In a last minute scramble to get shows in the region, Brandin Farrant, father of music prodigy Taj Farrant, says that the cancellation of Bluesfest has been rough on a lot of levels.
Brandin says Taj was at the end of a show in Gainesville, Georgia, when they got the news.
‘It was about midnight there, and Taj’s Facebook and Instagram started going crazy. My phone was going crazy – it was fans wanting to know what was going on,’ he told The Echo.
‘And I’m like, “What do you mean?” And then I messaged Peter Noble, and I’m like, “Dude, what’s the crack? Like, what’s going on?”
‘No reply. No reply. No reply.
‘Then I started getting concerned, because I usually talk to him all the time, like, I talk to him multiple times a week, as a friend, if you know what I mean, not just about work, it’s “how’s life? What’s going on? How’s Dee? How are the kids?”, that sort of stuff.
‘And then, no reply.
‘At about 1.30am I was just getting ready to doze off, and then they sent the announcement – we got it just like everyone else.’
Significant investment
Brandin says Taj had already invested around US$20,000 [close to A$30,000] as part of preparing for the festival, and to get to Australia.
‘There’s flights, accommodation, transfers, paying the band is about four grand, and the merch I printed for Taj. I had to switch gears and make a few phone calls and [say] like, “Well, we’re coming. We’ve already paid for it. Who wants him?”’
Broken friendship
Brandin says more that anything he’s disappointed in what he thought was a friendship with Noble.
‘You build a great friendship, and you think you’ve got a friend, and you believe that on both sides of the fence, that it’s mutual respect. But Taj invested money to get here without a cash advance to cover costs.
‘He knew, and it’s not just Taj, it’s lots of artists. The high-end artists got their advances that covers deposits and stuff, because their management are like, “we’re not doing it unless we get a deposit”. He’s out there, he [Noble] has to eat humble pie to get the ones that he really wants, but the other ones, what you’d call, like the blue collar workers, those guys have invested probably more than what they even get paid. Because I know what’s paid, and I know that we don’t make any money out of Bluesfest. We come home for Taj to see his family and to continue to build his brand here, because he’s massive in the US.
‘But with the Peter Noble situation, for myself, personally, you know, I’m a manager, and he’s been really good to me for the last few years to help Taj build some form of a brand here.’
A heads up
Brandin wishes that if anyone had known in advance that the festival would not go ahead, ‘somebody at least could have given me the heads up before Taj invested money.’
Brandin says they have invested a lot including ten thousand dollars on flights.
‘People still spent their money to come here. So we worked to find a spot for Taj to play, we don’t want him to miss out,’ he said.
‘I guess the community rallied around him, which I was super proud of. And I guess that’s an Australian thing. When the shit hits the fan, they’re happy to help.’
Taj Farrant will play three free shows this weekend, at Byron Bay, Evans Head and Lennox Head.
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