Re: (TV) Major labels....recent coms

["Michael Carlucci" <michael@recordsnyc.com>]

    Good point(s)here from Raymond. Nothing like experience, eh? The only
artist or band that I can think of that had the good sense not to allow any
of the promotional shinnanigans to go on was Robert Fripp and his band King
Crimson. You'll never find a promotional poster or LP for these guys. It was
Fripp's own doing that they didn't want to incur any financial debt to
Atlantic so no promotion for us thank you. I seem to remember the 1st
LP(oops! there goes my age) getting tones of airplay on the old WNEW FM with
In The Court of the Crimson King and 21st Century Schizoid Man. I don't know
if the station actually went out and bought the LP or if the label
themselves sent out the LP at their own expense. I do know that Fripp has
never incurred any debt for promotional purposes. Hats off to Robert Fripp
for standing his ground and making a statement, too bad no one else had the
good sense to follow his cue.

    On the Clive comments. He was always willing to stand behind the artists
that he believed in. Lou Reed never made any money for Arista. He had total
artistic freedom and Clive never once threatened to oust him from the label.
He believed in Lou and felt that the quality of his work would one day make
people one day take notice. This of course never happened. It was Lou who
became disgruntled with Arista and asked to be released from his contract. I
recall at one of the many shows Lou did at NYC's Bottom Line, where Lou
looked Clive in the eyes and asked "Where my money". What money, he never
sold any records while with Arista. As I recall each LP sold less than the
one before. I personally am not a big fan of Lou's Arista years. I love
Street Hassle and for personal reason hold a place in my heart for "Rock &
Roll Heart" though I wouldn't say that it was up to snuff. Take No Prisoners
is a good comedy LP and Growing Up In Public had great lyrics, however,
Michael Fonfara should not have been allowed to write any music for Lou.
You'd think after all those years of working with the guy he'd of had some
sort of idea where Lou was coming from musically. Always one of Lou's
biggest problems, finding musicians who are sympathetic to Lou's style.

    Thanks for the space all. M T C

> From: "Raymond" <ray@wavewalker.freeserve.co.uk>
> Reply-To: tv@obbard.com
> Date: Mon, 8 May 2000 14:24:43 +0100
> To: <tv@obbard.com>
> Subject: (TV) Major labels....recent coms
> 
> Hi all,
> One of the happiest days of my life was when my former band That
> Petrol Emotion got dropped from Virgin records (after it was bought out by
> EMI here in the uk).
> We managed to escape owing a considerable amount of money which we would
> probably never have been able to pay back anyway-something in the region of
> 1.75 million pounds!-Aaargh!-(though our weekly wage during this whole
> period was 150 pounds a week each-so no begging letters please!)...
> 
> The record company will always encourage bands to spend "your"money -for
> them bigger is ALWAYS better-and then the more in debt you are to them the
> more they think they can tell you what to do.
> However so much is now spent on publicity,advertising and videos these days
> that even if you do sell a good lot of records you STILL mightn't see any
> money at all-the whole situation is completely crazy...see for example the
> amount of recent successful r&b pop acts who have had to declare themselves
> bankrupt...
> 
> I certainly hope in the future that because of the new technology there'll
> be a fairer deal for artists in general re royalties/splits/back catalogue
> etc which might enable us to to make a "decent" living and continue
> recording which is all most of us ever want in the first place anyway.....
> 
> Artist-friendly guys like Clive Davis seem to be getting pushed out of the
> industry more and more unfortunately these days but I'm certain that he'll
> return in some form of other and have the last laugh...as someone has
> already posted already (sorry i can't remember who) the person or persons
> who can figure out the best way to move forward now when things are looking
> a bit unstable and uncertain will ultimately clean up.
> Personally i hope the victors will be the people who are prepared to develop
> acts over time rather than look for an instant and quick return-it's that
> kind of attitude that is strangling things as they stand....
> 
> Best...R.
> 
> 
> 
> --------------
> To post: Mail tv@obbard.com
> To unsubscribe: Mail majordomo@obbard.com with message "unsubscribe tv"

--------------
To post: Mail tv@obbard.com
To unsubscribe: Mail majordomo@obbard.com with message "unsubscribe tv"