March 26, 2014

Digable Planets "Excerpt from Tour Manual" (Summer '93)


In the summer of 1993, Digable Planets joined Sade on a national tour, promoting their debut album "Reachin (A New Refutation of Time & Space)." I caught a glimpse of the tour manual that was supplied to the artists from the road manager at the time. It included this note in the inside fold, which as an artist manager myself, was always something I kept close as a reminder: "Continuous moaning and whining is uncalled for. If a situation arises that causes a problem - don't just moan, come and see me and I will do my very best to resolve the situation. I am here to help you, but cannot do anything unless I know about it. We have a great group of people on this tour and I am looking forward to working with all of you. Thanks for listening." Yes, conflict resolution is an important job for any manager - especially with multiple people involved, things can get crazy.