Success with the PPL 'extension of copyright term'

23rd September 2011 : Well, re: my blog post on the subject last year, it turns out that after all the tireless work of PPL by lobbying ministers and MP's in Parliament, the last Labour government, the Coalition and EU parliament - and something which (I hasten to add!) I was also honoured and proud to play a small part in - by speaking directly to ministers at the House of Commons; the huge lumbering intercontinental workings of bureaucracy and governance have finally succumbed to our urgent pleadings on behalf of all UK musicians - the case has been successfully made and it is now officially agreed to increase of the term of copyright on performances from 50 years - to 70 years.

This will make a life-changing difference to many musicians, their families and heirs - and amongst the usual plethora of diminishing returns of our (presently) beleaguered industry, finally some news which we should all feel very good about. Let's raise a glass today for the boys and girls up at PPL who have attacked this thorny issue and ultimately trumped with an almost biblical fervour!

Apparently, the somewhat inebriated, though heartfelt ramblings that I and others spontaneously performed for Gordon Brown on a video recorded at Abbey Road Studios apparently did the trick. My particular contribution might have appealed to his Scottish parsimony by assuring him that just by agreeing to our request, i.e. giving us what was ours anyway - and for a bit longer - it would keep thousands of us off his and the State's back and out of his job centres and unemployment statistics - After all we only want money that is ours anyway, not handouts!

I am honoured to have played a small part in the campaign.

---

Follow-up to house Of Commons/PPL 'extension of copyright term' debate

26th December 2009 : Following Nigel's question, sorry have been 'off-air' for a while but that should soon change.

Regarding Nigel's response to the House of Commons/PPL piece and his questions and observations - I understand that progress has been quietly promising if a little vague - however we are slowly bringing the government's perception into the frame about an issue that is becoming a huge priority for many in our profession. But it is not easy and we feel the powers that be are possibly more concerned with other matters to suddenly take time and energy changing present legislation when there are so many other pressing concerns. Like staying in government for starters![endintro]

My hope - and that of the PPL is that it will be a 'drip drip' approach over a longer time frame during which time a strong case is persistently, and articulately presented to our governing bodies ( here in the UK and European Union) for an increase in the copyright term (upwards from 50 years) Personally I think it will happen eventually and we will get what we & thousands of musicians in the UK wish for and feel we deserve. I guess we have to be patient, persistent, watchful and very 'canny' in the meantime!

I agree that loving music can be seen as a weakness professionally–speaking but have found over many years it is also a great strength when one realises you can actually survive when things are tough. I firmly believe everyone gets a break eventually and it is of vital importance not to give up & walk away from the table. In the meantime, if you have to do other stuff to keep body and soul intact - you just have to do it! Play and write music at night in your own time if you have to - and more and more musicians have to face challenges in the present environment.

As an overview I would say that nothing stays comfortable or the same for long in any activity, and that technology - in the case of music biz vs. the web has undeniably sent the goalposts flying round the pitch more akin to greyhound racing than 'level playing fields' (pardon the well over-used football cliché!)

But many other businesses, film, journalism & TV are facing similar problems by the techno-implications of the brave new wild West 'wiki-world'. Hence the days of being properly 'commissioned' at professional rates for music are well and truly over, so another approach is called for. "Harnessing the beast" itself might be the answer. Actually, perhaps this is becoming a blog post in its own right! (Yes it is Phil! (Ed)

For instance, experiencing angst about trying to find a label interested in signing Sailor, shows becoming much harder to find etc, I initiated a targeted marketing campaign on the internet using interactive web pages & persistently sending them out to a few large online agent databases. The band's survival after many years was looking increasingly shaky - but now happily through the internet campaign, 2009 and 2010 will be our busiest for many years and the bookings keep coming in - all this at a time we are told that the recession is hitting many promoters and agents hard.

The above is just an example and possibly a fluke – but think of all those suddenly-out-of -work stride pianists on the dole the day talking pictures came out in the 30's! The smart ones had to switch direction to survive in music then due to rapidly changing technology, just as many are having to do now.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

---

Tom Paine - Nation Builder

22nd June 2009 : Long may people and their leaders throughout the world revere and respect the dashing young President Obama and somehow cling to the belief that he will inspire people in his own land and others enough to overcome a crisis which, aided and abetted by governments and FSA equivalents the world over, built almost entirely on the immoral greed of the few and the compliance of the many, is quite unprecedented in modern history.

