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Post by sandy on Jun 15, 2023 7:13:55 GMT
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Post by cameron on Jun 15, 2023 7:31:39 GMT
I just read this too. This is massive news, BMG represent a lot of 1960s artists who’ve had some truly wonderful reissue treatments such as the Kinks and the Small Faces. This is incredibly exciting, I predict that we might finally see the Hollies’ back catalogue get restored and reissued properly.
I assume their “golden period” is 1963-1974 when they were still having hits that were charting on both sides of the Atlantic.
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Post by cameron on Jun 15, 2023 7:39:11 GMT
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Post by sandy on Jun 15, 2023 7:48:46 GMT
BMG has announced it has acquired the recording catalogue of the influential British Rock and Pop band, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees, The Hollies. Under the agreement, the deal includes more than 20 studio, compilation, live, and tribute album titles and rarities, wholly owned by the group, spanning 1967 to present - many featuring the classic lineups of Bobby Elliott, Tony Hicks, Allan Clarke, Eric Haydock, Terry Sylvester, Bernie Calvert, and Graham Nash.
Album titles include Evolution and Butterfly (1967), Hollies Sing Dylan and Hollies Sing Hollies (1969), Confessions of the Mind (1970); Distant Light (1971), Romany (1972), Out on the Road (1973); Hollies (1974), Another Night (1975), Write On and Russian Roulette (1976), Hollies Live Hits (1977), A Crazy Steal (1978), Five Three One – Double Seven O Four (1979), Buddy Holly (1980), and Then, Now, Always (2009).
The transaction brings to BMG eight of their Top 10 most streamed tracks on Spotify including many of The Hollies international hit singles 'Carrie Anne'; 'King Midas In Reverse', 'Jennifer Eccles', 'On A Carousel', UK Number One 'He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother', Platinum-certified, Number One single 'Long Cool Woman (in a Black Dress)', and the Platinum-certified chart-topper 'The Air That I Breathe', as well as the group's cover versions of '4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)' [Bruce Springsteen], 'Boulder to Birmingham' [Emmylou Harris], and Say It Ain't So, Jo' [Head].
In a statement from The Hollies, the group said, "BMG's history as a trusted custodian of some of music's greatest works assures we know our music and legacy will continue to live on for generations to come."
Thomas Scherer, BMG's President, Repertoire & Marketing, New York and Los Angeles, said, "The Hollies spearheaded the 'British Invasion' of the Sixties, and we are delighted to have secured rights to their golden period in the US, including 'Long Cool Woman (in a Black Dress)'. We are honored to represent their continuing creative legacy."
Concluding more than 45 acquisitions over the course of 2022, the transaction forms part of BMG's long-term strategy to create a 21st century home for the most iconic music rights in popular music history.
In the past two years BMG has concluded acquisitions for rights and/or royalties in the work of artists and/or songwriters including Tina Turner, John Legend, Mötley Crüe, ZZ Top, Mick Fleetwood, Peter Frampton, Harry Nilsson, John Lee Hooker, Simple Minds, Primal Scream and Jean-Michel Jarre among others.
BMG already represents or owns rights in the work of iconic artists including Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, George Harrison, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Roger Waters, Kurt Cobain, Aerosmith, Devo, Johnny Cash, Buddy Holly, Jim Croce, Iggy Pop, Blondie, David Bowie, Scorpions, The Kinks, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Motörhead, and many more.
The company expects to announce further transactions shortly.
NEWS & PRESS
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HUGE!
Jun 15, 2023 8:17:58 GMT
Post by Mevrouw Bee on Jun 15, 2023 8:17:58 GMT
Hmm. So nothing between Stay and For Certain Because...
Let's hope this means the catalogue finally gets the respect it deserves...
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Post by Stranger on Jun 15, 2023 11:53:18 GMT
This would mean the 1st move away from EMI in the UK?
Maybe they've been saving Furmanek's project for this? We can hope.
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HUGE!
Jun 15, 2023 12:24:10 GMT
Post by rokinrobinoflocksley on Jun 15, 2023 12:24:10 GMT
And maybe this will cancel the Furmanek project, or cut it in half, ugh...
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Post by baz on Jun 15, 2023 14:33:33 GMT
And maybe this will cancel the Furmanek project, or cut it in half, ugh... That sounds most likely to me as now the 1963 to mid 1966 era will be out of bounds as I presume Universal - or is it Warners? - will have control of that. The EMI sale/break up was an absolute senseless mess and I've long been confused as to who now owns what thanks to all these mergers, buy outs and auctions. At least The Hollies will see revenue being they own their own masters and rights or have they actually sold it all lock stock and barrel to BMG like Tina Turner did a year or two ago? |
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Post by Stranger on Jun 15, 2023 15:43:30 GMT
As pre 1966 is a lot less commercial than say 67 to 74 surely EMI will lease those tracks or they have already come to some arrangement. It seems highly unlikely that in 2023 parties would knowingly walk into an arrangement which might see EMI putting out Greatest Hits packages for 63 to 66 and BMG 67 to 80 etc.
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Post by sandy on Jun 15, 2023 16:45:43 GMT
This would mean the 1st move away from EMI in the UK? Maybe they've been saving Furmanek's project for this? We can hope. I think you could be 👍🙏 |
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Post by gee on Jun 15, 2023 21:44:40 GMT
They first moved away from EMI in 1972 to Polydor of course, tho' eventually returned circa 1985
Possibly as a result of the new BMG deal - which shows there IS major music business concern interest in The Hollies catalogue still - we may now finally see Evolution get a decent new mix (?) and hopefully proper individual CD releases for Out On The Road, Write On and ***Russian Roulette at long last (??)
curious that they consider the 'golden' period (in other words that is the era they obtained in their deal) of The Hollies to be from 1967 onwards when their really big 'top five' chart hits commenced earlier in 1964 (UK) and 1966 (USA) with their self composed masterpiece 'For Certain Because...' in 1966
however it is still encouraging news overall re potantial future sets (hopefully more than just further endless hits packages) even if the situation with the long awaited - but still awaited - Ron Furmanek archive project becomes unclear...
