Published
Thu, Dec 14, 2023, 09:45
- The claims concern a 1996 album by UK band Emperor's New Clothes that Jackson produced.
Trevor Jackson has gone public with a dispute involving Acid Jazz Records and UK band Emperor's New Clothes.
Jackson made the allegations—which centre around Surreal Estate, an album he produced for the band in 1996—on X (FKA Twitter) earlier this week. According to the post, Acid Jazz U-turned on its decision to release the album, and also refused to pay the band for their efforts.
"The label's director Eddie Piller didn't get it," Jackson wrote. "It went well over his head and he proudly washed his hands of the whole thing, demeaning me and all the individuals involved in the project in the process."
The album remained unreleased for more than 20 years until Jackson decided to upload it to his SoundCloud page in 2019. "It immediately had a great response," he said. "We felt vindicated."
According to Jackson, another label then approached the band last year with a view to releasing a small vinyl run of the album. They agreed terms and pushed on with manufacturing, only for Acid Jazz to finally release the album digitally in June. "They didn't inform [founding member] Luke [Hannam] nor myself that the album was being released, and unbelievably Luke along with other pivotal members of the band weren't credited anywhere on the release."
Jackson also raised doubts as to whether the label still legally owns the album recordings. "Acid Jazz are cowboys," he continued. "Always have been."
But speaking to Resident Advisor, Acid Jazz general manager Dean Rudland rejected Jackson's sequence of events. "This album was recorded by the band for Acid Jazz in 1997 and Trevor as producer was responsible for delivering a finished album, which he never did," said Rudland.
"Last year, he and Luke approached [Emperor's New Clothes band member] Andy Knight, who had legally become the band when they split up, to release a version of the album. Andy told us he wanted it released correctly on Acid Jazz using what he considered to be the correct mixes. We did this for him. Trevor's allegations strangely never once made reference to Andy Knight and his rights, but deals with the album as if he was the artist and that he is more important in its creation than a founder member of the band."
When RA put Rudland's response to Jackson, he said it was a "completely false narrative" that he failed to deliver the album. He said he presented the album to Piller in person at Acid Jazz's head office, only for Piller to reject it and refuse to follow through with its release.
Jackson also dismissed the idea that Knight has "legally become the band" since it split up, and claims that Acid Jazz has repeatedly ignored his requests to prove this. "The whole episode has been heartbreaking and exhausting," he added. "Luke and I care a lot about this album. It might not be important to the label but it's massively important to us. We simply want as many people to hear it as possible."
Read Jackson's original statement in full, and listen to Surreal Estate.
We'll continue to report on this story as it unfolds.
Update, December 14th: This article was updated to include Trevor Jackson's response to Dean Rudland.
Correction, December 14th: An earlier version of this article claimed that Surreal Estate was recorded in 1997.
Photo: Louis Lacroix