Chrissie Hynde - Talk of the town
Monday, July 6, 2009
Album Cover Artist Tom Wilkes Dies Unexpectedly at Home in California
Award winning artist and designer Tom Wilkes died unexpectedly on Sunday, June 28 at his home in Pioneertown, CA at the age of 69. Wilkes was the art director of the Monterey International Pop Festival in 1967. He designed many classic album covers like Rolling Stones' "Beggars Banquet" and Neil Young's "Harvest." He was awarded a Grammy in 1974 for Best Recording Package for "Tommy" as performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and Choir.
Pioneertown, CA (Billboard Publicity Wire/PRWEB ) July 5, 2009 -- Renowned album cover artist and designer Tom Wilkes died unexpectedly on Sunday, June 28, at his home in Pioneertown, California. He was 69.
Thomas E. Wilkes was born July 30, 1939 in Long Beach, California and was raised in southern California. He attended Long Beach City College, UCLA and the Art Center College of Design in the 1950's and 1960's.
In 1967 Wilkes was the art director of the Monterey International Pop Festival. He created all graphics and printed materials for Monterey Pop, including the program book and the festival's psychedelic and iconic foil poster.
From 1967 through 1969, Wilkes was the art director of A&M Records. He was partner with Barry Feinstein from 1970 through 1973 in Camouflage Productions, which became record label Blue Thumb's house art department.
He was partner in Wilkes & Braun, Inc. from 1973 through 1974, and art director of ABC Records from 1975 through 1977. In 1978 he started Tom Wilkes Productions and became President of Project Interspeak, a not-for-profit environmental and human rights organization devoted to planetary enhancement programs.
Wilkes designed and directed such hit record covers as Rolling Stones' "Flowers" and "Beggars Banquet", Neil Young's "Harvest", and George Harrison's "Concert for Bangladesh" and "All Things Must Pass."
He received a Grammy Award in 1974 for Best Recording Package for The Who's rock opera "Tommy," as performed by the London Symphony Orchestra & Choir.
Among his many album cover credits:
Janis Joplin - "Pearl"
Ike & Tina Turner - "Outta Season"
Eric Clapton - "Eric Clapton"
Dave Mason - "Alone Together"
Joe Cocker - "Mad Dogs & Englishmen"
Flying Burrito Brothers - "Gilded Palace of Sin"
John Prine - "John Prine"
Emmylou Harris - "Blue Kentucky Girl" and "Elite Hotel"
Leon Russell - "Stop All That Jazz"
REO Speedwagon - "You Can Tune a Piano, But You Can't Tuna Fish"
In addition to creating hundreds of posters, logos, books, trade ads and illustrations, Wilkes produced and directed TV and radio spots, music videos, films, mixed media presentations and special events.
He recently completed a book of his artwork and memoirs, called "Tommy Geeked a Chicken," and was negotiating publishing arrangements. At this time, plans are being made to proceed with publication of the book.
A memorial service will be held for Wilkes on Saturday, July 11th, in Orange, CA.
Read More about Tom Wilkes
Contact:
Carey Hays, Marketing Manager
The Allan Hays Company, LLC
405 S. Walnut, Suite 206, Muncie IN 47305
Cell: 765-760-3187 Main Office: 1-800-284-8745
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Former Beatles/Rolling Stones Manager Allen Klein Passes at 77
Allen Klein, the powerful and controversial manager and record label owner, passed away on Saturday in New York at age 77. He had been fighting Alzheimer's disease.
Klein began his career in the late-50's and quickly became known as the "go to" guy when an artist wanted to get tough with a record company. He extracted $100,000 from Atco Records for Bobby Darin in unpaid royalties and helped Sam Cooke dissolve existing contracts and start his own Tracey Records, regain ownership of his songs and receive payment of back royalties.
In 1965, Klein became co-manager of the Rolling Stones, a position that initially drew great praise; however, by the end of the decade, Mick Jaggar suspected some of Klein's business practices and ended up firing him. Klein sued with the result being that the Stones gave up the rights to most of their pre-1971 recordings to Klein.
Klein, ever the savvy business owner, formed ABKCO Industries in 1968 when he purchased the catalog of Cameo-Parkway, putting his company in charge of the recorded output of artists like Chubby Checker, the Animals, Herman's Hermits, Bobby Rydell and many others. Later in his career, he also acquired the back catalog of Phil Spector's Philles Records, giving them the output of artists like the Righteous Brothers, the Crystals and the Ronettes.
