Whatever happened to Some Bizarre and Stevo?

-snip from Coil website-
After several comments and questions on the Coil mailing list regarding the inclusion of the phrase "Stevø, Pay Us What You Owe Us!" on the covers of the recent reissues of Scatology and Horse Rotorvator, Jhon Balance has issued the following statement:

"We did deliberate very long and deeply about this Stevø mention on the covers. This situation is highly complicated and I have never exposed people to the complete demoralising complexities of the situation. We never originally signed a contract for these two releases [when they were first released by Stevø's Some Bizarre label - ed.] and were told that we would be given the rights back after 5 or 10 years. There was no 'mine forever' mentioned.

"Stevø owes us approximately £30,000 on unpaid publishing from these 2 releases that he went ahead and licensed to Wire Records in Sweden, Disques du soleil et L'Acier in France, Record Vox in Germany, and Relativity in the US. He collected advances on all these from which we never received any money at all. Mark Chung (ex Neubauten) dealt with our publishing via his publishing company Freibank, but after 15 years of trying to get the money owed and outstanding from Stevø, Mark left that job for something more honourable. We recently had the publishing rights legally revert back to COIL from Freibank so now Stevø owes us the money directly. He of course says he doesn't owe us a penny. What would YOU do in this situation? We have decided to expose the truth.

[snip some bizarre John Balance "I'm a 19th level mage" stuff]
[his Usenet posts are hilarious, by the by, if you wanna look for 'em]

"I was about 19 when I first formulated COIL. How much would you know about the UK music business at that age? I believed and STILL believe in a concept called TRUST. We have no contract with our distributors World Serpent. None is needed because THEY are trustworthy people. Every single person or company we have ever signed a contract with have tried to fuck us over. Period. They are only worth anything at all to the lawyers who get paid royally to draft them up and then untangle the knots when it all goes wrong. If Stevø Pearce had paid us the royalties he owed us at the time they were owed then COIL would have had a far greater security and sense of direction and purpose and my personal sense of achievement and well being would have been far, far greater.

"COIL is not just a cog in the record industry. Musick is NOT our business. We happen to be artists who get involved with the mu-SICK business in order to get our lifes-work and vision to the potential audience. We have taken the pro-active, positive step of reissuing the CDs ourselves exactly because we understand that Stevø probably never will pay us. The slogan on the front covers merely serves to prick him and to also alert other people that he is still as unscrupulous as ever.

"Having explained part of the situation and hopefully conveyed the strength of our feelings in this matter I'd like to add we will continue design our own record covers and in exactly the way WE see fit, including whatever images and texts we choose to."
-end snip from Coil website-

the the were signed to epic in trafalgar square with stevo climbing a lampost, or something.

i wonder if hr paid swans (wouldn't want to mess with norm westberg), test dept, carlos peron, renaldo and the loaf as well.

apparently he was yello's manager at one point - tho i have no confirmation either way of that

eh?

crackdown, micro-phonies and covenant sword ... albums are among their best.

it's the latter ones that signalled their downfall. and their insistence on jumping aboard the acid house techno whatsit bandwagon.
tho i did like easy life.

You do that. It's fantastic. Although I left it on the tube (District Line) before I finished it. Anyone know how it ends?

To the best of my knowledge, Stevo is still running SB somewhere in London. There's a band called, er, Koop or Koot or Klart or something who're signed to the label, and another band called, I think, Flat Stanley, who're linked somehow. Mind you, this news is brought to you in association with the year 1999, so I could be well off the mark.

I am a fan of soft cell and their music. Can someone send me a picture of Stevo in his haydays.......

Regards,

Ivan

I am a fan of soft cell and their music. Can someone send me a picture of Stevo in his haydays.......

Regards,

Ivan

http://www.somebizzare.com/news.html
(complete Neubauten catalogue reissued next week)

vs. nothing at all about this on the official Neubauten site:
http://neubauten.org (new live DVD announcement though, yay!)

and no updates here either:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Some_Bizarre

No word about the HOLE and NAIL reissues (yay!) on http://foetus.org either, even though the remasters were supposedly supervised by Jim Thirlwell himself ( http://www.side-line.com/news_comments.php?id=17612_0_2_0_C )...

compilation on the way, exhibition starting today:
http://www.somebizzare.com

?

recently asked for an add. in light of the info above and elsewhere: such mixed feelings (I'd even brought them a demo in 1983 - Stevo wasn't around but Marc Almond and Gen 'n' Sleazy Dreams Less Sweet era were (v.exciting for a TG fan)).
wish I knew the full story so I could make up my own mind about it.

