0 1 INSIDE Singleschart,6-7;Album chart,17; New Singles,18; NewAlbums, 13; Airplay guide, 14-15; Independent Labels, 5; Sponsorship and the Record Industry, 9. Ir A July 19, 1982VOLUME FIVENumber 15 65p Sting court dispute could threaten pop music publishers THE HIGHCourt case in which Stinghad made £700,000 from the Police's It was after signing with A &M that of The Police is suing Virgin music forsuccess with A &M without doing any-Sting was advised that his publishing the return of £700,000 and the return ofthing to earn it. "The contract meantcontract was less than it should be. his song copyrights could threaten thethat the company had no obligation toCopeland advised him to 'get out of the whole basisof the pop publishingensure the music was recorded - anddeal' but when he asked for better business. theydidnothing,"saidBateson.terms, the then managing director of It follows hard on the heels of GilbertPolice's A&M deal was said to have beenVirgin Music Carol Wilson did not O'Sullivan'ssuccessfulretrospectivethe result of hard work by managerimprove the deal. case against the MAM group of com-Miles Copeland. Virgin is contesting the case, which is panies in which he was awarded his Sting told Mr. Justice Mars -Jonesscheduled to last for at least a fortnight. copyrights, masters, and all the profitsthat he had not understood a word of the Fears that there might be a rash of made from them under contracts thatpublishing contract and never suspectedsimilar courtcasesover publishing ran out four years ago. MAM is appeal-there was anything wrong with it. Hecontracts were being played down by ing against the judgement. said it was only at the insistence of hispublishers last week, although there is A deal was struck between Sting andwife that a solicitor was consulted, andthought to be atleast one dispute GOLDEN SKY: Taking a break fromVirgin when the singer was in anthat he did not get involved in the legallooming, between a major songwriter recording their fifth LP at Abbeyunknown group called Last Exit. It gavediscussions. and his publisher over a 50-50 contract. Virgin copyright of his songs and enti- Road, Sky are presented with goldtled him to 50 percent of the royalties albums for their Sky 4 Forthcomingthey generated for the first three years of opus. Along with the band are Ariolahe contract, and 60 percent during the quits to launch own international head Gordon Macken-last two. zie, Ariola regional promotions chiefThe best-sellers Outlandos d'Amour,TV merchandising firm Mike Perry and marketing directorRegatta De Blanc and Zenyatta Mondatta fell within the period of the contract,COLIN ASHBY,managing director ofcompany will comprise a staff of three - Brian Yates in the back row, producerwhich ran out on October 6 last year.K-tel and a&r manager Nigel MasonAshby's secretary Maxine Sullivan will Haydn Bendall, manager Peter Lyster- Yet, according toSting's counselhave resigned and are setting up theircomplete the team - and plans to use its Todd and producer Tony Clark in theAndrew Bateson QC, Virgin had re-own TV merchandising company. size and flexibility, plus £1 million - middle row. fused the singer a recording contract and To be known as TV Records, theworth of City backing, as the chief weapons in its blueprint to compete in a hotly contested market. Arista to import all albums from Germany "There is room for a company like ours at this time," commented Ashby, ARISTA ALBUMS will be pressed will manufacture and distribute all "Even in the peak peak period we who leaves K-tel after five years, the last in West Germany by associatedChrysalis product, but manufac- can press as required cutting down three as managing director. "We have company Sonopress with immedi- ture only 7 -inch and 12 -inch singles the stock risk which we would face the finance to bid for the best repertoire ate effect, although distribution will for Arista. because of the lack of capacity in available, but we won't be carrying the continue through PolyGram in the Arista is now utilising the facili- the UK," said David Adams, com- overheads of our competitors. There- UK. ties of major German plant Sonop- mercial manager of Eurodisc. fore we will be in a position to offer the Arista and Chrysalis Records - ress for album and cassette require- AlthoughAriolahasafew best deals, but able to rely on lower the Tandem partnership - havements, delivering to PG for dis- months of its PRT contract to run, volumes. I had to turn down a couple of just renewed their manufacturingtribution in the UK. it is expected that it will be brought albums recently at K-tel because we and distribution agreement with The German plant has facilities into line with the Arista arrange- couldn't have made them profitable. PolyGram for a three year period. for 250,000 albums and 180,000 ment