Current Plight of Allan Holdsworth

Hi folks, I just saw this open letter in the wee hours this morning, which was posted by Allan Holdsworth's daughter, Louise, as his response to some negative comments made about him by the two guys that had duped him into a Pledge Project fiasco.
 
This is the site URL for that: https://www.facebook.com/groups/361803263942657/
 
He seems to have had to even resort to selling some of his recording equipment, just to get by, and I asked Louise to get a detailed list from Allan when she sees him this weekend, which she will post on the above site - maybe Sunday or Monday.
 
From the many responses on that thread by others that love his music, there may end up being some sort of coordinated effort to collect up replacements for him, for that gear, so I thought I would post here about it, in case anybody wanted to participate in aiding him.  Louise will be posting additional information on the above web site after she sees her dad over the weekend.
 
It's a pretty sad place for someone as amazing as he is to have to be at, but maybe some of us fellow musicians and fans of him and his music can end up giving back to him, and helping him get past the current state of things.
 
Bob Bone - The open letter from him, as posted by Louise, follows:
 
"I AM POSTING THIS AT MY FATHER'S REQUEST. PLEASE SHARE!
An open letter to my Fans and Pledgers,I have heard through friends and fans that John McCracken has made some unsavory comments about me, so I felt compelled to respond. So here we are:My now ex/agent manager Leonardo Pavkovic approached me some time ago as he wanted to meet to discuss some business, I agreed to meet him and his "soon to be" partner Mr. McCracken at my friend’s house in N.Y. He told me he wanted to add a partner to his business to assist him and had a proposal for me. That proposal was for me to be involved in "the Pledge Campaign". Mr. McCracken explained the idea to me and my immediate response was that I felt VERY uncomfortable with it. Taking money up front from fans is VERY different from an advance from a record company or a tour, as the fans do not have to buy a record or a ticket until such time as they are physically available...so I declined although I did say I would give it some thought. We spoke quite a few times more by phone and emails but they kept presenting me with more and more reasons why I should do it. Eventually, I reluctantly agreed to do it.Almost immediately I started to see some "red flags".Leonardo informed me that his fee was now going to be 30% instead of 15%. 15% for him and 15% for John...I couldn't figure out why I was paying for his partner?? Does/did that mean if he hired a secretary I would be paying 15% to her/him too?? So that meant that PLEDGE received their 10% which is just fine, they were very cool, (even though I was not allowed to contact them directly) Leonardo and his partner 30%, plus 10% for Pledge, now total of 40%.As far as the music goes in the beginning I wanted to add to the pot a new track rather than just a "vault" track which I did with Virgil’s tune "Earth". I did this since it had been such a long time since I did a studio record. Leonardo and John were constantly badgering me for more music, I understood. The tracks I was considering were tracks that I had done with Jimmy Johnson and Gary Husband, and tracks with Ernest Tibbs and Joel Taylor. I had made considerable progress on these tracks but was unable to get more funding from Leonardo and John. As a result I had to sell my HD 24s, which is the format they were recorded on, rendering it impossible for me to complete those tracks. I did take the time to transfer those tracks to my computer, but that made no difference as the HD 24s were being used as my A to D convertors. On top of that I eventually had to sell my console which rendered me basically out of business.Meanwhile, they continued to put funds into the sale of trinkets, T shirts, pedals, guitars, plane fares, etc. Rather than helping me their artist to continue with the most important thing, the MUSIC!! What Leonardo and John never understood was that most of the "vault" material was originally recorded on formats not available to me. Those being 2 inch analog, 1/2 inch analog, 16, 24, and 32 track digital tape machines were clearly outside my budget. When I asked for more funding they said it was unavailable until I delivered more music, a lovely catch 22. However, Leonardo and John were constantly reminding me that there was a considerable amount of funding left, when in fact "they" knew" there was none".The funds I did receive (thank you) were spread over long periods of time. The extra side car console I needed was provided but I have no doubt that cost was taken from funding. I started to read between the lines and was becoming clearer and clearer from wording of emails that I realised the chances of anymore funding was suspect. That’s when I figured that I had to make some alternative decisions. I looked to my friend’s (engineers) that might be able to help me out with digital masters that were made over the years. That’s when I realized I had made a huge mistake in agreeing to work with Leonardo and John in the first place.
