Heard all about the Varese concert last night. You'd have thought it was the second coming from the posts on the FSM board, but I've been told by people I trust that the orchestra played with many, many clams and not well. I've been told it was a back patting affair with the usual suspect. I've been told that neither my name, nor the names of the other people who were there at the beginning were invoked. I'm told that the name George Korngold was invoked - he was a nice man who produced some albums for Varese - he was NOT there at the beginning and had absolutely nothing to do with making the company what it became, other than he made some very nice albums. I'm told that agent and former Varese employee Richard Kraft told the throng that he was entrusted in finding his successor and brought Bob Townson into the company, conveniently or willfully leaving out the fact that I was the first one called about replacing Richard and IF Richard was entrusted with finding Bob it was AFTER I turned it down - not before. Sorry Richard, your revisionist history is duplicitous and self-serving and more than a little sickening. I'll leave it at that. The concert, I'm told, ran to three hours, with such classic scores as Iron Will and How to Train Your Dragon being represented. If I were doing a 35th anniversary concert, I would have made the attempt to play some music that was actually instrumental (pardon the pun) in making the company what it was - you know, maybe something from their only million selling album, Ghost. But the evening wasn't about that. It was about one person with a little Kraft mac-and-cheese on the side.
