Westpoint Financial Services was a Property Development Company that called for people to invest in their organisation, at the promise of great returns and wealth creation. Some 3000 people ranging from Retirees to Young Families did indeed invest with Westpoint, many after soliciting advice from Financial Planners, and instead of the financial boost this investment promised to offer, it bought financial ruin to many. The company collapsed in late 2005 owing these 3000 investors more than $300 million. (Cooper 2006, 28)
My intention in this essay is to discuss the ethical behaviour of all the parties involved in Westpoint and those of the Financial Planners, and try to gain an understanding of this most serious company collapse. First I will discuss the facts of the case and offer a timeline which goes through the events of the collapse, as without these we cannot truly have an understanding of this situation.
The facts
The money from the investors was raised through promissory notes, offering a 12% return, in mezzanine companies, such as The Ann Street Mezzanine, The York Street Mezzanine and The Emu Brewery Mezzanine, from 2001-2004. The notes were sold through Financial Planners who were paid high commissions; the money received was supposed to be used for residential projects i.e. apartment buildings in Melbourne and Perth but was funnelled through separate companies to sustain other projects. (McCarthy and Charles 2006, 27)
The timeline of Collapse
*• May, 2004 – ASIC acts on mezzanine finance structure and questions as to whether the promissory notes offered by the Emu Brewing Mezzanine Company should have been offered as debentures and why a PDS or prospectus was not issued by Westpoint.
*• November, 2005 – ASIC commences legal proceedings to wind up the York Street mezzanine due to significant shortfall in assets over liabilities.
*• December, 2005 – ASIC seeks appointment of provisional liquidator for the Ann Street mezzanine and an application for a company wind up on the grounds of insolvency.
*• January, 2006 – Westpoint appoints Taylor Woodings as voluntary administrator.
*• February, 2006 – Perth Federal Court orders wind up of Westpoint following ASIC application.
*• March, 2006 – ASIC orders the assets of Westpoint directors to be frozen. This includes Norm Carey, Graeme Rundle, John Dixon and Cedric Palmer Beck.
*• April, 2006 – ASIC commences proceeding to have the Cinema City Mezzanine Pty Ltd wound up.
*• December, 2006 – First criminal charges are bought against Neil Burnard. He is alleged to have raised investor funds on behalf of Westpoint by his company Kebbel (NSW) Pty Ltd. ASIC alleged that he “engaged in dishonest conduct in the course of carrying on a financial services business, namely providing financial product advice, by representing to investors that ‘Kebbel Investment Bank’ existed when in fact no such entity existed” (Information for Westpoint Group Investors 2006) .ASIC had previously obtained orders from the Supreme Court of NSW to prevent Mr. Burnard leaving the country, and to surrender his passports. This was done in urgency after ASIC learned Mr Burnard had in fact boarded a plane to the USA; he was however refused entry into the USA and was sent back to Australia.
*• December, 2006 – an urgent application by ASIC is made to the Supreme Court of NSW against Ms Jennifer Lee Robbins, wife of Neil Burnard and BDI Pty Ltd. Orders were made to prevent both Ms Robbins and BDI from selling any properties without first giving ASIC 14 days notice.
*• September, 2007 – Mr Neil Burnard is committed to stand trial on 11 charges bought by ASIC.
In a Statement made by the ASIC Chairman Tony D’Aloisio (2007) it has further been revealed that, since May 2007 ASIC is investigating 2 unlicensed Financial Planners, 6 licensed Financial Planners and 5 authorised representatives. An article in The Advertiser from September 21st 2007 explains that 2 Financial Planners have now been banned by ASIC from offering financial advice, due to the advice they gave to clients in relation to Westpoint. Annemieke De Boer of Shenton Park WA has been banned for life and Glenn Davis from Point Cook VIC has been banned for 5 years. (Advisors banned over Westpoint involvement 2007)
What did ASIC do to prevent this?
