HOT: A Bounty of Black Albums
Last year, an extremely rare promo copy of Prince’s The Black Album — which the artist notoriously stopped from being released a week before it was supposed to come out in 1987 because he’d decided it was “evil” — sold for $15,000, a record for the Discogs database/marketplace site. Those who missed their chance to buy a copy might get another shot after five more were discovered by a former executive at Warner Brothers Records, Prince’s label at the time. The man reportedly was looking in old boxes for vinyl to give to his daughter when he found five sealed copies of the LP on vinyl (previously, only three such pressings had emerged in the past 30 years). Three of the unopened albums were quickly sold (fetching between $15,000-$20,000); the owner is said to be keeping one and selling the other later.
WARM: Headed for the Hall
Following the unveiling of nominees up for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the final class of 2018 was recently announced. Those going in are Bon Jovi (who won the fan poll by a huge margin), The Cars, Dire Straits, The Moody Blues and Nina Simone, with the pioneering Sister Rosetta Tharpe getting the Award for Early Influence. The 2018 Rock Hall ceremony is April 14 in Cleveland, with a highlight reel broadcast shortly after on HBO.
COLD: Photographers Call BS on Killers
Last week we told you about how Queens of the Stone Age leader Josh Homme was suffering backlash after kicking a photographer during a radio festival appearance. Initially, after Brandon Flowers made a show of support for photographers during The Killers’ appearance at the fest the next night, the singer was hailed as a hero. But pro photographers weren’t having it, with several telling various press outlets that The Killers have for years been one of the few big acts that doesn’t allow anyone (even those from legit press outlets) to shoot shows from the pit, relying instead on photos taken by their own official photographers. Even the night Flowers declared photographers “safe and respected” at Killers shows, there was only one credentialed photographer working the pit, and he worked for Getty, a service that provides pics to a vast network of subscribers.
This article appears in Dec 13-20, 2017.