Some people work very well under pressure, I do not! In fact it often becomes a deterrent. I kept telling John that I'm not running a sausage factory, despite the fact that other artists may be able to put their music out faster. I am uncomfortable with time limits, for me it's one of the major reasons for my reluctance to do this kind of project. For me art/music/composition, is done when it's done.Leonardo and John made trips to my house and on one occasion Leonardo was supposed to bring with him merchandise for me to sign for you "the pledgers". However he showed up with nothing. I played him some tracks but he seemed disinterested and spent most of his time texting.Leonardo is an absolute master of withholding information. By the time you find out something is wrong, it’s too late. We would show up at gigs and numerous times, the stage managers would say to me "who the hell is “Leonardo”?! I would say don’t worry,he speaks multiple languages, and they would say to me, yeah but all at once. (hahaha) The stage manager would ask a simple question and Leonardo would respond with a five minute tsunami of gibberish..........To my knowledge no computer can spell check gibberish. The Enigma Machine perhaps? (Louise spell checked!)The merchandising was 100% controlled by Pavkovic/McCracken. The amount of money spent on merchandise and trinkets is unknown to me although I suspect it to be considerable. I was kept out of that loop.Much of what they did was without my approval. I believe that Pavkovic/McCracken were also late in delivering the merchandise promised to "pledgers".If they had given me, "the music guy" more funding I would never have had to sell important pieces of equipment in order to survive. 
These guys were supposed to help me but chose to spend funding elsewhere.Another major disaster was when our "management team" Pavkovic/McCracken booked us in a venue in Florida to do a "live" streaming video. This venue had no P.A. and no video recording equipment. That particular venue was incapable of doing a "regular" concert let alone a live streaming video. John McCracken showed up with a lap top and a Go Cam on the side of the stage (most people could only see the bass player Jimmy Haslip’s feet) How are we supposed to carry out a cool streaming concert with NO P.A.?!I even tried to offer our audience a full refund but I don’t believe anyone could hear meI also found out from some of our fans that attended the inaudible show that there was a number of venues very close by that had full on recording and video equipment and of course a P.A. imagine that! On top of that McCracken shows up with posters for me to sign with the "wrong guitar" on them knowing full well I was using a Kiesel/Carvin guitar, the very guitar I signed for "pledgers" as part of the campaign.As to how I live, of what significance is that. I live alone in a small house with a home studio which takes up my whole living room, no furniture to speak of, a bedroom a speaker room... so what? .. What does that matter; this only goes to show the non sequitur workings of McCracken’s logic.As far as I know McCracken’s house is on the front cover of "Better Homes and Gardens" he may have multiple houses and vehicles and lives like a king, of what interest is that to me! It is not.After this whole cluster**** I unceremoniously fired both of them. 
To this day I have not been given a detailed accounting from either party, neither one will respond to my attorney. In fact Pavkovic hired a lawyer in Australia, no doubt with the intent of slowing down any resolution.Leonardo Pavkovic has continued to sell my records on my "Facebook Page" and has tried to sell other artists records on "my "Facebook Page" as well. This, in spite of NOT having any rights to do so, and having been told to Cease and Desist.John McCracken has refused to send me back my MASTERS, hard drives, and convertor box which, by is by his own admission, he is illegally withholding.McCracken sent me a personal email saying that I am pathetic, along with my Synthaxe noodling’s. These guys were supposed to be my representatives?? My,My,My...The Synthaxe track ‘Daisy’ was originally supposed to be on the "Flat Tire" record, but I decided not to use it at that time because it was short and I thought it may be worth extending some time later. 
I had played the track to a couple of my band mates whose opinions matter a great deal more to me than the opinion of the "right ordinary John McCracken" and both my pals said they really liked it in short form… to each his own I guess.In the end I said I was going find one or more additional tracks to send to "pledgers", but that announcement was mysteriously never posted by Pavkovic/McCracken.As for my new recordings for Favoured Nations, all is well with Steve Vai. He is a tremendous musician and a friend of mine, and would not resort to such lame and slanderous behavior as Pavkovic/McCracken have.
Mr. Vai is also fully aware that Pavkovic/McCracken are no longer representatives of mine in any way shape or form.Maybe if you are a young and upcoming talent you can contact Pavkovic/McCracken to represent YOU!??All things considered, I am truly sorry things turned out this way. I have most certainly learned my lesson and cannot begin to thank YOU enough for your tolerance, loyalty, and support.Thank you all for listening and I would like to wish you all a fantastic new year.I would like to extend special thanks to all our fans, the folks at PLEDGE, Mark Kiesel, Jeff Kiesel, engineers, Gordon Davis, Robert Fiest, Chris Bellman, Bernie Grundman Mastering, Dave Busch, Glenn Charos, Jeff Darden, and all the other wonderful people who helped me during the "campaign". And of course my family; Louise, Sam, Emily Holdsworth and little Rori.PS: I was never able to contact PLEDGE directly as all communication went through Pavkovic/McCracken.PSS: THE SAD PART IS that neither one of these guys whom I thought were my friends and representatives have ever attempted any form of civilized conflict resolution.........They chose to go down Dirty Street.Cheers, Allan Holdsworth."

