When you think about the roots of electronic music most will think of Acid House. When you think of Acid House most will think of ‘Voodoo Ray’ as being one of THE quintessential tracks of the era and of all time. As we all know this track was penned by one of dance music’s most enigmatic artists A Guy Called Gerald. What a lot of people don’t know is that while his track was breaking records and cementing both him and his music in the history pages of music his success was not being recognised by the label that released the track.
Sure, Rham! Records were reaping the rewards of having seminal track ‘Voodoo Ray” and subsequent album ‘Hot Lemonade’ on their books but unbeknown to the majority of Gerald’s fan base he was not enjoying the monetary success his work should have brought him. Instead, Gerald tells a torrid tale of hardship and frustration during his supposed heyday, “As ‘Voodoo Ray’ raced to No.12 in the charts, I had to live in a squat, work at McDonald’s and give interviews out of phone boxes. Yet the guys running the label, selling my music, never paid me a single penny for my part in the label’s success.”
The label was shuttered in 1992 but it has again been rebooted by an assistant of the original label owner and again Gerald is being subjected to false appropriation of his work. With the size of the music industry now the amount of royalties that is being claimed without Gerald’s authorisation and indeed any direct benefit is huge.
This for Gerald is too much to bear and is now springing into action to fight this outright theft of his work and intellectual property but he needs your help. The cost of this size of legal battle is immense and Gerald and his team have estimated it will cost in the region of £20,000. IF you can spare any amount of money to contribute to his fight you will be helping just not him but helping to set a precedence for artists being taken advantage of.
For those donating £25, you will receive a four-track selection of music previously unreleased digitally. A £50 donation will mean a live performance not previously released as well as the previous gifts. £100 will net donors the entire digital Bandcamp discography as well the previous gifts and for the most generous donor the gifts will include pre-release offers on new releases AND a Special Limited Edition 12” due in 2022 as well as the previous music gifts. So please give all you can to help Gerald keep fighting for his musical freedom.
A Guy Called Gerald’s crowdfunder page can be found here.
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