Any new BMG sets can only bring The Hollies back catalogue back into the public gaze anew which must be our best bet for any future archive projects to then follow
***I was quite surprised to see 'new' vinyl copies of Russian Roulette selling for just over 71 UK pounds on Amazon UK....!!
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Post by Mevrouw Bee on Jun 16, 2023 8:42:58 GMT
with their self composed masterpiece 'For Certain Because...' in 1966 This is what bugs me. When I think of "classic era," it always includes For Certain Because... |
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Post by baz on Jun 16, 2023 10:12:41 GMT
Reading BMG's statement, it's clear to me they claim "classic era" based on the fact that the songs that generate the most stream income dates from that era. Given how many millions "Air", "Brother" and "LCW" have generated so far, BMG naturally are delighted they can now milk and profit from that cash cow. That's all that matters to them in the long run, reissuing the albums etc will be small fry to them as those three songs highlighted alone are guaranteed to keep the cash trickling in for decades to come. I know that may sound a bit flippant but the music industry in its current form works that way. That's why I highlighted that The Hollies are lucky they'll get some return from it thanks to owning their masters from 1966 onwards. The vast majority who didn't have deals like The Hollies had are barely getting anything from stream revenue thanks to the music bigwigs claiming that because their contracts DIDN'T include digital downloads/streams then they're not actually obliged to pay them anything so be thankful for the pennies thrown in their direction.
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Post by Stranger on Jun 18, 2023 13:28:03 GMT
Terry is happy. Hopefully he got some money out of. Also says more news to come so hopefully that's reissues etc.
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Post by cameron on Jun 18, 2023 18:45:56 GMT
Let's be honest, the handling of the Hollies' back catalogue by EMI, then Warners/Parlophone (and I guess Hollies Ltd themselves to some degree?) has been nothing short of abysmal compared to other artists. As some of their core catalogue was reissued on budget EMI labels in the late 1960s, they generally favoured poor cover art that featured no image of the band on the front. Their back catalogue was farmed out to BGO in the early 1990s for a run of CD issues that were nothing to write home about either. Then EMI remastered them in 1999 but left them sounding very weak/lifeless compared to the original vinyl pressings and these remasters have been used ever since. The standouts have been the meticulously curated 'At Abbey Road' series in 1997, the beautifully put together 'Long Road Home' boxset in 2003 and the 2007 remasters of some of the 1970s albums. But apart from that, there's been a lot of faults to pick with every other CD issue; and vinyl has been pretty much redundant since the late 1970s other than a few excellent reissues farmed out to 'Sundazed' in the mid-2000s.
I hope that BMG stump up for some fresh tape transfers with no noise reduction (some of those 1997 remasters sound way better than the NR 1999 masters) and get someone in to work on the project who really knows their way around the Hollies' back catalogue, not another random tape researcher like EMI usually go for. Those narrowed stereo mixes from 2003-2012 need to be consigned to the history books too. I'm really hopeful that BMG will invest in this, as the Hollies are very hot property compared to some less commercially successful artists who've had the deluxe reissue treatment. I also think that the Hollies' legacy has grown somewhat in the last ten years, especially in America if Facebook forums and the Steve Hoffman forum are anything to go by. But there's been no new product to whet everyone's appetite. As much as we ave ridiculed yet another Hollies greatest hits package on this forum in the past, there's not been one for a good number of years now.
As mean as it may sound, I also hope that the Hollies just let BMG get on with it. We know that there's been a lot of vetoing of material in the last couple of decades by the band, especially Tony and Bobby who've dismissed early versions, alternative mixes and below-par performances from seeing the light of day. Tony and Bobby actually spoke to 'Shindig!' magazine about the Lewisham Odeon 1968 concert a couple of years before it was issued, and stated their distain at the performance. We know that we we got was a heavily edited down version of what was recorded on the night. There also was the infamous vetoing of some of Ron Furmanek's remixes in 1993 (according to Graham, he loved them all and was frustrated by the band disagreeing), though I read somewhere that it was Allan who was against remixing things? I guess that was then and this is now; remixing from original session tapes was a new game back in 1993, now it is the industry norm and record labels have seen huge success with it.
Either way, this move to BMG shows the biggest amount of promise that certainly I've probably seen in my lifetime as a Hollies fan. Fingers crossed that 2024 and beyond leaves us with lots of new Hollies products to spend our money on! I shall be the first to order whatever it is that they come up with!
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Post by gee on Jun 18, 2023 21:42:48 GMT
Glad the 'Long Road Home' box set was appreciated !
- brings back memories...I remember updating The Hollies 'Rock Family Tree' that the late great Alan Pooley had originally done for 'Carousel' fanzine years before to be completed and included (and asking Tim Chacksfield who duly included Alan's name in the revised overall credits)
Tim deserves alot of credit for that CD set and 'Record Collector' contributor Peter Doggett did a great booklet for it
fingers crossed indeed for the forthcoming BMG projects
- Great to see Terry Sylvester is happy about it
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Post by JamesT on Jun 19, 2023 5:57:19 GMT
The Slade back catalogue was in a sad state until Salvo remastered and re-released expanded albums and various compilations on CD. I see that BMG now have the rights and have, by and large, simply re-released the same but as digibooks or coloured vinyl. Hopefully a little more effort will be expended with the Hollies.
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