What a load of ****!

[neil wilkes]

http://www.freelanceuk.com/news/1006.shtml

Apparently Clare Tony - (the girlie singer on DSOTM/Great Gig In The Sky) has sued for a half share of the tracks copyright!
And I for one hope it gets thrown out of court.

On the "Classic Albums" DVD of Dark Side, it is clear that it was in fact ALan Parsons who got that sound.

All this type of action will do is ensure that session players do not work again, as no band or label will use them in case they end up getting sued later on.
Imagine what would happen if the Motown players sued?

Madness in a litigation crazy world where anyone can sue anyone else for anything.

[daved64]

http://www.freelanceuk.com/news/1006.shtml

Apparently Clare Tony - (the girlie singer on DSOTM/Great Gig In The Sky) has sued for a half share of the tracks copyright!
And I for one hope it gets thrown out of court.

On the "Classic Albums" DVD of Dark Side, it is clear that it was in fact ALan Parsons who got that sound.

All this type of action will do is ensure that session players do not work again, as no band or label will use them in case they end up getting sued later on.
Imagine what would happen if the Motown players sued?

Madness in a litigation crazy world where anyone can sue anyone else for anything.

Isn't Claire Torry?

[Cai Campbell]

While I am appalled that Claire only received a pittance for her incredible work on what is perhaps one of the most brilliant pieces of music ever performed, the fact of the matter remains that she was a hired contractor and has virtually no claim on the piece of music. However, if she can prove (and apparently she has) that she acted as more of a collaborator on the piece, I can see where she might have a legal leg to stand on. These type of cases can be extraordinarily complex, and since I don't know virtually anything about British copyright law, I will defer to the courts. I can certainly see both sides of the issue and I hope a fair and balanced settlement can be reached.

[lonster]

While I detest frivolous lawsuits, I think that the work that Claire did on DSotM was very much an integral part of what made that album so successful. There were many people responsible for that album being one of the most popular ever, and the sounds that she belted out are some of the most memorable parts of the compilation.
Just play a short section of her work off the album and any self respecting music enthusiast will be able to tell you what album it came from. Shoot, even my 6 year old knows that her sound is from DSotM. That's gotta be worth some compensation, since everyone is making money AGAIN from this project.
Just my 2 cents,
Lonster

[Ge Someone]

Apparently Clare Tony has sued for a half share of the tracks copyright!
And I for one hope it gets thrown out of court.

Apperently she had a case, because she won according to this source

50% seems a lot, as Richard Wright composed the chord progression and then there's the rest of the band. I guess if it would have been settled at the time, she wouldn't have got more than 20% (and the other Floyd member each the same). The threat of having to recall the album (which still sells well after 30 yrs) paved the way for a quick financial settlement.

[neil wilkes]

She didn't win - it was settled out of court. EMI didn't want to risk a recall.
Fact is that she took the fee, which in those days was equivalent to a weeks work in a factory, and now all of a sudden it's not fair?
Come on!
She signed the deal, so why wait 30 years to sue?

All this will do is stop session players getting hired.
Suppose the session players from the legendary Motown years all decided to sue, as their bass playing/drumming/guitar etc "defined the record".

Back to DSOTM, it was Alan Parsons who made that record what it is due to the superb way it was recorded and mmixed.
The band wrote it and performed it.
She sang on one song.
50%???

All I can see here is a very dangerous precedent being set that could kill off the entire session market. Session players can work for points, or else a rate based on the amount of takes they do in the studio. Most take the flat rate of - these days - around £50 to £80 per take.
And they will all be looking to sue now.
The floodgates will open, and there will be even less money left to develop new acts, multichannel and high res, all the stuff we like that to be honest usually loses money - all to pay a greedy set of lawyers.

It's wrong.
You cannot - or at least you should not - sign a deal one time, and 30 years later suddenly decide it's not fair? Well, life is not fair, that's the way it is.
She signed the deal, the lawsuit is just a sign of our greed fuelled times.

I hope I'm wrong. I really do.

