“…My friend and I came up with the idea of letting the fans say goodbye. Open up the entire GBS catalo to online voting by the fans. Each fan can create their own "Great Big Sea Top 40 Countdown" and submit it online. The results would then be tallied, but never revealed publicly. On July 1 (of whatever year we can make this happen), also known as Canada Day, in the nation's capital of Ottawa, Great Big Sea would get back together for one final show - Darrell included - to perform four sets: 40-31, 30-21, 20-11, and 10-1, all as voted on by the fans. At the conclusion of the show, the b'ys would take their final bow and sign off on the paperwork (on stage) to officially call it a career as Great Big Sea. It would be the send off they, and the fans, deserve…”
The post attracted 50 comments. I agree with a number of fans who posted that it is time for fans to move on until the original members of Great Big Sea decide what the future holds for them as a group.
As the Great Big Sea update posts on my blog containing comments made by Bob Hallett on this fan site about the current state of Great Big Sea have continued to be visited on a regular basis over the past couple of years, I decided to put his latest comments here.
I decided not to include any of the fan discussion or comments that lead Bob Hallett to contribute, as this can be found on the post and Facebook page and for copyright and privacy reasons.
The posts are in Bob Hallett’s own words. I have included a lovely Bobber selfie taken recently on a trip to New York. The selfie is from the official Bob Hallett Twitter account. No copyright infringement intended.
“…The one and only reason GBS is not operating in some fashion is because Sean does not want/has made it very difficult for it to do so. To reiterate, the band is controlled by a NL based corporation, which is owned by myself, Alan & Sean on a three way basis. Sean has made it clear in various exchanges & through various manoeuvres that he wished the band to stop, and has also made it clear that he will actively oppose any other scenarios. Alan has made it clear that he has no desire to legally contend with Sean, and given it is unlikely that we could work with Sean again in his current state of mind, Alan wishes to focus on his solo career. So here we are…
…Also, to be clear, we have never talked about this at all. When we played our last show in Moncton, no one except Sean thought that was it. Nothing has really changed on that front. Contrary to popular belief, there is no big team around the band, it is just the three of us and Louis Thomas, and Sean has not talked to either of us in almost two years. Despite our troubles, GBS is the least complicated band ever…
…Why would we have known? The rest of us did not quit/break up, nor have we subsequently. Sean decided to leave, and immediately sent us letters from his lawyers threatening lawsuits if we did not do whatever it is he wants. We have not done anything, really, other than ignore them. That's pretty well it. To be honest, we are not even clear on what his issues/concerns/demands are anymore, as what he told us at the time and what he has said in various interviews are not the same. It's all bit ridiculous, really…
He told us in the winter of 2012 that he no longer wanted to be a shareholder in the band, and that he wanted to be an employee like Murray & Chris. We agreed to work it out after the tour. On the day of the Orillia concert, while we were on a flight, he tweeted that he was quitting. He did not say a word to us before or after as to why he had made that decision… The truth is a bit weird, but none of this is a secret…”
