Harvest ends contract with Morrissey - TTY

Re: Harvest Ends Contract with Morrissey - TTY

Moontastic with the name there, buddy. Seeya in 20 minutes.

 

[Famous when dead]

Having just revisited Peepholism and seen the degree of control he liked with even positioning and types of font...
I will never understand why he has not created his own product. Allowing total control of all aspects of producing it. Pressing a cd or vinyl is not beyond him, nor selling tracks through itunes/amazon and the ilk.
Boz could probably manage that aspect of a future album with his eyes closed.
The 'barriers to market' appear to be firmly in Moz's head.
His constant desire to have a label and chart worthy product whilst being critical of others is just an aspect of his stubborn and self-destructivve behaviour which alienates future interest .
Given these 'issues' have been problematic for years, if this is a small insight in to how stubborn he can be....
I'm pretty sure it would be safe to assume he would be even more stubborn about reforming a group he has continually stated he will just not do.
Regards,
FWD

 

[sweetness522]

I wonder what happened to the relationship between Susan Blond (the NYC publicist) and Morrissey? She is highly influential in NYC PR and would for sure be able to secure him deals on TV in the States. That is if he was still with her. I thought that if the tour reached Barclays in NYC, he would do some TV shows around here after the final show because it was only a few weeks before the release of the new record. That would have made perfect sense.

 

[No1uno]

Morrissey owes you nothing, he did not force you to spend any money on his music.
Your choice, take it or leave it.

Yes you are quite right. When he disappears, he will have his own life. I willingly purchased his music because he made himself for sale, so I bought him. If you didn't see in the quote that was included in my post. It referenced somehow I as a fan, can make morrissey to be more happy and produce music. Sorry if you misread and did not understand my post. FYI, I'm not forced to do anything for morrissey. I bet morrissey is though, that's why he keeps getting dropped, and that was the essence of the post. His job, not mine

 

[smiler]

If the criterion for commercial success was it was excellent he would still be with Harvest. Instead its excellence is purely subjective, while its success is measured, very precisely, in Pounds Sterling.

Your suggestion was it was all Morrissey's fault when in fact he delivered an excellent album

 

[smiler]

Err i don't think you can compare the marketing tactics of a former teen pop star who has automatic radio play and can sell out an arena with little to no effort to that of Morrissey but nice try.

you didn't answer the question. The music industry still uses pop videos, interviews, feature length documentaries TV appearances etc to sell albums

 

[Irregular Regular]

Yes you are quite right. When he disappears, he will have his own life. I willingly purchased his music because he made himself for sale, so I bought him. If you didn't see in the quote that was included in my post. It referenced somehow I as a fan, can make morrissey to be more happy and produce music. Sorry if you misread and did not understand my post. FYI, I'm not forced to do anything for morrissey. I bet morrissey is though, that's why he keeps getting dropped, and that was the essence of the post. His job, not mine

I did not misread or misunderstand, but nice try.
"Lawyer...liar."

 

[keene]

rubbish the album isn't the problem. It was excellent

I agree...I think Morrissey did his best....toured, prior to the release. At the show that I attended in Florida HE promoted the album and did some songs off of the album. Unfortunately he got sick before the release and I think that knocked the wind out of his sails.... (sales).

He did some great, "artistic" videos with Pam and Nancy. That might be the problem, really. Morrissey is an Artist...not just a pop star. To expect a real artist to hit the top of the pops is just a little too much.....I think.

Morrissey told one of the band members that this album was a "Monster".

It really is.....but it's a "Morrissey Monster"... for people that get what Morrissey is all about and aren't afraid to listen to songs about aspects of life that many find unsettling.

 

[Tbevie]

Before Moz finally signed to Harvest am I right in thinking there was interest from other labels but for whatever reason terms couldn't be agreed. Or was it just Harvest. I'm clinging to the hope that Moz seems to have enjoyed making this album so much that he might be a bit more agreeable this time round.

