The saga continues...

My friend Simon posted this on a forum. What he walked out from a meeting held at Prince Of Wales about the God-forsaken Sembawang Fest.

I was at the "free drinking session" at POW that Tuesday. With regards to the $75 ticket price when I asked Malcolm, he said "Local bands should stop doing free shows for the audience. Isn't it great to see audience paying $75 to watch you play? I've got people from overseas laughing at how cheap the tickets are! It is about time crowd goers deserve to pay this amount to make the bands feel more worthy!" "So don't you think local bands deserved to be paid more than just $100 when you are making $75 from 1 audience?" I asked him. "No" he said. "I need the money so that I can bring in more international bands and local bands can have the opportunity playing with the big acts".

I told him his so-called "international" bands are unknown to most Singaporeans and you know what he said? "Singaporeans are ignorant. These international bands that I'm bringing in are huge in their countries. The internet is there for you people to find out. Singaporeans need to change their mentality on the way they look at things and I am going to change that! If you guys are not supportive of the festival, don't play. I've got 2 more local bands begging me for a slot!"

How can he say such a thing like this? Who is he to change the mentality of Singaporeans? We don't go around saying the Australians are ignorant for not knowing Dick Lee or Electrico or Taufik, do we? And I totally despised his statement "local bands begging me for a slot". Yes, the music scene here is small, but we still have something call "pride" and "respect". For that, Zero Sequence has pulled out from the festival along with If, Camra, and Lunarin. The $100 payment is never an issue for us. In fact I still think the festival is a kick ass festival. But to play for him, even if he is paying us $1000, I'll say fuck off!

GO HOME, WHITE APE!!!