Episodios

  • The Great American Payola $candal Part 1 | 20

    The Great American Payola $candal Part 1 | 20
    Jul 23 2024
    In a fair and just universe, we would live in a meritocracy…the best and most talented would naturally rise to the top and be properly recognized and compensated for their contributions to humanity…yeah, nice idea, but… We’d like to think that music operates this way…the best and the brightest naturally have their songs heard and become popular because, well, they’re good…these artists have hit records and are deservedly rewarded by the world with the fruits of their God-given natural abilities…again, lovely idea, but hopelessly naïve… The music business can be an ugly place…as Hunter S. Thompson allegedly once said, “The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs”…(I should also add that the quote ends with “there’s also a negative side”—but I think he made his point)… It’s a viciously competitive game…and the truth is that sheer talent is not enough to make it big…every potential hit song needs a powerful distribution and marketing system behind it, someone who will work the song by elbowing other artists out of the way… The goal is to get the song heard by any means necessary…once that is achieved, it’s push, push, push to make the song ubiquitous…the more people that are exposed to it, the greater the likelihood of a record being bought or a song being streamed…that’s when the money starts rolling in… But it doesn’t end there…once a song is an actual hit, there are ancillary opportunities for revenue…soundtracks…placement in TV shows…licensing for commercials…covers by other artists…the amount of money that can be made is staggering—and everyone along the way gets a taste… But none of that is possible unless the song is a hit...how can that happen with a perishable commodity in an environment where the end consumer—the music fan—is so fickle and unpredictable...how do you get millions of strangers to buy into a new piece of art?... The answer: you gotta grease the wheels, create some incentives, and make offers that people just can't refuse…this is where we enter the murky and illegal world of payola… I’m Alan Cross and this is “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry”… when it comes to payola, boy, do I have some stories for you. Show contact info: X (formerly Twitter): @AlanCross Website: curiouscast.ca Email: Alan@alancross.ca Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    44 m
  • Introducing... Dark Poutine | The Quakers and The Killers: The Murder of Peter Lazier

    Introducing... Dark Poutine | The Quakers and The Killers: The Murder of Peter Lazier
    Jul 16 2024
    Episode 294: On the evening of December 21, 1883, near Bloomfield, Ontario, visitor Peter Lazier was murdered by two intruders at the farmhouse of Quakers Gilbert and Margaret Jones. The community, deeply affected, quickly organized a search. They traced footprints in the snow, leading to Joseph Thomset and the Lowder family's homes near West Lake. By the next day, Joseph Thomset and brothers David and George Lowder were arrested and charged with murder. The legal process moved rapidly. The coroner's inquest began the next day, followed by formal proceedings within a week. The trial, held at the Prince Edward County Courthouse in Picton just five months later, suggested the motive was robbery, aimed at stealing the $555 Gilbert Jones earned from selling hops. George Lowder and Joseph Thomset were found guilty of murder and hanged in June of 1884. Many felt justice was served, but others believed the law got it wrong, acting hastily without sufficient evidence. Sources: Prince Edward County The Canadian Encyclopedia | Quakers The Lazier Murder: Prince Edward County, 1884 — Robert J. Sharpe The Kingston Whig-Standard 24 Dec 1883, page 2 Ottawa Daily Citizen 24 Dec 1883, page 1 Manitoba Weekly Free Press 15 May 1884, page 2 The Lazier murder trial of 1884 – did they get the right men? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 h y 4 m
  • The Mysterious Death of Brian Jones | 19

