Jimi Hendrix '69 Royal Albert Hall Show - Details from a 'recent' Court Case

Welcome back to Jimi world on SHF.

I hope EH rethink their rules about releasing "bad"/"flawed" shows on VHS/Blu in as complete form as possible.

Just throw them in a boxset together for the hardcores.

 

Count me in for the VHS!

 

Don't give hipsters any crazy ideas. VHS already has "found footage" festivals and stuff like Trent Reznor artwork.

 

Its been available on DVD for years. I have it in 5.1 as well. Its available in collectors circles all over the net.

 

In early August, the judge threw out claims by Jerry Goldstein accusing Experience Hendrix and Sony of securing a distribution deal
which breached his own agreement with the Hendrix Estate.

Los Angeles (August 11, 2014, 4:02 PM ET) -- A California judge on Monday tossed claims that Jimi Hendrix's estate breached its distribution deal with a film producer for a concert film and soundtrack by cutting an exclusive deal with Sony Music Entertainment, saying the Sony contract clearly didn't include the disputed recordings.
During a hearing in Los Angeles, Judge Mark Mooney said both Sony and the estate, Experience Hendrix LLC, have agreed that their contract specifically excludes recordings of Hendrix performing two concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 1969. The Royal Albert Hall recordings were the subject of an agreement between Experience Hendrix and film producer Gerald Goldstein's company The Last Experience Inc.

"The only one who says there ever was an agreement between Experience Hendrix and Sony is [Last Experience]," Judge Mooney said.

Last Experience attorney Brent H. Blakely of Blakely Law Group pointed to an email in which an attorney for Hendrix's estate said there was such a contract — though the attorney retracted that statement the next day — and alleged Hendrix's estate and Sony are denying that there was an agreement because they are in cahoots.

"They're in bed together," Blakely said.

In 2010, Goldstein and the estate formed a joint venture to complete and distribute a film of the concert, but the estate, which favors a "platform" release of the film in only a few cities, filed suit in May 2011, claiming it would never have agreed to invest in the project had it known Goldstein was unwilling to commit to anything short of a massive nationwide release.

The suit sought rescission of the distribution agreement and recovery of the estate's investment.

Goldstein then brought counterclaims against the estate in July 2013, alleging the estate had an exclusive agreement with Sony Music Entertainment to distribute the soundtrack that breached Goldstein's contract with the estate. The cross-complaint sought compensatory and punitive damages, attorney's fees and costs of suit. The counterclaims survived a dismissal bid in October.

Hendrix's estate filed a motion for summary judgment in April, saying the contract with Sony explicitly excludes the Royal Albert Hall recordings, and thus it did not breach Goldstein's contract.

"Notwithstanding that cross-complainants were unequivocally informed that the prior representation made by counsel for Hendrix was incorrect, they have chosen to consciously disregard the actual facts presented to them, and continue to maintain three frivolous causes of action ... each of which hinges entirely on the existence of Hendrix's purported exclusive agreement with Sony Music," the motion said.

On Monday, Hendrix estate attorney Tracy B. Rane of McPherson Rane LLP told Judge Mooney that the contract was unambiguous in showing that her client didn't grant Sony exclusive rights to the Royal Albert Hall recordings.

"I don't know what else could be clearer," she said after reading the contract language aloud.

Judge Mooney said Last Experience failed to convince him that a misstatement in an email, which was retracted "a nanosecond later," was enough to keep Last Experience's cross-complaint alive against Hendrix's motion for summary judgment.

Source:
http://www.law360.com/articles/566124/jimi-hendrix-estate-dodges-suit-over-sony-music-deal

Many thanks to Matt for this information.

 

^^^And Jimi turns in his grave for another go-around. Will the litigation surrounding his stuff never cease? It's amazing how much $$$ must have been spent in the courts over these 40+ years since his death.

Arnie

 

This is the copy I have...

