(TV) Fontana

["Casey, Leo J" <CaseyL@VOLPE.DOT.GOV>]

Excerpt from Melody Maker, 5/19/90
".......If you wanted to get down to a serious, nitty-gritty article 
on the problems between Tom Verlaine and Fontana Records, 
we could be here for days," says Dave Bates, A&R man at 
Phonagram/Fontana. 
At the age of 41, Verlaine finds himself without a record contract. 
The problems leading to his departure from Fontana are, indeed, 
involved. While Verlaine is reluctant to discuss the situation in detail, 
he does infer that it has arisen because of the attitude of Bates towards 
him. Bates, meanwhile, is keen to offer his side of the story. 
"Apart from Clapton, Verlaine is my all-time favourite guitar hero," 
says Bates, who has been a "committed fan" since 1977's "Marquee Moon". 
He had wanted Verlaine on his label since 1981, when Verlaine's contract 
with Warners/Elektra expired. Instead, Verlaine signed to Virgin and 
released "Words From The Front" and "Cover" before moving on. 
"When he signed to us in '84/'85," Bates says, "I still felt that he 
was one hit single away from being a major success." 
1987's "Flash Light" album sold around 25,000, his most 
commercially successful work since "Adventure". 
It was when the recording for "The Wonder" album began
 that serious differences became apparent. Bates offers a 
nightmarish catalogue of events that involves numerous producers, 
managers, lawyers and locations. He argues that Verlaine's demands 
became more difficult, more impossible as time passed and that a parting 
of the ways was simply inevitable. "Why should I bend over backwards 
to help him," asks Bates, "when, after two albums and a bunch of 
scrapped recordings, I'm 452,000 pounds in the red on Tom Verlaine? 
For an artist so heavily in dept, I'm going to have to sell close to a million albums. 
I hardly think so. I should have stopped after the first 100,000 pounds and 
said goodbye. But I stuck with him and he turns round and shits on me. 
I find this grossly offensive on his part. "I'll tell you what of Tom Verlaine. 
I think he's scared of succeeding. It's much easier to never attempt to make 
a commercial record and never attempt to be successful. It's so easy to 
sit back and say, 'No man, it's my art. It's critical okay.' That way you 
can never be judged and told that you're a failure. If you've never tried, 
how can you fail?" "So, as far as Tom Verlaine and Fontana go, 
it's the end of a relationship. We have no future together. He's known 
that for some time. He'll be far happier making cheap little records 
for an independent company. He'll be happier as a small, cottage 
industry. That's very sad, really." 
One might also argue that the artistic reputation of a company 
like Phonogram/Fontana hinges on serious artists like Pere Ubu, 
The Fall and Tom Verlaine. That sales of Bon Jovi or Tears for 
Fears records in South Glamorgan or Walsall could subsidise 
the career of an artist like Verlaine for a considerable period of time. 
That it is unreasonable to expect someone like Verlaine to aim at 
the charts while groups like The House of Love score hits with more 
than a little help from the Verlaine guitar sound. 
"Anyway," says Tom, "I always thought I was commercial. 
I always thought I was writing hit singles. These days, whatever's 
on the radio is considered commercial. People like what's on the 
radio, whatever it is." Throughout his career, he has always 
seemed reluctantly commercial. Like he's been shooting arrows
 into the dark, hoping for the occasional yelp when the odd 
dart finds its target. "That's not been my impression," he laughs. 
"See, I don't get to meet my audience. Some of them are very young. 
I met a 19 year-old girl in a club the other day who had never heard a 
Tom Verlaine record in her life. She'd wandered into one of my 
acoustic shows. She said, 'Jeez, I really like your voice!' 
That was great. She had no preconceptions. She just strolled in
 and decided she liked it. That kind of audience is always the best." 
Perhaps the Verlaine legend has become an intolerable burden. ........
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