11.26 pm. I find myself slipping "Blemish", the new CD by David the Sylvian into the player. I have been saving this nugget for a special moment, and I am sure it will not disappoint. It tunes in with a radio-like, shimmering, noise. And no drums. Wonderful.
11.28 pm. Woah. The voice fairly hits you between the eyes. Stark, beautiful, demanding of attention, and loud (for those of us suckered into turning up the introduction).
11.35 (or pretty close). Press pause. A call from Richard Bray interrupts the flow to offer his view on the renegotiation with EMI. Why would any sane person offer download rights to EMI – who propose to pay the artists less than 20% - when they can do a deal direct and receive 100%? Good question. The perfect world would be for EMI to administer the deal and pay the artists 75%, but this is far too sensible, and would create unfortunate precedents. There is also worrying news that Cirkus, the only DGM archive title licensed to EMI, has only sold 5,000 copies in the USA – at least 10,000 units less than RYKODISC would have managed.
Hence the two deal breakers :
1. No download rights
2. Someone we trust in charge of the catalogue. Enter Declan Colgan A&R hero.
12.40 pm. Call Roger Borer, Pony Tailed beast of Terror, who is implementing his three pronged attack to get all things Vicarious back on track. Suggest that three things cannot be operated in tandem – presumably they are in tricycle. "Blemish" is fighting a losing battle against the daily grind of "stuff" fighting for attention. I shall try again over lunch
"Before we move from A to B, better to know we're at A."
