If there’s one thing that I can’t abide, it’s record companies screwing around artists. Apparently, Charly Records are re-issuing the classic Radio Gnome trilogy without the consent of the surviving members.
Guitarist Steve Hillage recently made a post on Facebook outlining the details and I would like to pass them along as a warning to prospective purchasers. Please support the artists and heed Steve’s advice.
From Steve Hillage:
OFFICIAL GONG BAND MEMBERS STATEMENT
We, the surviving members of Gong, do not support BYG/Charly Records upcoming reissue of the Radio Gnome trilogy.
None of the surviving members of the lineups that created those recordings were ever signed to BYG or Charly Records.
The truth is that immediately before the making of Flying Teapot in January 1973, the band learned that Daevid Allen’s once record company – BYG Records (also known as Promodisc) – had gone bust, it’s Paris office stripped bare, no phones working. The band was abandoned at the Manor Studios at the start of recording the album. Virgin – at the time just a chain of record stores and The Manor studios – was about to launch their record label.
Faced with an unpaid recording bill, they decided to cut their losses and release Flying Teapot as the second release on the new Virgin Records label. That’s the true story.
The booklet advertised as accompanying the Charly/BYG Release is full of untruths, lies and falsehoods claiming to represent Charly and BYG Records as some sort of poor victim of Virgin’s wickedness. The truth is that none of the musicians on those recordings has ever received a penny of royalty payments for the Charly/BYG releases, or even a statement. This is understandable because we NEVER signed to BYG or Charly Records as Gong.
Meanwhile, forty years later, we still receive statements from Virgin and, for those of us who cleared our advances, royalty payments, even though Virgin has since been sold to EMI and now is owned by Universal Records.
We know and can confirm as 100% corroborated fact that the Original Masters of these albums reside in the Virgin Records Archive, and that Charly has never at any time been given access to them, so Charly’s claim to have used the Original Masters is false.
Charly has been brazenly abusing our rights as artists for decades. None of us are rich or powerful enough to sue them. All we can do is to let you, our lovely Gong fans, know that we do not support this release. We will be supporting a new boxed set to be released by Universal in a few months with our full collaboration.
DO NOT BUY THIS RELEASE
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Has Charly EVER put out a legit release? I had a bunch of 7″ EPs they did in the 70s , reissues of rockabilly and early R’n’R, including Johnny Cash. Sounded like they were all mastered from other records. They did several punk-era album compilations that were all unauthorized. Basically a bootleg/pirate operation trying to put on a legitimate front. You can see a long list of the other musicians they’ve ripped off at their wikipedia entry.
I’ve never understood how Charly ever got the rights to Gong’s material in the first place – how come Virgin/Universal are not releasing these – I know Charly re-issues go back to 1979, was some dodgy deal done back then? The sad result is, unless you can find the early Virgin Releases of Angel’s Egg and You – the only way to get the Trilogy on CD is via the Charly CDs – which sound like crap, where on earth did they get their ‘masters’ from? Also, I’ve never understood why Virgin didn’t release Flying Teapot on CD back in the late 80’s when they released the others? I can’t abide the Charly version of that release so I’ve ‘needle-dropped’ Flying Teapot from my Virgin vinyl copy, and the difference in quality is astounding – both the 1990 and 2005 Charly CDs versions sound terrible in comparison and are the ‘worst-sounding’ commercially produced CDs I own. Daevid Allen must be turning in his grave.
Steve Hillage does mention in his statement that Universal are going to be issuing these titles (as a box set) and that that have had the full cooperation of the surviving band members.
As far as the inferior quality of releases done by other labels… It is not uncommon for labels to issue substandard sounding CDs which have simply been dubbed from vinyl. This can be problematic for the end sound because they are likely not using a high-end turntable and the LPs are likely not in mint shape. To disguise these problems, noise reduction in the form of equalization (rolling off the high end) and click reduction would be employed. Both of these processes drastically affect the final sound in the form of muddiness.
I don’t know when the Universal releases will be issued but, Steve recommends waiting. I certainly agree!