I am a musician now living in Lewes, East Sussex and have become extremely proud of the town and its close association with Tom Paine; truly, it turns out, a founder of the ideas of liberty and dignity in the US Constitution and governance of nations, a ‘sugarfoot’ hero of the US Revolution and radical Englishman who although died penniless, his free-thinking ideas seem to have comprehensively underpinned and inspired the political philosophy of the free world’s charismatic new champion.

Paine is spiritually up there as if on Mount Rushmore, with the likes of Lincoln, Martin Luther King and now Obama in the sea–change of political thought now recognised as key for the survival & future prosperity of our planet and its people

Adopting much of the imagery, simple egalitarianism and soaring prose of Paine, like his forbear George Washington who ordered that Tom’s words be read to his men in December 1776 before crossing the Delaware at a crucial turning point in the American revolutionary war, Obama’s frequent invocation of the words of Lewes’s prodigal son – particularly in his seriously measured inaugural address stirs my heart – and I am sure that of many other Englishmen and women with universal pride.

Sadly, pride gives way to deep shame & incredulity however when one witnesses the increasingly catastrophic and morally bankrupt manner that the present (unelected) incumbent and previous mendacious tenant of 10 Downing Street have all but destroyed the reputation and many of the ideals of our own country, which now at least financially even appear to threaten our very way of life. The latest revelations of sleaze and tawdry money-grubbing permeating even the highest chambers of governance in our land are but the latest in a long sad catalog of events that by now do not even have to be listed.

Indeed I am sure that future historians and the UK public will nod in wonder and scratch their heads at how this generation allowed New Labour and particularly Gordon Brown to cling on to office for so long. Why aren’t we marching in the streets like Tehran?

So rather than sucking up to the youthful new President* and vying for position and the entirely sound bite-driven superficial prestige of “Who will be the first European leader to get the magic ‘O’ phone call?” (No doubt desperately hoping some of the zeitgeist and youthful magic would, Disney-like, adorn itself on the craggy worn-out ‘son of the Manse’s’ features) Would it not, in the first place have been preferable for the British prime minister to genuinely adopt the simple and authentic concepts of the very same Englishman who so obviously has inspired Obama and everyone else around the world?

(*First written in January 09 and subsequently edited)

Why did it have to be Obama and not Brown that rediscovered the near-immortal, inspired terminology of a true British hero - and at a time when those of us in Lewes, England and the world really need to hear it?

“When the new President says that his election proves “The dream of our founders is alive in our time,” it is Paine’s dream of which he speaks. That dream may not be fully realized. But it is alive; more, indeed, today than at any time in the history of a land that might yet begin our world over again”

One can only hope that Paine’s vision for England is also alive, and that he will not remain forever a prophet without honour in his own country.

“When the Pennsylvania Assembly considered the formal abolition of slavery in 1779, it was Paine who authored the preamble to the proposal. Paine’s fervent objections to slavery led to his exclusion from the inner circles of American power in the first years of the republic. He died a pauper. Only history restored the man–and his vision. And on this day, this remarkable day, Thomas Paine is fully redeemed.

Paine, to a greater extent than any of his peers, was the founder who imagined a truly United States that might offer a son of Africa and of America not merely citizenship but its presidency.

“I stand here today as hopeful as ever that the United States of America will endure, that it will prevail, that the dream of our founders will live on in our time.”

Barack Obama, 18 January 2009

---

To the Ivors again!

22nd May 2009 : Every 2 or 3 years I like to go along to the Ivor Novello Awards held every year in May at the swanky & plush Grosvenor Park Lane Hotel. Since winning 2 of the lovely bronze statuettes on my very first visit many years ago, it is of course an event that always brings back great memories of those times - but also seems to not only have retained its mystique but to have enhanced its very special status internationally over the intervening years as possibly the most prestigious award to receive in the fragile superlative and rarified world of songwriting and songwriters.

My first pleasurable surprise was to find out that I had been seated by BASCA next to my old friend Steve Harley, the man I consider responsible for introducing my first band (& last probably!) Sailor to wider audiences through his generous praise and promotion of our band way back in 74 by inviting us to support him on his incredibly successful “Come Up & See Me’ UK Tour. It was just after this tour where, if my memory serves me well, Steve, Jim Cregan and Stuart Elliot & Co in Cockney Rebel frequently would watch our act from backstage and shout encouragement and the occasional insult about our tight white bell-bottoms! Ah, fond memories!

