Fresno Famous

It WAS a let down!

I have to agree that this show was weak. I'm not blaming anyone in particular, or wishing bad things on anyone like that other dude, 'cuz honestly I don't follow the polli-trix of who does what, but to book a show, not pay the performers (as it sounds here), take all the money to do god know what with, then not have a backup plan for the no-show headliner, well, the whole thing was just totally unprofessional, and they SHOULD have offered at least partial refunds for all the disappointments. I wasn't going to say anything, but after reading the editorial in the Fresno Bee this morning, I felt I should at least voice my opinion here, 'cuz while everyone here seems to be defending it, it's clearly only the people directly involved, and does not really represent the feelings of all the dissapointed show going people who haven't yet come forward with their opinions. I bet that at least half of the attendees felt way let down and would want their money back, if not more. I have always attended the live reggae shows at Avalon and Starline and I know those guys that do those shows always follow through with things and make things happen. Why was this so different? The only things my crew has said about it are negative. I doubt any of those let down show goers would go again to this event, which was a total BUST.

Dear Mr Hardon

I was shocked and offended by the comments.To defend Green Machine, I will start with a recent Review from the current issue of the international reggae magazine THE BEAT (mix one part roots riddims, a cup of Jefferson airplane, two tablespoons of up-in-the-hills nyahbingh filtered through the suburbs, a pinch of wailing sax, five magic mushrooms and a dash of youthful enthusiasm, stir progressively and you might approximate the recipe for green machine's lions eyes (earth juice) -did i forget the John Conkaroo Root? Psychedelic grunge guitar interspaced with crisp fluid leads, one-drop drums and earthy vocals shared among the band whose female component (Tina Avila) lifts the spirit into otherworldly with ease on cuts like"searching""chemical nation" and"property of the state ." she also plays bass! this one has a nice overall feel and lacks the cliche-ridden posturing of some "local band" reggae.
Chuck Foster

The Green Machine played JMW 4 times of this guys 9,( never heard a complaint before. second we did not get paid a dime,only for the love of the music and community. WE went on at 5:40 and Basically Ginnie piged the The PA system (worked the bugs out for the rest of the bands.) We got no sound check the sound check was our set, Green Machine avoids playing in the valley (our home) because of shity clubs,crowds and promotion. when we play out of town people love us line up around the block and buy tons of Cd's "lion Eyes is in its second printing since march 06 and Fresno should consider it a privilege to even have us play.
Felix and the tower crew did a fantastic job of putting on a grass roots festival that in today's corporate world borders on illegal.
Wendy,Waylon, Roots and Spleece bust there ass to put on reggae shows
all year only to loose money or break even. so that Fresno will have a
scene and people just don't support, I ask Mr HardON and family where have you been all year! I allso invite him to come to our next show and get on stage and show us how to play. bite me punk its sounds like you could use some protein in your diet.

Final thought...

In re-reading all this stuff after another day, I kinda feel that the thread reflects badly on the Fresno reggae community as a whole, so before I bow out of it, I just want to clarify something I said here:

>it was disappointing again this year on many levels

Sorry if I may have put out a bad vibe with this comment. While each year (and at any music show anywhere be it reggae or otherwise) there are disappointments, in retrospect I still saw the whole as a positive thing. I had no involvement with it this year (other than some radio & internet promotion), which gave me a different perspective as well. Yes, I went for the specific purpose of seeing Sister Carol. Instead, I saw many new faces being exposed to reggae music. I saw the Fresno Massive & crew and got to hang with people that I only see at this event once a year (reggae festivals are like that). I saw my daughter dance & play with friends' families that I rarely see all together. I saw a really safe environment full of irie people. I saw Soundman Bob get to run sound (which is truly a blessing on several levels). I got to hear my bredrin's Massive Sound select original Studio One tunes. We came late and I missed my boyz Green Machine play, but still got to chill with my Idren Ras Horace for a bit. I got to exchange memories of past JA my weekend shows with others. I'm glad I went, and if JAH willing it happens, I will be there again next year.

Also, Thomas Hardey said:

>For the ninth year in a row, no vegetarian food.

