Noms de plume

[Tab]

Can anybody remind me just why the Shadows had to write under another name as in FBI and Shotgun?

Apart from these two tracks, were there others?

Thanks,

Terry

[BrianD]

TAX

I am pretty sure

Brian

[captainhaddock]

Gonzales is another title that springs to mind. It is credited to "Robyn McGlynn" but was written by Hank, Bruce and Jet.

[JimN]

TAX

I am pretty sure

Brian

Not tax. The tax would be payable whether the royalties came to them under their real names or under pseudonyms and any subterfuge designed to aid in evading tax liability would be part of a criminal offence.

The reason, as I understand it, was contracts. The Shadows wanted to publish their own compositions (and perhaps those of others) through their own new publishing company, Shadows Music (handled on management basis by Belinda Music). The trouble was that one or more of the group were still contracted to have their compositions published by another company. Routing FBI via Peter Gormley (who would have to pay tax on the royalties) meant that a Marvin/Welch/Harris tune could be published by the new company. The same thing was done in a slightly different way for Gonzales and Shotgun. The previous contract must have had a relatively short time to run, because Back Home - the B-side of the next single after FBI (The Frightened City) - was credited to the whole group plus (Peter?) Goff.

The fact that Midnight (the B-side of FBI) was openly credited to Marvin/Welch would lead me to suspect that the member with the contract problem was Jet...

JN

[George Geddes]

Jim

I think it was Jim Goff... Otherwise, a good summation of the situation, I'd guess.

George