Worm
Taste the diffidence
Okay, people are we saying is that in ALL bands, The singer and the guitarist should get a bigger cut? Or are you saying that only The Smiths should? Either way what you're advocating is wrong...and no real musician would agree to it...As I said...If Rourke & Joyce had been told such before a contract signed...they would have WALKED...They weren't clarvevoyant enough to know The Smiths would be famous...the idea is ludicrious....
And if sudddenly, Morrissey & Marr had told them after a contract had been signed...and they had been kicked out for sticking up for the situation...they could have sued if they had enough evidence to warrant they were being taken advantage of...
Point is....Morrissey & Marr controlled the financies...and thus CHOSE to pay the other two as they saw fit
Not necessarily. Granted, there was some rather dubious negotiations if, as the court brief states, Andy and Mike started on equal footing but by the end of 1983 were put on unequal terms. In any case, by the end of 1983, after "Hand In Glove" was released, they were playing to hysterical crowds, and enjoying music press hype, Andy and Mike must indeed have known that The Smiths were going to be huge. I find it pretty believable that if, at the end of the year (right around the time of "This Charming Man" going Top 40), Marr and Morrissey came to them and said "We're changing the deal" they might have stayed on. Ten percent of a fortune isn't bad. Mike and Andy were not clairvoyant, no, but they were also not clairvoyant enough to know if they would have to give up music in a week and get a job in a warehouse loading boxes.
For the record I agree with you about musicians in a band. I think Andy and Mike were entitled to ask for 25% of the "other activities" portion of the profits, just as all musicians are. I love their contributions and don't think The Smiths would have been the same without them. I also think Morrissey and Marr were entitled to ask for the 40/40/10/10 split-- Morrissey's current band no doubt has a similarly Moz-heavy split but they seem to carry on with dignity and passion-- so I understand their side, too. I wish their business affairs had been conducted better.