Live at Royal Albert Hall (Feather Records / Rising Sun - / 1998 / USA / 2CDR / Ltd.Numbered Edition) (nr. 036 of +/- 130)
(Royal Albert Hall, London 24.02.69 [Complete])In the long line of rare Hendrix releases, this Set is probably the rarest CD set ever officially released. Mastered from Eric Burdons safety copies of the original master recordings, and produced by Burdon himself and sold by mail-order through his website, the set was only available for a very short time. Discs were manufactured and numbered as orders came in, but the sale of them was terminated within a matter of days due to threats of legal action from the Jimi Hendrix Estate. Number of sets sold before it was withdrawn is unknown, but somewhene around 130 seems likely. The exact number is probably lower rather than higher, based on the fact that the only marketing of the discs was a small message to the Old Hey-Joe mailing list. Most - if not all - of the distributed sets seem to have been sold to Hey-Joe subscribers who pre-ordered the set, and according to later messages to that list, the highest numbered set located was in the 110-120 area. The sets had a unmistakeable "home made" feel to them; The covers were made using an ink-printer, and the discs were printable Mitusi CDRs. Some discs had one disc printed blue and the other red, others had both discs either blue or red. Most sets also had handwritten numbers on one or both discs. Additionally, the first 30 sets sold also featured a misprint of Disc 2, and these were replaced for free by Rising Sun, making the misprint version even rarer.
notes:
- Semi-official Mail Order album which was withdrawn shortly after its release

 

It is very nice to know Jim that You are that Purple Jim.

Cheers
Tomek a.k.a. byrdman

 

What's Goldstein's motivation here? Some Jimi fans think he's trying to delay the release so until after the Sly Stone case is done so SS can't take that money.

 

It appears it's on its way to an IMAX theaters near you maybe by next year...

http://musicconnection.com/goldstein-jimi-hendrix-documentary/

If true, nice to see this officially released.

 

It's about time ....

 

Something rings false here
Elsewhere says the decision is "tentative."

 

Life is short, as Jimi sadly showed us. We need this film and soundtrack sooner rather than later.

 

Goldstein has enough cash handy to "convert" the footage to 3D.

I have mixed feeling on whether or not I think the #d effect would be a positive or negative.

 

Goldstein seems to be very up about this, as if the green light is full-on. Perhaps he only has the rights to put it in theatres?
Will the Hendrix Estate/Sony reboot the deal over CD/DVD distribution?

 

This could be amazing, I listen to this Experience show a lot. Hope the movie gets re edited properly and all psychedelic rubbish removed.

 

I was at that concert.Nothing in the field has ever come close for me.

 

I watched 2 days ago my dvd copy,it is really one of Jimi's best performances(THAT little wing)
And the impromptu acoustic performance deserves to be watched too.

I hope it get's released.

 

My favorite version of Little Wing

 

I would love to see this at the iMax. Going to have to pay attention to release dates.

 

EH/JG have a 50/50 deal on the film. Neither can do anything without the other since they made that agreement several years ago. I'm sure EH would release it tomorrow if JG would play ball.

 

Hmmmm, I wonder if this is just the documentary piece of all that RAH stuff?

I believe it was mentioned a couple years back, that there was the actual performance, and then a ton of documentary footage shot around London at that time,
and that there was a potential for them to be companion pieces in a package.

Let Goldstein put the documentary out with his name all over it, then EH releases the actual concert later on doing what they do to the material, getting Kramer to work on the music, footage cleaned up and edited, etc, etc. Both parties getting percentages of the product.

 

If you really want to hear what this entire show should sound like, four songs have been officially released properly engineered from the audio masters. However none since the 1989 CD version of the 1982 'Concerts' LP set. This is a CRIME!

'Hendrix in the West' (LP only, not the CD) - Little Wing and Voodoo Child. On CD via the MCA box set from 2000.
'Concerts' (LP & CD) - Stone Free and Bleeding Heart

 

Just a sight correction... the original In The West CD on Polydor has the exact same content as the original LP. It's certainly a lot easier to find LW and VCSR on the Purple Box (for CD).

 

Won't these sound recordings enter the public domain in 2019 in Europe because of the 'use it or lose it' provision in the 2011/77/EU directive? If so, the current owners are forced to release the sounds recordings before that moment. They could release a 'bootleg' version first to save the copyright, but that scenario seems unlikely.