Show us the money

Paul, Bono and Cliff want even more money

A motley collection of the UK's richest musicians called for a musicians revolt on the Gowers report and calling for copyright laws to be extended. Last week, 4000 artists signed an advertisement in a national paper calling for fair play for musicians by extending the copyright term from 50 to 95 years. Signatories included Bono, Paul McCartney, Cliff Richard and, from beyond the grave, Lonnie Donegan (RIP November 4th 2002) and Freddie Garrity (RIP May 20th 2006).

The Telegraph pop critic Neil McCormick (yes he who recorded the immortal line "And will the God of love welcome up above those who would maim me?" in response to the July 7th bombings in London) thundered:

"This was set before the advent, the big boom, of rock 'n' roll - the boom in popular culture which has led to a whole vast number of people making their living from these royalties.

"You can make a record in 1955 and have been getting royalties," he said. "Suddenly they're gone."

Yes, that's right, in 2008 Cliff's earliest work enters the public. Of course what Neil "my friend Bono" McCormick forgets is that who else does a day's work one year and is still being paid fifty years later? And what about all of the work that remains copyrighted but unpublished because it is not considered profitable to do so?

Of course, what the tame music journos fail to recognise is that Sir Paul doesn't own his catalogue anyway. And, as such, an underlying composition (copyright) remains the authors for their life time plus 70 years. Whereas, what is up for grabs is the rights to a particular recording of a song.

Thankfully, the Gowers review [http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/gowers/] has recommended that copyright for any existing work should never be extended. However, given T. Blair's love of the rock and roll lifestyle it's still possible we will see retrospective copyright extensions brought in.

So, why am I bothered about retrospective copyright extensions? Well, quite frankly, it's the sheer hypocrisy of these people. Absolutely rolling in cash the likes of Saint Bono, Sir Paul de Macca and Arch-bishop Cliff yabber on about global poverty, animal rights and the fair payment of session musicians.

Take Bono's hat fetish, in 2005 the U2 front man spent $1,700 dollars flying his hat from London to Italy. He was in Italy to do a benefit concert. Bono has subsequently spent the best part of 2006 (as well as many thousands of pounds no doubt) reclaiming a hat. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6150070.stm]

Meanwhile over in Macca land; in 1999 the animal loving Paul showed us his love for all creatures great and small by building a four mile fence around his UK country home to keep out the wild boar. Cost? A mere £90,000.

Yes some musicians talk the talk and walk the walk - I'm thinking Billy Bragg - but many more are over paid, over opinionated wastrel whose only function in life is to hype their sense of self importance beyond all reason.


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