While I am also vegetarian and this has been a complaint of my own in the past, after the first few years of the show, I learned to bring my own snacks! Why didn't you bring some munchies man? You came for all nine, but just hated on this one? It sounds like everyone did their best to bring you the best show possible. Also, I tried emailing you at the e-address you left yesterday at FresnoReggae.com, but your email bounced...

-s

Wendy and her blessed works

I just want to say that I have been volunteering for Wendy since I was in highschool back in 90. I am now the married mother of four in Merced. It was because of Wendy and her blessed husband Marc that I had something positive to look forward to, living in Fresno where there aren't many positive vibes around. I looked forward to each and every reggae show that they brought. I can't even recall how many times I heard Wendy say that they lost money but that was not why they did it! You know of course, that it was a bit of a downer to find out that Sister Carol wasn't gonna make it. But if you were there with a spirit of Jah love you should be giving thanks for the blessed soul feeding of the awesome first set of Itawe and Yellow Wall Dub Squad. The music, the message, (for those of you sober enough to hear the words and feel the Spirit of the Most High Jah)was just so full! Yes, this is the second time the enemy has kept my family from seeing Sister Carol in Fresno but I was giving thanks and praise for what I did receive a crucial roots reggae band from Jamaica for only 12 or 15 bucks, what a deal!! Now the real bummer was that my blessed beautiful selfless sistren Wendy Russell didn't even get that. She worked up until it was time to get Sister Carol and missed the whole show.(Too tired to go to club freds!) The only thing she got from it was knowing she brought, once again some real roots reggae to Fresno to feed some searching souls. So lets give thanks! Yes I! One Love, Souljah Sarah Stefani and Family.

Dear Concert Goer:

Dear Concert Goer:

It is all very well to vent over the internet but people ought to get there facts straight.
First the attacks on Wendy Russell are unfounded. Wendy has devoted her energies to promoting Reggae in Fresno for almost two decades.
During that period she has continually, lost money on virtually every concert she promoted, because she feels the message is important.
She is not the promoter of Jamaica My Weekend, but rather she volunteers to book the bands and organize the volunteers. Whatever money she has received from the event does not even cover her expenses.
Jamaica My Weekend is promoted by the non-profit Tower Marketing Committee, as a community service.
Secondly the headliner, Sister Carol was flying from Frankfurt, Germany to Newark, New Jersey and Los Angeles and connecting to Fresno to kick off a West Coast tour. No one could have anticipated a security alert would be put in place four days before she left Germany. She arrived in Los Angeles after two plane flights only to be refused entry to the Fresno plane because her bags had not been transferred. She was told she had to take a later flight. Because of the delay she did not arrive until after the 10:00 p.m. curfew.
One wonders if she had been an equally famous white performer, if they would have found a way to get her on that plane.
What worries me is that these attacks on Wendy, who's actions have always been selfless will discourage her from tying to bring Reggae to Fresno in the future, which will be a great loss to the community.
As to your complaints about a refund, it sounds like your only concerns are your own gratifications. Obviously Wendy's efforts to bring a message to you were a waist of time.
As to your veiled threats, I assume they were professional, not personal. Otherwise, I suggest you bring them to me.
Her husband, Mark Bernstein.

.

.

RESPECT NOAH!

It's true that Wendy does this for the love of the music, and that Tower Marketing Committee does it for the money.

RE: Itawe, he did great, but I would have liked to have heard some original tunes, instead of the whole set of covers...

-s

thomas hardey & family, and anyone else who felt ripped off.

this is less a comment and more of a rebuttal:

