Hello everyone, a new message by ED BICKNELL.
This time is because something I did wrong here in AMIT, so this message from Ed is my fault and I take the blame of it.
When SOS compilation was released back in 1998, David Knopfler and his the wife Anna released on DK site some notes regarding issues with the DK royalties of that compilation in which they mentioned that Ed and MK were involved in that. I wongly took that as facts and I never checked if that was true or not further than what they put on their site, and in some old threads I refered to that information, sometimes directly without refer to the source. Ed read that posts and obviouly was pissed off by that, because IT WASN'T TRUE and wrote me.
Obviously I appologised about that mistake, for which I'm very ashamed and also I have to apologize to all forum members by providing false information to AMIT.
Dear Ed, again, I'm very sorry for this.
Also Ed talks about the way we talked about and we interacted with Chris Whitten. In that I had an important part because of a very stupid post by me regarding how Chris played Sultans. After he started to interact with us I apologized to him in a private message, but just in case he didn't read it at the time, CHRIS, I'M SO SORRY FOR BEING AN ASS WITH THAT STUPID AND IGNORANT COMMENT, you explained very well of what happened and clearly you didn't deserve such a comment.
I'm so ashamed about all of it than from this very moment, I'm putting me on stand by in this forum and thinking seriously about leaving, as this great forum deserves better than me.
ED BICKNELL'S MESSAGE:
This after-noon I was idly doodling thru the AMIT “ General Discussion ” pages as far back as they go and came upon several references to David Knopfler’s claims about him being “ cut out ” of royalties on the DS Best Of that came out in 1998 ( SOS).
When I read the first entry way back which contained several false statements by David and his then wife, plus the comments you made, I decided to let it go.
Not worth rehashing something so long ago, as in “ who cares”, it’s not as if many people are even reading his site.
But when I saw your comments on page 1 February 11 2020 which is way more recent, I thought I should drop you this note.
Firstly, how do you know about the minutiae of the band’s royalty arrangements and on what basis are you repeating what is essentially a libel against Mark and myself?
Where did you get this information and with whom did you fact check it or did you just take those statements as being 100% accurate and not bother?
A fan website is not a forum to make wild and legally unsupportable statements let alone ones which are ethically and morally bankrupt and really hurtful to those in the firing line.
David Knopfler received, and as far as I know continues to receive, his full royalty entitlement ie one quarter of Sultans and Lady Writer WHEREVER those tracks are used ( and everything he played on) , be they on the original albums, compilations, synchronisation licences, in movies, on TV commercials, in public toilets, anywhere, INCLUDING the “Money For Nothing “ Best Of and the SOS compilation.
Not ONCE in the entire time I worked with him did Mark ( or John ) ever ask me to “manipulate" any royalty entitlement for any musician ie the original four, and I would have refused if either had done so, not least because it would have breached the original inter band agreements they entered into in, I think, early 1978 ( a four way equal split including of advances ).
The idea is offensive, absurd and grossly insulting to all of us.
In any case, rule two of management ( self preservation being rule one) is "DO NOT HANDLE YOUR ARTIST’S MONEY” and I never did ( except touring up to 1986 via separate client’s accounts.)
That was done by Harris and Trotter their accountants since 1978, so THEY would have to have been party to what would essentially have been a fraud, presumably along with Mark and John’s lawyer.
That makes the allegations even more surreal.
In the 2022 post YOU ARE REPEATING the allegations along with the claim that David “ took legal actions ” which he did not.
In fact David benefited every time I renegotiated that original deal ( both with Phonogram and Warners) because unusually I improved the terms backwards as well as forwards, so the first and second albums WENT UP to the rate that the NEXT one would be.
I didn't need to include him in that after he left ( I wasn’t representing him) but it would have been churlish and mean spirited not to do so.
So his royalty rate more than quadrupled from the original deal which I didn’t do, to the one I left them with.
The same applies to Pick, with whom incidentally I have a warm and enduring friendship.
You are stating in a public forum that I was party to a conspiracy between Mark and myself to act dishonestly which neither of us would ever do, let alone involving a family member.
He and I may be many things but dishonest we are not.
Record companies account BY TRACK/SONG, not by album, so he would have received one quarter of the sales of Sultans on the first compilation and one quarter of Sultans and Lady Writer on the second.
When David’s alleged claim first arose I met with his then lawyer and accountant and invited them to audit the statements held by Harris and Trotter but pointed out David would have to pay for that ( as would any artist ).
