TamTam Books News Tuesday, August 03, 2004: At last! The latest news regarding Johnny Hallyday. Enjoy. From the Guardian: Jon Henley in Paris Tuesday August 3, 2004 The Guardian 'The biggest rock star you've never heard of': Johnny Hallyday introduced rock'n'roll to France in the 60s and has sold more than 80m records since, but is hardly known outside the country. Photo: AP France's biggest rock star yesterday won half of a bitter legal battle with his record company when a Paris court, in a landmark ruling, awarded him control of more than 1,000 master tapes recorded during his 40-year career. But Johnny Hallyday, who introduced rock'n'roll to France in the 1960s and has since sold more than 80m records, will not know until next March whether his €50m (£33m) damages claim against Universal Music France is justified. The row has made headlines in France, where Hallyday has been seen live on stage by the equivalent of a quarter of the population. His demands are also viewed with some alarm in the beleaguered music industry, which traditionally tries to retain control of artists' original recordings at all costs. "If all Johnny's claims are responded to favourably by the industrial tribunal, the consequences could be absolutely catastrophic for the recorded music business," said Universal's lawyer, Nicolas Boespflug. Amid plunging CD sales due to a sharp rise in illegal copying and internet downloads, relations between record companies and their stars are becoming increasingly strained: labels want more for their money, while performers say they are being ripped off. Hallyday, 61, and billed outside France as "the biggest rock star you've never heard of", said during the court hearing in June that he felt he had been "robbed" and "swindled" by Universal, which had lent him €16.3m since 1978 and used the debt to impose "unfair and unjust" conditions in successive recording contracts. Since the loans were repaid directly from Hallyday's royalties, the court yesterday appointed an expert to examine every contract between the two parties and establish whether the singer had been charged too much interest or pressed into signing recording deals which were plainly disadvantageous to him. The star claims that the record company loans set him on an "infernal spiral", forcing him to work simply to repay his debts and to cede to Universal ownership of two houses in Paris and all profits from merchandising bearing his name. And in each new recording contract, the singer's royalties were lower, he alleges. The tribunal refused to declare null and void Hallyday's latest contract with Universal, which ends in December 2005, but ruled that he need record only one album rather than the six originally required. The return of the singer's huge - and hugely valuable - back catalogue by the same date will more than compensate for that. Born to an itinerant Belgian father and a French mother and christened Jean-Philippe Smet, Hallyday first signed with the Vogue label, now part of the German group Bertelsmann. But in 1961 he joined Philips, which later became PolyGram and then Universal. He has had some 200 French top 10 hits with the label. Universal says the singer's claims are "outrageous" and "deeply hurtful". It says the loans were made at Hallyday's express request, and that without the company the star - who is notoriously inept at managing his income - would be bankrupt and possibly in jail for failing to pay income tax. The latest loan, of 35m francs in 1997, had been made so he could buy a luxury yacht which he wanted despite his tax problems, the company added. Still growling les blues and belting out l'amour with as much passion as he did in the early 60s, when a disgusted Charles de Gaulle suggested his fans should be forced into road gangs "because they clearly have far too much energy to spare", Hallyday only last year released France's fastest-selling single ever. Outside France, and French-speaking Belgium and Switzerland, however, few have been able to explain his success. He has barely sold a record in Britain, and when he played Las Vegas a few years ago he had to take his fan club with him in six charter planes. Tosh // 10:42 PM ______________________ Comments: Post a Comment
At last! The latest news regarding Johnny Hallyday. Enjoy. From the Guardian: Jon Henley in Paris Tuesday August 3, 2004 The Guardian 'The biggest rock star you've never heard of': Johnny Hallyday introduced rock'n'roll to France in the 60s and has sold more than 80m records since, but is hardly known outside the country. Photo: AP France's biggest rock star yesterday won half of a bitter legal battle with his record company when a Paris court, in a landmark ruling, awarded him control of more than 1,000 master tapes recorded during his 40-year career. But Johnny Hallyday, who introduced rock'n'roll to France in the 1960s and has since sold more than 80m records, will not know until next March whether his €50m (£33m) damages claim against Universal Music France is justified. The row has made headlines in France, where Hallyday has been seen live on stage by the equivalent of a quarter of the population. His demands are also viewed with some alarm in the beleaguered music industry, which traditionally tries to retain control of artists' original recordings at all costs. "If all Johnny's claims are responded to favourably by the industrial tribunal, the consequences could be absolutely catastrophic for the recorded music business," said Universal's lawyer, Nicolas Boespflug. Amid plunging CD sales due to a sharp rise in illegal copying and internet downloads, relations between record companies and their stars are becoming increasingly strained: labels want more for their money, while performers say they are being ripped off. Hallyday, 61, and billed outside France as "the biggest rock star you've never heard of", said during the court hearing in June that he felt he had been "robbed" and "swindled" by Universal, which had lent him €16.3m since 1978 and used the debt to impose "unfair and unjust" conditions in successive recording contracts. Since the loans were repaid directly from Hallyday's royalties, the court yesterday appointed an expert to examine every contract between the two parties and establish whether the singer had been charged too much interest or pressed into signing recording deals which were plainly disadvantageous to him. The star claims that the record company loans set him on an "infernal spiral", forcing him to work simply to repay his debts and to cede to Universal ownership of two houses in Paris and all profits from merchandising bearing his name. And in each new recording contract, the singer's royalties were lower, he alleges. The tribunal refused to declare null and void Hallyday's latest contract with Universal, which ends in December 2005, but ruled that he need record only one album rather than the six originally required. The return of the singer's huge - and hugely valuable - back catalogue by the same date will more than compensate for that. Born to an itinerant Belgian father and a French mother and christened Jean-Philippe Smet, Hallyday first signed with the Vogue label, now part of the German group Bertelsmann. But in 1961 he joined Philips, which later became PolyGram and then Universal. He has had some 200 French top 10 hits with the label. Universal says the singer's claims are "outrageous" and "deeply hurtful". It says the loans were made at Hallyday's express request, and that without the company the star - who is notoriously inept at managing his income - would be bankrupt and possibly in jail for failing to pay income tax. The latest loan, of 35m francs in 1997, had been made so he could buy a luxury yacht which he wanted despite his tax problems, the company added. Still growling les blues and belting out l'amour with as much passion as he did in the early 60s, when a disgusted Charles de Gaulle suggested his fans should be forced into road gangs "because they clearly have far too much energy to spare", Hallyday only last year released France's fastest-selling single ever. Outside France, and French-speaking Belgium and Switzerland, however, few have been able to explain his success. He has barely sold a record in Britain, and when he played Las Vegas a few years ago he had to take his fan club with him in six charter planes. Tosh // 10:42 PM
