time. Now back to the music.
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