I thought that too. It's almost as if Minty just picked the bit that supported her view!

Nope. Although I used to be a member.





Well he's settled 'out of court' for such accusations of plagiarism ...

Actually, I was thing about this and realised that the date of that award was shortly after I had resigned form the organisation in question, since I'd moved to a job that did not involve reviewing.

And look what happened ...

Yes, I realised that he was accused of plagiarism and I wouldn't know if he deliberately copied extracts of previous works or not.

I would say that most musical style is derivative.
Musicians are a product in the main of the accumulated wealth of their experience with others people's music.
Just as you are the product of your accumulated experiences, granted not in music especially, but to some degree.
So just who is original?

It is also possible to reproduce music based on something you have heard before quite accidentally with no intention to plagiarise.
Obviously, if this is happening often, you have to wonder about the integrity of the composer.

Sometimes it is quite deliberate that one might chose a piece of music as the basis to compose another of your own. I don't think that is uncommon or for that matter necessarily plagiarism. You might use the structure as a base.

Is it the question of his originality then that makes you doubt his worth?

The only comment I have about Webber is that when I was 11 'ish we did a production of Jesus Christ Superstar at my school (not long after it was written I guess). Our school couldn't afford to pay the large chunk of cash required to be allowed to perform all the music so we had to read out 70% of the musical and act it without music. We were only allowed to perform the clearly defined "songs" with the music. It was excrutiating.
Money raised went to the school fund, Webber's production company made no exceptions. The Lord was getting his cut.

If only there had been millions of other musicals your school could have chosen to put on.

Reminds me of Robert Palmers legal defence to charges that he had plagiarised "Some Guys Have All The Luck", not just the tune but the title too, he surmised that he must have heard the original tune when walking past an open window somewhere



Paul McCartney too is said to have played the tune "Yesterday" to several people before recording it as he had woken up one morning with the tune in his head and was convinced that it wasn't his tune but one that he must have overheard.

And I'll throw my professional guitarist cousin into the mix as he was actually sued for plagiarism after he wrote and recorded one of those novelty football songs for Leeds Utd (when they had a football team), had a deal with the club, had some of the team in the chorus, was all set to sell at least 40 thousand copies to the supporters when someone in Manchester claimed that it was his chorus, it went to a pre-trial hearing and he had to pay for a professor of music from Manchester to testify that the sequence of notes in the chorus were not similar enough to be plagiarised - by the time the legal case was conceeded (to him) he'd lost the window of opportunity to release the record and it was dropped.

I helped him produce 70 demo tapes of his single one night, it was cr@p, the world was saved from earache.

It can happen though, even though a defence like that might look dodgy.
He should have perhaps have said that it came from his subconscious based on something he may have heard.
And who's to say it didn't?
Mind you the title? That's harder to explain.

Now if you want to hear Nelson Riddle fronted by a truly great voice, look no further than the three albums by Linda Ronstadt

And now that you mentioned Robert Palmer, have a listen to his Riding High album, especially his duet with Carnie Wilson, the very best version of Baby It's Cold Outside ever recorded

Quite ironic that a true muso like Palmer would be accused of plagiarism. In fact, there's only 7 notes and every tune there is or ever will be is made up of them. All you can change is the combinations. Bearing this in mind it never ceases to amaze me how we keep on and on hearing new music but it keeps on coming.

I am not happy with the way music copyright is defended, usually by people who are not the composer or artists but just "own the rights". One good example was The Verve having to give up every penny from the superb Bittersweet Symphony, which is now perversely credited to Jagger and Richards. (And I'm sure The Verve would have won that one if they'd had the cash to fight it to a hearing).

I could write the catch to a hit tune tomorrow by hitting say teh notes BCF#AbCDB#. I could then find some guy claimed he actually wrote that sequence of notes in a work in 1987 and so I breached his copyright even though his tune may never have been released.

I even remember a song with a track containing a period of silence. Litigation ensued by some dozy muppet who insisted he had recorded a silent track so the copyright to silence was his.

Have an old vinyl album by Linda Ronstadt, "Heart like A Wheel", classy stuff.

That peed me off too. I know there's defending your work etc, but it's not as if the Stones need the money. (Or maybe they do - I've lost count of the number of final tours/gigs they've done)

Wasn't the Stones, though, it was Allen Klein, or his record company who held the copyright of some orchestral version of The Last Time. It was a bit weird since IIRC they had done a deal beforehand, but got stuffed anyway.

The orchestral version was recorded ironically by the Stones' former manager/producer Andrew Oldham as "Andrew Oldham orchestra"; there never was an "orchestra" as such, rather ad hoc session musicians. You can see why they would have needed to do a deal if you listen to "Andrew Oldham Orchestra - The Last Time (1965)" on some popular video sharing site but The Verve made an award winning, all-time great song out of the raw material, and didn't deserve to be raped like they were.

I'm sure you're well aware of the history of popular music management and the sharks, con artists, gypsies tramps and thieves that the industry has attracted almosr like its a tradition.

I was going to mention the venerable Dick James, having read Elton Johns official biog with the legal case against DJM taking up most of the middle of the 500+ pages and so visited Wiki just to refresh myself on the finer points - take a look at it here [urlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_James[/url

I reckon Dick James has ressurected himself and written that 'kin article himself

Them damn Russians have been spying again!
[url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17297443Competition for Engelbert[/url

Wailing grannies, now that IS class. Though it's a crime they aren't doing their famous Hotel California*, which reached 178 in the charts in Azerbaijan. This is definitely going to be a show not to miss, though a copious supply of stiff liquor will be needed.

=#4080FF* "Hotel California - Buranoskie Babushki" may produce something in a well known video site

Bad news folks, Austria haven't made the final.

Gutted.

Its the wifes 50th next week so ten of us have rented a house in Northumberland for a week long house party in hoo-rah stylee with added Geordie-ness.

I had all sorts of stuff planned but then the women of the party noticed that out first night there was this coming Saturday upon which there is apparently some sort of singing competition, so they are buying in the pizzas and pretzels and apparently we're all staying in.

Like fook we are, I've got an Ordanance Survey map, a compass and one of those lights for your head and me and some of the lads will be making a break out the back door for the nearest pub, which is two miles away

Where it'll still probably be on the TV.

I can see me crawling on hands and knees in sackcloth and ashes across to the priory on Holy Island, knocking on the door and asking the monks "You don't have a TV here do you, if not can I come in ?"

"Yes, make yourself at home. We're just listening to the Monks from Glenstall Abbey practising for their half-time Eurovision show. Great tune, "Lumen", isn't it?"

Ted and Dougal singing My Lovely Horse is the closest I can get.

Barring some form of disaster on the night, it's Sweden's to lose IMO.

Nah, that's just what them bookies want you to think. I told you all many moons ago that the Russian grannies would win it. Should've filled yer boots!

And have you put your money on them?
I'm sorry, you were jesting in the hope that they might.
Silly me!

Anyway, come on England Bert Humperdinck.

Edit:
He came second from bottom. What a surprise.