Bonnie, I know nothing of the music or the personal life of Bob Brozman, so I've been reading all this stuff - here and on other forums - with a reasonably open mind. And I've kept silent because of my lack of any real knowledge of the situation.

The one question, however, that kept privately re-occurring to me and kept nagging at me me was precisely the one that's hit you: why would people like Gary Atkinson (for example) and others, put their heads above the parapet and make the statements that they made if there wasn't some good reason for doing so? There is no financial gain to be made and, as we have seen, there's a real risk of being thoroughly trashed publicly by the pro-Brozman contingent.

I was very interested to read Duck Baker's comments on Mudcat. I know Duck (through promoting a concert for him and in other casual conversations) and consider him to be a person of absolute integrity and honesty. I can't imagine that Duck would publicly state what he stated without a reasonable understanding of the Brozman situation.

For those that say, "why now - why not at the time?", I can only suppose that money, lawsuits, gagging orders and horrendous publicity for those affected would have been a good reason for staying silent. Look at all those people in the Savile case who only dared to shout out after he was dead, or who were ignored or told that they must be imagining things at the time.

What was quite sad for me was the showing of Wood Mann's excellent film about the life of the Reverend Gary Davis ("Harlem Street Singer") at the Ropetackle in Shoreham (Sussex) last Tuesday. Among the talking heads in the documentary was Bob Brozman. Every time he appeared, the forum discussions and allegations about him kept popping into my head... quite distracting, I have to say.