For those of you who don't recognise this man pictured above, well, you should, because it's Eddy Temple-Morris, and in my eyes, he's a bit of legend in the music world. (By the way, I didn't just decide to blog about him because he has more hair than the last two people - Mark Hill and Andi Durrant - I've written about!)
Today Eddy posted a Facebook statement regarding why he won't be able to appear at Bestival this weekend. It makes for a very refreshing read in this day and age, where every press release is carefully scripted and proofed by two-three over-paid people at a snooty PR firm. What Eddy says isn't him sounding off in an unprofessional manner, it's a very honestly written, well thought out statement that absolutely sums up his experiences of working with Bestival over the years.
Click here to read the full statement (you may need to be logged into Facebook to read).
To some people, this might seem like career suicide to put this type of thing (as Tim Westwood would say) 'on blast', but when you begin to understand the career this man has had (if I even have half the career Eddy TM has had I'll be happy - musician, DJ, radio presenter, event curator and charity ambassador, amongst others), believe me, this is not career suicide, this is Eddy TM doing what Eddy TM does best, being a diamond in the rough, in this insular industry many of us work within, and speaking out on a specific area or subject when necessary. I personally applaud this attitude. I call it 'real talk' (as do many others - Trevor Nelson does a 'real talk' feature on his BBC Radio 1Xtra show a few times a week where he talks about risque - as far as daytime radio goes - topics, live on air). Real talk is much needed in an industry where artists have to often cut through incredible levels of bullshit to get the truth about a certain situation, believe me when I say that.
For additional reading, click here for the '
Eddy Says' feature on the CMU site, and read other interesting articles (regarding Ibiza Rocks, amongst others) from the man himself. I strongly recommend you do so. As I say, Eddy is a bit of legend in my book.
Mike HF