ASIC has been heavily criticised for not doing enough to protect the interests of the investors, however they claimed they were unable to stop Westpoint from issuing the promissory notes, that they had a lack of power in this instance and that it was the responsibility of Financial Planners to inform the investors of the risks, not ASIC. They were told in 2002 of about the controversial notes but only acted in 2004 when they became aware of insolvency within the group. (McCarthy and Charles 2006, 27)
Ethical Concepts
Ethics refers to standards about what is right and what is wrong and what we ought to do; in terms of benefits to society, fairness and obligations to others. It is also a study and development of our own ethical standards. (Velasquez et al 1987)
There are many concepts within the study of business ethics, I have chosen to discuss three that are most relevant to the Westpoint story, these, are dirty hands, teleopathy and stakeholders.
*The concept of dirty hands is highly relevant to the collapse of Westpoint. It is widely accepted that if you are in business that you will at some point have to get you hands dirty, but does our own moral compass not regulate this?
The Financial Planners that recommended Westpoint to their clients, at a fee, are surely guilty of having dirty hands. Although the majority of blame lies with the directors; Norm Carey, Graeme Rundle, John Dixon and Cedric Palmer Beck, several of the Financial Planners (who let us not forget have since been charged or otherwise reprimanded by the courts) knowingly gave poor advice to those who knew no better, and collected a nice fat fee for giving it.
These qualified men and women, who have an understanding of basic Economics and Finance, would have known, just by looking into the mezzanine companies and promissory notes that this company was not operating properly and there was something wrong. But still they told their clients to invest their money with Westpoint and that they would be much better off from doing so. I am certainly not advocating Westpoint’s directors, for they above all else knew they would fail with this scheme, but there are other people whose hands are just as dirty as theirs.
*The second concept relevant here is that of teleopathy. Goodpaster (2004 1-8) explains teleopathy to be an unbalanced pursuit of organisational goals, and in it’s most serious of forms can lead to the deferral of our own ethical awareness in a decision making process.
He explains that it affects perception, reasoning and action in the way we see things. When this happens, the way we look at things and pursue that which is important, can be myopic.
Can we say that in the pursuit of wealth and success the directors of Westpoint were indeed suffering from teleopathy? They of all knew that the mezzanine companies were unstable; they of all knew that the money that was coming in from Mum and Dad investors was not, as was promised in their glossy brochures and fancy seminars, going toward building apartments across Australia, but was being funnelled through their company to prop up other projects. (McCarthy and Charles 2006, 27)
Let us please not use this concept of teleopathy to excuse these men, but instead let us use it to understand why people in the business world can behave in a manner that is dishonest, that is unlawful and that is unethical.
*The third and final concept I will examine is that of the Stakeholder. Grace and Cohen (2007, 53) define the stakeholder as “a group or individual who can affect, or is affected by, the achievement of the corporations purpose”. We can identify some poignant stakeholders of Westpoint
*• The employees of Westpoint – all of whom lost their jobs as a result of the collapse
*• The investors of Westpoint – all of whom lost their money as a result of the collapse.
*• The Directors – who were responsible for the collapse
*• The Financial Planners – who certainly affected Westpoint by advising their clients to invest.
*• The community – each and every one of us, we have a legitimate interest in how businesses earn a profit and as such we were all affected by the collapse.
This entire group was affected by Westpoint and its collapse, either directly like the employees and the investors or indirectly like the community. So did Westpoint fail in its social responsibility to its stakeholders? I believe we can find that they did.
Grace and Cohen (2007, 68) sum this concept up well in that it calls attention to other people that are affected by a company decision. It also gives shows us a way to comprehend two assumptions in society:
*1. People have a right to be told about things that will be done to them and have any risks presented to them.
*2. People should be asked for their consent before an action is taken that will affect them, be it that they are third parties, like the community or directly affected like the employees
In summary:
Being an ethical person is not the same as being a lawful person. We have found that the directors of Westpoint and the Financial Planners involved were neither.
I hope by writing this paper I have not only shed some light on the ethical implications of the Westpoint collapse but also reached at least one person that reads this, and hopefully by us all gaining a greater understanding of such a spectacular financial collapse we will not see Australian investors so badly burnt again.
My intention in this essay is to discuss the ethical behaviour of all the parties involved in Westpoint and those of the Financial Planners, and try to gain an understanding of this most serious company collapse. First I will discuss the facts of the case and offer a timeline which goes through the events of the collapse, as without these we cannot truly have an understanding of this situation.