Also if Moz signed a 2 album deal doesn't that contract have to be fulfilled? Or does that not apply if it's the label who wants out?

I remember Moz talking about the release of Viva Hate and the reason it was released so quickly after the split was because The Smiths had signed a 2 album contract with EMI and even though the band had split up they still expected a second album after Srangeways.

 

[sorrow of stamford bridge]

The one thing I wondered was this. Why in god's name did Harvest not push the album date back as soon as it was clear Morrissey's health would not allow him to tour and promote? It seemed obvious. Morrissey seemed ready to go this week, what on earth happened? Many of these songs are too good to be left unplayed on radio, screen and stage. So, so sad, I hope we at least get to see the later. Close to tears at the anti climax of it all!

 

[Anonymous]

I agree...I think Morrissey did his best....toured, prior to the release. At the show that I attended in Florida HE promoted the album and did some songs off of the album. Unfortunately he got sick before the release and I think that knocked the wind out of his sails.... (sales).

He did some great, "artistic" videos with Pam and Nancy. That might be the problem, really. Morrissey is an Artist...not just a pop star. To expect a real artist to hit the top of the pops is just a little too much.....I think.

Morrissey told one of band members that this album was a "Monster".

It really is.....but it's a Morrissey monster for people that get what Morrissey is all about and aren't afraid to listen to songs about aspects of of life that many find unsettling.

You keep going back to this self-regarding "They don't understand Morrissey like what I does" pissing contest. It's incredibly juvenile.
Clearly, to anyone with eyes and a modicum of intelligence, Morrissey did not "did his best" - he did not in fact did his best at all. And those videos were not artistic, for God's sake man, we're Morrissey fans because we have a higher standard, because Morrissey set a higher artistic standard. When he puts out something that was clearly knocked off on the fly like those godawful videos, don't make out it's up to his usual standard - that's doing Morrissey a great disservice...

 

[Eurydice]

Whatever. Wherever he goes next, I will follow.

 

[FAN]

I've told this story before, but I think it still very much applies to Morrissey. When Leonard Cohen dropped the finished tapes to his Various Positions album the record label refused to release it. Cohen demanded a meeting with the CEO to get some answers, and was told "Leonard, we know you're great. We just aren't sure if you're any good." That's where Morrissey finds himself, and has done for a decade or more. His reputation goes before him.

If this was a traditional record deal, which is what Morrissey was looking for, doesn't that mean that every penny of expenditure is met by the artist and recouped through sales? Perhaps Morrissey didn't want to end up paying for all the bells and whistles, for the physical singles, and huge promotional outlay. A single piece of poorly photoshopped artwork for the entire project seems strange in itself.

I still don't think even Morrissey himself was fully behind this album. It's a brave record, and an interesting record, but it isn't a great record. You can create a brave, interesting and great record: Kevin Rowland's My Beauty falls into that category for me and still sold extremely poorly, but World Peace, sadly, just didn't click.

As I've said from the beginning, after his dreadful self-created PR disasters he needed something absolutely top drawer to bring in not only new listeners, but many old fans who had become disillusioned by his shenanigans.

There will be a lot of people busy putting lipstick on a pig in this thread, but this was not a problem created by Harvest in the last six months. It is the culmination of poor songwriting, poor luck and poor judgement over many years which can be laid wholly at the feet of Morrissey himself.

Very well said. When the dust settles, all Morrissey needs to do is look in the mirror for assignment of blame. Weak lyrics and noisy guitars--yes by one of the "greatest" guitarists--huh!

 

[Anonymous]

Just look at Harvest's roster - http://www.harvestrecords.com/artists/

This roster makes it clear that Morrissey wasn't dropped solely due to sales. Do you think any of these artists are outselling Morrissey? The biggest name on this roster, aside from Morrissey, is TV on the Radio. So why did they drop Morrissey as opposed to, say, "Mr. Little Jeans" or "The Preatures"?

