I'm writing this week's column from Fiji; I came on holiday by mistake.

That's a quote – not the Fiji bit – from Withnail And I, one of the great English films. I've always wanted to use it and now I have a valid excuse.

The reason I'm here is that I've been preparing a piece about local R'n'B heroes Brilleaux, and
their appearance at the Fiji International Jazz
& Blues Festival seemed
a perfect finale.
Except…
Three weeks ago I got a call from Brilleaux frontman and manager Graham Clark.
'I've got some bad news,” he said. 'We've been kicked off the Fiji festival.”
What?
'Billy emailed me and told me that unless we withdrew from
Gisborne next week he would
withdraw Brilleaux from the Fiji event and any other offers of work in the future.”
What?
'You're kidding,” I said. 'He must have said more than that?”
'No,” Graham told me. 'That's exactly what he said. And he told me to only respond by email,
not to call.”
WHAT?
Graham showed me his own email response, which was shocked, polite and apologetic. But he wasn't about to – at 10 day's notice – pull out of Gisborne's Harbour The Beat Festival which he signed a contract for months ago.
So, let me give you some background here.
Billy is Billy TK Jr, muscular guitarist and tireless promoter. For the past couple of years Billy has been doing sterling work organising a series of Jazz & Blues festivals around New Zealand and last November, in Samoa. He has a large ‘stable' of artists, including players from the US and UK, and Brilleaux have been on board for about 18 months now.
There were a few conditions involved in being part of Billy's festivals, one being that you don't play at the August Bay of Islands Jazz Festival, since not only was it direct competition, but also they don't pay bands who perform there, a particular bugbear of Billy (and others).
With that in mind, Brilleaux have avoided the Paihia festival and Graham has regularly checked that gigs he takes will not clash with potential work for Billy.
And, indeed, Billy had organised a festival in Gisborne which Brilleaux were part of last October. But this was six months later, and Brilleaux had played – no problem – at the Mission Bay Festival in Auckland in January, only a couple of months after an Auckland event of Billy's.
As Graham explained to Billy (by email), it hadn't even occurred to him that there might be an issue. What he didn't know is that there was, apparently, seriously bad blood between Billy and the promoters in Gisborne. How could he?
So emails went back and forth, Billy unbudging, Graham
seeking compromise.
There was a compromise. The girlfriend of Brilleaux bass player Brian Franks had arranged to fly to Fiji so Billy offered Brian his flights and accommodation. But Brilleaux were still off the gig.
'Didn't you have a contract?” I asked Graham.
'Well, they sent me a contract and I signed it and sent it back,” he said.
That sounds like a contract to me. But it doesn't help much since, ironically, the Fiji festival, like Samoa before it, wasn't a paying festival. The idea is you get flights and accommodation (but not food) and it's a sorta working holiday.
But, as Brilleaux drummer ‘Beano' Gilpin points out: 'Of course it's not really a holiday. When you have to play every day that's what musicians do for work. The only difference is that you're in Fiji or Samoa, which is very nice, but it's still work, not a holiday.”
Anyway, trying to enforce a
non-paying contract is an exercise in futility.
So how does the story end?
Days before Fiji, Billy emailed to invite Brilleaux back into the festival fold.
Graham politely said no. 'If someone can arbitrarily change the rules on you,” he explained, 'You never know when they'll do it again.”
Brilleaux were well paid and very well received in Gisborne. Graham continues to manage them. They are looking at gigs in Australia and have been offered slots at two UK festivals. They seem unlikely to work with Billy again.
The Fiji festival was a great success; no one cared that one of the bands on the poster was absent.
And I went on holiday by mistake.