    The Mysterious Death of Brian Jones | 19
    Jul 9 2024
    In 1969, the Rolling Stones were about to enter their imperial phase, a time in their career where everything they did seemed to go right…they were on their way to being the biggest rock band in the world… In December 1968, they released “Beggar’s Banquet,” their biggest-selling album so far…work had started on “Let It Bleed,” another record that would become a classic…that would eventually be followed by “Sticky Fingers” in 1971, “exile on main street” in 1972, and half a dozen more albums that would cement their place in rock history… But let’s back up to 1969…things were not good within the band…in fact, they were terrible…hard drugs had been seeping into the group and founder Brian Jones was a mess… Not only was he unable to contribute to the group in any meaningful musical way, but his mood swings made him impossible to deal with…sometimes he wouldn’t show up to rehearsals—and when he did, he was useless… He neglected to look after the band’s communal car and it was towed away…jones crashed his motorcycle into a shop window and spent time in the hospital…and his drug convictions made it impossible for him to get a visa to tour the U.S… The Stones desperately needed to tour because some insanely large tax bills were due…they needed the month…something had to give… On June 8, 1969, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards told Brian Jones that he was fired from the band he created…he was no longer a rolling stone… Less than a month later, he was dead…was it a drug-related Rock’N’Roll misadventure?...did he accidentally drown in his swimming pool?...or was it something more evil… Ever since the news broke on July 3, 1969, that Brian Jones had died, there have been questions…it’s a very curious case—and some believe (including his family) that he may have been murdered…I’m Alan Cross and this is “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry,” episode 19…the mysterious death of Brian Jones… Show contact info: X (formerly Twitter): @AlanCross Website: curiouscast.ca Email: Alan@alancross.ca Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    41 m
  • Unscrupulous Managers | 18

    Unscrupulous Managers | 18
    Jun 26 2024
    If you’re an artist and things are working out well, there will come a time when you need a manager…you need someone to take care of the business end of things while you focus on the music…that’s when you need a manager… A manager does everything from booking gigs to devising career strategies… which includes promotion and marketing, networking, and conducting any negotiations on your behalf…and the manager is in charge of financial management…hold that thought… A manager is incentivized by your success…the usual fee is 15% of whatever you make…obviously, the more you make, the more the manager makes and everyone is happy, right?... The entire relationship is based on trust…you, as the artist, must believe that your manager always has your best interests in mind…and you must believe that your manager will never take advantage of you or rip you off…again, you trust your manager with your money… In the vast majority of artist-manager relationships, things are professional and legal…the best managers will take a bullet for their clients…some are even legendary for their skills, dedication, and loyalty to their artists… That includes Peter Grant, who did whatever he needed to do to protect Led Zeppelin and to extract maximum profit from record deals and concert tours… It includes Paul McGuinness, a veteran who took a very young U2 under his wing in 1978 and built them into the biggest band in the world… And then there’s Peter Mensch and Cliff Bernstein who have looked after Metallica, AC/DC, Smashing Pumpkins, the Chili Peppers, Muse, Def Leppard, Snow Patrol, and Cage the Elephant, among others… But it’s not always sunshine, chocolate, and unicorns…there are bad managers, too…and I’m not talking about general incompetence…I’m talking about people who steal, embezzle, and extort from the very people they’re supposed to protect and nurture… This is “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry,” episode 18…these are three of the worst, most unscrupulous, and most dishonest managers in rock…have I got some stories for you. Show contact info: X (formerly Twitter): @AlanCross Website: curiouscast.ca Email: Alan@alancross.ca Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    40 m
  • Introducing... Deadman's Curse Season 2

    Introducing... Deadman's Curse Season 2
    Jun 20 2024
    In 1931, a larger than life prospector, in search of Slumach’s legendary lost gold mine goes missing in the wilderness of British Columbia. In this episode, we retrace the epic search and rescue efforts that went into looking for the missing prospector as well potential clues left behind at his campsite, that point to an even bigger mystery of what happened to Volcanic Brown? Host: Kru Williams Guest: Adam Palmer Facebook - @HISTORYCanada Instagram - @deadmanscurse Instagram - @Historyca Instagram - @kru_williams Twitter - @HistoryTVCanada Curiouscast website: https://curiouscast.ca/ Great Pacific Media Website: https://greatpacifictv.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    23 m
  • Phil Spector and the death of Lana Clarkson | 17