Stevo is actually a decent guy. I have dealings with him...there's also a lot of stuff on these boards that are myth and rumour. for a start - Stevo fell out with Neubauten when they breached contract. (Yes - Neubauten fans will cry 'There's no contract' - but there is...I've seen it with my own eyes.)....sadly - and also understandably - record label managers don't get the same press as the bands who winge about them...it's probably well overdue that Stevo came out and did a full expose of 'his truth'....might be interesting...

Some Bizzare are going strong - well worth checking out the new artists as well as old on the label - they have a fairly decent website and a number of myspace sites....well worth a look. Still a great label....

^note: this dude's band is signed to the label

Hi my friends,
I am a fan of soft cell and their music. Can someone send me a picture of Stevo in his haydays.......

Regards,

John McCain

Sure John, here you go!

http://celebrityhood.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/steve-o-400ds0507.jpg

You can see that in his haydays he had a tattoo of a guy fucking an ostrich. Haydays indeed.

lol

that's NOT a photo of Stevo Pearce of Some Bizzare. That's Steve-o from Jackass. Jeez, do your bloody research.

I was backstage at the Dublin Neubauten show in 2004 and somebody had gone to the trouble of writing Stevo\||/ ( as in arrow pointing down) on the toilet bowl just above the waterline. Seems to be a lot of effort to go to. Not sure what the state of events was at that point, thinking back the Potomak reissues must have been appearing and vying for shelf space alongside some further Some Bizarre versions if I'm thinking right. Certainly remember seeing what appeared to be new Some Bizarre versions of Neubauten titles in the racks of some record shop(possibly the Oxford st HMV) after I'd bought Potomak versions of those lps but I'm not sure of timescale.
Otherwise it seemed to be quite a long time after they'd parted company so I'd be wondering why somebody would do that. Very neatly done from what I can remember 10 years later. Letters evenly spaced and on one horizontal level.

good revive

https://www.facebook.com/573VO he's right here on FB

he recently cropped up on a facebook thread i was posting on. i'd been posting about how it was thee most forward thinking / best label of that era and someone tagged stevo. he then posted the following (this was all he posted and was the end of the thread) -

