Re: Virgin vs Fontana / man / $ / Elektra / green / RE: (TV) Signal to Noise article

["Cliff McLenehan" <klif@volny.cz>]

Can't speak for Tom, but it's highly likely that he and Television still 
"owe" the various record comapnies money.

A band I can speak about is The Banshees. They still "owe" Polydor 
money, despite worldwide sales in the several millions. I'm not sure of 
the exact ammount, but it was deemed to be a few hundred thousand 
pounds. When the "Best Of" was released they didn't anything in the 
way of mechanical royalties. The ammount earned was set against the 
pre-existing debt. Don't forget, record companies deduct for everything 
- advertising, promotion, plugging, videos, studio costs and probably a 
host of other things I've forgotten about.

Musicians generally make money from touring and publishing royalties. 
So I guess Tom is still picking up a small ammount from the various 
cover versions plus radio play. 

Virgin is now a subsidary label of EMI. I think when Tom was on the 
label it was still independent. Fontana is now part of Universal.

As for Tom working under various aliases - what's the point? If you use 
an obscure name, unless your fanbase knows, your going to miss out 
on sales to people unless their in the on the joke. I think the uses of 
aliases is Tom's private joke.

Cliff
     
"Marc Bolan 1947-1977 A Chronology" by Cliff McLenehan
New revised paperback edition available from:
www.helterskelterbooks.com
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