But back to the Ivors and as the fabulous, enduring Smokey Robinson warmly informed us yesterday during a very appreciative speech after receiving his award, even in the middle of a US tour with only one day off, did not hesitate for one second to come to London to pick up his Ivor Novello. This, he said has to be the most special award for songwriters worldwide. More so, he was pleased to add, as was awarded by one’s peers in the songwriting profession. When they played his timeless songs one after one, I’m afraid it was on a whole other level even to the extremely worthy & talented UK winners like Eg White, Duffy, Elbow and Coldplay etc

Smokey’s songs, such as My Girl, Tears of a Clown, You Really Got A Hold on Me, reminded you of why you were actually sitting here in this room, why you became a writer in the first place. Not to decry any of the above and the likes of Will Young and many other fine UK stars, but as my table-mates, Steve Harley, Mike Rutherford and Graham Gould & I exchanged knowing looks and recognition that (come on guys, get real!) THIS was THE era of the most powerful & stimulating pop music the world had ever heard to date, sold in its tens of millions, changed lives and became the soundtrack to growing up in those changing and turbulent decades.

If I’d ever set out to try and win one of these things myself as a musical ‘chancer’ of course, it probably would never have happened - this is why it’s so special to get one, let alone two - which I had the extreme good fortune & serendipity to receive back in 84. Since then I’ve tried very hard for a third or fourth - but sadly as yet, to no avail! Perhaps I should just consider being in the right place at the right time on two occasions is enough and just be content with that? (But no, hang on - maybe it’s best to carry on making songs but just stop trying so bloody hard!)

The industry and profession of music is actually timeless and that is why the Ivor Novellos, and more particularly, the spirit and aspirations of why these awards were first instigated, is so special to writers and creators of music. Perhaps records are not selling in such high quantities these days, perhaps kids have lots of other competing things to spend their money on and download more. Perhaps writing songs is less remunerative these days? Who knows? Who cares! In the end, the real impetus to create music and songs (thankfully, as it turns out!) has nothing to do with money after all, but just a simple but seemingly unstoppable impulse to write music & words that if for no other reason whatsoever attempt to convey some experience of truth, melody and timeless joy to one’s friends, peers and listeners - and just get it out there in the ether whichever way you can.

Like ‘Tears Of A Clown’ for instance!

---

Paul (on meeting and working with Paul McCartney)

18th May 2009 : In January 1988 I had the good fortune to come into close contact with an individual who, growing up, had been a huge influence in my life. Someone who I suspect might have also affected others in profound ways.

One cold Saturday I’d driven through the mid- winter wonderland of Richmond Park to my recording studio in a futile bid, yet again swearing through chattering teeth to wait for Paul, Hounslow’s-own elusive playboy plumber to turn up.

After several times going AWOL, he’d faithfully promised once and for all to come and fix the boiler. But to my extreme & frozen irritation it was beginning to dawn that Saturday was possibly not the best day due to his regular Friday night alcoholic excursions and glandular pursuits in the dark fleshpots of south London.

Love Me Do

I usually loved coming in to my studio on a weekend as the phones were quiet, enabling me finish off a few bits and pieces without constant interruption. The previous week I’d been working on a ‘hush-hush’ project for Paul Simon and Billy Joel’s producer, Phil Ramone, re-arranging classic Lennon & McCartney songs from a list his office had forwarded. I was told to choose one title only and not to ask too many questions. However a couple of songs instantly jumped off the page: “Love Me Do” and “PS I Love You”.

These were huge favourites of mine, and the soundtrack to much college boy smooching and earnest philandering under piles of coats in the bedrooms of blissfully unaware parents in Sutton Coldfield, circa 1963. (I wish!) With a sharp intake of breath I remembered something drastically pleasant happening during “She Was Just Seventeen” along the lines of Jonathan Miller’s description of teenage lust and palpable desire at parties in the dark of “being severely interfered with.”

Wistfully and with a degree of reluctance I managed to prize myself back to 1988, and noticed that out of all the songs, these two alone were published, not by ATV/Northern Songs who controlled Lennon and McCartney’s unbelievable catalogue, but by MPL, Paul McCartney’s own company. This was apparently due to a typist’s error when the rights were sold to Michael Jackson, these two titles being left out of the list. Amazing!

Anyway putting two and two together and having a few clues about publishing, it seemed obvious to me (and a ‘fait accomplit’) that sly old Macca’ had ‘nabbed them back!

