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The Fritz & David Forest

I went to the Penguin website Q&As to find relevant things about David Forest. This question was to Bob Aguirre, who was in Fritz:
Quote "Hi Bob! Thanks for answering another one of my questions. Was Fritz an already active performing band prior to Stevie's joining, despite the line up changes? And, how did Fritz manage to secure David Forest as their (your) booking agent so early in their career? (Tobi, Napa, California, U.S.A.)
Thanks again Tobi, Fritz had been working a short time when Stevie came onboard. We connected with David when Lindsey`s brother Greg got us a gig at his Stanford frat house. I think David had booked a topless dancer for that house, and while he came by to check on things saw us-and since he was starting to book bands for other frat parties asked us if we wanted to work more we said yes--it just started from there. There was never another topless dancer. "

Javier Pacheco was also in Fritz. He has bad and good things to say about Mr. Forest:
Quote "At first, we got along well, I felt there was a certain unity in the band from the fact that our booking agent/manager Dave Forest kept us busy just about every weekend playing here and there around the Bay Area. "
Quote "We had been dragged down to Los Angeles by David Forest our personal manager because he was working down there and wanted to continue to control and/or profit from the group. Personally, I hated plastic L.A., wanted to make it in groovy San Francisco. Dave hid from us the fact that Bill Graham had shown interest in managing the group, so Forest made us believe that L.A. was our only viable option (in terms of "making it"). This in itself caused much dissention in the group. We were split over this. "
Quote "I cannot stress enough to you how important it was for FRITZ to have had the relationship with David Forest, who began booking the group into Stanford fraternity parties, high school dances. David Forest was a Stanford drop-out who was making a hearty living from booking a roster of bands at Stanford and other places. If FRITZ enjoyed a phenomenal notoriety as a band, this man must take a lot of the credit. He went from booking out of his dorm room, to setting up an agency in San Jose (NBC--National Booking Company). He was then discovered by Bill Graham and went to work at Maillard Agency. Then he moved to his birthplace, Los Angeles and ultimately ended at CMA. He made us his main group, eventually concentrating primarily on us. (Earlier I mentioned how this later translated into a kind of possessiveness, trying to take us to L.A.--keeping from us the fact that Bill Graham had shown interest in the band.)"

Someone asks a question about this management deception business:
Quote My question: You've mentioned repeatedly that Bill Graham's interest in the band was kept from you. How did you ultimately find out about it? Also, knowing the man had an unquenchable drive, by what trickery was he kept at bay? Surely he would have gone straight to the band if he felt he was being stonewalled by your manager ... (Tim Bucci, Springfield, IL, USA)
Our manager simply told Mr Graham that the band was bound for big things in Los Angeles. You have to realize, Forest grew up in L.A. and had moved back there. For some months he was booking us into concerts and dances from his CMA post in the City of Angels. He was employed by one of the biggest agencies in the world. In the long run, he wasn't going to handle us but wanted a known agency to do it. But he still wanted to remain influential on the sidelines. He knew this would not have happened if we had known about Graham's offer. Conversely, we were a hot, new young band, but not so tremendous that Graham just had to have us. I guess he was satisfied that Forest (a former employee of Graham's Maillard Agency) was telling him the truth and left it at that. I found out about this lie years later through a person who had worked at Maillard.

Javier talks about one particular move by Mr. Forest that divided the band:
Quote Dave Forest was always the manager of the group until he tried selling us the Shiffman and Larson team. Eventually FRITZ got these professional managers in Los Angeles, through Forest’s heavy prodding. I had objected strongly because this new management came at the price of 60% royalties on all songs going to Shiffman and Larson.
Javier talks about the resentment towards Stevie. By the end of Fritz, her and Lindsey were on one side with everyone else on the other.
Quote We weren’t resentful that she broke up the “dude bond,” we were resentful that she broke up the band, period. There was no attempt to salvage anything. Her ambition included swallowing Forest’s lies, hook, line and sinker; pushing for the move to Los Angeles; pulling for the Shiffman and Larson lopsided publishing deal; discarding all we had worked for.
Quote Money was split equally and whatever Forest posted was after his 10 or 15%. We usually got letters every week. Their consistent delivery served as a great unifying factor--it gave the band continuity to know every week we were getting instructions or (at the very least) something new to look forward to.

Javier provided examples of these letter here and here.
About the second letter, he says:
Quote The other letter I wanted to share with you because in it Forest mentions Bill Graham's impression of our show at Fillmore. This would be the only time Forest would make references to Graham. He really left out here the fact that Graham allegedly pitched to Forest the idea of managing us. Forest supposedly told him we were covered, in L.A. It wasn't true.
Quote In retrospect, I realize we had been much too dependent upon Dave Forest for all gigs. True, he’d helped raise us from local parties to doing big concerts. But Forest wielded too much influence over our affairs. Even after he moved to L.A., we were forbidden to seek local help in getting bookings. His control over the band was unhealthy. We did as he asked because of our collective phobia about losing important gigs through him.

Whew. . . that's all I am going to look for at the moment. Clearly this David Forest was greatly influential on Stevie's career.

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