Few days after artiste manager and entertainment critic, Bulldog’s “Free Advice” piece on his Facebook wall contextually describing George Quaye, head of brands, communications and media for Charter House, as arrogant and ignorant, the latter has responded to the claims.
In the statement posted on April 18, Bulldog stated that, instead of redeeming the marred image of his company, George Quaye, “Ignorantly and arrogantly… grants interviews and compares wrongly, failing to look into what it entails for an artiste to render free services or take honorarium fees for award shows.”
This follows an earlier comment by George Quaye that organizers of the annual Ghana Music Awards, Charter House, does not pay foreign artistes to perform at the event.
The statement also urged Charter House to organise an annual forum for Ghanaian musicians in order to “enlighten them and help address industry drawbacks.”
Reacting to the remarks in an exclusive interview with Abrantepa on Radio Univers’ mid-morning show, Brunch2Lunch, George Quaye said although the statement was ironical he would decline making further comments as that would only worsen Bulldog’s reputation.
“It’s very ironical that Bulldog says I am ignorant. The fact is: two or three years ago, we organized a seminar at British Council…you can crosscheck. They didn’t turn up. Last two years, we did same at Golden Tulip; they didn’t turn up. Last year at Alisa Hotel, they didn’t turn up. They would say they don’t get a call to attend the event; however, our front desk does call almost every musician they can reach”.
He explained that the low patronage of previous seminars informed Charter House’s decision not to organise one prior to this year’s Ghana Music Awards.
“Ghana Music Awards is today Ghana Music Festival because of such seminar, yet they don’t come. If you were the event organizer, would you continue? And even prior to the awards, we invited artistes to come so we orient them on the kind of comfort arrangements we had made for them on the night. With the exception of Joey B and Pappi Kojo, the rest sent their managers while others sent their errand boys”, he said.
George Quaye noted that he holds no grudges against Bulldog and would not want to respond to all his claims. He however debunked assertions that Charter House always takes artistes who are billed to perform for granted. According to him, the fact that organizers are unable to meet the demands does not suggest that they disrespect artistes.