12.46
DGM HQ.
The street I…
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The other side of the DGM HQ office wall I…
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My office is through the door & on the other side of the pretending-wall.
An arising of the morning: UMG publishing. Universal have acquired the mess that was BMG Publishing & we are helping them sort through that mess. Self-interest is involved: this will help me to get paid years of unpaid publishing royalties.
Another arising of the morning: a King Crimson re-release on Sanctuary! The keen-eye regular visitor to this Diary, and its occasional reference to the misdemeanours, violation & sheer stupidity of the music industry, might ask: but didn’t Sancutary’s rights to KC revert? and reference these entries…
I… (from 6th June 2008) A recent example of dealing with a second-tier lawyer, this one at Sanctuary, with new ownership & power possessors: he denied that this constituted a re-organisation of Sanctuary. If David & I sold DGM, no longer worked there, and the company was run by other people who took decisions without any relationship to our raison d’etre, DGM culture & ethos, I would view that as re-organisation. The second-tier Sanctuary lawyer, however, viewed the term re-organisation in this sense as a term of art. I can just about understand him blocking the re-organisation clause, intentionally inserted into the DGM contract for an eventuality such as new ownership & direction; I cannot understand him using the words a term of art.
II… (from 18th February 2008) and both EMI & Sanctuary put KC material up for downloading, even where permission for this was explicitly denied.
The Sanctuary second-tier lawyer who has been appointed to engage with us, comprising more of the problem than the solution IMO, is also a former Virgin second-tier lawyer. He writes…
I am of course aware that the Sanctuary rights period expired recently.As far as we can tell from our research of Universal systems, the product has been withdrawn and the central rights clearance system states that the rights have expired. Can you be more specific about the "proposed" release that you talk of? Which territory? Do you have a contact name - or at least a company?
There’s nothing more that I can do in terms of advising Universal companies, but if you have specific information about a release I will of course notify the relevant people of the position.
I assume that you are dealing with the digital department to get the product taken down from the sites you mention? Do you need me to talk to anyone in this respect?
Our distributor replied to Mr. STL of Sanctuary…
The specific information I had, complete with catalogue numbers, was from Poland - as below:
Universal Music Poland has just announced re-releases of two CDs from King Crimson catalogue:
UMP 5901239 KING CRIMSON HAPPY WITH WHAT YOU HAVE TO BE HAPPY WITH
5050159012398
UMP 5901552 KING CRIMSON THE POWER TO BELIEVE 5050159015528
at very attractive budget prices.
The Polish record industry has a long tradition of exporting product & once a title is out in the marketplace it becomes impossible to withdraw - hence my immediate concern.
If stock has been manufactured for this proposed reissue, or stock remains from the Sanctuary era, we would require evidence of its destruction. On the digital front, I await a response from AA.
He wrote to me on 26/9/08 saying he’d get back to me regarding take down notices for the Sanctuary titles & two King Crimson tracks that were licensed for full physical album sales only to an Island historical compilation. This material keeps cropping up in a variety of places…
Interesting: our distributor is better informed of relevant Sanctuary releases than Mr. STL. My own response to Mr. STL…
i am happy to confirm that the last part of your statement is correct...
“As far as we can tell from our research of Universal systems, the product has been withdrawn and the central rights clearance system states that the rights have expired”. would you kindly explain how UM poland is unable to access the same UM database as yourself? and what you intend to do to correct the error?
It is unlikely that I will receive a reply from Mr. STL of Sanctuary because he has stopped replying to my e-mails. I ask him questions that are not easily answered; that is, not easily answered by a second-tier lawyer.
In DGM SoundWorld I…
12.54 An interesting offer has arrived…
I run a "sound art" gallery… a space for presenting multi-channel sound and multi-media installations that has been host to over 200 shows with some of the finest composers, including La Monte Young, Alvin Lucier and David Behrman. The gallery also presents many emerging artists, giving them the opportunity to realize complex multi-channel pieces in a superior listening environment…
I would be delighted if you would consider creating a work for Diapason. I think you would find it an interesting space to work in.
From my reply…
many thanks for your generous invitation. i have visited your site, and it is impressive.
this is an opportunity which, in the past, i despaired at having. now, given many years attempting to find ways of presenting music within my own (deeply uncongenial) professional background, i have redirected my interests and am currently not operating much in the performance / presentation area.
although, with an offer this good, a return to active service would have an appeal. so, if i may, i’ll gratefully decline at this time & put this at the back of my head.
16.04 Part of catching-up, ordering & organising the mess of many years of constant disruption, is to address the digitalisation of my archives. In the filing cabinets, of the office on the other side of random animal parts & the Village Post Office, are some of the Endless Grief material, and much of the Guitar Craft archive not yet arrived in Kiel.
What’s this?…
Only one drawer in one filing cabinet in one building housing Endless Grief correspondence. What’s this? I...
It’s the Willowfay Agreement! Dated 23rd. January, 1970 & between the 5 members of the founding King Crimson and (Enthoven & Gaydon of) EG Music Ltd. Paragraph 2 grants EG Music the right to acquire 30% of the copyright in any of the KC compositions for a consideration of £20 & a further £80 on 5 January 1975 or within one year thereafter. If EG sold those copyrights in 1991, how did they get to own more than 30% of them? That’s a good question.