During one of his last sessions with the Stones, Rock and Roll Circus, Klein met John Lennon. The Beatles had not had a manager since the 1967 death of Brian Epstein and their Apple Industries was in a bit of disarray as was the group who fought over business decisions. Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr agreed to let Klein take over business matters while Paul McCartney abstained from signing any contracts.
Klein negotiated a new royalty rate with EMI, allowed them to release a Beatles compilation album and was responsible for the release of Something/Come Together as a way to stave off looming financial disaster. He also arranged for Phil Spector to come in and save the Get Back sessions, which eventually became the group's last album, Let It Be.
Upon the split of the Beatles, McCartney chose to sue the rest of the group for a "divorce," breaking up the group as a business entity. He later stated that he did so to keep Klein's hands off their legacy.
Klein went on to work with both Lennon and Harrison on their early solo efforts, but a number of misjudgments around the Concert for Bangladesh led to both artists breaking off their relationship with him. At one particularly contentious moment, Harrison came up against Klein during the My Sweet Lord plagiarism lawsuit. Klein advised Harrison during the first part of the proceedings, but then bought Bright Tunes and obtained ownership of He's So Fine, basically putting him on both sides of the case. The maneuver backfired against Klein and Harrison eventually ended up owning both songs.
Later in his career, Klein got into producing films but had one last major lawsuit against the British group The Verve who had sampled part of the Rolling Stones' The Last Time in their song Bittersweet Symphony. Even though their had been a contract before the recording of the song, Klein sued the group and received 100% of the royalties after saying that too much had been sampled. He turned around and licensed Bittersweet Symphony to Nike for use in their advertisements and changed the writers of the song to Mick Jaggar and Keith Richards.
SOURCE: http://winkscollectibles.blogspot.com/
Klein began his career in the late-50's and quickly became known as the "go to" guy when an artist wanted to get tough with a record company. He extracted $100,000 from Atco Records for Bobby Darin in unpaid royalties and helped Sam Cooke dissolve existing contracts and start his own Tracey Records, regain ownership of his songs and receive payment of back royalties.
In 1965, Klein became co-manager of the Rolling Stones, a position that initially drew great praise; however, by the end of the decade, Mick Jaggar suspected some of Klein's business practices and ended up firing him. Klein sued with the result being that the Stones gave up the rights to most of their pre-1971 recordings to Klein.
Klein, ever the savvy business owner, formed ABKCO Industries in 1968 when he purchased the catalog of Cameo-Parkway, putting his company in charge of the recorded output of artists like Chubby Checker, the Animals, Herman's Hermits, Bobby Rydell and many others. Later in his career, he also acquired the back catalog of Phil Spector's Philles Records, giving them the output of artists like the Righteous Brothers, the Crystals and the Ronettes.
During one of his last sessions with the Stones, Rock and Roll Circus, Klein met John Lennon. The Beatles had not had a manager since the 1967 death of Brian Epstein and their Apple Industries was in a bit of disarray as was the group who fought over business decisions. Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr agreed to let Klein take over business matters while Paul McCartney abstained from signing any contracts.
Klein negotiated a new royalty rate with EMI, allowed them to release a Beatles compilation album and was responsible for the release of Something/Come Together as a way to stave off looming financial disaster. He also arranged for Phil Spector to come in and save the Get Back sessions, which eventually became the group's last album, Let It Be.
Upon the split of the Beatles, McCartney chose to sue the rest of the group for a "divorce," breaking up the group as a business entity. He later stated that he did so to keep Klein's hands off their legacy.
Klein went on to work with both Lennon and Harrison on their early solo efforts, but a number of misjudgments around the Concert for Bangladesh led to both artists breaking off their relationship with him. At one particularly contentious moment, Harrison came up against Klein during the My Sweet Lord plagiarism lawsuit. Klein advised Harrison during the first part of the proceedings, but then bought Bright Tunes and obtained ownership of He's So Fine, basically putting him on both sides of the case. The maneuver backfired against Klein and Harrison eventually ended up owning both songs.
Later in his career, Klein got into producing films but had one last major lawsuit against the British group The Verve who had sampled part of the Rolling Stones' The Last Time in their song Bittersweet Symphony. Even though their had been a contract before the recording of the song, Klein sued the group and received 100% of the royalties after saying that too much had been sampled. He turned around and licensed Bittersweet Symphony to Nike for use in their advertisements and changed the writers of the song to Mick Jaggar and Keith Richards.
SOURCE: http://winkscollectibles.blogspot.com/