Press

Gogo gone from the Junos

Latest in 'a cavalcade of errors' sees recording academy drop B.C.

By GUY DIXON - GLOBE & MAIL
Tuesday, March 2, 2004

British Columbia-based blues guitarist David Gogo is taking his belatedly announced ineligibility for a Juno Award in stride, even if other record-industry watchers say he should have received better treatment.

Late Friday, the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which organizes the Junos, dropped Gogo 's Live at Deer Lake from the list of five nominees for blues album of the year. Even though the album had made it through the early selection stages, all the way to being nominated on Feb. 11, it was suddenly dropped Friday because it apparently wasn't eligible. The record was replaced with The Rockit 88 Band's Too Much Fun.

"I think I'm the most calm about it," Gogo said, recalling that when he was first up for a Juno years ago, he wound up being dumped by his label after the ceremony. Then when he won a West Coast Music Award, it arrived broken in the mail. And after winning guitarist of the year at last year's Maple Blues Awards, a woman dropped it on the "this is par for the course."

Michael Burke, who runs Gogo's label, Cordova Bay Records in Victoria, said the confusion stemmed from unclear wording on the Internet application that record companies use for the Junos.

For a record to qualify in the blues-album category, at least 25 per cent of the material has to be previously unreleased. Live at Deer Lake contains brand new, live recordings of songs which Gogo has performed on previous albums, Burke said. The application uses the term "cuts," Burke said, which he believed meant performances. But another page on the Juno site refers to them as "songs," or compositions rather

Burke had dinner with Gogo Friday night between gigs and said that the guitarist was disappointed, but that Gogo would still perform as part of the three-day music showcase in Edmonton leading up to the awards on April 4. Gogo, who is working on material for a new album due out as soon as this summer, is thinking of attending the ceremony "Disqualified."

This announcement came two weeks after another gaffe in the nominating process, when Nickelback was belatedly added as a special sixth nominee for album of the year. Apparently, a data-entry error resulted in Nickelback's The Long Road exclusion from that category. CARAS has said that inclusion in that category is based automatically on sales and that the winner is then selected by CARAS members. However, the nominations are actually based on the number of records shipped to stores, CARAS confirmed.

Regardless, The Long Road has been in stores long enough to get high enough numbers in either case and it should have automatically been included from the start, said Larry Leblanc, Canadian bureau chief for Billboard.

"I think this is a cavalcade of errors, and it's interesting "he said.

Different rules are applied to different categories. The nominations and eventual winner for blues album of the year is chosen through two rounds of voting. There are no sales qualifications, says CARAS.

The difference is in the damage control. Nickelback was given a special berth. No other nominee for album of the year was dropped, even though it is believed that Nelly Furtado's Folklore, which was released in late November and nearer the eligibility deadline, would likely have been the one to go. Gogo's Live at Deer Lake, though, wasn't allowed to stay among the nominees.

The Juno Awards try to foster Canadian talent and the careers of Canadian musicians, and it seemed to me that there might have been "Burke said.

Leisa Peacock, manager of awards and events at CARAS, said that the organization thought about letting Gogo's nomination stand. "But it wouldn't be right for something to be honoured if it wasn't eligible," she