Scrolling Eye
Bachman tender oversight
BY Marc Weisblott August 11, 2008 18:08
Tal Bachman was invited to serve as a musical ambassador for Canada in South Africa and Zimbabwe in spring 2005, a trip subsidized by a $16,500 grant from the International Cultural Relations Division of the Department of Foreign Affairs. Now, he’s been lumped in with Gwynne Dyer, Avi Lewis and Holy Fuck as undeserving recipients of federal grants through the $4.7 million PromArt program, according to an unnamed official who divulged Conservative Party talking points. Bachman’s perceived status as a “wealthy rock star” — a one-hit-wonder whose father was in The Guess Who — was cited as a motivator for cutting the program.
“Nobody from my camp ever applied for anything,” Bachman tells Scrolling Eye. “My manager got a phone call from the booking agency inviting me on a trip to visit AIDS hospices and orphanages and township community centres for underprivileged youth, which was organized by the Canadian diplomatic corps.”
Bachman recalls being joined on the trip by representatives from the Tories, Liberals and Bloc Québécois. And while one of his solo performances was at the Canadian Consulate in Pretoria, most other stops were in less extravagant settings.
“I felt flattered to be asked on what I thought was an Angelina Jolie-style United Nations trip, where I’d serve as a proud ambassador of Canada,” he says. “The last thing on my mind was how doing this kind of thing would further my career.
“You don’t do a show at an orphanage because you’re trying to sell them a CD. I was there to play, commiserate and talk to them. I heard their choir sing, and listened to a few stories about what their lives were like. I cherished the thank-you packets they gave me afterward — it was a really meaningful moment. It’s not something you do because you’re looking to promote yourself.”
This alleged abuse of federal funding made it to a Canwest News Service report by David Akin, even though the news didn’t make it to Bachman’s home on Salt Spring Island, BC until reached for comment this morning. “This is probably the most publicity I’ve gotten in eight years,” says Bachman, who scored an international smash in 1999 with “She’s So High,” before a falling out with Sony Music left him to pursue a lower-profile independent route.
Moreover, the posts on Bachman’s own blog indicate that he might be among the most politically right-wing pop stars this country has ever produced — having even once played at a benefit for the Western Standard magazine, featuring guest of honour Mark Steyn, at Conrad Black’s former residence on the Bridle Path. A hanging portrait Bachman initially assumed was of Adolf Hitler — which he later posted about — was clarified by Black’s wife Barbara Amiel to be a painting of Josef Goebbels.
But the relatively large sum of money granted to one individual performer getting paid for his time and talent and expenses — listed amongst the names of several other familiar authors and artists apparently given a federal stipend for airfare to visit festivals in foreign places — raised the reddest flag over Bachman’s head, alongside those well-known lefty journalists promoting their recent work.
Similarly, a $3,000 grant to Holy Fuck to do seven UK shows in May 2006 find them singled out by the faction that helped to make a hit film out of Young People Fucking: “I don’t even want to say it on the phone,” was Foreign Affairs Minister David Emerson’s spokesperson’s reference to the Juno-nominated electrocknica group's name when talking to the Canadian Press.
The same program supplied more sacredly-named group By Divine Right with $25,000 to play 19 shows in Australia in winter 2005, and $7,000 to the Rheostatics to do eight performances in China in spring 2006, in addition to grants allowing several Canadian festivals to invite overseas talent scouts, and for indie labels to visit festivals and trade shows in other countries.
Most of the culture being exported for these purposes is too highbrow to inspire Tory-supporting taxpayer outrage, though. An editorial in today’s Globe and Mail suggested sending political wags to Cuba might qualify as an abuse of the program, but that shouldn’t justify killing off the PromArt program altogether.
Also terminated in the process was a less controversy-stirring $9 million program called Trade Routes, which was helping cultural groups market their products abroad.
An editorial supporting the cancellation of these programs in the weekend National Post didn’t mention Tal Bachman — a past contributor to their opinion pages — opting instead to pick on Canadian music industry veteran Alexander Mair for getting $4,200 “to participate in seminars in Helskini, Finland and Trondheim, Norway on cultural exploration in the sound recording industry” in February 2007.
“Well, I didn’t go there for the fun of it,” says Mair. “I was invited by the embassy in Helsinki, it wasn’t something I applied for. The flight over there was the absolute lowest price that you could pay for a non-refundable plane ticket.” He had four additional flights after landing Europe, and any hotel, food and cab fares incurred over and above the $4,200 came out of his own wallet.
Mair, formerly the president of independent label Attic Records, was on their radar because of a Canadian music-boosting newsletter he has published for the last several years, Applaud!
“I met with approximately 50 different people in Finland,” he says, “and in Norway I attended a festival conference similar to Canadian Music Week. I participated in panel discussions and there were dozens of one-on-one meetings with European attendees. I also stopped off in London at my own expense to meet with companies and individuals who have interests in Canadian music and artists.”
The trip wasn’t quite as condescendingly described by the Post — suggesting it amounted to listening to “a Finnish academic drone on about business models for alternative rock bands” — and the misintepretation finds Mair having to defend the basic value of continuing to support culture as a pillar of international trade.
“How else can you open the door to an audience in a foreign country?” he asks. “These things don’t happen automatically. Sure, you can get in the iTunes Music Store in China, but it’s relatively worthless unless you’re featured on the homepage. And that’s something still done by negotiating with major labels.
“The best thing you can do is get to these countries and be in somebody’s face, since the industry is based on developing these relationships. Showing up to a conference in Japan is a way of letting them know that you’re serious about it.”
But publicly picking on a musician still best recognized by name as the spawn of the guy who wrote “Takin’ Care of Business” might be the lowest blow of all, estimates Mair: “How many millions of dollars do you figure Randy Bachman has paid in Canadian taxes over the last 40 years?”
UPDATE: A day later, Tal Bachman posts a more detailed response.
625 Church St, 6th Floor, Toronto M4Y 2G1