My own cunning inclinations therefore suggested one of these might be worth looking at, but which one to choose? Working late into the wee small hours, at a bleary-eyed moment my keyboard sequencer made the choice for me by somehow merging the two tracks into one. Or more likely, I had simply pressed the wrong button! In any event, I immediately liked the unintended “medlification” of these two great songs and christened the arrangement “PS Love Me Do”. The result was very contemporary and the verse of “PS” seemed to quite naturally go into the “Love Me Do ” chorus. I posted it off to Mr Ramone and keenly awaited his response.

Fast-forward to the present Arctic conditions however, by this time so cold and angry I’d decided any further waiting around for Paul the plumber was futile, on the very point of locking up, low and behold the telephone rang. Hesitatingly, a voice spoke:

“Hi Phil, it’s Paul here….” but before any further words could leave his lips, a supercharged torrent of thermically-challenged abuse rained down on the unfortunate caller until, pausing for breath to reload both verbal barrels, he found a split-second to interject:

“No Phil, I think there must be some mistake mate, it’s Paul McCartney!”

I would have cried out on the spot with shame and embarrassment if I hadn’t just actually swallowed my tongue whole.

Throughout late childhood and into my teens and early music career I’d grown up in complete awe of this guy. An almost spiritual worship of an individual who was possibly the century’s most important composer- and a genius to boot.

And I just loved his taste in Cuban boots, Carnaby suits and gorgeous arty-looking women!

Paul and his soul buddy John had obviously revered all the same writers and artists I had, Buddy Holly, Elvis, Don and Phil Everly, Lieber and Stoller, even good old Lonnie Donegan, and together set about changing the course of modern music.

In the process they also changed history, putting England back on the map after it’s grey and stingy post-War years.

Paul McCartney was my hero, and inspiration for changing the course of my life and becoming a songwriter. And he was on the other end of my phone:

“Loved the arrangement of ‘PS Love Me Do’ Phil. It’s great! I’m making a record with Duane Eddy and the Memphis Horns soon. How’dya fancy coming down to my place in Rye and playing piano?”

That ever-so familiar mid-Atlantic scouse lilt.

As one might imagine, the ‘phone incident’ certainly broke the ice over what would otherwise have been a rather stilted and nervous exchange with my greatest hero had I actually been expecting his call. I suddenly became aware of what must have seemed barefaced cheek in totally re-arranging and even re-titling songs written by one of the most successful composers of all time. Thankfully though, he didn’t seem to mind;

“I’ve been called lots of things in my time but never a plumber!’”

Later, when finally time to go home, I locked up the studio realising I’d completely forgotten how cold it was.

Phil Ramone came out to greet me on arrival at The Mill Studio at Rye overlooking a diamond- bright English Channel. In England’s spring lanes on the way down from London I’d actually stopped and got out of the car a few times taking deep breaths of the crisp April air trying to convince myself this was all really happening. Phil was followed out of the studio by Paul who, walking over to my car held out his hand and greeted me with a winsome smile:

“Hello Phil. How’s your heating mate?”

A barely-perceptible trace of confusion flickered across Ramone’s face until the reference was explained. Paul was interested in everything. Asking me where I’d bought my coat, commenting on my shirt, wanting to know all about Culture Club and how they’d split up. How long had it taken to write “Karma Chameleon?” All that kind of stuff.

Band talk

Now more relaxed, the exhilaration meter went up a few notches on the mixing desk, the fear factor down. Linda appeared with cups of tea and “fake-bacon butties”, the real item apparently being the last thing Paul struggled to give up on becoming ‘veggie’. We set up our equipment and slowly began learning the arrangement to “Rockestra”

There are few people I know that might overcome the sense of shy gaucheness which I suspect that in meeting McCartney would be the case for many, especially of my generation. But playing music together, chatting about the Beatles - something he likes to do a lot, and as a ‘southpaw’ myself, playing the finest collection of left-handed guitars anywhere on the planet, seemed to transcend the impenetrably high walls of such a rarefied fame and universal celebrity. At least temporarily.

Over the course of the next two weeks we developed what I took to be, if not exactly close, then a warm friendship, nurtured, as is often the case between musicians just having a laugh, doing their job away from all the ‘ego’ and hype. The world’s most famous left-handed bassist would often go and make you a ‘cuppa’, “Jasmine or PG?” just like ‘one of the lads’.

One day upstairs in a long room above the studio recording area, he proudly showed me row upon row - a veritable phalanx of left-handed guitars, all neatly standing to attention like toy soldiers on their stands.

I admired an immaculate black Gibson in row 2, right–hand side.

Hands in pockets, a father looking down at his offspring said, proudly:

“Solo on “Taxman’”

“Wow, really?” I said. “Did you play that then?”

