Hi! Your access is limited. Please log in or contact us at info@agentive.org to create an account.
Thing 000904 - 1st Down and Ten
 |
Presentation
In late 1983, bass guitarist Jimmy Kilfoyle and songwriter and guitar player Jimmy Barrett formed a two-man band called Keep it Dark in Liverpool. They disbanded after a few months. In 1984, guitarist Paul Reason and drummer John Mylett and keys Michael Railton joined Jimmy Barrett and started a band, which was called again Keep it Dark. In June 1984, Mylett was killed in a car crash in Greece. In June 1984, Paul Stuart replaced Mylett as a drummer in the band. On November 8 1984, all four members of the group signed a recording contract with Charisma.
On 3 January 1985, drummer Paul Stuart was replaced by Brian Rawling. In March 1986, Keep it Dark’s first single The Dreamer or The Outsider was issued, soon followed by their second single Don’t Surrender. In 1986, the band recorded their first and only album called 1st Down and Ten.
Paul Stuart found that he was entitled to a share in the copyright of various musical works. He alleged that there was a partnership between himself and the other members of the group made orally in 1984 and that he was a co-author of nine songs. The members of the band claimed that Stuart joined the group as a performer; that they were a group of performers rather than a group of composers and that Stuart was never promised that he would have any share in the profits from the exploitation, other than through performance. A legal action was started in 1986. On 7 February 1992, the court case Stuart v. Barrett and Others took place at the High Court, Chancery Division. Judge Thomas Morison held that:
“None of the group wrote down any notes: they composed the music by ear and played by ear. [...] Whilst [Barrett] may well have composed ‘bits and pieces’ of the music before revealing what he had done, the group themselves played a significant and creative role in bringing the music of a song to its final form. The first defendant did not orchestrate his pieces; he did not write the notes down. Whilst he may have had the original idea, in the sense of an opening phrase or of a series of notes in his head which ultimately provided the theme, the other members of the group themselves made important original contributions to the work. It seems to me that [Stuart]’s description of how The Outsider came to be written was inherently probable and is indicative of the compositional process which was typical of how the others came to be created. Someone started to play and the rest joined in and improvised and improved the original idea. The final piece was indeed the product of the joint compositional skills of the members of the group present at the time. [...] It is significant that three of the four songs he said he had composed before [Stuart] came on the scene had had new words, or in one case new music, added during [Stuart]’s period in the band. The reason for this is, I think, that whilst [Barrett] may well have had some preconceived ideas which in some instances may even have been put on a cassette, these ideas were in a state of infancy, they had not been played in a band. It was only after the group members themselves took the ideas and developed them into their final recorded form that the pieces could be said to have been composed. [...] [Barrett] cannot bring himself to acknowledge the talents of the other members of the group and their contributions to the compositional process. [...] It may be that, within a group, only one member is the composer. It must depend entirely on the individual circumstances of the band. [...] Composing was a joint enterprise and was treated as such by [this] group and was for their mutual benefit.”
The court concluded that the drummer could significantly influence the whole composition and found that all members of the band, including the drummer, were joint authors of the nine songs.
Physical copy
|
Digital copy
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||