Gold FM’s Supreme Sham
The original Supremes
By Abdul H. Azeez
The much publicised ‘The Supremes’ concert held yesterday did not, in fact, feature ‘The Supremes’ at all.
The group purported to be ‘The Supremes’ was in fact a cover/tribute band known as ‘Sounds of the Supremes’. The band that performed, is headed supposedly by a former member of The Supremes known as Kaaren Ragland, when in fact Ragland had never performed with the original line up of The Supremes at all.
Gold FM together with its print media partners, however, billed the band as ‘The Supremes’ giving the impression to long time fans of the band that it was in fact the original Supremes and not a tribute band that was performing. Speaking to The Sunday Leader, the General Manager Programmes – Gold FM, Nilan Kaluaarachchi said that “the band billed is the original Supremes, it is not a cover band.” When asked about the web notification on the website of a band named ‘Sounds of the Supremes’ billing them to perform in Colombo on the same day as Gold FM’s purported ‘Supremes’, he said that “The name ‘Sounds of the Supremes’ must simply be a tagline that they use.”
Such ignorance on the part of the very organisers of the concert is highly unlikely and we are forced to face the possibility that Gold FM actively sought to defraud its customers by giving them false information about the concert. Correct information as to the status of The Supremes and Ragland’s cover band is amply available on the internet to anyone willing to go to the trouble of Googling their name and one wonders if the people that attended the concert forking out their hard earned cash for tickets even realised that they were seeing a diminutive tribute band that was far from the real thing.
Their assertion that Kaaren Ragland performed with the band during its latter stages would also be open to debate among loyal fans. The band known as The Supremes no longer exists. The famous Motown records group broke up in 1977 with its infamous lead singer branching off to a successful and controversial solo career. Original member of The Supremes, Mary Wilson then started a world tour and it was as a back-up singer for this tour that Ragland was hired. Mary Wilson continued to tour with Ragland and another back up female singer until the mid-’80s. It was at this point that Ragland started the band Sounds of the Supremes, in 1989. The move sparked a bitter lawsuit between Mary Wilson and Ragland with the former insisting that any artist who hadn’t performed with The Supremes and wasn’t signed by Motown should not be allowed to use the name The Supremes. Ragland however, insisted that the group ‘carried on’ after its break up and was billed as The Supremes even during Wilson’s tour. The court ultimately decided in Ragland’s favour, but only allowed her to use the name Sounds of the Supremes. The website for the Sounds of the Supremes, together with the date listing their performance in Colombo can be found at this address: http://www.soundsofthesupremes.com/appearance.htm. Tribute bands have performed in Sri Lanka before, but they have always been billed as such and not the original thing. The fraudulent nature of Gold FM’s publicity for this event must be taken seriously by the authorities and concert-goers alike.
Shoudn’t you be praying and fasting in this month of Ramadan Halik Azeez? Instead of writing gutter trash??
AFTER RAMADAN WILL YOU FEED HIM FOR LIFE
There are cheaters everywhere from the top. why do you expect GOLD FM act differently. It’s owned by another cheater from the main cheater’s side.
The only good thing about this concert is that we don’t need to listen to those stupid advertisements every 5 minutes anymore.
This article is actually accurate. Gold FM should be shot for charging people Rs10000 stating they will be watching the Supreme’s perform and then show the Sounds of Supremes.
The link below proves it. The lady who performed in SL says her band is different from the Supremes
http://tri-statedefenderonline.com/articlelive/articles/581/1/Supremes-drama-continues-as-Dreamgirls-opening-nears/Page1.html
Shame on you GOLD FM
Puran Appus statement is absolutely correct. Gold FM has all the rotten eggs and is well known for being corrupt. If an investigation into this station is conducted it will be found that they are upto all kinds of tricks including the high ups making use of young good looking females. It is well known but nothing is being done. Sri Lanka is corrupt so nothing will ever be done and that is why our country is going down in moral standards and everything else day by day. OUR SO CALLED BUDDHIST COUNTRY!!!!
All these so called z-grade cover bands come to an under developed country like SL because it is easy to screw the public and no one will ever know. Obviously it is different where I live. I just saw the REAL Beyonce and U2 live three weeks ago.
Sri Lanka is a third world under developed country that other countries and their counterfeit bands can take advantage of. Oh I just watched the real Lady Gaga last week in my paradise western country ………….haaa…
It was a supreme scam! They should change name to BSFM.
What more can you expect from a station run by drug dealers. These are the scum of society. R.Silva the the dealer and D.Silva the provider. Their past speak for themselves, Rapists, child abusers, molesters, homo’s, you name it the have it. What is a little cheating by the side? All in a day’s work. But when Sunday comes around you find this Scum in Church. Maggots there is a specially reserved place in hell for the likes of you.
I see. In that case, their name should be SCUM FM.
Why do we always critique , Gold gives us superb music 24 hrs , and they are only people to give us any live foreign entertainment.Why dont you talk about how fantastic the Drifters were, may be you have not even heard about the drifters.
24 hour entertainment – my foot! This is how the line up is :
[ news highlights]
[ CIC chicken, NDB bank, Sampath hit saver, Anlene, ...]
[ news broadcast - speech extract from a ruling party politician]
[ CIC chicken, NDB bank, Sampath hit saver, Anlene ...]
song – I have a dream
[ CIC chicken, NDB bank, Sampath hit saver, Anlene, ...]
[ news highlights]
[ advert on goldfm news alerts]
[ CIC chicken, NDB bank, Sampath hit saver, Anlene, ...]
song – nikita (again)
[ news broadcast - speech extract from another ruling party politician]
[ CIC chicken, NDB bank, Sampath hit saver, Anlene, ...]
[ news highlights]