As much as so many people here claimed #14 in the US charts was disappointing, how many of these other artists do you think will debut that high? None of them.

I think the problem isn't simply "album sales" but rather album sales that do not justify whatever Morrissey is asking for out of a record contract.

 

[Anonymous]

"Lawyer...liar."

You're a middle-aged man. Grow the f*** up.

 

[Iloveopiates]

Wow this is somewhat of a shock. I know Moz recently publicly had complained about his label's lack of support,with his talk about the lack of them getting behind a music video for the title track; but one would hardly think that complaining about your employer like that would be grounds for any termination clause in his contract? Something tells me based on history that in true Moz fashion we will be getting a statement in the near future explaining some kind of breach of contract by harvest and that a law suite is being filed by team Moz. If not, and instead when we do get a statement Moz doesn't seem to be too bothered by the label dropping him, than one might be led to believe that he was bought and paid out of his contract for a nicely sum? If you ask me though, it usually has to do with money, things like this always come down to money. More so than petty things like complaining about a video not being produced or something. I think that was just coincidence perhaps?

Who knows though, it could also be something as simple as a change in the labels business model. From a lot of research and reading about labels over the years that I have done, it seems that a lot of times these smaller offshoot divisions of major labels such as Harvest is to Captitol will often times vanish just as quickly as they appeared onto the scene. Sometimes a major label will bring on an employee or multiple employees who may have been responsible at another label for the success of a certain format; and when bringing them over they will hence try to recreate that same success by creating an offshoot label like a Harvest for these people to work under. Or sometimes a label will create an offshoot label like Harvest as a guise to compete in the indie label world. They'll use an offshoot like Harvest as a place where they will take more risks and chances than they normally would? Or who knows at one of those big executive meetings Capitol, like so many in this download age could have looked at slipping numbers and decided it best for their bottom line to altogether get rid of some of their sub-divisions like Harvest? We could hear very soon that all of Harvest is being shut down by the label and not just Moz getting dropped? Who knows. Lots too speculate and too soon to tell. But something does tell me when we do get that Moz true-to-you statement it probably won't be on the soft side containing anything that has to do with a mutual decision or a mutual respect for each other. If and when a statement comes from team Moz and he doesn't seem too bothered by this whole thing than that would lead one to believe he was bought and paid out of his contract for a nicely sum.

 

[Harsh Truth]

Dumped by your label less than 30 days after your album comes out. Priceless.

 

[bored]

This is where he needs to talk to Amanda Palmer about that kickstarter option.

She knows how to do it and would be able to set aside some of the money for recording, some for promotion and some for some profit.

It would be a huge success with the right person leading it. The budget would be there. He'd have nothing to complain about.

 

[Bradder68]

Before Moz finally signed to Harvest am I right in thinking there was interest from other labels but for whatever reason terms couldn't be agreed. Or was it just Harvest. I'm clinging to the hope that Moz seems to have enjoyed making this album so much that he might be a bit more agreeable this time round.

Also if Moz signed a 2 album deal doesn't that contract have to be fulfilled? Or does that not apply if it's the label who wants out?

I remember Moz talking about the release of Viva Hate and the reason it was released so quickly after the split was because The Smiths had signed a 2 album contract with EMI and even though the band had split up they still expected a second album after Srangeways.

Sorry if I've misunderstood your last paragraph but Strangeways wasn't released by EMI but by Rough Trade
Moz said he was contracted to EMI and they wanted contract fulfilled

 

[bored]

Something tells me based on history that in true Moz fashion we will be getting a statement in the near future explaining some kind of breach of contract by harvest and that a law suite is being filed by team Moz.

I'm sure it's SoloLow's fault.

And f*** you davidt for posting an article that Morrissey lost his record deal. Always posting the bad news. What a douche!

 

[Deleted member 1074]

This is where he needs to talk to Amanda Palmer about that kickstarter option.

She knows how to do it and would be able to set aside some of the money for recording, some for promotion and some for some profit.

And none for the band...