Thanks to the almost 1000 people who have signed the petition so far! When we started this petition, we never imagined this many people would sign it. It’s so nice to see so many people truly do care about this situation and want Dirty Hit and The 1975 to stand up, apologise, and take action to ensure their fans’ safety.
Firstly, The 1975 have still not said a single word about Adam Powell. Dirty Hit’s statement was not shared on any of their accounts. They’re hoping it’ll just go away instead of doing the right thing: listening to their fans who are hurting badly and apologise to them.
There are rumours circulating that The 1975 may be releasing the Drive Like I Do EP soon. The timing of this release, if it happens, would make Dirty Hit’s statement seem like it was rushed out in order to make the Adam Powell situation disappear before the new music was released. Unfortunately for them, it hasn’t gone away.
In other news, it’s worth noting that Dirty Hit have stated in a comment on Instagram that they won’t be working with Adam Powell in the future. They tried to say that they said this in their statement, however their statement did not clearly reflect that if that was their intention. Regardless, we are mentioning it here (and have included it in the update image) to hold them to their word so they can’t go back on it in the future.
In the last few weeks, we’ve done a lot of thinking about Dirty Hit and The 1975’s poor handling of this situation over the years (not just in the last few months). There are things that need to change. We are requesting the label and band implement a number of measures to ensure the safety of fans moving forward. Our recommended measures are below. Additional measures that Dirty Hit chooses to implement would be welcome.
1. Compulsory sexual harassment training, consent training and respect training for all band members, crew, frequent collaborators (mixers, engineers, producers, photographers, directors, stylists, etc) and all Dirty Hit and All On Red Management staff
This training means there will be NO more excuses. No one can say “oh I didn’t know that was wrong” or “I thought I was doing the right thing” if they have undertaken training. Sexual harassment is not acceptable. A lack of understanding of consent is not acceptable. A lack of respect for all of the people you interact with as part of your job is not acceptable.
2. A social media policy signed by band members, crew, frequent collaborators, Dirty Hit staff and AOR staff clearly outlining what is and is not appropriate when communicating with their fans/fans of bands they work with online
It’s very clear from the allegations we’ve heard that social media is a HUGE issue when it comes to people associated with Dirty Hit inappropriately communicating sexually and inappropriately with fans. These people need to be told clearly what IS and IS NOT appropriate for them to be doing when they are communicating with fans online. While anyone with a brain shouldn’t need to be told that sending unsolicited nudes, sexually messaging minors, or abusing their jobs to message fans for nudes is not okay to do, somehow this isn’t clear to some people involved with Dirty Hit. It needs to be fixed.
3. Clear clauses in contracts that allow a contract to be instantly voided, or for an employee to be fired, if someone inappropriately messages, sexually harasses or abuses fans
This includes when multiple people come forward accusing someone of inappropriate behaviour, letting them go instead of quietly removing them from their job for a few months and then bringing them back once the outrage has blown over. If someone abuses their position and commits inappropriate acts against fans, they should be fired. Clauses in contracts that allow for this to be done easily will ensure there are no issues with this happening in the future.
*Side note: clearer contracts regarding who owns imagery and footage they take while employed also seem to need to be sorted out… as well as where those images/footage are stored, so if a videographer/photographer goes rogue, they can’t threaten to take things that legally don’t belong to them in exchange for keeping their job. Assets shouldn’t matter more than the safety of fans anyway… but we digress.
4. Nominating a legitimate company to handle all future allegations of sexual harassment and abuse, and having this company be publicly known about instead of being kept secret
Dirty Hit’s handling of this “investigation” has been atrocious. While Dirty Hit said in late March they had been investigating, no investigator reached out to anyone until late April. As we all now know, the investigator was Michelle Roycroft. She used a personal Twitter account that didn’t state her profession. In her original message she didn’t state who she was working for. She was very quickly aggressive and bringing up the authorities when the victims had never stated they felt comfortable taking their stories to the police (because the police, as most of us know, do not act on these type of accusations).
When Jamie Oborne was asked to confirm he had hired Michelle Roycroft, he left us on seen for NINE days. In this time, he somehow managed to tell another fan not involved in this situation that he had hired a PI? Jamie not telling us he DID hire Michelle delayed Michelle’s investigation (and perhaps this was his aim).
While Jamie then began sharing Michelle’s name and email to some fans in DMs, Michelle’s identity was not publicly revealed until after Dirty Hit released their statement. More on this later.
