World HQ Bredonborough Consciousness experiencing
10.17
World HQ, Bredonborough.
Consciousness: experiencing our experiencing.
Morning reading I…
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14.38 Stuff. Back to e-flurrying & from a pal who road manages some well-established artists in the US…
A few months ago you mentioned that you performed at Coventry Cathedral… About ten years ago I was introduced to a gentleman, Lester Hibbard who was a WW2 veteran. Lester is 93 years old and a famous piano teacher in NYC and LI. One of those teachers who was trained by this person who was trained by this person... A really great guy.
When the US joined the war and started sending troops to England, Lester was amongst some of the first to arrive. He mentioned to me that being a classically trained pianist he would often play during the Sunday services for the soldiers and officers… Somehow upper management retained him to stay in England rather than be shipped out to fight… and play piano for morale… his unit went on to N. Africa and none survived.
The reason why I give this background is he was up in Coventry at some point during or immediately after the great raid that destroyed the Cathedral. Being a religious man, he picked up a piece of the stained glass and also an eight inch piece of shrapnel from one of the German bombs that flattened the Cathedral as a remembrance of the beauty and the horror.
My friend Harry looks after Lester since he is very frail these days. They had been doing a lot of house cleaning for him over the years and Harry came across the stained glass panel and shrapnel. He offered it to me to preserve and pass to a future generation. If I am able to, I would like to bring both pieces back to Coventry one day, if in fact they are interesting in.
My pal continues…
Here is an article that is in Pollstar about the Allman Brothers and Universal Music Group. Many years ago (and I would love to forget I actually worked in their concert division) Universal was known as MCA. MCA had the distinction as being known as the Musician's Cemetery of America. I was fond of Many Corporate Assholes…
Allman Case Ramblin’ On
A U.S. District Court Judge in New York has denied a motion by Universal Music Group to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the Allman Brothers Band seeking back payment for digital download royalties.
The band’s suit claims that UMG has failed to pay the Allman Brothers Band sufficiently for songs licensed to third-party marketplaces like iTunes, instead basing royalty rates on contracts negotiated in the ’80s and ’90s.
“We are pleased that the Allman Brothers Band will now have the opportunity to show the court how badly UMG has treated the band and to finally receive a fair share of the many millions of dollars UMG has made from the band’s work,” ABB manager Bert Holman said in a statement.
Holman contends the band’s 1970s and ’80s label, Capricorn, “took advantage of the band’s inexperience at the time” and failed to pay royalties before “going bankrupt from mismanagement.”
Polygram acquired the ABB recordings in the bankruptcy and was ultimately acquired by UMG. “UMG had nothing to do with the creation of these recordings, incurred no risk or cost, and never had to spend a dime marketing them or promoting the band,” Holman said.
“It is outrageous that UMG refuses to honor its contract with the band and pay a fair share of the money it receives when it licenses the recordings to third parties like iTunes and simply sits back and collects a fee whenever iTunes licenses a download.”
The case is in the discovery phase and is set to go to trial in early 2010.
17.02 Carrying, organising. The Minx popped into HQ to say hello. Back home for supper.
18.45 A little shopping for the Minx. The evening street I…
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Off to DGM.
21.45 DGM HQ.
Leaving c. 16.58, the Minx was pleading with me to stay, even suggesting that she might die if I left her. But, such is the depth of venality that informs this fallen heart, I left her plaintively bleating while lying flat on the floor of her office.
The road into Pewsey was closed, necessitating a detour along dark country lanes. Arriving c. 21.00 as Butcher Fry was leaving for bowling. The car is just turning the curve of the road…
An Autumnal nip is nipping the office air.
22.49 Computing underway while listening to Theo & Jakko’s mixing of Theo & Fripp - Live In Coventry Cathedral. I am enjoying the music lots. This shows a signficant development in our working relationship during the four days T&F were rocking out four parishes of England.
What!
Why King Crimson are still prog-rock royalty…Does this mean we are no longer prog rock pondscum set to bum you out? No longer a name to be spat upon, to be vilified alongside other miscreants of the period? Perhaps a history of the music press & its writers of that time might yet be written…
It waits…
