Romany band Kale ends cooperation with signer Bila

Prague, 9. 9. 2005, 11:17 (CTK)

Kale, a well-known Czech Romany folk band, will terminate its cooperation with signer Vera Bila as she is no longer striving for art but seeking money, and her qualities as a singer have declined as well, Kale manager Jiri Smetana says in today's issue of Mlada fronta Dnes. When he established Kale, a five-member band, nine years ago, Smetana based it mainly on Bila. Many critics welcomed their first CD, Rom Pop, as one of the best achievements of the year. In 1999, when Kale's second CD appeared, the band had already completed several successful tours abroad.

"She started to organise concerts of her own. She did not mind that we had planned a concert [for the same date] long in advance," Smetana told the paper, referring to Bila. This reportedly happened before Kale's concerts in Madrid and Freiburg, among others.

"Freigurg was flooded with posters [advertising a Kale concert], but she preferred going to perform in Slovakia," Smetana said.

He said that Bila had issued her own CD in Slovakia without Kale's knowledge. She reportedly sent a message to her colleagues and friends that she would never return to the Czech Lands. Bila, 51, is known as a passionate gambler, who often allows gambling machines to swallow up her pay.

Kale had also more and more often to cope with Bila's imbalanced performance as a singer. "The most recently, she remained our mascot rather than an efficient member of Kale," Smetana said.

In 1996, Bila was given conditional sentence of eight months for drawing social allowances worth 80,000 crowns which she was not eligible for. In December 1998, she received another, 12- month conditional sentence for unauthorisedly drawing further 47,000 crowns in social allowances.

CTK