How £250k turned into £12k for me.
Alexis was acting for me, alex, our manager, our label, big life, Adams accountant (his wife) AND i just found out he was a director of Wau/Modo
Dear Kris Weston,
I am writing in response to your 3 emails of the 26th of August 2015.
First of all let me assure you that I am a solicitor and have a practising certificates continuously since 1971 when I qualified.
Secondly, I must stress that you are not, nor have ever been, a client of mine or of this firm. Alex Patterson was a client and because of client confidentiality, to which I am bound as a solicitor, any information about Alex Patterson’s affairs are confidential and cannot be revealed to you.
I have never previously been aware you were entitled to 50% of any monies that you refer to, and since you are referring to events that took place more than 20 years ago I am not able to confirm the figures that you quote. I need to stress , however, that all monies deposited into our client account are always distributed in strict accordance with the instructions of our clients.
I do not understand your question as to reconciling acting for my record company your musical partner and yourself in the Island Agreement. I have also never been a director of your record company and I do not follow the relevance of suggesting ‘is it because you are a consultant’.
I do not have any document regarding Wau Recordings Limited/Modo settlement agreement and if I did they would be confidential to Alex Patterson.
I am not aware of your old recordings being exploited recently and I have no knowledge of anyone advising that monies payable from the Chrysalis agreement was not your monies and I do not know who such a person would be.
I am not talking to your ex-associates about any Chrysalis agreement and I do not understand why you are of the view that I am.
I do not really wish to continue with this correspondence any further. I must again stress you were not a client of this firm.
Yours sincerely,
ALEXIS GROWER
Implications:
The documents contradict Alexis Grower’s own denials. He told me in writing that I was never his client, yet contemporaneous paperwork lists me as one of his clients and shows him acting for multiple parties at once. That alone raises clear issues of conflict of interest. Solicitors are bound by strict professional rules: they cannot act for clients with opposing interests unless all sides give fully informed consent, and even then only under exceptional circumstances.
The problem here is twofold. First, Grower switched sides — acting for Modo, then later for Paterson and myself against Modo — without disclosure or proper safeguards. Second, he positioned himself at the centre of the Chrysalis deal, where money was routed through his account, without transparent accounting back to me. Even if he claimed to be acting as a consultant, the effect is the same: conflicted duties and a lack of fiduciary care.
There is no “expiry date” on conflicts of interest. If a solicitor acted improperly at the time, that remains professional misconduct regardless of how many years have passed. Grower’s shifting roles, his later blanket denials, and the missing funds all point to breaches of duty and potential misrepresentation. Although he is deceased, the record stands: his conduct tainted the business dealings of The Orb, and institutions who benefitted from those arrangements (Paterson, Morris, Chrysalis, UMG, etc) cannot hide behind his absence.
Multiple industry figures told me at the time that Grower had been ‘struck off or suspended’ around the Smiths era; I haven’t found an official record of that, but the paper trail I do have shows him switching sides between conflicting clients while handling my deals—conduct that would breach core SRA conflict rules unless strict consent conditions were met.
£137,000 of my Chrysalis money went directly into Grower’s account. His letter waves it away as ‘distributed in strict accordance with clients’ instructions’—but no record of that distribution to me has ever surfaced. This happens to be around about what I didn’t get.
