this kind of thing seems to haunt The Smiths and their fans. There does seem to be a scarcity of circulating audio rarities from the band, is this why?
This kind if threat is nonsense as Koen has every right to own the actual physical demos, though not necessarily the right to publish the contents of the tapes. Having said that, since there's a cover version on there this would take it out of the hands of The Smiths and their publisher if you were so inclined.
Koen, just to clarify, the Decibel demos you have consist of the original 16(?) track multitrack reel, which would be unmixed and unproduced? Did you do a security copy onto a digital format?
Hi,
In response to your question, yes indeed, the Decibel demos I have consist of the original 16 (!) track one inch multitrack reel, which is unmixed/unproduced. It's an Ampex tape. I have a written agreement with Dale Hibbert.
Actually, there was a problem with this tape. I collected it in Manchester, at Dale's home. When I came home there seemed to be a problem playing this tape. I was glad I met an experienced studio engineer in Belgium who had the proper equipment to play such tapes. However, the moment we started to play it, he felt something was wrong. He said that Ampex tapes from the early eighties were known for 'humidity problems', which resulted in the tape getting 'sticked' to the tape heads. Obviously Dale knew this, hence the reason why he sold the stuff (the tape had become unplayable). The studio engineer advised me to contact Ampex in the UK. So I did. They were of course aware of this problem and invited me to come over and have the tape restored. This took 3 days. Back in Belgium, I transferred the analogue tape to a mixable digital medium. The original restored analogue tape was sealed (vacuum) after I made the digital safety copy. I then used the digital media to produce a couple of mixes out of it. Believe me, mixing these tracks in a studio is a one of a kind experience.
This Ampex tape contains the earliest versions (1982!) of The Hand That Rocks The Cradle and Suffer Little Children. As opposed to what I read above here, there's no cover version involved. You maybe refer to the tape with the Cookies' "I Want A Boy For My Birthday". This is on a different tape (cassette tape)! This was supposedly recorded in Johnny's bedroom on a simple 2 or 4 track recorder. It's just Morrissey voice and Marr guitar. The quality is very very good. I had it tuned a bit in the studio (where I mixed the other stuff) and now it really sounds incredible.
So now we come to the supposedly legal section of this adventure. Ownership of the tape is clear. Dale Hibbert transferred the ownership of the reel tape to me. The content is of course protected, because such protection concerns tunes, melodies, lyrics, etc. That's why I contacted this Italian guy because I thought he knew a broad network of collectors. As said, such an item ideally passes from collector to collector. So all his bullying with copyrights and whatever was just plain theatre.
I know that a lot of people here have been waiting to hear these tunes, which I can understand of course. However, the ones that yell hardest, I invite them to work very hard and save a lot of money as I did and then release these songs as MP3s on yousendit or so. The time has come, I'd like to transfer this 'responsability' to someone else. So, those who feel a certain urge, please contact me. Another way could be Warner, I'll think about that one. Fernando from Italy can always pass me the details of this Warner guy that contacted him, but for some strange reason didn't contact me yet!
I'm sure there are plenty of questions more, so please shoot...