The facts
The money from the investors was raised through promissory notes, offering a 12% return, in mezzanine companies, such as The Ann Street Mezzanine, The York Street Mezzanine and The Emu Brewery Mezzanine, from 2001-2004. The notes were sold through Financial Planners who were paid high commissions; the money received was supposed to be used for residential projects i.e. apartment buildings in Melbourne and Perth but was funnelled through separate companies to sustain other projects. (McCarthy and Charles 2006, 27)
The timeline of Collapse
*• May, 2004 – ASIC acts on mezzanine finance structure and questions as to whether the promissory notes offered by the Emu Brewing Mezzanine Company should have been offered as debentures and why a PDS or prospectus was not issued by Westpoint.
*• November, 2005 – ASIC commences legal proceedings to wind up the York Street mezzanine due to significant shortfall in assets over liabilities.
*• December, 2005 – ASIC seeks appointment of provisional liquidator for the Ann Street mezzanine and an application for a company wind up on the grounds of insolvency.
*• January, 2006 – Westpoint appoints Taylor Woodings as voluntary administrator.
*• February, 2006 – Perth Federal Court orders wind up of Westpoint following ASIC application.
*• March, 2006 – ASIC orders the assets of Westpoint directors to be frozen. This includes Norm Carey, Graeme Rundle, John Dixon and Cedric Palmer Beck.
*• April, 2006 – ASIC commences proceeding to have the Cinema City Mezzanine Pty Ltd wound up.
*• December, 2006 – First criminal charges are bought against Neil Burnard. He is alleged to have raised investor funds on behalf of Westpoint by his company Kebbel (NSW) Pty Ltd. ASIC alleged that he “engaged in dishonest conduct in the course of carrying on a financial services business, namely providing financial product advice, by representing to investors that ‘Kebbel Investment Bank’ existed when in fact no such entity existed” (Information for Westpoint Group Investors 2006) .ASIC had previously obtained orders from the Supreme Court of NSW to prevent Mr. Burnard leaving the country, and to surrender his passports. This was done in urgency after ASIC learned Mr Burnard had in fact boarded a plane to the USA; he was however refused entry into the USA and was sent back to Australia.
*• December, 2006 – an urgent application by ASIC is made to the Supreme Court of NSW against Ms Jennifer Lee Robbins, wife of Neil Burnard and BDI Pty Ltd. Orders were made to prevent both Ms Robbins and BDI from selling any properties without first giving ASIC 14 days notice.
*• September, 2007 – Mr Neil Burnard is committed to stand trial on 11 charges bought by ASIC.
In a Statement made by the ASIC Chairman Tony D’Aloisio (2007) it has further been revealed that, since May 2007 ASIC is investigating 2 unlicensed Financial Planners, 6 licensed Financial Planners and 5 authorised representatives. An article in The Advertiser from September 21st 2007 explains that 2 Financial Planners have now been banned by ASIC from offering financial advice, due to the advice they gave to clients in relation to Westpoint. Annemieke De Boer of Shenton Park WA has been banned for life and Glenn Davis from Point Cook VIC has been banned for 5 years. (Advisors banned over Westpoint involvement 2007)
What did ASIC do to prevent this?
ASIC has been heavily criticised for not doing enough to protect the interests of the investors, however they claimed they were unable to stop Westpoint from issuing the promissory notes, that they had a lack of power in this instance and that it was the responsibility of Financial Planners to inform the investors of the risks, not ASIC. They were told in 2002 of about the controversial notes but only acted in 2004 when they became aware of insolvency within the group. (McCarthy and Charles 2006, 27)
Ethical Concepts
Ethics refers to standards about what is right and what is wrong and what we ought to do; in terms of benefits to society, fairness and obligations to others. It is also a study and development of our own ethical standards. (Velasquez et al 1987)
There are many concepts within the study of business ethics, I have chosen to discuss three that are most relevant to the Westpoint story, these, are dirty hands, teleopathy and stakeholders.