“Yeh”

I was in 7th (& 8th 9th and 10th!) Heaven.

“What about this one?” I revered.

“That was a birthday present from Les”

It had “To Paul McCartney from Les Paul” in immaculate mother of pearl along its sleek immaculate ‘Holly Golightly’ neck.

“Hang on”, I thought to myself, “This one’s got to be the most famous of all, the old ‘Hoffner Violin’ bass”

It was up on a three-pronged stand with a red Rickenbacker and black Fender Jazz Bass guitar.

“Is that ‘the one’?” I said, “Can I have a go?”

“Yeh, sure. Look out though, it’s still got the last Beatles set list on the top”

The faded card was precariously held on by the barest old and brittle cellotape, and aeons ago had obviously been hand-written on the back of a ‘No 6’ fag packet in true ‘muso’ style.

Picking up the fragile, feather-light and originally very cheap bass felt like picking up a plywood model aircraft, but knew it had to be the most valuable guitar in the world.

“You played with this at the Birmingham Odeon in 1966” I said, “I was there!”

That was 22 years ago.

The Maharishi

One Sunday a few months after working with Paul on the “Diamonds” album, I called the studio from home; surprised I could actually get through. I’d agreed to pass on a message, something I’m usually quite wary about. But as it was on behalf of the Maharishi, I gave my word. An emissary, on discovering I was ‘in the loop’, asked me to inform Paul that an Indian holy man, Dr Treguna, was coming to London and was wanting to meet Linda for a consultation. Apparently at some former time she’d expressed interest in the highly venerated 5000 year-old tradition of Vedic medicine.

“Look, I’ve promised I’ll try, but he has a lot of people around him and gets asked a lot of things” I explained to Steven Benson, leader of the Transcendental Meditation Movement in the UK at that time, “But I give you my word I’ll let him know”

Calling just after Sunday lunch at around 3pm, Trevor, Paul’s driver picked up the studio phone. I explained the nature of the call and asked would he pass the message on, secretly relieved a third-party request was being honoured and I’d done my job.

“Why don’t you tell him yourself, he’s right here” he said passing the phone to Paul.

To my astonishment the mere mention of Maharishi’s name seemed to unblock a kind avalanche of fond memories from what seemed to be a lost time in his life.

“How is Maharishi?” he enquired with obvious affection.

“He was great to us when Brian died” he said, recalling the train trip to Bangor at George’s request to meet the Maharishi for the first time, on the same day the band learned their manager had died from an overdose.

“John fell out with everybody in Rishikesh though which was a shame,” he said. “We nearly blew the whole thing for TM, but the Maharishi’s a really cool guy”

He intimated that John’s problems and misconceptions arose out of doing intense meditation around the clock in India whilst trying to cope with the emotional and deep psychological ‘fall-out’ from having ‘tripped-out’ on LSD hundreds of times.

The messenger seemed to become an unwitting catalyst to an outpouring of intimate and fascinating details about everything. John. How they met. John’s death and how he found out. Paul’s introduction to John of the ‘avant garde’ Art movement. Songs. Who wrote what, when, where. Bachelor days in St John’s Wood, his relationship with Yoko, George Martin – It all seemed to flood downstream like the sudden unexpected release of a logjam in a river of stories and words.

Prompted by the well-informed questions of a lifelong fan, the caller couldn’t believe the details he was hearing about his hero’s life and times, and moreover the trust which ‘Macca’ seemed more than comfortable to place in his erstwhile devotee and recent professional colleague.

I finally placed the receiver down at nearly quarter to nine at night!

Ann poked her head around the door for the umpteenth time.

“Sweetheart, how many more cups of tea are you going to want?” she said. “Do you realise what time it is?”

It was pitch dark in the kitchen and the longest phone call I’d ever made to anyone in my life.

I recall the time spent at ‘Waterfalls’ with great fondness and excitement but also with a degree of sadness, as in the end realised it could only ever be a brief glimpse of friendship with an idolised hero, perhaps even an ‘idealised’ friend.

“This is about as big as it gets Phil,” Sinatra’s and Streisand’s soundman Phil Ramone quietly confided one day, as I sang John’s back-ups with Paul on ‘‘PS’. After a while I even started to get quite used to the rarefied atmosphere of working at the immaculate studio in Rye.

Finally on leaving day, the genuine warmth of our farewells abruptly seemed to end as the limo’s darkened window snapped shut on the world, it’s occupant cocooned in the cool silent air-conditioned interior, a hole in the polar ice suddenly freezing over. The huge blue “Dallas-and-then-some” Mercedes crunched off rapidly down the gravel drive disappearing into the lanes.

