Mothers of Prevention

[snipped from Zappa Forum]

A friend of a friend of mine works at the Crystal Ballroom (in Portland).
Here's what he said:

Gail Zappa and Lawyers shut down the show and we had to cancel them. They
threatened us with a lawsuit up to $100,000.00 so we had to cancel.
Apparently she does this to them a lot. She hates Ike Willis. WOW!


Craig replies:

Thanks so much for the information. Every little bit helps me get a better
picture of what happened the other night in Portland to cause the
cancellation.

However, I still have some questions (posed to everyone, not just Travis).

1. What is the legal reason cited for the Zappa Family Trust's threatened
"lawsuit up to $100,000.00"? It's my understanding that venues are required
to pay blanket fees for licenses to ASCAP/BMI to allow any band that
performs at the venue to play any songs in those publishing catalogs. (I
realize I don't know all the intricacies of these ASCAP licenses.) I assume
that a reputable venue like McMenamins Crystal Ballroom/Lola's in Portland
would have paid these fees, leaving me to wonder what reason the ZFT could
be citing for the lawsuit they threatened. Zappa and a huge list of his
songs are listed on the ASCAP web site as part of the ASCAP group, so I
assume a venue's general ASCAP license would cover the live performance of
Zappa songs in that venue.

2. I have heard that Project Object has successfully played other shows
around the USA on their current tour, including two nights at a venue in
Seattle, Washington, just a couple of days prior to the Portland show that
was canceled. What did that venue do differently in response to the ZFT
threats of lawsuits? Is that Seattle venue being sued as we speak for
daring to allow Project Object to perform? Or did the Seattle venue call
the ZFT's bluff, recognizing the lawsuit threats had no merit?


I'd like to get to the bottom of this. I was also looking forward to
attending that Portland show. I've never seen Project Object before. I was
excited about the opportunity to see Zappa's music performed live. I'm
deeply saddened that the ZFT would be so aggressive in their efforts to keep
people from hearing Zappa's music. Who knows how many people who've heard
about Zappa but never bought his albums might have attended that Portland
show, heard the renditions of Zappa's music, and been inspired to head to
the music stores and start buying the 70+ CDs of music by Zappa?


(The ultra-cynic in me is reminded that the ZFT has been quoted as being
unhappy with the fact that Rykodisc still has distribution rights for the
Zappa catalog. Is this a roundabout way of ZFT driving down interest in
Zappa's music until Rykodisc decides Zappa's catalog isn't worth
distributing anymore, allowing ZFT to regain distribution rights?)


Thanks,
Craig in Portland.