[Ge Someone]

I hope I'm wrong. I really do.

All this will do is stop session players getting hired.

If this is not done for years already, some lines could be put in their contracts that say they´re never will claim any rights?

Back to DSOTM, it was Alan Parsons who made that record what it is due to the superb way it was recorded and mixed.
The band wrote it and performed it.
She sang on one song.
50%???

Just for the record, the version of DSotM that became famous wasn´t mixed by AP. It was by Chris Thomas. As you will recall, Dave and Roger had very different ideas about it and an "outsider" was needed to solve this.

Of course you understood that the Clare Torry case was about the 50% copyright ownership of just that one song, didn´t you?

From what I get from these articles, she did win the case claiming copyright, the financial compensation agreement however was handled outside the court.

[solaris]

Hey I was in the crowd at the recording of Frampton Comes Alive, I want my 50%. I was the one claping.

[lonster]

Come on guys. This is NOT 'the day the music died'.

2 things will happen as a result of this case;

1.) People hired to sing or play backup for recording purposes will definitely have new and different wording in their contracts (score one for the lawyers pockets). :thumbsdow
and

2.) Clare Torry will finally receive some well deserved and overdue compensation for the marvelous job she did on this one album.

All the rest of this 'end of the session player/singer' speculation is just a bunch of poo.

Once again, this is just my opinion, but lets all revisit this thread in 20 years and see which one of us is right.

[GaryW]

Hey I was in the crowd at the recording of Frampton Comes Alive, I want my 50%. I was the one claping.

That was you, huh? Cool! I always wondered who the person was that was claping while everyone else was clapping...

[neil wilkes]

If this is not done for years already, some lines could be put in their contracts that say they´re never will claim any rights?
Just for the record, the version of DSotM that became famous wasn´t mixed by AP. It was by Chris Thomas. As you will recall, Dave and Roger had very different ideas about it and an "outsider" was needed to solve this.

Of course you understood that the Clare Torry case was about the 50% copyright ownership of just that one song, didn´t you?

From what I get from these articles, she did win the case claiming copyright, the financial compensation agreement however was handled outside the court.

I didn't say it was AP that mixed it - he did the Quad mix.
AP was the recording engineer. Which means he recorded it and set the whole thing up.
Chris could not have done the mix he did without the engineering skills of Alan.

[quadtrade]

I didn't say it was AP that mixed it - he did the Quad mix.
AP was the recording engineer. Which means he recorded it and set the whole thing up.
Chris could not have done the mix he did without the engineering skills of Alan.

Alan was the one who found Torry, maybe he should get a cut from her, as he made very little from DSOTM?? What a mess. Litigation is drowning us all.

[lonster]

Alan was the one who found Torry, maybe he should get a cut from her, as he made very little from DSOTM?? What a mess. Litigation is drowning us all.

What do you call 100 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?

[bizmopeen]

What do you call 100 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?

"A good start", as the old saying goes...

[Scottmoose]

"A good start", as the old saying goes...

Anyone know a good leach?

[Ge Someone]

Her side of the story here
Well she can't really speak about the case and the settlement, actually it's quite a nice insight in the recording of The Great Gig, from a different perspective.

[Bob R]

Her side of the story here
Well she can't really speak about the case and the settlement, actually it's quite a nice insight in the recording of The Great Gig, from a different perspective.

Thanks for the link, it was a great read.

[timbre4]

Thanks for the link; I see the story differently now...

[splinter7]

Definitely a different perspective. I don’t buy the “we don’t know what to do so lets just bring in Clare Torry cause she will know what to do” story.
I am not saying that she did not have input into creating a memorable moment but obviously someone already involved thought to have a female vocalist show up to sing a part for the song.

Not sure how being directed to do something entitles you to authorship.

[bming]

The argument which won over the High Court was the claim that Ms Torry used a special "wailing technique" which effectively helped to compose the track during its fruition in the studio.

Heh, From reading that interview, I got the impression that the track was already done and she was just adding a vocal to it. I didn't get the impression that she helped compose the thing.