Monday, Apr 6th 2026
[8:15am]
Sorry I haven't updated this in a little bit, but a lot of stuff's been going on...
I really can't be bothered to explain the whole story, but here it is summarised:
- Me and my mates in Knutmo Five played that gig in manchester
- I personally thought there wasn't enough communication between the band and promoter, and felt that lots of information was assumed by the promoter, despite knowing this was our first gig working with them and we were not standard clients. The main thing being the fact that a drum kit was not meant to be supplied for us, even though we need one. (I don't have my own and even if I did, I don't have a van to transport it!)
- Overall, the gig went really well, and the drum kit issue was sorted as one of the other bands very kindly allowed me to borrow his. I still brought my own snare and cymbals though.
- On the wednesday after the gig, on my regular Ricky Jamaraz newsletter (totally unrelated to Knutmo Five), I criticised the lack of communication between the band and the promoter, stating my opinion based on the facts of what I personally experienced.
- Later that day, I recieved legal threats from the promoter for public defamation, which I might add is impossible as 1. everything I said was true, and 2. there is no way my little throw away comment about them seeming "a bit lazy" would cause serious damage to their business.
- After ignoring this promoter's empty legal threats, they backed out and instead decided to scare me by threatening to send a cease and desist letter. Again, I can't cease something I'm not repeatedly doing, so ignored it.
- Next day, a post went up on the promoter's public instagram, which was essentially a large rant about how upset they were that I criticised one little thing about an event that ran smoothly otherwise. In this post, they blatantly lied about many of the details, making that far closer to public defamation than anything I said.
- After we continued to ignore this jab (best course of action whenever someone threatens legal action and you're sure you've done nothing wrong), the promoter TOOK DOWN this liableous post, probably because someone advised him about publicly sharing blatant lies (which we have lots of evidence against) in an attempt to defame us.
- Despite the post being taken down, Alfie and Ollie, the other two members in the band were rightfully still quite upset about the situation. Some of their friends had been questioning them as if they did something wrong, and some members of the bands that supported us that night even shared the post around when it was still up - leading me to believe how much harrison's got strings attatched to them that they would believe his lies about us not showing up to watch the support acts when Ollie literally lended one of the guitarists his strap...
- Alfie and Ollie both told me they were upset / angry with me, because I was the one who initiated this whole ordeal.
- This made ME upset and angry, because I had done absolutely nothing wrong, and it was the narcissistic promoter that couldn't take a grain of criticism that blew this out of proportion. I felt their anger was misdirected. I still believe I did nothing wrong, apart from the fact I referenced the promoter's name in a photo on the email.
- That night I apologised to both of them, and Alfie was pretty forgiving even though I didn't believe him. Ollie just ignored it and I had to message him again the next day, to which he replied he wasn't having a proper falling out with me but he was just pissed off.
- And I get it, the day the promoter shared that post with all these lies to make the band look bad was Ollie's birthday, so that must've felt shit to have a couple of your mates question you about it. But can we zoom out for a second: call me arrogant, but the only person who was explicitly named and shamed in the post was me, and I am the one who received several legal threats from the promoter, and all because I expressed some honest disatisfaction about a service, which is something I have the right to do. What a joke! Just because I kept my cool about it doesn't mean it didn't stress me the fuck out too.
- I felt like he thought of me as careless and like I was some guy to make a mistake and watch it play out instead of trying to fix it, which made me feel really misunderstood and horrible.
- Luckily my dad knows a thing or two about the law and I actively seeked his help every step of the way with this whole situation.
- No idea why I'm still writing in lists btw.
- And the situation's still not done. The promoter is currently witholding our payment for the gig until I receive their so-called cease letter and supposedly agree to whatever terms are on it.
- They're paranoid, due to how I phrased something I said in my original email, that after we get paid I'm going to say even more bad stuff about them. There's nothing more I could say, because I've told the truth of my experience and that's all there is to it!
- Regardless of whether I receive / agree to this cease letter (I shouldn't have to), Knutmo Five are still owed payment, so I've sent an invoice and he has 14 days to pay us or we can file a claim against them and begin to take real legal action, which hopefully we shouldn't end up doing.
So, that's the whole story I think.
I just think I'm the first person to stand up and criticise the person running this operation and it just really scared him, the fact he wasn't the biggest man in the room for a change. Also (AND LET THIS BE KNOWN THIS IS A PERSONAL BLOG POST AND THESE ARE MY PERSONAL OPINIONS, THIS BLOG IS PUBLICLY ONLINE BUT I AM ONE OF TWO PEOPLE WHO EVEN KNOWS IT EXISTS), if you're going to get so paranoid about a remark about laziness that you would threaten legal action to silence me so I don't say anything else... what are you trying to hide???
Anyway. that's been basically the only interesting thing that's happened. What a great start to April eh!
Another fun thing that happened was I went on my first double date last thursday! It was me & mimi with Will B. & Lynn. It was very fun, we just went round a few different pubs in Nottingham.
Here's me and will in the photobooth at Billy's Bootleggers:
Love that guy.