Philipsburg:--- Sir Isodore York, famously known around the world as the Mighty Dow said he has decided to pull out from the TEMPO Turns 7 events that are currently taking place at the Festival Village.
York told SMN News on Tuesday that he is not bashing TEMPO or its organizers but he felt very disrespected when Member of Parliament Romaine La Ville attacked him in the corridor of the Government Administration Building on Friday. The Mighty Dow said that what is more disturbing to him is that the organizers mainly Peter Gittens and Fredrick Morton have chosen to lie on him claiming that he wanted $15,000 to perform during the TEMPO Turns 7 concerts. Dow said he did have a conversation with MP La Ville and threw out that figure but he submitted an invoice for $9.500 and later reduced it to $6000.00. The local music icon said he even emailed Peter Gittens and told him he was willing to accept his payment in installments if TEMPO did not have all the monies at one time but Gittens never responded to his email. York said while the promoters are talking about how much monies they asked for, he wants the promoters to tell the people of St. Maarten how much monies they are paying the foreign musicians to perform during the TEMPO Turns 7 concerts. "We need Gittens and Morton to show us how much they are paying the Mighty Sparrow and what will the Mighty Sparrow do during his performance. Show us the documents because our government invested $400.000.00 of the tax-payers monies for this show to take place on St. Maarten," Dow said.
The Mighty Dow said that during the meeting with the promoters they were told that TEMPO wants them to perform for $0. He also told SMN News that the Minister of Finance Roland Tuitt agreed to pay $23,000.00 to the ten local artists that were scheduled to participate, but the Finance Minister did not tell them how and when they would be paid. "All we got from the Minister of Finance is a promise that we will be paid this amount, but the Minister did not say when we will be paid or how we will get paid."
Sir York said La Ville claims he has an agreement with the local artists and he is calling on La Ville to produce the agreement because for him an agreement is when there is something on black and white. The Mighty Dow said that the MP accused the local artists of calling in the media last Thursday night but he wants to make clear he did not invite the media to the meeting. He said he does not know why a particular reporter was at the location that night and the reporter asked them for a statement and they gave the reporter a statement. "I want La Ville to know that he cannot tell us who to talk to or when to talk. This man is supposed to be my representative and the way he spoke "attacked" me on Friday inside the government building shows that he has no respect for anyone. I also want to know why La Ville is in every meeting for the TEMPO Turns 7 because he is involved in all the meetings and organizing the show and the only reason behind this is because La Ville is benefiting from the show in one way or another."
Sir Isidore York (Mighty Dow) is a recipient of the lifetime achievement award from the International World Music Awards and he was Knighted by the House of Oranje earlier this year.