As far as I know no audits took place and wouldn’t have produced anything ( excluding human error) even if they had.
Interestingly he had no complaints about the MFN compilation which had similar terms eg royalty rates, recoupment ( or not) of TV advertising if I remember correctly, which brings me to…..
David was the beneficiary of my negotiating NO recoupment of TV advertising costs in any territory eg UK, Australia, South Africa, France etc etc etc where TV was used.
That would normally have been 50% of the TV spend ( not in the USA where it wasn’t used ).
So literally hundreds of thousand of £ THEN (well over £1 million Worldwide I’m sure.)
Probably a unique arrangement at the time ( I’ve never heard of anyone else getting that. Obviously TV advertising is no longer used.
So contrary to what you are repeating, David HUGELY benefited from my efforts as was explained to him when this arose. Whether he understood I can’t say ( but he’s certainly not stupid ).
His royalty had roughly quadrupled for instance, so much for “ not seeing a penny ”.
I notice that you and quite a few others set yourselves up as having some inner knowledge of stuff you know NOTHING about , especially since you have no clue as to the context of most of what you pontificate about, like you have an “inside track” that set’s you/they above the other members.
Well you don’t.
Most of the time that doesn’t matter, it’s too trivial to even bother correcting, but you crossed a line here and I expect you to print this exactly as I have written it.
In future, think twice before you make wild and unsubstantiated allegations based on hearsay which demean and undermine someone else’s reputation.
I think I told you and your group very early on that you should NOT believe what you read on the internet about MK or DS. It is 90% rubbish, put there by people who know even less than you do for whatever motive, usually self aggrandisement, “ look what I know, I’m on the inside” kind of thing, where speculation morphs into fact.
The David Knopfler situation is complicated precisely BECAUSE he and Mark are brothers.
If he was just a guitarist spouting lies it would be different and would have been dealt with legally but with him we had to take a less confrontational approach, the essence of which was to ignore it.
The allegations were definitely not ironic and sarcastic and even though you are Spanish you know English well enough to recognise what was being said.
In this case you should have asked yourself “is this true” before repeating it just so that it fits in with your ignorant and mistaken theories about the relationship of the two of them, which many on the site seem to thrive on speculating about when you know diddly shit about it.
Before putting this out into what is a PUBLIC forum ( which could have been picked up by the press for instance) you should have asked yourself how can I check this and if I can’t should I be repeating remarks which are basically accusing Mark and Ed of theft, because IF I had manipulated his royalties ( and by the way I had no means of doing that technically ) where would that money have gone?
To Mark? To me? Really?
And also ask yourself ( as I had to), what’s the motive behind this from David’s point of view …that never crossed your mind did it?
Something to beat up his brother with perhaps?
Greed?
Or a genuine misunderstanding of how contracts and record company accounting works?
In the creative arts, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing and there is no better example than this mess.
Moving on.
You and your pals need to cease your uninformed criticisms which frequently drift into just being rude and toxic.
Some of the posts about Chris Whitten and the way they are written are just nasty, mean and mean spirited and I can tell you he is rightly upset about them as I would be.
Too many of your flock seem to think that they can second guess Sir Paul McCartney, The Waterboys, Mark Knopfler and the dozens of artists he’s worked with nearly all Division One.
The same goes for Pick and Terry, Chad and Ian.
Well FUCK them!
They are a bunch of ignorant, self-indulgent wankers who couldn’t survive behind a drum kit if they were plugged into the mains!
They are ALL great players with different styles.
End of subject.
You and many of the AMIT bunch need to take this on board .
It’s JUST pop music, and that’s ALL it is, and by definition that’s disposable, generational and for the most part mediocre.
Constructive criticism is fine but it’s not a vehicle to personally insult people. ….I saw a thing about me the other day ( I don't think it's on AMIT..can’t remember ) saying that I was drunk in the NHBs and can't play in time!
I don't drink and as for playing in time if it was good enough for Mark and the other guys, fuck it. I do not care ( that was pretty funny actually ).
In conclusion.
I do not take kindly to having my reputation rubbished and although Mark and I certainly have had our differences, I’m not going to stand by and have him falsely accused on the fan site dedicated to him!
Oh and by the way, you folks should get off discussing people’s private lives eg Mark’s girlfriends ..it’s none of your business, it’s intrusive idiotic gossip and it has nothing to do with the music.
That's it and that’s all ,
ED.