*The concept of dirty hands is highly relevant to the collapse of Westpoint. It is widely accepted that if you are in business that you will at some point have to get you hands dirty, but does our own moral compass not regulate this?
The Financial Planners that recommended Westpoint to their clients, at a fee, are surely guilty of having dirty hands. Although the majority of blame lies with the directors; Norm Carey, Graeme Rundle, John Dixon and Cedric Palmer Beck, several of the Financial Planners (who let us not forget have since been charged or otherwise reprimanded by the courts) knowingly gave poor advice to those who knew no better, and collected a nice fat fee for giving it.
These qualified men and women, who have an understanding of basic Economics and Finance, would have known, just by looking into the mezzanine companies and promissory notes that this company was not operating properly and there was something wrong. But still they told their clients to invest their money with Westpoint and that they would be much better off from doing so. I am certainly not advocating Westpoint’s directors, for they above all else knew they would fail with this scheme, but there are other people whose hands are just as dirty as theirs.
*The second concept relevant here is that of teleopathy. Goodpaster (2004 1-8) explains teleopathy to be an unbalanced pursuit of organisational goals, and in it’s most serious of forms can lead to the deferral of our own ethical awareness in a decision making process.
He explains that it affects perception, reasoning and action in the way we see things. When this happens, the way we look at things and pursue that which is important, can be myopic.
Can we say that in the pursuit of wealth and success the directors of Westpoint were indeed suffering from teleopathy? They of all knew that the mezzanine companies were unstable; they of all knew that the money that was coming in from Mum and Dad investors was not, as was promised in their glossy brochures and fancy seminars, going toward building apartments across Australia, but was being funnelled through their company to prop up other projects. (McCarthy and Charles 2006, 27)
Let us please not use this concept of teleopathy to excuse these men, but instead let us use it to understand why people in the business world can behave in a manner that is dishonest, that is unlawful and that is unethical.
*The third and final concept I will examine is that of the Stakeholder. Grace and Cohen (2007, 53) define the stakeholder as “a group or individual who can affect, or is affected by, the achievement of the corporations purpose”. We can identify some poignant stakeholders of Westpoint
*• The employees of Westpoint – all of whom lost their jobs as a result of the collapse
*• The investors of Westpoint – all of whom lost their money as a result of the collapse.
*• The Directors – who were responsible for the collapse
*• The Financial Planners – who certainly affected Westpoint by advising their clients to invest.
*• The community – each and every one of us, we have a legitimate interest in how businesses earn a profit and as such we were all affected by the collapse.
This entire group was affected by Westpoint and its collapse, either directly like the employees and the investors or indirectly like the community. So did Westpoint fail in its social responsibility to its stakeholders? I believe we can find that they did.
Grace and Cohen (2007, 68) sum this concept up well in that it calls attention to other people that are affected by a company decision. It also gives shows us a way to comprehend two assumptions in society:
*1. People have a right to be told about things that will be done to them and have any risks presented to them.
*2. People should be asked for their consent before an action is taken that will affect them, be it that they are third parties, like the community or directly affected like the employees
In summary:
Being an ethical person is not the same as being a lawful person. We have found that the directors of Westpoint and the Financial Planners involved were neither.
I hope by writing this paper I have not only shed some light on the ethical implications of the Westpoint collapse but also reached at least one person that reads this, and hopefully by us all gaining a greater understanding of such a spectacular financial collapse we will not see Australian investors so badly burnt again.
Hugo Kelly (b. 29 April 1967) is an Australian journalist. He is most notable for his contributions to independent online Australian news service, Crikey, from which he was sacked in February, 2006.
Early life and education
Hugo Kelly, born in London, is the son of Melbourne-born Elizabeth Kelly, and South African lawyer Beverly Botha. At three, he and his mother moved to Australia. Kelly attended Sunshine West Primary School and Essendon Grammar. He studied journalism at RMIT and Arts at the University of Melbourne and later undertook postgraduate studies in Media at Monash University.
