RIP Bob Brozman

[Sakis_Gallo]

απο εδω http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Brozman

 

διαβασα αυτο "Brozman took his own life on April 23, 2013"

 

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[ez]

απο εδω http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Brozman

 

διαβασα αυτο "Brozman took his own life on April 23, 2013"

 

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From Guardian:

In 1980 Brozman was involved in a serious car crash and, according to Thomas, "suffered severe pain in his spine and his extremities ever since". A year and a half ago, Brozman told him he was unable to play Hawaiian guitar. "He said 'My hand won't do it' ... and he was the greatest Hawaiian player since Tau Moe." While recording his last album, Fire in the Mind, "there were times when he just had to stop, and it was incredibly painful for him". According to Thomas, Brozman "took his own life. He said he was dissolving before his own eyes, and he was devastated by the loss. He struggled to imagine his life without an instrument in his hands."

 

The cause was suicide, said Mike Pruger, the coroner’s deputy in Santa Cruz County.

 

And another rumor...

 

"Gary Atkison (ex U.K. tour agent)Thu, May 02, 2013 - 12:01 pm

Because of the number of word restrictions, I am sending this message in two parts.

I’m sorry to burst the bubble here, but if you don’t make it easy for readers to contact the editor directly then this sort of thing can happen.

You’ll learn my qualifications for making the following statement in a moment. But let’s begin with the difficult stuff first.

Bob Brozman committed suicide on Tuesday evening, 23rd April 2013, shortly after learning that he was to be taken to court for the severe sexual abuse of a child. This abuse happened some years ago spanning a period of time from when his victim was a toddler through to being a young teenager. In more recent years he repeated this abuse on another under age person. All of his victims were well known to him. In addition, I tell can you that whilst he was in the U.K. 1994 on tour, he sexually abused my own daughter who, at the time, was nine years old. I have never forgiven him and I never will.

My name is Gary Atkinson and I live in the U.K.. I was Bob’s tour agent between 1988 and 1994. On the back of one major concert at the ICA in London, I arranged his first significant tour here. And even though I had not done anything like this before, I managed to get together for him ten or twelve dates.

We first met at London’s Heathrow Airport. His flight was nearly twenty-four hours late! And he had been in the plane for that entire amount of time. As soon as he walked into the arrivals hall, loaded down with guitars and suitcases, I made him go straight to the bathroom and change into his stage clothes, after which, I bundled him into the car and we took a white knuckled car ride into the West of London where he was to headline a major concert, showcasing some of the finest slide guitarist in the world. After such a long and tiring journey from when he first set off from home, most people would have walked onto the stage, said “Hello” to the audience and then curled up under the chair and then said “Good night”. Instead, Bob walked on, looking and acting like he had just had a month’s vacation in Hawaii and as fresh as a daisy, he launched into one of the most energetic and powerful acoustic sets that I had ever seen.

Unlike most tour agents and artist’s managers I always toured with the artists that I represented. I did the driving, I acted as stage crew, I helped with the sound checking, I would arrange interviews with everyone from music magazines to appearances on National TV and radio. Hotels, restaurants, banks, doctors. You name it. I even got up and joined him with my own guitar for half of the second set. Bob was an immediate success. The tours grew, year by year. By the fourth year we embarked upon the biggest tour so far. Nearly seventy dates, spread just a little over three months, including clubs, theatres, arts centres, concerts, festivals and even private parties that were prepared to pay his highest fee. And those sixty something dates didn’t include interviews, workshops, recording dates etc.

I tell you this because, as a result of all of this activity Bob and became very, very close. From that first meeting at the airport, we got on like the proverbial house on fire. We agreed that we had become like “blood brothers”. In addition, he was welcomed into the hearts, minds, venues and often, homes of people up and down and around the British Isles. He couldn’t go wrong… Could he?

 

Reply to this comment

Gary AtkinsonThu, May 02, 2013 - 12:02 pm

When a travelling artist, such as musician, is on the road there is one thing that is at the top of the code of do’s and dont’s. Among all of the contracts for every date, interview, TV and radio appearance and recording session, there are also unwritten contracts of trust and moral behaviour. Bob, like so many, lived a here today, gone tomorrow life. He was idolised and had audiences in the palm of his hand. Yes, he put his trust in all of those that were prepared to further his career but he was also put into a position of trust by hundreds, if not thousands of people around the world who just wanted to help Bob Brozman because they loved him and loved what he did as an artist. This came as everything from handshakes by adoring fans or the free use of family homes by patrons of the venues, all done to help him and encourage him on his way.

I’m not going to go into details, but, for me, that trust was shattered in 1994 when Bob tried to take advantage of his “blood brother’s “ daughter. I confronted him about it and he would not admit to anything. There was a witness. My daughter’s friend, also nine years old but she would not speak out. As a result, I quickly wound down the tour and had nothing to do with Bob again… until recently.

The first victim’s mother had been relentlessly trying to press charges against Bob for some time. The second mother’s victim was also fighting for justice. Bob denied everything and the local law enforcement agency were frustrating efforts by not taking individual allegations seriously. Bob thought he was on safe ground and in doing so tried to paint a picture of crazed opportunists trying to exhort him for his not insubstantial wealth.

More recently, I was contacted by the parents of the victims and from 6,000 miles away I did my best to support and encourage them. At times they were exhausted in their quest to get justice for their loved ones, whilst at the same time Bob proceeded to win the love, adoration and accolades from audiences around the world.

But even more recently as the result of the dogged persistence of the victim’s parents a court case was announced. Bob panicked and quickly changed his tact, offering a significant “out of court” payment for the first victim. Of course, this is an admission of guilt in anyone’s book. However, Bob would have known that such a settlement does not stop a case going to court and every court has the media reporters in attendance. For Bob the game was going to be up.

All of those years ago, Bob explained to me why he did what he did as a performer. Despite the fact that he really didn’t need to work, certainly as much he did on his endless tours around the world, he fed off the audiences before him. He told me that he desperately needed their recognition, approval and acceptance.

With what was about to happen, coming straight towards him like an unstoppable express train, he knew that all of that trust, the praise and adoration was about to be shattered monumentally and he would be revealed for what he was.

I know that I cannot put everyone right about the real Bob Brozman and I don’t blame millions of people for thinking that he was one Hell of a guy because of what they have seen at the shows and read in the papers, magazines and on the internet. But I will inform, where articles such as this have been written. Either, take the article down or do some proper journalism, find out the facts and tell the truth. The article as it is, is offensive to those involved.

[Waterfall-K]

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