The musicians of the band “Coldplay“ are the next to part ways with their manager after a lawsuit. This has happened to Taylor Swift and Kesha, and in the past to the “Sex Pistols”, among many others.
Last week “Coldplay“ have settled with their manager Dave Holmes over his lawsuit and their counterclaim to avoid publicity, the British press reported. Dave Holmes was the band's manager for 22 years, but when their contract expired in 2022, the musicians did not renew it. He sued for unpaid commissions in August 2023, and they responded in October with a counterclaim for £14m.
Ending the dispute costs “Coldplay” a seven-figure sum, the Sun claims, citing court documents.
Holmes claimed he was not paid a commission for his contributions to the band's unreleased 10th and 11th albums, on which he had many arrangement commitments. The Coldplay musicians, for their part, claimed that he overspent on their Music Of The Spheres tour by more than £17.5m, spent large sums on unnecessary stage sets and visual projects, and that Holmes was took out two loans totaling $30 million as the group's manager, without informing them, from their ticketing promoter “Live Nation”.
Manager of “Coldplay“ with frontman Chris Martin, bassist Guy Berryman, drummer Will Champion and guitarist Johnny Buckland is now Phil Harvey – their longtime friend and collaborator, often referred to as the band's fifth member, along with Mandy Frost and Arlene Finney. The group is now on a European tour.
Singer Kesha has waged a 10-year battle with her producer Dr. Luke, claiming he drugged her and sexually abused her. According to Kesha, Dr. Luke assaulted her 20 years ago, but she filed the lawsuit 10 years later, though she couldn't say exactly what happened. He denied the allegations. The two agreed in June last year, a month before the scheduled trial.
Taylor Swift's legal battle with Scooter Braun is one of the most bitter in pop music history. The feud between them started in 2019 when he bought the label "Big Machine" (Big Machine), which launched the music megastar's career and thus acquired the rights to the original recordings of her first six albums. The singer claimed that she tried unsuccessfully to buy them back. The movie Taylor Swift vs. Scooter Braun: Bad Blood, however, cast doubt on Taylor Swift's version. According to him, Scooter Braun and Scott Borchetta, her previous manager who owned “Big Machine”, offered her to buy the rights in 2019
To prevent Brown's company from receiving revenue from her performances, Taylor Swift began re-recording and re-releasing her old productions, with the new version adding Taylor's Version in the titles.
The “Sex Pistols“ controversy is also known. with their manager Malcolm McLaren for the rights to the band's name and music. In the 1970s, Johnny Rotten (John Lydon) called him “the worst man in the world”. He sued him in 1979 for misappropriation. Lydon later fell out with the group and filed a lawsuit against them as well. He gained control of the name, but the group successfully sued McLaren for mismanagement.
The list of such disputes can be filled with "Killers", Jimi Hendrix, "Queen", "Rolling Stones", "Beatles". At the beginning of their career, many musicians enter into contracts that, with time and success, turn out to be disadvantageous for them.
Meanwhile, it has become clear that an extremely rare vinyl record of the music group “Sex Pistols“ was sold at auction for 24,320 British pounds, reported the BBC, quoted by BTA.
It is a copy of the infamous single “God Save The Queen“ since 1977 on the occasion of the silver jubilee of the late British Queen. After its release, around 25,000 records were withdrawn from the market because the lyrics described the monarchy as a “fascist regime”.
However, a few copies remain. One of them was sold by vinyl record specialists Wessex Auction Rooms. (Wessex Auction Rooms) for the record price.
The single was released during the group's collaboration with the record company “A&M“ (A&M) in the 1970s. It became the most censored recording in British history after it was banned by the BBC and almost all independent radio stations in Britain. The company “A & M“ terminates his contract with the newly formed punk rock band and all copies of the single “God Save The Queen“ are destroyed.
Later, however, it turned out that some recordings were kept by the company, and when the London offices of “A & M“ in 1998, a number of executives were gifted a copy of the single. Between 13 and 20 copies are believed to exist, long considered the “holy grail” both among vinyl collectors and punk enthusiasts.
The previous copy sold at “Wessex Auction Rooms” in 2019, reached a world record of £16,400.
The vinyl record that was purchased is one of the rarest records in the world, as it was not part of the copies presented to the music company executives in 1998. The anonymous seller of the record was the first person to be introduced to the band in 1977. , when they come to the office of “A & M“, where she works at the front desk. When she left the company in 1984, she raffled off a box of Sex Pistols singles and was allowed to keep them.
“The current single, which is being sold at “Wessex Auction Rooms”, is my last. I kept it for sentimental reasons, but I feel now is the time to part with it. I worry that one day it might disappear or get damaged,” she said.
“Sex Pistols" will forever remain an important part of music history and pop culture, and this record will remain a holy grail for any serious collector,” said vinyl specialist and auctioneer Martin Hughes.