This post has very little to do with LOUIE LOUIE, but it does address a terrible situation that occurred with a rocker we’re quite fond of.
Neil Innes is a brilliant singer-songwriter that created quite a few wonderful, iconic songs over the course of five decades. Sadly, he’s had to deal with some ugly headaches in the music biz. He lost the copyrights to the initial music he wrote as a member of the Rutles when the administrators of the Beatles songs written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney sued him for plagiarism. Even though he was often considered a “seventh member” of the Monty Python’s Flying Circus, with all the various songs he’s written for the comedy troupe, he had to fight to receive royalties from the Spamalot stage show. Recently, his old Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, made the news when it was discovered the surviving band members had to fight to stop a former promoter from holding their trademark hostage.
You’d think with all the legal nightmares he’s had to endure, it shouldn’t have been a problem for him to utilize a very popular music crowdfunding website to finance his latest musical endeavor… but unfortunately, Neil ran into yet another music biz nightmare when he used Pledge Music.
Neil’s wife Yvonne shared an update on his website:
Monday, 28th October 2019 in Noticeboard.
A message from Yvonne to Neil’s fabulous fans
You will be pleased to hear that I have now worked my way through the names of all the fans who originally Pledged money for the new CD then, when Pledge went belly-up owing all of us a lot of money, re-donated to our GoFundMe account. Thanks to your generosity the CD was finished and your CDs will be sent out this week.Thanks are also due to many generous people who just wanted to donate to GoFundMe to help with the production of the CD, and we are so grateful for their help. However there might be some people who thought they were actually ordering a CD with their donations. GoFundMe does not give out donor information, like addresses, so if you were one of those please send your name and address to the following email address so we can get the CDs to you – yvonne at yvonneinnes.com
I am hoping that people who lost money when Pledge collapsed, realised that we lost a lot more and have had to rely on people re-donating to GoFundMe in order to get the CD finished. We did advertise this widely but If you did not manage to get your money back or re-donate it I’m afraid we cannot promise to send you a CD. We have honoured the ‘Tee Shirt’ requests as we already had them in stock, and Neil is working his way through the ‘Lyric’ requests as time is the only requirement. We wish we could do more, but we still need every penny we can recoup to pay off all the debts we incurred in making the album when Pledge collapsed, and, hopefully, make the vinyl version sometime in the future.
We would be so grateful if you could share Neil’s two websites on social media. Neil was recently seen and heard by a whole new audience when he accompanied the Bootleg Beatles on their recent tour . We are just waiting for the photographs and they will accompany a short blog about the experience.
On his NearlyReally.com page, you can see a graphic breakdown on his PledgeMusic pledges.
As someone that contributed to Neil’s campaign, this hits home. I was thrilled to get one of the items personally sent by Neil and his wife, which they did without the funds that Pledge Music was supposed to give to them.
I’d like to encourage my music and comedy loving friends to support Neil Innes by purchasing some of his products!
Long live Neil Innes and the Rutles
REFERENCE LINKS:
Neil Innes official notice – A message from Yvonne to Neil’s fabulous fans
Neil Innes.media- official page
Nearly Really.com
Dangerous Minds – Neil Innes On The Rutles, ‘Working’ With Lennon & McCartney and Being Impersonated By Elvis!
Daily Mail – Rock legends Bonzo Dog Band win legal ding-dong to put the Doo Dah back into their name
Daily Mail – Monty Python stars are facing a costly new legal action: Neil Innes says gloves are off with Eric Idle over Spamalot royalties
Variety- Here’s How Much Money 10 Artists Are Owed by PledgeMusic (FEBRUARY 22, 2019)
Wikipedia – Neil Innes
Big Noise Now – Neil Innes
Wikipedia – PledgeMusic