The plusses of *not* being the Beatles

[Xenu]

The phenomenon of "limited celebrity" has always amazed me, and the internet only makes the problem worse. To make a long story short: as I was musically reared on The Beatles, it's always a bit off-putting to realize that the various members of the various bands I now enjoy aren't necessarily rich, famous, or sequestered away from the rest of the world. In fact, frequently they participate in this thing we call the internet.

Now, this can cause several things to happen. For one, many people get star struck very easily in the presence of *any* minor celebrity (or even a first-degree-of-separation-from-minor-celebrity). I'm guilty of this too, I suppose, but I got it out of my system in a very harmless, facile fashion waayyyy back when (another long story made short: Compuserve had forums, and consequently had "those who were knowledgable" who received no small amount of hero worship from impressionable youngsters). Indeed, it's unfortunate when a minor celebrity attracts sycophants who then convince the "celebrity" to act every bit his pinnacle of authority...or, worse, to leave and escape the bizarre duality of conversation, i.e. Roger McGuinn.

But every once in a while, everything--either over time, or just through the maturity of those involved--gets to a certain level where only good things can be the result.

Take the Left Banke. Several ex-members have been participating online for ages, a very fortunate and informative turn of events. Last year, however, one member suddenly dropped a bombshell: "hey, anybody want to hear some of our unreleased tapes?"

Subsequently, a CDs worth of unreleased Banke recordings, surely never to be issued by any legitimate record company (heck, their actual body of work is currently OOP, thank-you-Dave-M.). And it turns out that a member of the freakin' Beckies--whose sole album has never been reissued on CD--is sitting on a veritable treasure-trove of material himself.

I don't see Macca deciding to give the world "Help!" rehearsals anytime soon.

[lukpac]

I'm sure our friend Mike Hunte could share some Dion starfucking stories...

[mikenycLI]

The phenomenon of "limited celebrity" has always amazed me, and the internet only makes the problem worse. To make a long story short: as I was musically reared on The Beatles, it's always a bit off-putting to realize that the various members of the various bands I now enjoy aren't necessarily rich, famous, or sequestered away from the rest of the world. In fact, frequently they participate in this thing we call the internet.

Now, this can cause several things to happen. For one, many people get star struck very easily in the presence of *any* minor celebrity (or even a first-degree-of-separation-from-minor-celebrity). I'm guilty of this too, I suppose, but I got it out of my system in a very harmless, facile fashion waayyyy back when (another long story made short: Compuserve had forums, and consequently had "those who were knowledgable" who received no small amount of hero worship from impressionable youngsters). Indeed, it's unfortunate when a minor celebrity attracts sycophants who then convince the "celebrity" to act every bit his pinnacle of authority...or, worse, to leave and escape the bizarre duality of conversation, i.e. Roger McGuinn.

But every once in a while, everything--either over time, or just through the maturity of those involved--gets to a certain level where only good things can be the result.

Take the Left Banke. Several ex-members have been participating online for ages, a very fortunate and informative turn of events. Last year, however, one member suddenly dropped a bombshell: "hey, anybody want to hear some of our unreleased tapes?"

Subsequently, a CDs worth of unreleased Banke recordings, surely never to be issued by any legitimate record company (heck, their actual body of work is currently OOP, thank-you-Dave-M.). And it turns out that a member of the freakin' Beckies--whose sole album has never been reissued on CD--is sitting on a veritable treasure-trove of material himself.

I don't see Macca deciding to give the world "Help!" rehearsals anytime soon.

Great thread, Xenu !

The poor Left Banke ! To some extent, they are the typical victim of the Music Companies, unable to understand how to market the old music, back to us.

Macca's great grand children, will probably release the "Help" sessions...
too bad, because they are KILLER recordings, as you may well know !

[Rspaight]

I just gotta stick this in, because I'm a hopeless fanboy for this group, and they're a perfect example of taking matters into their own hands via the net and writing off the majors:

http://www.marillion.com/

This is a group that had several platinum albums in the UK (including the #1 album there the week of Live Aid), but never broke over here. After the majors wrote them off in the mid-Nineties, they took to the Internet. Their first hint that it could work was when in 1997, using the Internet as an organizing tool, the fans funded a US tour when their new independent label went under at the 11th hour.

Where the Net really changed things, though, was with their 2001 album, Anoraknophobia, the recording of which was funded by pre-orders from their web site before the album was made. Those who pre-ordered got a special edition 2CD version of the album, including an expanded booklet featuring the names of the earliest pre-orderers. The band then took the finished and paid-for masters and negotiated a deal with EMI to distribute the 1CD version of the album to record stores. The result was their first album in 15 years that exceeded the sales of the previous record.

They're doing a similar thing with their forthcoming album Marbles. The record is completed this time, and the pre-order money is going into a promotional fund which promises a true world tour for the first time since that fan-funded '97 trek.

This is the way real music (as opposed to mass-market chart fodder) will be made and distributed in the (near) future.

EDIT -- As it happens, there's an article in the new Sound on Sound that reiterates the above in great detail, if you're interested...

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep03/a ... illion.htm

Ryan