Saturday, March 26, 2011

Herbs vs Raggamuffin

In early December last year, several key local staff left the organisation behind the Raggamuffin Festival, held in Rotorua, in conjunction with Australian promoters. The event still went ahead and attracted a crowd estimated at 30,000.

Late last week, someone anonymously posted this message on my previous post...

23 March 2011:
Court liquidation: Andrew McManus Presents (NZ) wound up on Herbs’ petition
Defendant: Andrew McManus Presents (NZ) Co Ltd
Directors: Andrew McManus, Gold Coast
Applicant: John Karaka, Joseph Lundon, Morehu Watene, Gordon Joll, Toni Fonoti & Thomas Nepia (trading as a partnership performing as the band, Herbs)
Liquidators: Official Assignee
Other details: Mr McManus was a director of Impact Talent Ltd (removed from register 2009). He set up the International Touring Co in Australia in 1995, selling it to Abigroup Ltd in 2000, then established Andrew McManus Presents Pty Ltd in 2001.

ADDED I just checked the Raggamuffin Festival website, can't see any sign of Herbs having played at the event, not listed in the lineup...  According to this story from the NZ Herald, Herbs were due to reunite for the 2010 Raggamuffin Festival. Did that happen?


Updated July 25, 2011: According to the Companies Office registrar, Andrew McManus NZ is in liquidation - Andrew Mcmanus was the sole shareholder.  According to the insolvency document posted on the Companies Office site, the petitioning creditor was Dilworth Karaka of Herbs.

The lineup that was due to appear at Raggamuffin in 2010 was calling itself Pacific Herbs, featuring former Herbs members Tony Fonoti, Spencer Fusimalohi and Carl Perkins.

The 2012 Raggamuffin Festival has just been announced, their website lists the event as being staged by McManus Entertainment, which does not show up as being registered in  NZ via the Companies Office.  It appears to be Australian-based.

There's also a company called Raggamuffin Festival Limited which was incorporated on the 5th of April 2011by Leesa Tilley, who quit working for Raggamuffin/Mcmanus in December last year.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Note that the company set up by Leesa Tilley is purely for the retail of Raggamuffin merchandise on behalf of a supplier that was not paid by the Raggamuffin promoter.