Found this article on Fox News. Let's hope Sting doesn't read it, LOL
KIM
Clash Won't Play Rock Hall of Shame Dinner
The bloated, self-important, self-invented Rock and Roll Hall of Fame holds
its annual blowout a week from tonight.
The group claims $10 million in assets and pays its director a six-figure
salary. But it gives a pittance to indigent musicians and doesn't pay sidemen
who play at its annual dinner/concert despite selling the rights to VH1 for
millions.
How anyone can take this thing seriously is beyond me. How former
establishment-bashers Elvis Costello, the Clash and Sting can get up on the
stage in the Waldorf ballroom and accept these awards is perplexing.
Now it turns out the Clash, who recently lost founding member Joe Strummer to
a heart attack, won't perform at all in any incarnation.
Hallelujah!
Bass player Paul Simonon told the wire services over the weekend: "I think
it's better for the Clash to play in front of their public, rather than a
seated and booted audience." Simonon also cited the $1,500 ticket to the
Waldorf bash as a reason not to go.
My faith in the Clash has been restored. Now if only Elvis Costello and Sting
-- two men who pride themselves on being principled -- will come to their
senses.
The big question looming now for next Monday night: With the business in such
turmoil, record sales down and Sony laying off hundreds in the next couple of
weeks, will the record companies still come through with their $25,000 tables
at the Waldorf for a decidedly uncharitable charity?
This is an especially hot issue right now because the TJ Martell Foundation,
the record business' real charitable arm, will be having its own fund-raiser
June 2 (in honor of MTV's deserving Judy McGrath).
As I've reported before, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation raises no
money for the Rock Museum in Cleveland. The foundation also gives little to
no funds to indigent musicians. And the only musicians who qualify for funds
are ones who've already been inducted, according to the highly paid director,
Suzan Evans Hochberg.
That means that if Paul McCartney or the Eagles need their medical bills
paid, they can come to the Hall of Fame Foundation. Michael Jackson, too, and
at the rate he's spending money he may need them. I do wonder if the less
billionaire-like inductees from past years have ever tried to get their hands
on Evans' loot. The foundation keeps a $10 million war chest, by the way,
with almost all of it invested in stocks, bonds and government securities. It
keeps about $1.5 million on hand for emergencies.
More tomorrow on who gets into the Hall of Shame, and where the money goes.
