Thursday, August 04, 2011

Rival reggae fest coming?

Raggamuffin Festival announced its first act for the 2012 event late July, ex UB40 singer Ali Campbell. They have billed him on their website under the headline "Ali Campbell's UB40 returns to NZ" which is somewhat misleading. There are not two different UB40's touring the world right now (like the three different versions of Slade that once toured).

Campbell left the band in 2008, and tours as a solo artist with band. There's some confusion in the media too, as this Google News search indicates, with the conflicting headlines "UB40 singer set for Raggamuffin" and "UB40 to play Raggamuffin 2012".

This morning Raggamuffin announced some more acts for 2012, including Billy Ocean, Marvin Priest, Big Mountain, The Wailers' Junior Marvin, Lucky Dube’s daughter Nkulee Dube, Kora, Three Houses Down, House of Shem, Cornerstone Roots, Sons of Zion, Sweet and Irie, Tomorrow People, Soljah, NRG Rising and Foundation, with DJs Sir-Vere, Poroufessor and Beau Zee. Still four more acts to be announced, including two internationals.

I did some searching on the Companies Office site and uncovered 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.

The name Raggamuffin has previously been trademarked by Andrew McManus Presents NZ, a company which was put into liquidation by members of Herbs in March. There are currently two companies registered to use the name Raggamuffin for music events  - Andrew McManus Presents Pty Ltd, Australia, and Raggamuffin Festival Ltd, Tilley's company. They have both registered under slightly different classifications for the trademark, which is listed as 'under examination' by the Intellectual Property Office. 

Tilley registered her trademark on 4 April, McManus on 2 May. Could Tilley be planning to run a competing festival?

Previous posts: Herbs vs Raggamuffin (March 26 2011), Raggamuffin rumblings (Dec 8 2010)

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