Epilogue

Two years later I was a little down on my luck due to a slight altercation with the Inland Revenue, which had tiresomely led to a repatriation of our beautiful Knightsbridge Duplex by “The Friendly Listening Bank.”

In a rented house in Strawberry Hill, I was up very late watching TV in the den to avidly find out which song Paul was going to perform in John’s memory at a special Liverpool Anniversary “Live” Concert being broadcast via satellite to untold millions throughout the world. It was the 8th of December 1980 and 10 years since John’s untimely death between car and gutter outside the Dakota Building.

There was much speculation as many adoring artists including Madonna, Lenny Kravitz, Elton John and George Michael all magnificently gave heartfelt renditions of some of the greatest hits of all time. But which song was Paul going to do as his tribute to his closest ever friend, soul mate and musical partner?

We couldn’t even guess, but knew the choice was getting smaller after every artist had completed yet another classic.

Paul with his band Wings for obvious reasons were always going to be the “Grande Finale” however, finally running out on stage with customary ‘scouse bravado, thumbs up shouting: “How are ya?” camouflaging the underlying intense emotion of the occasion.

The band struck up.

I couldn’t believe my ears!

It was obvious through the distinctive introduction and arrangement it was “PS, Love Me Do.”

The previous stressful few weeks had taken their toll on me however and was apparently overcome with pride and joyous affirmation.

“Have you got something in your eye?” Ann said walking in from the other room:

“You alright?”

Then she realised.

“Hey, that’s the arrangement you did for Paul isn’t it?”

____________________________________________

The last time we met was at Lieber and Stoller’s table, a ‘matey’: “Hello ‘Philly’ - how’s it goin’?” at the Ivor Novello Awards in 2000, where I offered condolences over the loss of Linda, met his son James, and congratulated him on the Knighthood.

---

Phil’s speech at the House of Commons on behalf of PPL

2nd February 2009 : RT HON MINISTERS, MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN.

IT’S A GREAT HONOUR TO HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO SPEAK TO YOU TODAY ABOUT SUCH A CRUCIAL & TIMELY ISSUE AFFECTING THE LIVES OF AROUND 40,000 MUSICIANS IN THE UK - OF WHICH I AM BUT ONE

MY NAME IS PHIL PICKETT AND AS A MUSICIAN, HAVE BEEN LUCKY ENOUGH TO HAVE PLAYED ON SOME VERY BIG HITS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD.

SOME, YOU MAY HAVE HEARD ON THE RADIO, ON TELEVISION, IN ADVERTISING - OR AT THE CINEMA. PERHAPS SOME OF THEM ARE EVEN IN YOUR OWN TEENAGE RECORD COLLECTIONS!

I AM ALSO VERY PROUD – ALBEIT IN A SMALL WAY TO HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO AN INDUSTRY THAT HAS BROUGHT HUGE INTERNATIONAL PRESTIGE, CULTURAL REPRESENTATION – AND SUBSTANTIAL REVENUE TO THE SHORES OF THESE ISLANDS.

AT THE END OF THIS BRIEF ADDRESS, FROM A HUMBLE MUSICIAN’S POINT OF VIEW, MY AIM IS THAT YOU TOO MIGHT ALSO WISH TO SUPPORT THE PROPOSED NEW LEGISLATION ON COPYRIGHT REFORM AND THE EXTENTION FROM THE PRESENT 50 YEARS TO A MORE UNIVERSALLY ACCEPTED - AND ACCEPTABLE, 95 YEAR PERIOD.

NOT JUST BECAUSE IT MAKES LOGICAL SENSE TO BRING THE UK IN LINE WITH THE EU AND THE USA, OR PERHAPS BECAUSE IT OFFERS DIGNITY & SUPPORT TO MANY CREATORS AND MUSICIANS, SOME OF THEM TOWARDS THE END OF THEIR WORKING CAREERS, BUT BECAUSE I AND MANY BELIEVE IT IS SIMPLY, PRACTICALLY AND MORALLY “THE RIGHT THING TO DO”

34 YEARS AGO, IN 1975 - I PLAYED ON A SONG CALLED “A GLASS OF CHAMPAGNE” WHICH BEGAN WITH THE IMMORTAL WORDS:

“I’VE GOT THE MONEY, I’VE GOT THE PLACE

YOU’VE GOT THE FIGURE, YOU’VE GOT THE FACE –

LET’S GET TOGETHER THE TWO OF US OVER A

GLASS OF CHAMPAGNE!”

