The Internet is a confusing place to be when you're a troll.
Perhaps some research beforehand might have clarified things before you posted.
In what way does the letter not give the impression that it was written by someone with high intlligence or common sense?
Try and clarify your thoughts before you post and perhaps you might be taken seriously.
The Story of Be Bop Deluxe's Bill Nelson and How His Record Label Ripped Him Off
Some Day, Artists Will Unite and Put a Stop to This Nonsense
For many years, I've been trying to discover why I have never received any royalties from EMI records for the sales of my Be Bop Deluxe recordings. I've had neither money nor accounting from them since the 'seventies, despite constant re-issues of the product on both vinyl and CD. In the 1980's, when my business affairs were managed by Mark Rye, (expletive deleted,) I attempted to get to the bottom of my non-existent EMI royalty payments. Rye, who was himself an ex-EMI employee, supposedly checked with EMI on my behalf and came back with the answer that the Be Bop Deluxe albums had not yet recouped the advances paid by EMI to the band during the band's career in the 1970's and therefore no royalties were due. Fair enough, I thought. They're bound to recoup before too long and then, perhaps, I'll be paid something.
Time passed and any further enquiries made by me were simply brushed aside with the "not yet recouped" answer. Eventually, I parted company with the troublesome Mr. Rye, finding myself severely financially 'distressed', a situation which had contributed to the rapid deterioration of my marriage and also damaged my health. To put it simply, I ended up in 'a bit of a state.' I was generously helped by a caring friend, David Sylvian who suggested that his own management, Opium, would be prepared to look after my affairs. I had a meeting with David and Richard Chadwick, (David's manager), and Richard eventually became my new manager. Amongst several problems hanging over me at that time was the ongoing non-payment/non-accounting from EMI in connection with Be Bop Deluxe royalties. (And Red Noise too, for that matter.) Richard eventually made enquiries and came back with a similar answer, that the records hadn't recouped yet. Meanwhile, the Be Bop Deluxe catalogue was being regularly re-issued by EMI without any accounting being provided to myself.
A few years later, EMI decided that they would like to make a double 'best of' CD compilation available and contacted a friend of mine, Kevin Cann, whom they employed to oversee the design and general direction of the project. Naturally, Kevin then contacted me to get my input. I explained that I was wary of the whole thing because I was not receiving any royalties for Be Bop Deluxe product. Kevin said that he would enquire at EMI on my behalf as he had a good relationship with one of the staff there. Eventually, Kevin came back to me with the news that, apparently, the records were still unrecouped BUT, the proposed double album 'best of' compilation would tip the balance in my favour and then I would begin to see some royalty payments. In view of this, I gave the project my blessing and liased with Kevin on the development of the package which became known as 'The Air Age Anthology.' This double album duly appeared in the shops but any accounting from EMI was still not forthcoming, nor were there any royalty payments.
Sometime later, a Harvest Records box set was proposed by EMI to document the history of that label, for which many bands, including Be Bop Deluxe, had recorded in the past. EMI wanted to include some Be Bop Deluxe recordings as part of the package. They even went as far as asking me to contribute a written piece for the book that they proposed should accompany the boxed set of albums. The cover of the box featured an especially commissioned painting of many of the musicians and artists featured on the collection of recordings, myself included. I thought that this release would further assist the recouping of royalties and so I agreed to contribute a written essay on my involvement with Harvest and EMI.
Meanwhile, I had been regularly complaining to Richard about the lack of accounting from EMI and he eventually contacted a firm of music business lawyers to look into the matter. Over a period of two years, a very strange story emerge
This isn't a small problem. It's a massive problem where the use of spreadsheets, rather than a well designed database and ui, that's become part of the culture in many of the companies/institutions that I've worked with/for. These thing end up as huge monstrosities which are shared across an enterprise over the network and which have been cobbled together by folks with little or no experience to make their jobs easier and have then become inherited by others and then spread viral like around the organisation. In many cases the reasons are not just because excel is easy to use to create a small app, but also because the organisation prevents the use of other apps which might be relevant for the development of small shared databases (Access cough cough!!!). It has driven me to despair to see the way some of these spreadsheets are being used and managed.
Slashdot Mirror
Perhaps some research beforehand might have clarified things before you posted.
In what way does the letter not give the impression that it was written by someone with high intlligence or common sense?
Try and clarify your thoughts before you post and perhaps you might be taken seriously.
This isn't a small problem. It's a massive problem where the use of spreadsheets, rather than a well designed database and ui, that's become part of the culture in many of the companies/institutions that I've worked with/for.
These thing end up as huge monstrosities which are shared across an enterprise over the network and which have been cobbled together by folks with little or no experience to make their jobs easier and have then become inherited by others and then spread viral like around the organisation. In many cases the reasons are not just because excel is easy to use to create a small app, but also because the organisation prevents the use of other apps which might be relevant for the development of small shared databases (Access cough cough!!!).
It has driven me to despair to see the way some of these spreadsheets are being used and managed.