Anyone interested in the above might also find the Diary entry for Thursday 15th. April, 2004 to have relevance.
What’s that? I…
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It’s the mysterious case of EG headed notepaper (cf this Diary for Friday 3rd. October, 2008 and Saturday 30th. October, 1999.)
On 18th. October 1983, David Enthoven’s name was still in use on the company’s notepaper, some 7 years after he had been ejected from the company by Mr. Alder; and this use continued into 1985. The letter of 6th. January 1986 has the original heading with David’s name tippexed out. On 15th. May 1986 the new heading was in go mode: E’G. Not quite as elegant, IMO. But, this is appropriate: neither was the company. And an indication that how we present ourselves to the world is an accurate representation of who we are; whether we like it or not, whether we care or not.
What’s this? I...
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A list of SG Alder Esq.’s current & former directorships as of the end of 1991. For those with an informed background, it shows the effects of a Big Boy Caught With His Pants Down, to employ Mr. Alder’s own terminology to explain the collapse of his affairs.
This material is part of the company searches undertaken for me at the time. This…
… refers to Ikenstock Limited, Mr. Alder’s offshore company & therefore not easily available to information-gathering.
And this refers to the voluntary liquidation of the Old Chelsea Group Plc, related to the Old Chelsea Property Corporation Ltd…
What’s that? I…
To some in the industry, these are known as the Dear Andrew letters, written to Mr. Andrew Stanger who, according to someone highly placed in the EG Music Group and whose opinion I found reliable, knew where the bodies were buried. These letters were noted for their frankness & directness, and are even occasionally referred to today.
What’s this? I…
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This is a hand-written letter of 7th. June 1990 from Mr. Alder to myself. Mr. Alder writes: I enclose a further drawdown on the pension fund… which I signed as your attorney… I am now very worried about your… financial state… I don’t say that I am worried too often, so can we speak on this a.s.a.p.?
In the letter Mr. Alder does not comment on why EG had missed two royalty accounting periods (more were to follow), necessitating further borrowing from my company pension fund to support my affairs. But, to cover the shortfall caused by the (unmentioned) failure to pay royalties, Mr. Alder declares that he has signed as my attorney to extend the further borrowing, that he had arranged as my business manager. That is, Mr. Alder, nominally acting on my behalf, created an undeclared interest-free forced loan back to EG to fill the gap opened by EG’s non-payment of due royalties. Great wheeze, or what?
Although in the letter Mr. Alder claims to be very worried about my financial state, clearly he was not sufficiently worried to pay the royalties.
This…
… is my personal history, written to the mid-1990s, of the Endless Grief affair.
One of the interesting features of the time, during the early period of dispute, was how anonymous & unknown characters would send or forward information to me, often via third parties (this to preserve their anonymity). For example, I was given a detailed checklist of outstanding debts by the Old Chelsea Property Group, to their builders & agents & surveyors et al, by a source who relayed the information to me through a musician acquaintance. To this day, I have no idea who the source was. Deep Throat indeed.
What’s that? I…
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This advertorial in Music Week for 21st. October 1989 chooses two other words to for the acronym; not the two words that would quickly spring to my mind.
When Messrs. Alder & Fenwick increasingly directed their attention & interest away from the music group to property, security services & straight business, they appointed Dennis Collopy…Four years after the advertorial, Music Week ran a series of 5 articles on EG; the first four of them were on the front page. The first article referred to the Pay For Play scheme proposed by EG to ensure playtime via one of their clients. To Music Week, this smacked a little of what might have been, in essence, payola; and EG’s scheme of Pay For Play hit the front page. Subsequently Mr. Alder threatened Music Week with a libel action. Music Week contacted me and asked if I had any documentary material relating to EG which was relevant to their position. I provided 3 documents to Music Week’s solicitors, one of which was the personal handwritten letter from Mr. Alder (above). These 3 documents were highly prejudicial, and effectively established Music Week’s case.
The documents were returned to me by Music Week’s solicitors, except the solicitors failed to properly register my address at the time (Reddish Coach House, Broad Chalke) and instead forwarded the letters to me via an earlier address that appeared on the documents: c/o EG, 63a, Kings Road, Chelsea, SW3 4NT. The documents were forwarded on to me by EG, in the re-sealed envelope, and marked opened in error without any further comment. Included with the 3 documents I had sent to Music Week was this hand-written letter by myself explaining the implications of the material I had provided…
The threatened libel action did not proceed.
Also in the filing cabinets, these I…
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… the musicological analysis & report on the use of LTIA II music lifted for the sex scenes in Emmanuelle, forming the basis of the out-of-court settlement not long afterwards.
And lotsa Guitar Craft material I…
All this, and much more besides.
16.45 Hoorray! Presents awaiting my arrival at DGM HQ…
… and personally signed by Jorma & Jack.
16.50 Upstairs in the DGM Art Department: Singleton & Singleton I…
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Excitements as the future comes closer!
20.05 Evening falls & enters into night I…
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23.22 Enough.
"Relaxation is never accidental."