Jamie Oborne named someone multiple times who had accused Adam Powell of inappropriate behaviour and had been helping others tell their stories. This person had chosen to remain anonymous. Once we found out he had named her to one person, she asked him to stop. He then CONTINUED to name her to more people. This discouraged victims from wanting to come forward to Michelle as they were worried Dirty Hit would also expose their identities and cause them harassment from fans defending the label and band. The person Jamie named has been doxxed and threatened by multiple people. Michelle Roycroft did not seem to care about Jamie Oborne purposely trying to make victims feel unsafe to come forward to her.
Dirty Hit suddenly released a statement on their Instagram page (and nowhere else) stating that Michelle had found no criminal behaviour (though it appeared she spoke to no fans with accusations against Adam Powell). It seemed the investigation was closed. Michelle then messaged a victim who had accused Adam Powell of inappropriate behaviour to accuse her of lying (though it’s unclear as to exactly what Michelle believed this person was lying about) and attempted to guilt trip her for not feeling comfortable speaking with her.
Then days later, after we publicly put out a call for stories involving all people associated with Dirty Hit, Dirty Hit began publishing her name and email address in comments under their statement. Suddenly Michelle was investigating again… why?
Her aim, to find undeniable evidence of criminal behaviour from Adam Powell when these crimes had mostly taken place over Snapchat 5 years ago, was never going to be achievable. There was no point for victims to come forward due to this.
Michelle Roycroft has been aggressive and dismissive towards more than one person involved in this. Her behaviour is not acceptable, and has not encouraged victims to come forward to her.
Hiring a legitimate company with a clear website outlining their work and how they operate, with employees who act professionally during their investigations and are more forthcoming about how they operate, would encourage victims to come forward with their stories. Kroll is a company we would suggest, though there are many others who would do this job as well.
5. A change in the way crises are handled by Dirty Hit: no more silence.
Dirty Hit is a smaller label, and it’s clear it’s a very insular company. They don’t know what they’re doing, and when they get in over their heads, they revert to their usual thing to do in a crisis: go silent and never acknowledge it. This has happened multiple times. They go quiet until people have gotten sick of asking them to address whatever the issue was, and then they come back when they feel it’s safe. The issues are never addressed. This is not the way a company like Dirty Hit should be handling times when they need to own up and apologise.
Get some crisis management and communications training, and learn from situations instead of repeating mistakes. You’re supposed to be a legitimate music label but still act like a label run by two young white fake-feminist male mates from their parents’ basement.
6. In the words of Rina Sawayama, “stop hiring your mates and their mates”
One of the biggest issues in this Adam Powell situation has been Dirty Hit and The 1975 not wanting to hold him accountable due to the fact he’s one of their best friends and has been since the very early days of the band. When you only surround yourself with your mates, you can create a toxic culture where you’re all reinforcing each other’s bad behaviour. From the stories we’ve been told, this has certainly happened here. Many people have committed disgusting acts, and it seems not one person within their friendship group spoke up and said that maybe it wasn’t appropriate.
There is a huge gender imbalance in the music industry and Dirty Hit and their acts are not immune to this. Hiring more women in all areas (crew, management, production, etc) will help improve the culture within the label and their acts.
Separately from this issue, there is also a lack of POC contractors and employees. Dirty Hit artist Rina Sawayama was asked by The Guardian in December 2020 if anything had changed in the music industry following Black Lives Matter and said: “I spoke to the head of my label [Dirty Hit]: ‘You’re going to have to stop hiring your mates and their mates because that’s literally how it happens.’ The barrier to entry is so enormous and completely invisible, it’s like a fog: how do black people get into the music industry, not as an artist, but as an A&R or product manager? It takes people in our generation to make sure that the next person that gets hired is black and then that person might know someone … It just won’t happen overnight. As an artist, if you don’t have a set makeup-and-hair glam team, then there’s this database of black and POC stylists, who are amazing. Send that to your manager, because people can’t be arsed to go on to Instagram and find black creatives, full stop.”
Phoebe Bridgers commented: “I’ve seen more performative activism or virtue signalling, but that translating into real actual work … people can kind of hide behind the scenes who they’re actually hiring.”
It’s time for Dirty Hit and The 1975 to truly make moves to back up the things they claim to believe and stand for. Stop hiring your buddies and start diversifying the people you hire.
Thank you again for caring about this situation and the victims. They are still hurting and angry. We’ve stated many times what Dirty Hit and The 1975 need to do to make this right. Will they listen? Let’s see.