Section A · Page 12
The University Daily Kansan
Tuesday, September 26, 2000
Bootleggers get backlash with Pearl Jam CDs
The associated Press
NEW YORK — Pearl Jam fans will have their loyalty tested today. The rock band isn't just releasing a new album — it's putting out 25 of them.
In an unprecedented attempt to beat bootleggers at their own game, the Seattle-based band is selling live two-CD sets recorded at more than two dozen concerts during a European tour earlier this summer.
Each album carries a suggested retail price of $16.98.
"We just thought it was pretty cool," said guitarist Mike McCready. "If fans have to buy bootlegs, it can cost them $50. We wanted to do something that was cheaper."
No one can remember one act flooding the marketplace with so much music at the same time. Even Pearl Jam admits it's not for everyone.
Most musical acts don't vary their set lists much from city to city, making such a project redundant. But like Phish or Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam prides itself on being unpredictable in concert. Each show contains about two dozen songs; Pearl Jam played more than 80 different songs during the European tour.
Sony, the band's record company, had to be convinced to go along, band manager Kelly Curtis said. Pearl Jam records all of its shows, so the biggest expense already was taken care of. he said.
Virtually every Pearl Jam concert is made available on disc by bootleggers, he said. Curtis knows, because the band has collected most of them.
The musicians considered releasing a compilation of the best live recordings from those discs. After all, what were the bootleggers going to do — sue Pearl Jam for stealing their unauthorized recordings of the band's music?
Curtis said Pearl Jam took its
own approach when they realized there wasn't enough well-recorded material for a full album.
"We're not trying to talk people who usually don't buy this stuff into buying it," he said. "It's more for the people who buy it already. We really didn't have any idea of how many people that is. We still don't."
Pearl Jam released no music from the June 30 concert in Roskilde, Denmark, where nine fans were trampled to death and three were seriously injured.
Curtis has run into some trouble among record retailers annoyed with having to stock 25 discs at the same time. Some retail chains are ignoring the release, and others are carrying only a handful of them, guessing at what may be the most popular, he said.
For a few weeks, the discs have been available through the band's Web site, selling at $10.98 each for fan-club members and $12.98 for others. More than 50,000 discs have been sold, Curtis said.
"No one even talked about it because they thought it would be a stupid idea." Curtis said.
For fans who aren't able to buy all 25 CDs, does McCready have any recommendations of shows he remembers going particularly well? He mentions disc No. 16, from Poland, disc No. 10 from Paris, and either of the two shows from London (Nos. 4 and 5).
"There are some really fantastic shows and some OK ones," McCready said. "But there aren't any real bad ones."
McCready doesn't worry much about the PearlJam bootleggers. His music collection contains about 100 bootlegs of favorite bands like the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin.
"I think people that buy the bootlegs buy the records anyway," he said. "I was that way. It's just another thing about the band, so I don't really care if they're making money."
Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet
Crossword
ACROSS
1 Brag
6 Three Wise Men
10 Singer Domino
14 Change
15 Dershowitz or Greenspan
16 Luxurious
17 Leftovers
19 Curved molding
20 Goneril's father
21 Conceal
23 Unable to tell one pitch from another
27 Eager desire
28 Gardener, at times
29 Hero or hoagie
31 Donkeys
32 Paris-based intl. org.
35 Perch
37 Pop
38 Kindle anew
40 Hwy
43 Piece of bric-a-brac
44 Recollection
46 Works hard
49 Lead balloon
51 Cupid
52 Satellites' paths
54 Divide
5 Loaded
58 Enticement
60 Car tooter
61 Boneless cuts of meat
67 Landed
67 Name's 1st letter
68 Boredom
69 Assam and peeko
70 "Auld Lang ___
71 Weight-loss schemes
DOWN
1 Saloon
2 Bulling cheer
3 Cash dispenser's letters
4 Tape, glue, etc.
5 Made an effort
6 Indian fabric
7 Pub brew
9/28/00
© 2000 Tribuna Media Services, Inc.
All rights reserved
Solutions to Monday's crossword
8 Long-hose leean
9 Map within a map
10 Corsage provider
11 Boring tools
12 African fly
13 Paper of paper
14 Highland negative
22 Pure
23 Dull sound
24 O'Neill's daughter
25 Requirement
26 Extremely angry
27 Cranberry mileau
28 Gruff
29 "___ the ramparts..."
30 Resistance unit
31 Cover
32 Capital of Italy
34 Jogger's gait
35 Bronte's "Jane"
36 Customers
45 Gin cocktail
46 Astaire film
47 Baltimore player
48 Portugal's peninsula
50 Discuss
53 Big rigs
55 Chum
56 Felt ill
58 Repudiate
58 Loud noise
63 Small bill
64 Fanatic
64 Bro's sibling
Hard Rock to showcase live music
The Associated Press
ORLANDO, Fla. — The Hard Rock Cafe made its name with guitars, gold albums and other music memorabilia safely preserved behind display-case glass.
Now, after a decade of falling merchandise sales and the implosion of the theme-restaurant industry, the granddaddy of theme restaurants hopes to bring in new business by taking the music down from the wall and putting it on stage.
Approaching its 300th birthday, Hard Rock Cafe International is planning a new emphasis on live music in its 103 restaurants worldwide.
Hours will extend for the night performances. And the 55 restaurants actually owned by the chain will be redesigned or relocated to create space for live performances. The remaining restaurants are franchises.
"After 9 or 10 o'clock, we were typically shutting down," said Christopher Tomasso, senior director of marketing and productions at the Orlando-based
ON THE NET
www.hardrock.com.
www.rank.com.
company. "Now we're going to get cranking up."
Many of the Hard Rock's theme-restaurant competitors have disappeared or are struggling in a shake-out that began in the mid-1990s.
Unlike other theme restaurants, such as Planet Hollywood, the Hard Rock has been growing at a steady pace during the past decade and is making money.
But merchandise sales, which account for almost half of the company's revenue, have been declining.
The first Hard Rock restaurant opened in London in 1971. Its first rock memorabilia came from Eric Clapton, a regular customer, who asked if he could hang a guitar on the wall to mark his favorite bar stool.
The Who's Pete Townsend donated a guitar a week later.
The company now has a rock memorabilia collection valued at $32 million.
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