Media career
Early media career
Aged 17, Kelly was offered a cadetship at The Age. There, he worked with Sports editor Michael Gordon. At the Canberra bureau of The Age, he worked with Michelle Grattan. In May 1988, he interviewed the Queen of Australia during her visit to inaugurate the new Parliament House. He was later promoted to C-grading and a post as The Ages transport reporter. He covered the 1989 tram strike and he was at the Aérospatiale tent when a Russian MiG 29 fighter jet crashed just 100 metres away, which he subsequently reported on.
1999 Victorian election
In 1999 Kelly assisted a former Age colleague Stephen Mayne to nominate as an independent candidate in Victorian Liberal Party leader Jeff Kennett's then safe seat of Burwood. Part of the campaign strategy was a website, jeffed.com, in which Mayne, a former Kennett advisor, outlined his criticisms of the Kennett government. The campaign was abruptly aborted when Mayne was ruled ineligible to stand by the Australian Electoral Commission, but work continued on the website and it played a minor role in the surprise defeat of the Kennett government that year .
Crikey tenure
On 14 February 2000, Stephen Mayne launched the Crikey website, with Kelly contributing. Kelly opened Crikey's Parliament House bureau in the Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery in 2004 and continued to contribute regularly until 13 February 2006, when he was sacked, according to Eric Beecher "because of his unprofessionalism as a journalist".
Early life and education
Hugo Kelly, born in London, is the son of Melbourne-born Elizabeth Kelly, and South African lawyer Beverly Botha. At three, he and his mother moved to Australia. Kelly attended Sunshine West Primary School and Essendon Grammar. He studied journalism at RMIT and Arts at the University of Melbourne and later undertook postgraduate studies in Media at Monash University.
Media career
Early media career
Aged 17, Kelly was offered a cadetship at The Age. There, he worked with Sports editor Michael Gordon. At the Canberra bureau of The Age, he worked with Michelle Grattan. In May 1988, he interviewed the Queen of Australia during her visit to inaugurate the new Parliament House. He was later promoted to C-grading and a post as The Ages transport reporter. He covered the 1989 tram strike and he was at the Aérospatiale tent when a Russian MiG 29 fighter jet crashed just 100 metres away, which he subsequently reported on.
1999 Victorian election
In 1999 Kelly assisted a former Age colleague Stephen Mayne to nominate as an independent candidate in Victorian Liberal Party leader Jeff Kennett's then safe seat of Burwood. Part of the campaign strategy was a website, jeffed.com, in which Mayne, a former Kennett advisor, outlined his criticisms of the Kennett government. The campaign was abruptly aborted when Mayne was ruled ineligible to stand by the Australian Electoral Commission, but work continued on the website and it played a minor role in the surprise defeat of the Kennett government that year .
Crikey tenure
On 14 February 2000, Stephen Mayne launched the Crikey website, with Kelly contributing. Kelly opened Crikey's Parliament House bureau in the Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery in 2004 and continued to contribute regularly until 13 February 2006, when he was sacked, according to Eric Beecher "because of his unprofessionalism as a journalist".
RoboticRodeo (informally abbreviated "RR") is an internet software firm established in 2006 mainly famous for their latest web products RadiantBoard — a forum software, InfernoBlog — as the name suggests, a Weblog software. Software designed by RoboticRodeo since 2007 utilizes modern web technology such as AJAX and RSS. Other RoboticRodeo products include TimberWolf Content Management, Trinity, and Cheese.
Products
TimberWolf Content Management
TimberWolf Content Management, sometimes abbreviated "TWcms" is a Content Management System such as Drupal, , and others. TimberWolf Content Management is written in PHP, making use of MySQL for database support. TimberWolf Content Management is, according to RoboticRodeo Lead Software Developer Tejas Kumar, currently being redeveloped from the ground up due to relatively primitive features, and unclean code.
RadiantBoard
RadiantBoard, sometimes abbreviated "rB" or "RB", is a Forum Software such as phpBB, vBulletin, and many others. RadiantBoard is coded in PHP, and runs on a MySQL database. RadiantBoard uses a large amount of modern web technology such as AJAX. Almost immediately after its release, RadiantBoard v1.0 faced a large amount of bad criticism due to a lack of necessary features, and a considerable amount of bugs, which Lead Software Developer Tejas Kumar says will be fixed in its next major release, v1.5.
