MARCH NEWS

[mike]

If there are shows that cannot be included on the DVD, would you still be able to tell us what they are. I'd like to know what exists even if price will stop us seeing it.

[maureen & harry]

Another fantastic newsletter from Michele.

We are really looking forward to the new DVD.

We agree with Richard about it not making business sense as the footage does not generate income and therefore is not an asset to them. Hopefully one day they might change their minds.

[Marian]

Something of " A Dog in a Manger" attitude I feel.

[Rmoore]

Once we've got everything sorted I will quite happily list what else exists - it's always good for people to know just incase they come across something we don't know about. I'll probably write a Spotlight article about it once everything is confirmed.

Richard

[ROBERT M.]

I know they are too expensive at the moment, but I would love to see Matts Ed Sullivan appearances

[karl]

Richard I agreed with your earlier comments, we need someone like you running the record companies.

I also agree it's ridiculous holding on to video tape etc for a high fee when they could be making something out of it if they would only get sensible.

I understand it's a similar situation with Dave Clark and the tapes for Ready Steady Go. Thank God I bought the videos years ago including the Motown one hosted by Dusty.

[mariana44]

This is just a thought----I love the US musician Dean Friedman, and his last 3 cds have been funded by his fans. All numbered etc etc,
so there is a basic price, [i think it was about £19.00] more for a signed and numbered one. I bought all 3.

I think there may be many who would pay good money to see some completely new material from Matt. What does anyone else
think ??

[karl]

Marian it's a good idea but very costly.

A recent book on Dusty published through the Dusty bulletin cost me over £70 the postage alone was £15 as it is so heavy. They cannot produce hugh quantities and have to pay a lot of money to licence things hence the higjh cost to the fans, but yes it is a good idea if Matt's fans can afford it.

[mike]

There are schemes like Kickstarter that allow for fan funding of projects. But I guess these songs are very expensive and so would need a lot of fans to cover the total costs.

[mariana44]

Well, as I said, i only paid £19.00 for Dean Friedmans cds and one of those was a double cd. And of course that would not be as expensive as posting a book. It was all done my himself, on his own website.

[karl]

Well, as I said, i only paid £19.00 for Dean Friedmans cds and one of those was a double cd. And of course that would not be as expensive as posting a book. It was all done my himself, on his own website.

Do you think perhaps Dean subsidised the cost to the fans Marian?

[mariana44]

I am pretty sure that he did not.

[ROBERT M.]

Marian, who is going to pay the 10 grand needed for each minute of Matts material in the vaults

[Rmoore]

That's exactly the problem Robert. it would cost around $10,000 for the Ed Sullivan alone, there are some Australian clips we wanted to license that are £3000 per song (and there are at least 5 songs), Steve Allen show - $5000 for one song! and currently I can't even get a response from CBS for the Mike Douglas Show, but fear they will be the same.

So we would need to raise about £25,000 for just that selection. Nice though the kickstarter idea is i don't think there are enough people willing to contribute to get that one off the ground (and paying those prices for nearly 50 year old material is criminal anyway).

There is also other material out there that we are pretty sure exists but can't get a response from the rights holder (Mike Walsh show) and the Spanish station that owns "Galos de Sabado" (which is admittedly all over you tube anyway) is not interested in licensing it at all.

Even in the UK costs vary wildly. The BBC are now much more reasonable with some material that they would have charged a fortune for in the past and ITN Source (who have most of the ITV catalogue) are the easiest to deal with (95% of the TV shows on the last Odeon DVD were from there) but Fremantle (Thames catalogue) and Canal (ABC) are more expensive and there is nothing left from Rediffusion and currently in 'rights hell' is "This Is Tom Jones"

The Kickstarter idea isn't without merit and is a possible way to get the New York sessions out at some point, but we've not exhausted all avenues yet with that one.

Richard

[mariana44]

Well, it was just an idea.