(FOR SOME OBSCURE REASON – IN OUR TEENAGE ANGST OUR LEAD SINGER PRONOUNCED IT AS “CHAM- POIGNE” ON THE RECORD BUT DON’T ASK ME WHY!)

MY BAND WAS CALLED SAILOR, (STILL IS!) AND ALTHOUGH WE WERE A VERY LONG WAY FROM HAVING THE MONEY WE WERE SINGING ABOUT, BEING ASSOCIATED WITH SUCH A HUGE HIT WAS A GREAT THRILL & BOOST FOR A YOUNG MUSICIAN STARTING OUT IN WHAT IS STILL A VERY TOUGH BUSINESS

TO THIS DAY APART FROM MY PHONOGRAPHIC PERFORMANCE PAYMENT – A MINISCULE PROVISION THAT THE BBC, I-TUNES OR OTHER USERS ARE OBLIGED TO FORWARD TO THE COPYRIGHT SHARERS – AS A MUSICIAN I HAVE NEVER RECEIVED ONE PENNY IN ROYALTIES OR FURTHER EARNINGS FROM ‘CHAMPAGNE’ IN SPITE OF THE MILLIONS IT HAS EARNED

NOT, I HASTEN TO ADD, BECAUSE OF ANY CHICANERY – ALTHOUGH MANY RECORD DEALS AT THE TIME WOULD ALMOST BE SEEN AS CRIMINAL OFFENSES IN TODAY’S ENVIRONMENT.

FOR EXAMPLE, SAILOR WERE PAID ON ONLY 3% OF THE WHOLESALE PRICE OF THE RECORD – NOT ONLY TO BE SHARED BETWEEN THE 4 GUYS IN THE BAND, BUT ONLY AFTER PAYING OFF ALL OF THE SUBSTANTIAL RECORDING, PROMOTIONAL AND TOURING COSTS….OH, AND PROBABLY JUST A LIMO RIDE HOME AFTER SOME WILD GLAM ROCK PARTIES!!

WE NEVER SAW WHERE THE OTHER 97% WENT – BUT IT WAS ALL ENTIRELY LEGAL APPARENTLY!

AS BO DIDLY FAMOUSLY ANSWERED WHEN ASKED ABOUT HOW MUCH MONEY HE’D MADE IN A 50-YEAR CAREER;

“ OH, PROBABLY ‘BOUT TEN MILLION DOLLARS….AIN’T NEVER SEEN ANY OF IT THOUGH!”

BUT EVEN HAD I BEEN JUST A SESSION PLAYER, AS ON THE MANY OTHER RECORDS I PLAYED ON, SUCH AS “KARMA CHAMELEON” “SUGAR SUGAR” AND “CHURCH OF THE POISON MIND” I WOULD HAVE CONSIDERED MYSELF EXTREMELY LUCKY TO HAVE RECEIVED A FEE, PROBABLY SEVERAL MONTHS AFTER THE EVENT OF AROUND £25, POSSIBLY JUST ENOUGH TO BUY ANOTHER RIDICULOUS PAIR OF ‘FASHIONABLE’ TROUSERS OR ONE OF THOSE JACKETS WITH VERY DODGY SHOULDER PADS, SO ‘DE RIGEUR’ AT THE TIME!

“CHAMPAGNE” BECAME NUMBER 1 IN MANY COUNTRIES AND GENERATED MILLIONS FOR THE RECORD LABEL, CBS /EPIC RECORDS, THE PUBLISHERS, WARNER CHAPPELL AND - AM PROUD TO SAY, THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER AT THAT TIME, DENNIS HEALEY

FAST-FORWARD TO 2007 HOWEVER – 33 YEARS AFTER ‘CHAMPAGNE’S RELEASE, OUR ORIGINAL RECORDING WAS STILL CONSIDERED CATCHY, ENERGETIC AND FRESH ENOUGH TO BE USED AS THE SOUNDTRACK FOR A SERIES OF ADS IN AN ATTEMPT TO REVITALIZE THE THEN AILING FORTUNES OF RETAIL GIANTS, MARKS AND SPENCERS – AND WHICH, TOE-TAPPING TO OUR HARMONIES, SOME OF THE WORLD’S MOST GORGEOUS SUPERMODELS TOOK M&S RIGHT BACK TO THE TOP OF THE CHARTS AND A COMPLETELY NEW SUCCESS STORY!