Trinity
Trinity, RoboticRodeo's third product, is a download manager such as paFileDB written in PHP and uses a MySQL database. Trinity supports multiple file categories, multiple file formats and makes sufficient use of AJAX.
InfernoBlog
InfernoBlog, sometimes abbreviated "IB", is a Weblog software and RoboticRodeo's newest and most successful product to date. As other software from RoboticRodeo, InfernoBlog is written in PHP. InfernoBlog takes advantage of MySQL for database transactions. InfernoBlog makes use of AJAX as well, allowing blog administrators to drag and drop various items on their blog to sort them, as well as in-place editing and other features.
RoboticRodeo Management
*Tejas Kumar — Founder/Lead Software Designer & Developer
*Lee McKendrick — Lead Software Tester
Products
TimberWolf Content Management
TimberWolf Content Management, sometimes abbreviated "TWcms" is a Content Management System such as Drupal, , and others. TimberWolf Content Management is written in PHP, making use of MySQL for database support. TimberWolf Content Management is, according to RoboticRodeo Lead Software Developer Tejas Kumar, currently being redeveloped from the ground up due to relatively primitive features, and unclean code.
RadiantBoard
RadiantBoard, sometimes abbreviated "rB" or "RB", is a Forum Software such as phpBB, vBulletin, and many others. RadiantBoard is coded in PHP, and runs on a MySQL database. RadiantBoard uses a large amount of modern web technology such as AJAX. Almost immediately after its release, RadiantBoard v1.0 faced a large amount of bad criticism due to a lack of necessary features, and a considerable amount of bugs, which Lead Software Developer Tejas Kumar says will be fixed in its next major release, v1.5.
Trinity
Trinity, RoboticRodeo's third product, is a download manager such as paFileDB written in PHP and uses a MySQL database. Trinity supports multiple file categories, multiple file formats and makes sufficient use of AJAX.
InfernoBlog
InfernoBlog, sometimes abbreviated "IB", is a Weblog software and RoboticRodeo's newest and most successful product to date. As other software from RoboticRodeo, InfernoBlog is written in PHP. InfernoBlog takes advantage of MySQL for database transactions. InfernoBlog makes use of AJAX as well, allowing blog administrators to drag and drop various items on their blog to sort them, as well as in-place editing and other features.
RoboticRodeo Management
*Tejas Kumar — Founder/Lead Software Designer & Developer
*Lee McKendrick — Lead Software Tester
Origin: Bolton, England
Genre(s): Post Punk/New Wave
Label: Naked Records
Years active: 1980 – 1982
Que Bono was a short-lived four-piece punk/new wave band from Bolton, England, who was beginning to rise through the music scene at the beginning of the 1980s, only to flounder just as their success was about to begin.
History
Formed at the beginning of 1980 by Alan Maskell (formerly of the Waxworks) and Jane Devine & Peter Mulvhill (formerly of Victor Drago), they recruited local bassist Simon Hall, who just showed up for an audition.
The band began to write songs and started gigging around the Greater Manchester area, under the name of 'Rhythm Section' and soon generated an interested audience as they found their sound and started to build a loyal following. A name change was later suggested a few months later and they became ‘Que Bono’ which better suited their post punk/new wave sound.
Though-out 1980 the band gigged relentlessly and received a glowing review in Rock Life Magazine who likened them to Siouxsie & the Banshees and Bow Wow Wow. In October of that year, the band also cut a 5-track demo, recorded at the legendary Graveyard Studios in Manchester and sold a cassette version through Rock Life Magazine and the Jamm Studios to their local fan base. It was through this demo the band met Paul Tandy, a local music producer and promoter who was impressed enough to help manage the band and sign them up for a German tour, mainly in West Berlin, scheduled for the summer of the following year.
At the beginning of 1981 the band took up the offer to make a promotion video and included the tracks – ‘Siren Scream’, ‘Emelia’, ‘Electric Light’ & ‘Making Noise’. The video was shot in stark black and white at the UMIST in Manchester and was (at the time) deemed as cutting-edge for a band to do, as videos were still seen by many bands as gimmickry.
This wave of momentum led to band member Jane posted the demo of their songs to Kenny Dalglish (who was a football player for Liverpool FC at the time – John Peel’s favourite football team) in the hope he would follow her request and pass the demo to Peel. As luck turned out, he was only too happy to oblige and passed it on to John Peel. This also gathered a mention in John Peels’ autobiography ‘John Peel: Margrave of the Marshes’
‘Another resourceful outfit, Que Bono, found a unique way of
making their demo tape sparkle alluringly in the morning post-
bag: they mailed it to Kenny Dalglish, and requested that he
pass it on to John.’
This inventive move proved successful as the band was offered a Peel Session a few months later. The session was recorded in the summer of 1981 at the BBC Langham Studios in London and included the tracks – ‘Siren Scream’, ‘Twister’, ‘Houses’ & ‘Burtonwood’ and was broadcast on the John Peel Radio Show in the Autumn of that year.
To coincide with the broadcast of their Peel Session, Paul Tandy produced a double A single, that included the tracks – ‘Making Noise’ & ‘Emelia’. The single was released in the summer 1981 on the bands own label Naked Records, but performed poorly in the UK indie charts, due to the lack of support of radio and their Peel Session broadcast being put back until the Autumn.
However by July 1981, the band was playing to bigger audiences for their West German tour, which included a sold out night at the legendary Music Halle in Berlin. The release of the single proved a huge success in Germany, thanks mainly to the tour, it scored high in the German alternative music charts and for a while the band became indie darlings of the new German music scene.
After the tour of Germany, the band retreated back to their home town to rehearse and write some new songs. It was during this period that the tensions in the band started to grow, with arguments over musical direction and image, which led to cooling off period towards the end of 1981, but by the beginning of 1982, the band decided to call it day.
The final output of the band came in the April of 1982; at popular request their Peel Session was transmitted again.
Aftermath
Alan (guitars) went on to form Pressure (82-84) but went back to his DJ roots to ride the wave of the House Music / Superstar DJ culture in the late 1980s. During 90s he started promoting bands at the Manchester’s legendary Boardwalk and now owns & runs two Night-Clubs in Manchester.
Simon (bass) went on to join Pressure and after the demise of that band, turned to session playing while studying for his degree. He later came back to the music scene in the new millennium with rock outfit The Four Candles.
Jane (singer) went to form (with Peter) The D Notes (82-85) and had varying success with the band until she went solo in 1985 under the name of Jane Darling. Towards the late 80s Jane changed career from singing to acting and had short-lived theatre career, before taking back seat to raise a family.
Peter (drums) went on to The D Notes and after that bands decline, moved away from drums to play guitar in various bands, until settling for the jazz fusion band Big Heat - which has received acclaim all over the country and maintains a small, but loyal following.
Lineup
Jane Devine - vocals
Alan Maskell - guitars
Simon Hall - bass
Peter Mulvhill - drums
Discography
5-track Demo – ‘Siren Scream’ Que Bono 1980
‘Feedback Song’
‘Burtonwood’
‘Muddy Bath’
‘Electric Light’
‘Making Noise / Emelia’ Naked Records 1981
Que Bono Live Bootleg 1981
Videos
Que Bono: The Past is Present 1981 Naked Records 1982
Behind the music: This was Que Bono Stripy King Films 2007
Genre(s): Post Punk/New Wave
Label: Naked Records
Years active: 1980 – 1982
Que Bono was a short-lived four-piece punk/new wave band from Bolton, England, who was beginning to rise through the music scene at the beginning of the 1980s, only to flounder just as their success was about to begin.
History
Formed at the beginning of 1980 by Alan Maskell (formerly of the Waxworks) and Jane Devine & Peter Mulvhill (formerly of Victor Drago), they recruited local bassist Simon Hall, who just showed up for an audition.
The band began to write songs and started gigging around the Greater Manchester area, under the name of 'Rhythm Section' and soon generated an interested audience as they found their sound and started to build a loyal following. A name change was later suggested a few months later and they became ‘Que Bono’ which better suited their post punk/new wave sound.
Though-out 1980 the band gigged relentlessly and received a glowing review in Rock Life Magazine who likened them to Siouxsie & the Banshees and Bow Wow Wow. In October of that year, the band also cut a 5-track demo, recorded at the legendary Graveyard Studios in Manchester and sold a cassette version through Rock Life Magazine and the Jamm Studios to their local fan base. It was through this demo the band met Paul Tandy, a local music producer and promoter who was impressed enough to help manage the band and sign them up for a German tour, mainly in West Berlin, scheduled for the summer of the following year.
At the beginning of 1981 the band took up the offer to make a promotion video and included the tracks – ‘Siren Scream’, ‘Emelia’, ‘Electric Light’ & ‘Making Noise’. The video was shot in stark black and white at the UMIST in Manchester and was (at the time) deemed as cutting-edge for a band to do, as videos were still seen by many bands as gimmickry.
This wave of momentum led to band member Jane posted the demo of their songs to Kenny Dalglish (who was a football player for Liverpool FC at the time – John Peel’s favourite football team) in the hope he would follow her request and pass the demo to Peel. As luck turned out, he was only too happy to oblige and passed it on to John Peel. This also gathered a mention in John Peels’ autobiography ‘John Peel: Margrave of the Marshes’
‘Another resourceful outfit, Que Bono, found a unique way of
making their demo tape sparkle alluringly in the morning post-
bag: they mailed it to Kenny Dalglish, and requested that he
pass it on to John.’
This inventive move proved successful as the band was offered a Peel Session a few months later. The session was recorded in the summer of 1981 at the BBC Langham Studios in London and included the tracks – ‘Siren Scream’, ‘Twister’, ‘Houses’ & ‘Burtonwood’ and was broadcast on the John Peel Radio Show in the Autumn of that year.
To coincide with the broadcast of their Peel Session, Paul Tandy produced a double A single, that included the tracks – ‘Making Noise’ & ‘Emelia’. The single was released in the summer 1981 on the bands own label Naked Records, but performed poorly in the UK indie charts, due to the lack of support of radio and their Peel Session broadcast being put back until the Autumn.
However by July 1981, the band was playing to bigger audiences for their West German tour, which included a sold out night at the legendary Music Halle in Berlin. The release of the single proved a huge success in Germany, thanks mainly to the tour, it scored high in the German alternative music charts and for a while the band became indie darlings of the new German music scene.
After the tour of Germany, the band retreated back to their home town to rehearse and write some new songs. It was during this period that the tensions in the band started to grow, with arguments over musical direction and image, which led to cooling off period towards the end of 1981, but by the beginning of 1982, the band decided to call it day.
The final output of the band came in the April of 1982; at popular request their Peel Session was transmitted again.
Aftermath
Alan (guitars) went on to form Pressure (82-84) but went back to his DJ roots to ride the wave of the House Music / Superstar DJ culture in the late 1980s. During 90s he started promoting bands at the Manchester’s legendary Boardwalk and now owns & runs two Night-Clubs in Manchester.
Simon (bass) went on to join Pressure and after the demise of that band, turned to session playing while studying for his degree. He later came back to the music scene in the new millennium with rock outfit The Four Candles.
Jane (singer) went to form (with Peter) The D Notes (82-85) and had varying success with the band until she went solo in 1985 under the name of Jane Darling. Towards the late 80s Jane changed career from singing to acting and had short-lived theatre career, before taking back seat to raise a family.
Peter (drums) went on to The D Notes and after that bands decline, moved away from drums to play guitar in various bands, until settling for the jazz fusion band Big Heat - which has received acclaim all over the country and maintains a small, but loyal following.
Lineup
Jane Devine - vocals
Alan Maskell - guitars
Simon Hall - bass
Peter Mulvhill - drums
Discography
5-track Demo – ‘Siren Scream’ Que Bono 1980
‘Feedback Song’
‘Burtonwood’
‘Muddy Bath’
‘Electric Light’
‘Making Noise / Emelia’ Naked Records 1981
Que Bono Live Bootleg 1981
Videos
Que Bono: The Past is Present 1981 Naked Records 1982
Behind the music: This was Que Bono Stripy King Films 2007