Nine Inch Nails and other big names recently were reported to have suffered terrible losses of master tapes in the 2008 Universal Music fire, and now other big names like Weezer have come out.
Weezer, Temple of the Dog, Audioslave, Blink-182, The Who, Limp Bizkit, The Police, Dolly Parton, Iggy Pop, Beck, Common, Sonic Youth, Primus, Boston, Cher, Sublime, The Wallflowers, The Damned, Bell Biv Devoe, Chaka Khan, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Cat Stevens, and even late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The previous names reported were Nine Inch Nails, Soundgarden, Nirvana, Hole, Guns N’ Roses, R.E.M., Buddy Holly, John Coltrane, Etta James, Al Green, Ray Charles, Elton John, B.B. King, The Four Tops, Snoop Dogg, Chuck Berry, Tom Petty, Joan Baez, Neil Diamond, Cat Stevens, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Eric Clapton, and more.
It took 11 years until a new New York Times article revealed the full list of artists that lost major master recordings in the fires.
The fire moved quickly. It engulfed the backlot’s famous New York City streetscape. It burned two sides of Courthouse Square, a set featured in “Back to the Future.” It spread south to a cavernous shed housing the King Kong Encounter, an animatronic attraction for theme-park visitors. Hundreds of firefighters responded, including Universal Studios’ on-site brigade. But the fire crews were hindered by low water pressure and damaged sprinkler systems and by intense radiant heat gusting between combustible structures.
Courtney Love has announced that Soundgarden are part of a class action lawsuit (on behalf of the late Chris Cornell), along with Hole and the estate of Tom Petty, against Universal Music Group. Love made surprising comments after the death of Chris Cornell. The lawsuit appears to allege the iconic musicians have been ripped off financially.
The lawsuit is seeking $100 million and has been filed in Los Angeles, claiming the artists are owed 50% of an additional insurance settlement that Universal got after the master tapes for numerous artists were lost in a 2008 fire. King, Holmes, Paterno & Soriano, McPherson LLP and Susman Godfrey jointly filed the lawsuit.
“Yet, even as it kept plaintiffs in the dark and misrepresented the extent of the losses, UMG successfully pursued litigation and insurance claims it was recently reported to have valued at $150 million to recoup the value of the master records.”
