Superb Functions dont pay

Fiona Katie played for this agency in August 2009 and we still have not been paid , It has come to light today that they continue to book artistes and do not pay or pass any money on. I received this information from another Manager.

I would urge anyone who is owed monies from this agency to contact all the clients they did the work for direct and to inform them what they are doing.

You have no chance of getting any money from them and despite contacting the Musicians union we never got any money event the threat of court action did not change this.
They set up a sister company by the looks of things and then claim that the company which owes money has none despite this they are now in plush offices so I am told.

Anyone who is interested in setting up a joint action against this company should contact me .
our email address is David @tripleharps.com

In my opinion what this agency has done and continues to do is theft.

in our case we travelled to manchester whilst I was having treatment for a tumour , had petrol expenses, parking expenses plus my wife Fiona Katie worked for three and a half hours for them .

They did not pay and when we contacted the number for accounts a recorded message refused to let us leave a message . I wrote to them and they did eventually respond claiming they had severe financial difficulties then said if we were to take them to court we would get no money.
they repeated this several times in the letter stating they had no cash

The Musicians union has a handbook which contains a list of companies which they consider risky Superb functions.com, Superbfunctions, Superb Functions limited are all the same company

I can not stress strongly enough that the best thing to do is not to listen to them not to do any work for them and also to ask to be removed from their advertising literature on the internet as even after they did not pay they carried on advertising my wife until I insisted they remove her details.

The people who ring you to book you and beg and plead with you to do gigs are in on this , Steve Kynaston knew what was going on and promised me many times the moies owed but did not pay

Byron's honeymoon

The things hotel's market! I have yet to 'google' this one but yesterday's wedding took place in the room where Byron had his first evening meal at the start of his honeymoon. The large plaque on the door actually states 'ill-fated' honeymoon! This fact apparantly inspired 4 brides yesterday. Nearly a disaster because I was setting up the harp when the next 'Groom' brought his flowers in and started taking the existing flowers out. The weddings were planned a mere half an hour apart - that's confidence for you!

Well, the harp survived the British high humidity thank goodness... The summer before last broke quite a few harps alas. I had a few phonecalls asking if they could borrow mine....answer 'yes - it has 4 sets of strings you know?' ... answer 'Oh my God, no' ...

Mystic-Al

I spent the morning jigsawing. I cut up the old bedstead and it works perfectly. The weather was amazingly hot today so I glued the forepillar and the soundboard and left it in the sun to dry. This means that tomorrow I get to do the nice bit - staining and polishing and oiling. The head and forepillar get stained and polished with beeswax but the soundboard gets oiled and 'baked' in the sun (if we get any tomorrow). I managed to put the harp together tonight and got an idea of what it will look like. I can start to plan the decoration - no definite plans yet - I will get ideas from the grain and patina and start it tomorrow.

Mystic-Al

Forced myself to get some work done on this harp again this morning! I have re-set the soundboard and have to sort the fore-pillar out tomorrow. I needed a piece of wood about 5'6'' long. Not the sort of thing you can find at the local woodyard as it has to be very strong. Eventually I remembered that we had an old Mahogany bedstead on the firewood pile behind the farm. I measured it and it was a perfect fit! Just a bit of jigsawing to do tomorrow. Also managed to find a small piece of wooden moulding from an old piano that was given to me. I will no doubt find somewhere to put it! The main feature will be a small owl that came from a car boot sale - seemed to fit the name Mystic-Al!

good wine

I messed up the soundboard on 'Mystic-Al' so am having to re-do it ...grrrr. I seriously need this harp though. My traditional 'Elizabethan' harp (Celesti-Al) was one of my first. It has a chocolate box ribbon glued down the inside join where the wood just wouldn't fit straight, brass plates, borrowed from my treddle sewing machine drawers, emergency roofing bolts added on the head and glitter covering up the cracks in the soundboard... Amazing that it is still in one piece at all really. It sounds sweet though.

More and more of my compositions need 4 sets of strings though and Celesti-Al is only a triple so I really must force myself to get Mystic-Al made soon. The harp I re-strung in October is just starting to settle and 'sing' - a very slow process (like good wine) but with my new design they just sound better and better as they get older - I wish I could hear them in a hundred year's time...

Hummel

Well, that last post produced some reaction - if only when I bumped into some friends in town! 'Bavaria' they said? As a tripleharper I know that Bavaria is one of the 3 countries who claim it's invention. Italy and Wales being the other countries.

The Bavarians boast that the harp can be heard 4 miles down the valley when it is played on top of the mountain - wish I had that joinery skill! I will have to try my harps sometime...

In answer to the music - YES - 'om pa' can be gorgeous! I will let you know when I have recorded Carolan's tune. (Have you heard Hummel's A minor concerto?)

I am now devoting all my spare time to harp matters (that is after cleaning, gardening and cooking). Dave has taken over looking after the chicks - my breathing was getting worse and worse - all the dust! I have 'tamed' about a quarter of the garden so far - people are noticing so its worth it. I have 4 more harps to make ...

Symphony for Yorkshire

I picked the wrong weekend to help hatch the chicks as I had 2 weddings. Luckily they have nearly all managed to hatch unaided. I am thrilled to have a few Polish (pom pom) chicks so can start again (the fox killed all mine 3 weeks ago). Dave rescued one poor chick who battled his way out of his own egg to find an empty shell roll onto him and completely cover him up again so he had to start all over again! Life's like that...

On the harp front I got email confirmation to arrange recording for the Symphony for Yorkshire.

I'm not sure what yet - absolutely no clues whatsoever!!!

Dave has just suggested he put a photo on from today's wedding. He is slowly teaching me computer skills and one day I may actually manage to work it out - fingers crossed.

not a good idea to leave the rings behind in the hotel

Hello again - nice to be back - albeit briefly - although this week's weddings are not so far from home. I really enjoyed playing the piano and got asked to do some more weddings so the guests must have enjoyed it too! Did more of an impromtu concert on Sunday as the groom suddenly realised he had left the rings behind in his hotel - a 40 min drive down the motorway I gather - whoooops!!!! Had a captive audience so they had no choice but to listen ... ha ha. Nobody understood my 'joke' rendition of Bach though alas... In the 'old days' (am I that old now?) when something went wrong you got yr huge cigar lit and played Bach.

My Jacques Loussier version of Air on a G String has served me well so far. First time - played as the groom - a strong 6' ruddy faced chap - broke down in tears just as he was about to say his vows. The Registrar said he would take his new friend for a whiskey and be back in 10 and I played to huge cheers.

Second time - the best man got up with a huge wad of papers nervously. Read about a page and a half of ultra-boring stuff till he was quite sure the guests were fidgeting and bored, dropped all his papers under the table, disappeared to pick them up, lit his cigar... you get the rest - brought the house down as he shouted 'you didn't really think I was going to do a speech did you?'