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No, 1998
Smashing Pumpkins sever ties with management company
Rolling Stone Network
Q Prime spokeswoman Gayle
Fine confirmed the band's
departure, but offered no
comment. According to Jill Berliner, attorney for the
Smashing Pumpkins, the relationship between Q Prime
and the band had been "strained for some time," and that
"the band's vision differed with management's vision." The
Pumpkins joined Q Prime's all-star roster almost exactly
three years ago, on the eve of the release of Mellon Collie
and the Infinite Sadness. That double-CD quickly went
multiplatinum and dominated rock, and even pop, radio
for much of 1996, with hits such as "Tonight Tonight" and
"1979."
The Pumpkins' latest album, Adore, released six months
ago, has to be considered a commercial disappointment.
To date it has sold 840,000 copies, according to
SoundScan, making it the sixty-eighth best-selling album
of the year. In this week's Billboard, Adore drops from No.
148 to No.183.
Q Prime, run by Cliff Burnstein and Peter Mensch, is one of
the music industry's best-known and successful
management companies and counts on its current roster
Hole, Madonna (which Q-Prime co-manages), Metallica,
the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Def Leppard and Bruce
Hornsby. Recently, the company has expanded,
purchasing half of Volcano Records (home of Matthew
Sweet and Tool), and entered the amphitheater business.
Sources speculate that Pumpkin band members (and Billy
Corgan in particular) may have felt the band was not
getting enough attention from Q Prime.
As for where the band may land next, industry insiders are
pointing to the emerging, as yet unnamed,
management/record label company being formed by Gary
Gersh and John Silva. Gersh resigned as president of
Capitol Records last spring, and Silva has been
co-president of Gold Mountain management, where he's
worked with Beastie Boys, the Foo Fighters, Beck and
Sonic Youth. Silva is leaving Gold Mountain and taking his
all-star acts -- and possibly the Smashing Pumpkins, too
-- with him and teaming up with Gersh to form a new
entertainment company. (All of those acts, though, would
maintain their existing record label contracts.) Berliner
confirms the band is talking with Gersh and Silva, "among
others."
As for the band's next move career-wise, one major label
VP offers some unsolicited advice: "They need to go away
for a while -- just hide completely and not even let Billy
have his picture taken."
The Pumpkins apparently disagree. According to Berliner,
the band is expected to enter the studio soon, with a
release due out in '99.
A big Thank You goes to ATN,
imusic, MTV
News Online, and Rolling
Stone Online... the sources of most of the news posted here.
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