my name is noah russell and "this Wendy person" is my mother.
i hear and agree with some of what you have to say, and i will not address the aspects of your message that i do not disaggree with, but you have layed blame on the wrong person.
first, the writer says that they cant support a "tower district promoted reggae" show ever again? this sounds like you already know that my mother did not put on the show, but was only in charge of negotiating with the band(s), and for setting up hospitality for the band(s). flyers and promotions were done on the dollar of tower marketing comittee, the bands were payed by the tower marketing committee. the money collected at the gate? thats right, tower marketing comittee. no vegetarian food? talk to the tower marketing comittee. this show is just one of the many annual fundraising benifits for the tower district, not one person's efforts for personal gain.
and you say you feel lied to? think of how wendy feels. she was at the fresno airport at 8:00pm to pick up Sister Carol, with Sister Carol's agent on the cellphone swearing (even as Wendy stood in the empty terminal) that the headline act was already on a plane sceduled to arrive at 8:00pm. in the terminal, it showed that there was a 7:40 flight and a 9:00pm flight, but no 8:00pm flight expected from anywhere.
Later we were told that the luggage of Sister Carol and her husband was lost by the airline. in this age of hightened security, a person cannot board a flight without thier luggage, just in case the lost or abandoned luggage has bombs that can be detonated by remote. does this sound stupid? blame homeland security, blame the war on terror. eventually, Sister Carol was allowed to continue on her way, but her husband (a black male with dreadlocks) had to stay behind, in newjersey.
Wendy, my mother, has been working for reggae music in this city for nearly 20 years. her shows have rarely made money, even with a packed house my mother can only hope to break even, mostly because of her dedication to seeing that the musicians are payed fairly. the reggae scene that we have in this city has been influenced and cultivated by her efforts. anyone know D.J. Professor Stone, locally grown dj and promotor that now puts on reggae shows in portland? he started helping her to put up flyers before he was old enough to be admitted to the wild blue yonder. look at him now. Papa Roots and DjSpleece (thanks, rich for having already addressed the same letter im replying to) of Reality Sounds International also were a part of Wendy's network. one of them even worked at her husband's office and lived rent-free in thier home. More recently waylan has begun RememberEntertainment and is booking local acts and shows.
why does wendy continue to do this unappreciated job? for the money? she doesnt get payed. not one dollar from the ticket sales of jamaica my weekend went to her or her crew, although "some" of her expenses were re-imbursed. Some. For the fame and notoriety? how many times have any of you seen her speak on stage, how many times has she stepped up to the microphone?
the reason that Wendy continues to promote reggae music after all these years is simple. she loves reggae music, and she truly believes in its message, a message of global unity. she believes that there is a message in this music that transcends race, economy, boundaries and politics and tries to remind us that we are One World, One People.
The person who wrote the letter i am replying to, does not understand or believe in this message, as is shown by thier letter. though they acknowledge that they "dont know who this wendy person is", they still hope that "she gets hers". if Sister Carol had showed on time, and given a riveting performance, they would still be no closer to the message of this music.
I believe in this message. i stand by my word and my beliefs. my name is noah russell. One Heart. One Love. Respect and Inity.
By the way, my mother's car got towed from the show, last night.

How was ITawe?

Did any of you get a chance to catch Itawe's peformance? He Played with Yellow Wall and did a nice set.

Ouch!

Yes, it was dissapointing again this year, on many levels.

Still, don't think if the event is reggae and in the Tower District it's not worth supporting. Reality Sound brings it each Thursday night to Veni Vidi Vicis. For the record, we were NOT the DJ's spinning JA my Weekend this year.

ALSO, you can't really blame anyone for Sister Carol's no-show. She and her husband were held up in New Jersey by airport security on her way in from Europe. While she does live in New York, she is still a Jamaican citizen, and this cuased some issues with her flights. She DID make a very brief (and very late) appearance at Club Fred for the after party.

-s

Jamaica my SLEEP IN

I can see why everyone was calling it 'Jamiaca my sleep in' the whole afternoon. What a dissapointing drag. What was up with that crap anyway. My family and i feel totally ripped off and lied to. I don't think I can ever support a Tower District promoted reggae event ever again. That first band absolutley SUCKED and didn't even sound like reggae. They need to go back to the basement and practise for a few more years before attempting to play in public. For the ninth year in a row, no vegetarian food, and nothing else worth buying: the headliner didn't even show up and the DJs were dissapointing too. everyone was just sitting around ready for it to pop off, and it just never did. I asked twice for my money back and they couldn't even do that. I don't know who this wendy person is everyone was blaming for everything, but i hope she gets hers.

I'm going to post this everywhere on the internet so that good fresno people don't get taken advantage of like this. I think I'll send it to the Fresno Bee as well...

Thomas Hardey & family