Sinister: Fw: MP3s of the University gig

[Neil Robertson]

Right. About the MP3s.
Firstly, I don't think Jeepster even know the MP3s were up. It wasn't
their decision to get them taken down. It was the band that wanted them
removed.  Put quite simply, the MP3s were a pish recording of a patchy
gig.  Chris himself admitted he'd plugged the mic into the the wrong
hole on his minidisc.

Pickle Prince, this has fuck all to do with money or commodities or
Napster or anything like that. Most of us were well in favour of
Napster, and some used it regularly. I agree that ideas are free, but
if the person who had the idea decides it wasn't a good one, and
decides not to disseminate it, surely that's their freedom? All your
talk of artistic freedom is total bollocks if it doesn't include the
artist's right to decide what is a finished piece of work, and what is
an experiment that isn't fit to be made available under their name.

The point is that the band have the right to have some control over how
they are presented. If we'd like something to be made available, and
think it is good enough for people to hear, then we'll make it
available. For instance, there's the "Black Sessions" CD. I don't know
who is manufacturing it, so I couldn't stop them even if I wanted to,
but it's not too bad. You see it about quite a bit. I've got a copy of
it. I almost wish there wasn't an MP3 of "Middle Distance Runner" going
around. That's a song that's not finished, because it's not very good
the way it is now. It will come out at some point, and it will be much
better then. But we made the mistake of giving it to the BBC to play
for a special. We put it in the public domain, and we live with the
consequences of that. Fair enough. "Lord Anthony" isn't finished yet
either, but we haven't gone chasing people over that, so to suggest
we've gone all fascist is obviously nonsense.

But the MP3s of last week's gig were totally shite. It was a bit of fun
on a Wednesday afternoon, which the band spent about an hour rehearsing
for. It was hopefully fun if you were there, but having heard the
recording of it I can safely say it's probably not something anyone
would put on to listen to of an evening. We don't think they're of any
value whatsoever, so we don't want them available. It's an artistic
decision, and if you can't respect our right to that, then hard luck.

I mean, it's hardly fucking Metallica is it? We don't have teams of
lawyers searching the 'net 24 hours a day. But Chris is a friend of the
band so we've asked him nicely to take it down and he's done so.

I'm sorry Chris feels like a cunt. I think that's totally unnecessary.
As I said, Chris is a friend of the band, and I feel bad making him
look like a scapegoat, because he has done both myself and the band
several favours in the past, and we owe him far more than he owes us.
No-one's angry with him or anything. No harm done.

I'm sorry to the people who couldn't be at the gig. I can understand
people wanting to hear what the gig sounded like, especially since it's
been so long, and people very rarely get the chance to hear the band
live. But there will be plenty of gigs later in the year. Doubtlessly
some people won't be able to make these either, so if a decent
recording of a decent gig gets posted up, we won't feel so inclined to
have it removed.

And that's how it is.
Cheers for your time,

Neil Robertson
neil at banchory.net



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