Rock legend Bevan deleted by Facebook
Brum drummer mystified as he loses link with fans
LEGENDARY Birmingham drummer Bev Bevan has accused Facebook of being bang out of order after the social media giant deleted his account.
Bev, who found global fame with The Move and ELO in the 1960s and 1970s, had his account shut down earlier this year.
The loss of the account has affected Bevan’s concerts and his personal connection with his fans.
The problems started when the domain with Bevan’s crucial email address, linked to his social media account, was not renewed.
On January 18, the domain was bought by another company and on January 20, when trying to log in, Bevan was told he had breached “community standards”.
He was given just 48 hours to save his account from being deleted, but was unable to do so.
His agent, Ashley Yeates, from Sutton Coldfield, then contacted the firm, now part of Meta, and sent photographic identification, but has yet to get Bevan’s account reinstated.
Mr Yeates said both he and Bevan posted to the account as the 77-yearold was “less tech savvy”.
The Brummie rock star, who now lives in Staffordshire, has been left “really upset” by the Facebook snub.
Mr Yeates said: “What I think happened with Bev’s account is somebody has either reported it and said it’s not a legitimate account or someone has posted on there. We don’t know what it was.
“Bev’s email account we had set up linked with the Facebook account had lapsed. Around the same time the email lapsed something happened to Bev’s Facebook account.
“By the time we noticed, we had 48 hours to sort it and get in or it would be switched off.
“I managed to speak to Facebook and did chat online for two-and-a-half hours.
“I explained everything. All they kept saying was you need to do this – but without the email we couldn’t. It was almost like you were speaking to a robot.
“The person at Facebook said, ‘unless you get that email there’s nothing we can do and, anyway, in 48 hours it will be gone and you can never get it back’.
“I asked if I could speak to somebody above the person I was speaking to.
“Facebook thought we had done something against Facebook’s policies, and I have been told they can’t reinstate Bev’s account.”
Mr Yeates said if he tries to access the account now he gets this message: “Your account has been disabled.
“You can’t use Facebook because your account, or activity on it, didn’t follow our Community Standards.”
Bevan began his career with The
Move, the first band to be played on Radio 1, and then went to offshoot ELO which went on to become one of the biggest bands on the planet. He later played for Black Sabbath.
Mr Yeates added: “We set this up to let fans know were he’s gigging. He had around 5,000 followers. It was his personal account and we have got another fan account.
“I was the admin and I posted stuff and he posted stuff. He’d put posts with photos up. It’s terrible at the moment not being able to do anything. I set another one up. I’d need to spend more money on it to promote it.
“We use Facebook to advertise gigs. I have worked with Bev for 20 years. He’s really upset about it. It was a way for him to chat with the fans and interact with them. They shared lots of memories.”
Now Bevan is touring with his friend from his school days, Jasper Carrott, with their Stand up and Rock tour.
Facebook was unavailable for comment.