Stevø Pearce (friends with Pee Six) also commented on Pee Six's photo.
Stevø wrote: "Letter dated 11 June14 From: @sonymusic.com To: stevo@somebizarre ukroyaltiesenquiries@sonymu✧✧✧.--✧✧✧@sonymu✧✧✧.c✧✧ Cc: Some Bizzare Accountant @klc; @williamevans Subject: RE: Contract SA0938: THE THE Importance: High Hi Steve, I sent all statements via email to klc yesterday morning. Karl, can you please confirm receipt. Kind regards, Royalty Administration Manager Sony Music Entertainment UK Ltd 9 Derry Street, London W8 5HY - Letter dated 11 June 14 From: stevo@somebizarre To: Enquiries, UK Royalties, Sony Music; Dummett, Andrew, Sony Music Cc: 'KLC ; 'William Evans' Subject: RE: Contract SA0938: THE THE Importance: High Dear Senior Royalties Administrator at Sony Music Entertainment UK Ltd I hope you are well. I like your assistance regards (FCCA) KLC C been in contact with ...| Royalty Administrator Sony Music Entertainment UK Ltd | 9 Derry Street | London E-mail: -✧✧@sonymu✧✧✧.c✧✧ regards Contract SA0938: THE THE --- please be introduced to the Some Bizarre Ltd accountants (FCCA) KLC London WC2 Office - Registered to carry on audit work in the UK by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales. Details about our audit registration can be viewed at under reference number ----WILLIAM EVANS & PARTNERS Chartered Accountants & Business Advisers Registered Auditors W1 Sony can you speed this up as am irked by no contact from marketing of the re-issue of Soul Mining and the aforesaid correspondence as per the linkedin information I sent you. I thank any assistance RE: Contract SA0938: Sony please be advised that both Barclays bank and Stephen John Pearce PNK “Stevo” is awaiting a new executed respectful bank mandate, from Mr Chung a former employee of Sony and Stevo partner in a UK publishing company Dimehart Ltd. • Some Bizarre Ltd immediately requesting a full accounting please regards Matt Johnson PKA The The • Twilight of a Champion a track on the June 2014 Sony Reissue of album titled “Soul Mining” Artist named The The in regards to the aforesaid and in order to safeguard the D Dimehart Ltd t/a Freibank mechanical royalties regards to the track on Soul Mining album track titled “Twilight of a Champion” Sony are not permitted in disbursing mechanical royalties to German office of Dimehart Ltd t/a Freibank that are committing copyright infringement by pressing and distributing Some Bizarre Ltd UK Copyright of artists PNK EINSTURZENDE NEUBAUTEN and we have attached and enclosed the following letter sent to “Indigo Musikproduktion Vertrieb GmbH (signed)” • Please forward confirmation that Sony in respect of the aforesaid are to send the UK London office of Dimehart Ltd t/a Freibank the mechanical royalties regards to the track on the album titled “Soul Mining” in respect of the track titled “Twilight of a Champion” • Sony this letter is to advise you that Some Bizarre Ltd are requesting an immediately response to this letter, as you are fully aware Some Bizarre Ltd are awaiting from Sony a full accounting for artists PNK The The and are looking forward to receiving any relevant sums due • links to help your re-issue of Soul Mining as it is target marketing • Please information in respect of Some Bizarre Ltd Sony Film titled "Infected," confirm as to the belated Release date information of this film to be released on DVD. • Pursuant to clause 5(b)(A) of the 1990 Agreement Dualdale is entitled to certain commission in respect of earnings of Matt Johnson as a recording artist. By virtue of a letter agreement dated 15th June 1992, Dualdale is as you know to receive by the way of a direct payment from Sony, Some Bizarre Ltd Royalties. Some Bizarre Ltd inform you also as we have informed 'did✧✧✧.dehaut✧✧✧@bmgchrysa✧✧✧.c✧✧' informing of further misconduct by Mark Chung that we are attempting to sort out this is in regards the Mute Records artist Frank RIP PNK Fad Gadget's single titled "Collapsing New People" 1983; and secondly on the Depeche Mode's recording of "People Are People" as we been informed by audited of Mute records that a sample was taken from track titled “Collapsing New People “ used was stored on sampler engineered by Gareth Jones, I tied to befriend Gareth Jones requested friendship on Linkedin and facebook and inform Dan Miller of Mute Records this and Dan Miller said he is going to talk to Gareth, we awaiting outcome of Dan talking to Gareth. Stevo has phoned the Strong Room studio the studio where Gareth Jones works and not got a reply Stevo left messages for he to call he has not done so, I have copied you in on letter received by Mark Chung regarding the same, as to our shock on discovery of this abuse of our copyright , please note Stevo was told recently about Mute recordings titled "Collapsing New People" and track titled "People Are People" we were informed about these unauthorized tracks that contains Some Bizarre Ltd and Dimehart Ltd copyright we were informed by the Mute auditor , I informed BMG of the state of affair , I like this sorted Dan on phone did not dispute Mute Records unauthorized use of Some Bizarre Ltd recording of the Mute artist PNK Fad Gadget recording titled "Collapsing New People" 1983 Dan acknowledged this recording is without authority, as Mute Records hold no step out agreement signed by Some Bizarre Ltd but Dan Miller said Depeche Mode did not use a sample taken from Collapsing New People as we were told that information by Mute Records auditor Roger La Haye De La Haye Royalty Services Tel Dan has been asked If it was not a sample as Roger your Mute auditor said it was . as Dan has said it was not a Einsturzende Neubauten sample I questioned him by saying you claim the recording of People Are People contains no unauthorized samples I said is it because the artists Einsturzende Neubauten went into the Depeche Mode studio and played on "People Are People"? • We awaiting a reply from Dan Miller Letter dated 16th April 2005. Between Mark Chung, SONY BMG & Stevo Pearce, Some Bizarre Limited Cc: jriii~hotmail.com. Subject: MUTE CLAIM BELATED! Dear All, It is not possible for the BPI to commit resources in funding such proceedings. After Frozen PIAS, Some Bizarre have drooped claim for any tracks which they have claimed. In addition if by September they have still not removed their claim we will be provided with their contact details and the appropriate paperwork allowing us to resolve this issue ourselves without those PPL! If you have any questions about our process, I would be much more than willing to talk about it all with you Mark Chung, SONY BMG Letter dated 12th February 2008. Between John McGrath Mute Records & Matt Bristow Cherry Red ; Stevo Pearce; Mute John McGrath. Subject: RE: MUSIC CUE SHEET of "20 Years of Einstürzende Neubauten. Listen with pain". Hi Matt, We need to attached the enclosed to the agreement and not the cue sheet I sent a while back. Please confirm. Regards, John. MUSIC CUE SHEET of “20 Years of Einstürzende Neubauten. Listen With Pain”. (main office köln Germany/ berlin-office:GEBRUEDER BEETZ FILM PRODUKTION. Kind regards Stevo"

Very complicated but basically boils down to 'bitch betta have my money'.

Also, Infected is coming out on DVD? Yay. Hope they do The The vs. The World with expanded full concert.