EVERYONE BENEFITED, M&S OF COURSE. THE ADVERTISING AGENCY, THE RECORD LABEL – THE PUBLISHERS AND THE TV COMPANY, ALL TO THE TUNE OF LITERALLY TENS OF THOUSANDS OF POUNDS. AND GOOD LUCK TO THEM.

BUT IS IT NOT FAIR THAT THE MUSICIANS AND SINGERS WITH THEIR HARD-WON CRAFTMANSHIP AND ABILITIES SHOULD ALSO GO ON SHARING IN THIS POT, ALBEIT A VERY MODEST – BUT ONGOING SHARE IN THEIR COPYRIGHT AND NOT JUST TO CUT THEM OFF IN THEIR PRIME?

I’M NOT TALKING ABOUT THE PHIL COLLINSES HERE, OR THE RONNIE WOODS, OR THOSE WHO LIVE ON THE TOP OF SWISS MOUNTAINS WITH EVER YOUNGER & MORE BEAUTIFUL CONSORTS!! THEY’RE DOING JUST FINE THANKS!

SERIOUSLY, I’M TALKING ABOUT THE VAST MAJORITY OF WORKING MUSICIANS, MOST OF WHOM ARE MOVING TOWARDS, OR ALREADY IN RETIREMENT AND WHO LIVE ON OR BELOW THE BREAD LINE.

THEIR SHARE OF COPYRIGHT ON THE WORKS THEY HELPED CREATE IN MANY CASES WILL ONLY BRING THEM UP TO A LEVEL MANY WOULD CONSIDER BARELY ADEQUATE. TO BE MORE EXACT, THE MOST WE ARE TALKING HERE IS BETWEEN ABOUT £1500 AND £5000 A YEAR TOPS.

NO ONE FOR INSTANCE, TOLD RAF RAVENSCROFT HOW TO FASHION THAT UNFORGETABLE SAX LINE ON “BAKER STREET” – THE SOARING AND BEAUTIFUL EXPRESSION OF THE JOY OF SIMPLY BEING YOUNG AND ALIVE IN THAT INCREDIBLY HOT SUMMER OF ‘76.

A LIFETIME OF PREVIOUS DEDICATION TO LEARNING HIS ART – PERHAPS AT THE EXPENSE OF “DOING SOMETHING SENSIBLE” – LIKE BEING A SOLICITOR OR BANK MANAGER (ON SECOND THOUGHTS!!!) MEANT THAT HE JUST SIMPLY PLAYED IT.

THESE PERFORMANCES ARE NOT JUST STITCHED IN TIME TO WHEN THEY WERE FIRST PRODUCED & RELEASED – THE BEST OF THEM OFTEN GO ON BEING BIG BUSINESS AND ARE ENJOYED BY THE PUBLIC AND EARNING VAST SUMS FOR DECADES

WHY FOR INSTANCE IS IT ACCEPTED IN PRESENT COPYRIGHT LAW THAT EVEN THE ANCILLARY ALBUM COVER DESIGNERS, PHOTOGRAPHERS, WRITERS AND ALL MANNER OF OTHER COPYRIGHT CREATIVES SHOULD DIRECTLY PARTICIPATE IN ROYALTIES BASED ON THE WORKS OF MUSICIANS FOR UP TO 95 YEARS – BUT THAT IN THE CASE OF THE VERY MUSICAL PERFORMERS THEMSELVES, IT CEASES TO BE PAYABLE AFTER ONLY 50 YEARS?

THIS COMES AT THE VERY TIME IN MANY MUSICAL CAREERS WHEN THE NEED INCOME IS THE HIGHEST, OFFERING THE DIGNITY IN ADVANCING YEARS TO STAY OUT OF THE ARMS OF THE STATE.

THEREFORE I FEEL THAT NOW IS THE TIME TO ADDRESS THIS ISSUE, WHICH ESPECIALLY FOR A UK GOVERNMENT IS PERHAPS BUT A CURIOUS ANOMALY, AND TO IMPLORE THE UK GOVERNMENT TO SUPPORT THE PROPOSAL TO EXTEND THE COPYRIGHT TERM FOR MUSICIANS AND PRODUCERS FROM THE PRESENT 50 YEARS TO 95 YEARS

THANK YOU ON BEHALF OF ALL UK MUSICIANS FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION OF THIS PROPOSAL.

---

Name: * please leave your name

Email: * please leave a valid email address

Company:

Sector:

Please Select advertising agency broadcaster commercial director film/tv producer film/tv director music publisher record company record producer other

Phone Number: