Well, it's now likely that you won't..
:::deep breath:::
Earache, or more specifically Digby Pearson, appears to have deleted the title from their catalogue. There are very few mentions to this album on the Earache website, it's not for sale on the Euro mail order anymore and the press guys appear to have been told not to bother.
Why? That's a very good question.
First off, the band split primarily due to arguments about money. Earache didn't pay their recording advance until AFTER the album was actually released, leading to the band initially having to pay out of their own pockets to get the studio off their backs. This is despite a clause in the contract saying that the advance would be paid upon receipt of the Master (yeah, right... this never happened once in three years...). These are guys from the Czech Republic earning about $600 a month, so having to find $3000 to pay a studio must have been a lot of fun.
Next we had the artwork. The band sent limited artwork, and it was then sent to an outside guy to put it all together. He actually changed it 95%, but it was all approved by the band so that was cool. Unfortunately Earache didn't pay the art guy. The art guy called me personally, said he was about to turn up at Earache's offices with a bat unless he got his money since his phone calls and emails were being ignored for weeks. I offered to pay him from my own pocket to help him out and to smooth things over. I would then invoice Earache myself and (inevitably) wait.
This was in August and I still haven't been paid (about $600). At first I was told this was because the art guy had not signed a copyright sign-off form. I argued (correctly) that this minor inconvenience hadn't actually stopped Earache from releasing the CD, but this fell on deaf ears. After six months of frustration about this and other shit (Don't get me started on the Farmakon and Wolverine fiascos... ) that lead to me having no choice but to end Elitist, I threatened to take this invoice to a small-claims court to get it settled. I'll point out now that Digby does not answer emails or pick up the telephone if there's a problem, making this whole exercise 2000% more frustrating than it already is. Everything has to go via a staff member in both directions, and these guys cannot do a thing without Digby's say-so. It's a very weird situation, since there's a lot of very experienced and very good people working there, but their hands are tied. Earache's like having a car with a great engine, only for Mr Magoo to be behind the wheel...
Anyway, after my continued persistence at trying to get my money back, I got a very bizarre thing in the mail. It was the !TOOH! contracts torn in half. No note, no explanation. I then checked out the Earache website and all traces of !TOOH! had vanished. They weren't even listed as a "Past Artist" (which, incidentally, is where the Elitist bands discovered if they were dropped or not since they weren't informed otherwise. Classy, eh?). Obviously bemused by this latest turn of events, I called the accounts guy. He informed me that Digby felt that Earache had "already spent enough money on this album, and were not going to waste any more". It was also labelled a "flop", despite the fact that it has had no advertising, limited press and it was pushed out in December when it'd be easier to sell herpes than metal CDs to chain stores with an Xmas budget to spend.
So, there you go. I'm not going to get paid and all the hard work that !TOOH! put into making such a great album has gone to waste simply because of an idiotic, unmoral, Despotic prick that doesn't care about bands or music and hasn't got the balls to confront problems directly.
This isn't about the money. I won't starve because I lost $600 (although Im not Donald Trump either. It will be missed...), but it does hopefully show how Digby chooses to operate...
:::deep breath:::
Earache, or more specifically Digby Pearson, appears to have deleted the title from their catalogue. There are very few mentions to this album on the Earache website, it's not for sale on the Euro mail order anymore and the press guys appear to have been told not to bother.
Why? That's a very good question.
First off, the band split primarily due to arguments about money. Earache didn't pay their recording advance until AFTER the album was actually released, leading to the band initially having to pay out of their own pockets to get the studio off their backs. This is despite a clause in the contract saying that the advance would be paid upon receipt of the Master (yeah, right... this never happened once in three years...). These are guys from the Czech Republic earning about $600 a month, so having to find $3000 to pay a studio must have been a lot of fun.
Next we had the artwork. The band sent limited artwork, and it was then sent to an outside guy to put it all together. He actually changed it 95%, but it was all approved by the band so that was cool. Unfortunately Earache didn't pay the art guy. The art guy called me personally, said he was about to turn up at Earache's offices with a bat unless he got his money since his phone calls and emails were being ignored for weeks. I offered to pay him from my own pocket to help him out and to smooth things over. I would then invoice Earache myself and (inevitably) wait.
This was in August and I still haven't been paid (about $600). At first I was told this was because the art guy had not signed a copyright sign-off form. I argued (correctly) that this minor inconvenience hadn't actually stopped Earache from releasing the CD, but this fell on deaf ears. After six months of frustration about this and other shit (Don't get me started on the Farmakon and Wolverine fiascos... ) that lead to me having no choice but to end Elitist, I threatened to take this invoice to a small-claims court to get it settled. I'll point out now that Digby does not answer emails or pick up the telephone if there's a problem, making this whole exercise 2000% more frustrating than it already is. Everything has to go via a staff member in both directions, and these guys cannot do a thing without Digby's say-so. It's a very weird situation, since there's a lot of very experienced and very good people working there, but their hands are tied. Earache's like having a car with a great engine, only for Mr Magoo to be behind the wheel...
Anyway, after my continued persistence at trying to get my money back, I got a very bizarre thing in the mail. It was the !TOOH! contracts torn in half. No note, no explanation. I then checked out the Earache website and all traces of !TOOH! had vanished. They weren't even listed as a "Past Artist" (which, incidentally, is where the Elitist bands discovered if they were dropped or not since they weren't informed otherwise. Classy, eh?). Obviously bemused by this latest turn of events, I called the accounts guy. He informed me that Digby felt that Earache had "already spent enough money on this album, and were not going to waste any more". It was also labelled a "flop", despite the fact that it has had no advertising, limited press and it was pushed out in December when it'd be easier to sell herpes than metal CDs to chain stores with an Xmas budget to spend.
So, there you go. I'm not going to get paid and all the hard work that !TOOH! put into making such a great album has gone to waste simply because of an idiotic, unmoral, Despotic prick that doesn't care about bands or music and hasn't got the balls to confront problems directly.
This isn't about the money. I won't starve because I lost $600 (although Im not Donald Trump either. It will be missed...), but it does hopefully show how Digby chooses to operate...