So you want people to help Allan out of a bind based on a decision he made of sound mind?
 
It's not like these guys broke into his home studio like bitflipper.
 
 
 

Sorry about the red font - was just trying to separate my text from his open letter.  The other couple of colors I tried were horrific.
 
I too thought Bitflipper's nightmare scenario was unbelievably cruel to have done to him.  If memory serves, besides the gear itself, I think I dimly recall his losing untold project content, but I may be off on that part.
 
I think Allan learned a pretty bitter lesson about those sorts of projects, and maybe even those sorts of people, particularly when right up front the 'deal' changed to include the guy's partner.  I don't know anything about the particulars, so do not know if Allan had any protections in the agreement against that sort of thing.
 
Anyways - I hope he is able to get past the current situation.
 
Bob Bone
 

This is a sad tale, and I expect it is not so unusual. Music is not the primary source of revenue for a lot of the music business these days, and I expect that agents see opportunities like crowdsourcing and merchandising as a new chance to exploit their client and his fans. Agency implies a fiduciary responsibility to the client, but it is moot whether extracting capital from a crowd or by selling merch in order to provide income to an artist is in his interest when, as is apparently the case here, he is not able to produce new music at a sustainable pace. Simple honesty, on the other hand, would require that the agents would have taken the care to understand the needs and ability of their client rather than pressuring him to accept a deal that could not support him. Artists, and their fan base, may look like the golden goose to agents, but it is probably rarely in the artist's interest to gut him for short term gain. In effect this deal seems to have been predicated on the ability to extract money from the fans hope and nostalgia, rather than from the music. I disagree that there is any moral difference between taking an advance from a company or from a crowd subscription, although I sympathize more with the disappointment of the loyal fans than the officers and shareholders of a company who can typically structure their deals to cover the losing bets by extracting extraordinary benefits from the winners.
 
In retrospect the artist seems to have realized his mistake, and to have recognized the warning signs fairly early in the process. The high price of representation and the cut the crowdsourcing service charged would have eaten into any capital raised significantly, and there is testimony that the quality of the service was poor at any price. The question is why the artist acquiesced to what looks like a bad deal, and the answer seems likely to be that he was up against a cash flow problem. He does not say that he fronted any of his own money, but rather that not enough was realized from the capital raised from fans and merch sales after fees that he was able to continue to survive and render his music into a salable form. Selling his equipment was reportedly due to not having enough to survive on what was left after the money he intended to use to produce the music was either extracted through fees, or diverted to other investments. We are not told whether the funds not returned to him were profitably invested or not, but he did not authorize some investments, which depending on how his agreement was worded may be actionable.
 