    Phil Spector and the death of Lana Clarkson | 17
    Jun 11 2024
    Phil Spector was one of the most successful record producers and songwriters of the 1960s and 70s…he was a boy genius, a millionaire many times over by the time he was 21… He was the first to use the recording studio as an instrument…he called his recording style “wall of sound,” music that was densely layered and jumped out of am radio speakers like nothing else… His favourite collection of studio musicians—his house band—became known as “the wrecking crew” and is considered to be the best the music business has ever known…Spector was responsible for hit records for girl groups like The Crystals and The Ronnettes, creating some of the most iconic pop songs of the era… He produced other massive records for the Righteous Brothers and Ike & Tina Turner…later, he finished up the “Let It Be” album for The Beatles, produced “Imagine” for John Lennon, and a couple of projects for George Harrison… towards the end of the 70s, he guided The Ramones through their “End of the Century” album… Overall, he was behind had 18 top ten singles—one of the very few producers who had number one records in the 60s, 70s, and 80s… Spector was an early inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame…a member of the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame…nominee and winner of Grammy Awards…characters in movies have been based on him… So how did someone so successful and so respected end up convicted for the murder of a B-movie actress?... Show contact info: X (formerly Twitter): @AlanCross Website: curiouscast.ca Email: Alan@alancross.ca Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    39 m
  • The Radiohead Stage Collapse | 16

    The Radiohead Stage Collapse | 16
    May 28 2024
    The very last thing an artist or a promoter or owner of a venue wants is for someone to get hurt—or worse--at a concert…but it does happen… There are always stories about bad behaviour or unexpected crowd dynamics… Altamont in 1969, The Who crowd crush in 1979, Woodstock 99, the nine dead during Pearl Jam’s set at the Roskilde Festival in 2000, the deaths at the Astroworld Festival in 2021, and the Brixton Academy crowd crush in 2023 all come to mind… Those were security failures and problems with crowd control…but occasionally, there’s a different type of disaster, the kind that happens suddenly and without warning… When you go to a show, you expect that the building and everything in it will be safe, that all has been constructed to proper standards, and won’t present any kind of danger to anyone at the gig… The last thing you think about is the stage coming down on top of the performers, the crew, and the crowd… Saturday, June 12, 2012, at Downsview Park in Toronto was a clear, calm summer day. But just minutes before the grounds were to open for fans, thousands of pounds of equipment and scaffolding suddenly came crashing down…one person died and three people were injured… What happened?...and why did it take so long for justice to be served?...and while we’re at it, was justice served? I'm Alan Cross and this is “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem the Music Industry, episode 16”…the Radiohead stage collapse…have I got a story for you… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    35 m
  • Rock and Roll Predators | 15

    Rock and Roll Predators | 15
    May 14 2024
    There are monsters who walk among us, people who prey on the young and vulnerable…and they have always been out there and in all walks of life… John Wayne Gacy hired himself out as a clown for parties…it was later discovered that he raped, tortured, and murdered at least 33 boys and young men…26 bodies were found in the crawl space under his home near Chicago… Robert Anderson was the sports physician at the University of Michigan…he was accused of raping over a thousand men and women during routine medical exams… There are plenty of celebrities who are convicted sexual offenders…director Roman Polanski can’t come back to the u.s. because he’ll be arrested on rape charges over an encounter with a 13-year-old-girl back in the 70s… Jared Fogel, the subway guy…he was sentenced to 15 years in jail after being convicted of child porn and sex acts with minors…R. Kelly is in jail for 30 years on charges of sex trafficking, racketeering, and child sexual abuse… Woody Allen, Mike Tyson, Bill Cosby, Tupac, Michael Jackson—they’ve all been implicated and, in some cases, charged and convicted…and then there’s Jimmy Savile, the British DJ and media personality who, under the veneer of being philanthropic, may have been one of the most prolific predatory sex offenders in British history… There’s more, too…this is episode 15 of “Uncharted: crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry”…and I have three stories of evil predators from the world of rock… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    35 m