The more I read about the early days of house music, the more utterly depressing it gets. Paris Brightledge was conned out of the rightful credit for “It’s Alright”. Marshall Jefferson’s “Move Your Body” was actually a group effort. Adonis was never paid a penny by Trax Records. The list goes on…
And guess what? It wasn’t solely an American problem. There were British record labels who were just as dodgy as well – with the latest to reveal the truth being A Guy Called Gerald, real name Gerald Simpson.
In quite a lengthy Facebook post, he reveals that he’s never made a single penny out of tracks like “Voodoo Ray” and the Hot Lemonade EP. Both came out on Merseyside based Rham! Records, which went bankrupt in 1992 following the collapse of Red Rhino Distribution Limited.
Rham! Records was actually relaunched in 2019. It appears to be run by a guy called Barry John Lancaster Smith and has yet to file any account statements – whilst the label continues to trade on its history whilst disingenuously leaving out the fact they never paid at least one of their biggest artists at the time.
I always wondered about a song came out in 1996 called “The Curse Of Voodoo Ray”. Now I understand why…
[…] on the evening of Friday May 21st, I published this story after A Guy Called Gerald revealed on his Facebook page that he had never made a single penny from […]
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