Do we expect an artist, who apparently has little sophistication in business, to avoid this kind of disaster? Should agents who do not have music to sell, spend the artist's capital on other schemes while waiting for the sausage factory to deliver? Is it credible that an agent in the music business would not know that special equipment was needed for working with 2 in tape, or that an engineer/producer would not make extracting that music into a modern format a priority before selling his equipment? I expect none of this would have happened if the financial situation had not been dire to begin with. My sympathy is with the artist in this case. Had he been a superstar, with millions in the bank, rather than relatively unsuccessful, at least financially,  I doubt he would have made the decisions he did. On the other hand, his experience of years in the music world should have given him a more insight into the business than he seems to have acquired.
 
 

I did delve into a bit of this whole "fiasco" story after watching that video of him in his studio which I posted a couple of weeks ago. I feel for the guy, but what I took away from it is that here's a bloke who really needs to buckle up and change his lifestyle. He doesn't look too healthy. Not old for his age, but someone who probably drinks a little more than he should (I know he's a beer aficionado but still....) and doesn't get nearly enough exercise. I wouldn't be surprised if the booze has clouded his judgment a lot. I don't know if I'd call him an alcoholic as such, just someone who should probably cut back a little bit and start afresh with a clear mind and healthy body. 
 
Forget about the crowdfunding and the shady wheeler dealers. I know he's struggled with the digital realm and the infinite choices it gives you - he needs someone to show him how to replicate the workflow he's worked with his whole life but minus the costly tape. Maybe fish for a deal with a small jazz label. Or even collaborate with some younger artists (it seemed to work for Bert Jansch in his later life). I bet some of the "quirkier" electronic artists (Plaid, Clark, Floating Points, Autechre etc) would love to feature his playing on their tracks. Or he could make himself available as a session player. I know I would if I had that kind of technique. 

There has been a bunch of additional conversation with Allan's daughter and some of the close friends of both her and Allan, and she will be seeing him this weekend, to present some ideas to him that would help him firstly get back the gear HE needs to be able to continue to record, and secondly to get him some funding to ease his financial woes, again so that he can set about returning to recording.
 
The ideas they will be working out today and tomorrow will have to not only make sense to do in the first place, they also will need to be something that Allan is OK with agreeing to - and being as particular (stubborn) as he is talented - that is indeed part of it.  He is SUCH a humble guy, who is just trying to be the best Allan Holdsworth he can be - doing what he does, and all of those qualities that have kept him so far atop the pinnacle of playing virtuosity, both help him and hinder him, and that paradox has been part of what has moved him both forward and backward - his whole life.
 
There are several thousand fans that do wish to assist - and I DO believe something will work out for him.  His daughter, Louise, will be seeking a detailed list of equipment he needs in order to be able to record, and with some financial assistance, or through selling autographed pics/CD's, and/or some clinics or multi-artist promotional concerts, and such, the goal is to get the gear and enough money cushion that he can record - with no strings attached.  That would seem the ideal solution - I can't imagine him playing Mustang Sally and Margaritaville to get by, but I think he will be OK.
 
I feel most sad that he seems to have had to sell his beloved SynthAx - long a defunct company, but insanely brilliant in its design - just to expensive to take off to get enough sales to stay in business - but it seems there are very very small and dwindling numbers of them that still function on this planet, and that must have KILLED him to have to do it.
 
But, one WOULD be able to buy a gigantic bunch of Ramen noodles with the proceeds of selling such a rare and priceless piece of gear.
 
Bob Bone
 

I'll just refer Mr. Holdsworth to my signature at the bottom.
 
As a side note, trying to dig himself out of this hole by recording and trying to sell the efforts is a waste of time at this point in history. I think he'd be better served by contacting a reputable promoter and doing some shows. Someone of his stature should be able to round up some sidemen to assist him.

This thread is a tough read
That's all I got for now .I will spare you my opinions .
 
Kenny

I don't think this is a bad post, and hey Mr. Holdsworth had a cup of coffee with Level 42, so I'm a fan.
Hope he can make his life work again, and kudos to any who can help him. Sorry he got ripped off.
 
Perhaps a change of perspective might offer some comfort:
 

 
another plight . . .
 
-Tom