THE START OF THE DILEMMA
We did not want the record to be released in its current form. Needless to say, this view did not go down well with either the management or the record company executives.
We had meetings and discussions with them but it became patently obvious to us that our opinions were counting for nothing. Various meetings were arranged between our manager and us but he failed to appear on numerous occasions, leaving us feeling totally isolated.
We were in a situation, which seemed quite hopeless to us. We were contracted to a record company which we felt, no longer had any interest in us and who wanted us to sell out our ideals. We were also involved contractually with a management company that we felt provided us with no support or direction.
We had also signed a contract for the publishing rights to our music which was not going to be published unless we drastically altered our style. Effectively, these contracts, which had been signed by us, were simply three different arrangements with the same company.
The situation appeared hopeless: And we thought that things could not get any worse. WRONG!!!
After a period of time when nothing appeared to be happening between us, our manager and our record company, Pete informed us that he had decided to leave the band. This was a complete bolt out of the blue and we thought that he had simply become despondent as a result of the situation we had now found ourselves in with the record company.
However, Pete also informed us that he was teaming up with Dave Black the lead guitarist from another Cube band, Kestrel, and together, they would be joining David Bowie’s ex band, the Spiders from Mars.
The crunch came when we discovered that Pete and Dave, who were both currently managed by our manager, were both going to continue to be managed by him. We were told that it was our manager who had set the whole thing up for them to join Spiders From Mars.
So there it was. We really felt well and truly shafted.
Robin, Steve and I discussed our options and the future for Bullfrog appeared quite bleak. We could try and get a replacement vocalist for Pete and continue on regardless. But even if we were able to find a satisfactory replacement, we would still be in the same situation as before where we were at odds with our management, record company and music publishing company.