as soon as possible. Under the new terms PolyGram cassettes per day. TURN TO P2 HEAVEN N HELL ELOY: THE WAR OF THE WORLDS IS OVER ... THE BATTLE FOR THE PLANETS BEGINS! Concept album similar to Floyd/Genesis. BITCES SIN: Cumbria Hard Rock- Excellent reviews, Sounds, R B, & MW. SPLIT BEAVER: B'ham/W'ton Hard Rock boogie. DISTRIBUTE BY HMI LP 1 ELOY "PLANETS" COLOUR GRAINED Pol)Grairl HMR LP 4 BITCHES SIN "PREDATOR" COLOUR HMR LP 3 SPLIT BEAVER "WHEN HELL WON'T HAVE (09072) 2211 SLEEVE BY RODNEY MATTHEWS ALSO ON PIC. DISC GRAINED SLEEVE BY RODNEY MATTHEWS 4 01-590 6044 HMI PD 1 & SONY METAL TAPE HMI MC 1 YOU" COLOUR -GRAINED SLEEVE. fIEWS Poor attendance at RAVRO revitalisation meeting WITH A London attendance of just 19Davison described as "So poor I can'tthat they could not fight the methods of people the revitalisation of the Recordbelieve it. I'm disgusted." the major chains so they should use and Video Retailers Organisation got off Six thousand invitations were sent outthem themselves. to a muted start last Wednesday. for the London meeting, and the follow- Main suggestion was to gather small Those 19 present represented onlying night's Northern gathering in Birm-groups of dealers in areas throughout eight retail concerns and the meetingingham. the country tocreate bulk buying began with just four dealers present, a The meeting was, however, not with-consortia under general administration state of affairs which new chairman Alanout constructive debate. Dealers agreedfrom RAVRO. Another way in which small dealers THE FIRST record ever to clock up can compete, it was suggested, was to 52 weeks on the RB singles chart - diversify and use greaterskill and that's Pigbag's Papa's Got A BrandJan -March figures experience to provide the public with a New Pigbag'. RB made a special service which went beyond simply sell- award to the act to mark the occasion.reveal buoyant 45 ing chart material. Presenting it is Patricia Thomas, head of RB's Research Department, andSIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTIONSmillion units were delivered to the trade receiving itare Simon Underwoodfrom the independent labels made sure- down five percent on the first quarterStaff axed as (bass player and producer) and Dickthat singles sales were the bright spot inof 1981 with a slight increase in value. O'Dell (manager and head of Y Re-the BPI's quarterly sales survey figuresWhen inflation is taken into account,Rocket plans cords). At right is RB's Indie labelrevealed last week. the value of the last year's album sales correspondent Sarah Lewis. However, album sales continued theirhas failed to keep pace with the cost ofretrenchment downward trend and the generally opti-living. ELTON JOHN'S Rocket Records has Management mistic recent performance of pre-re- Although pre-recorded tape showed abecome the latest casualty of the record corded cassettes suffered a slow -down.mere 0.6 percent sales increase over theindustry recession. takes Haircut And a moving annual total of tradefirst quarter of 1981, the value shot up Staff were told last week that the dividends reveals that since March 1979by 20.6 percent to £13.1 million. company will be severely pruned from to court shipments to the stores have declined by "The fact that cassettes have been September 1 with atotal of seven HAIRCUT ONE Hundred face a court22.1m albums, worth almost £22 mil-able to bear substantial price increasesredundancies forecast. The only record battle over management with a companylion. suggests that they are perceived in alabel executives to survive the cut -back named Testfold Ltd claiming in the Despite a 14 percent price increase ondifferent light by consumers now. Im-will be managing director John Hall and High Court that the group is still boundsingles over the January -March periodproved quality has probably helped theinternational manager Robert Kev. in a contract which the group says isthe previous year, singles delivered tocassette to move up market, and the Of the six -strong artists roster - apart ended. the trade increased by seven percent andratio between LP and tape sales is nowfrom Elton John - there are hints that The dispute came before Mr Justicetheir value was up by an impressive 22less than two to one," summed upmost will be dropped apart from one Goulding last Monday and proceedingspercent at £14.8 million during theDeacon. unspecified act. The company is also will continue on July 28, althoughquarter. "The overall value of trade deliveriesdue to leave its plush Lancaster Gate progress is bound to be hampered by the "Product has been sufficiently strongin the first quarter was £55.4 millionoffices in the Summer and move to new fact that the group is on tour in America.to bear a14 percent average pricecompared with £50.2 million in the samepremises in Kensington.