The Sex Pistols were signed by Herb??

[dostros]

From Rick Wakeman's bio in AllMusic:

"Wakeman's biggest media splash during this period [late '70s], however, came through his alleged role in getting the Sex Pistols dropped by A&M Records soon after being signed. "

This sounds like a juicy story. I can't seem to find much more about it, though. Anybody know anything more?

 

[Rudy]

The Sex Pistols were signed by A&M, but quickly dropped when they pulled the following (from Wikipedia):

"On 10 March 1977, at a press ceremony held outside Buckingham Palace, the Sex Pistols publicly signed to A&M Records (the real signing had taken place the day before). Afterward, stoked on booze, they made their way to the A&M offices. Vicious smashed in a toilet bowl and cut his foot (there is some disagreement about which happened first). As Vicious trailed blood around the offices, Rotten verbally abused the staff and Jones got frisky in the ladies' room. A couple of days later, the Pistols got into a rumble with another band at a club; one of Rotten's pals threatened the life of a good friend of A&M's English director. On 16 March, A&M broke contract with the Pistols. Twenty-five thousand copies of the planned "God Save the Queen" single had already been pressed; virtually all were destroyed. "

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_Pistols

I do know that the Dead Kennedys were also approaching A&M, but due to the Sex Pistols incident, were shipped off to an obscure subsidiary (Alternative Tentacles Records, which was part of the IRS Records family IIRC).

 

[Captain Bacardi]

Here's an excerpt from an interview that Herb did in Goldmine magazine, April 1980:

"I think we're at the forefront, we have the best groups. We spotted it right from the beginning. We had the Sex Pistols, but that fell apart. They were on A&M for a week in March '77, and it was longer than they deserved to stay."

There were stories circulating at the time that some of the label's other acts wanted the Pistols dumped, but Alpert says, "The Pistols were too demanding, too crazy, too drugged out, and as far as I'm concerned, just nonsense. I can go for somebody who's flamboyant, for craziness y'know, but when it turns on you then it doesn't matter how good an artist is. They were so self-centered they didn't care about anybody else. The Pistols were very rude to our London staff and there was a scene in our offices there. We had some money invested in them but Jerry and I agreed, 'let's get them the f**k off, who needs that'!"

A&M was set to release "God Save The Queen," but all 25,000 copies pressed were allegedly destroyed. A few did in fact get out and now change hands for close to $100 apiece (with picture sleeve).

Capt. Bacardi

 

[Mike Blakesley]

What's amazing about that is, when the Pistols finally did get signed (to Warner Bros. in the U.S) they were hailed as this awesome groundbreaking act. So I quickly snapped up their album. I never heard such a waste of vinyl in my life.

When I was a kid, "grownups" would say that all rock music sounded alike...but with the Pistols, it was really true. It didn't matter where you dropped the needle on that record, it was the same tempo, same sound. Maybe a different key if you were lucky.

And yet they are still hailed as this legendary and wonderful group. I just don't get it.

I never knew that Rick Wakeman had anything to do with them at all, except for his A&M connection.

 

[alpertfan]

What's amazing is they got inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...and refused the honor. While they may be a little peculiar (for lack of a better term), but it's an honor to be inducted into the RNRHF...and without mentioning any names, there are a few people who frankly don't deserve to be there.

 

[toeknee4bz]

IIRC, this induction into the RNRHF was in 2006, the same year, ironically, that Herb and Jerry were inducted.

Tony

 

[dostros]

IIRC, this induction into the RNRHF was in 2006, the same year, ironically, that Herb and Jerry were inducted.

Tony

Maybe that had something to do with why they refused it!
Anyway, thanks for all the enlightening info, everybody. Wakeman must have been one of the offended artists Herb mentioned in his quote.

 

[Steven J. Gross]

"No future for them..."

lol

 

[Dave]

In turn, too, Dead Kennedys were another punk group Herb & Jerry refused to sign on A&M...

In the following Did You Know? on A&M Corner Home Page, I quote:

Fearing a backlash of Sex Pistols proportions, Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss refused to allow punk group Dead Kennedys to sign to IRS Records (then distributed by A&M). The album was released through other channels, on the Alternative Tentacles label.

Dave

 

[Mr Bill]

Yep. That's the Reader's Digest version, though.

Miles had already signed them to IRS but A&M -- honoring their agreement to not interfere in IRS operations, did balk at distributing Dead Kennedy's debut LP. To solve the issue, Miles started his secondary IRS label, Faulty Products and the debut DK LP Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables was the first Faulty release. In fact it still carried the IRS SP number of 70014. (A&M fixed this later by moving REM's valu-priced debut Murmur from SP 70604 to SP 70014). Ironically the fine print read "manufactured by A&M Records. Distributed by IRS/Faulty" which meant A&M still had a hand in it. In fact A&M's college reps by and large also handled the Faulty line (Jem also distributed Faulty).

Most Faulty releases were indeed pressed by A&M and the deal evolved into Faulty distributing the more "commercial" releases from the Alternative Tentacles label, run by DK lead singer Jello Biafra...

--Mr Bill