A Guy Called Gerald Legal Fund

Thank you for joining me here. It’s great to be able to finally talk to you directly, with a clear, straight-up objective : to fight back.

With your help, we can officially commence legal proceedings against the people who have profited from my art and exploited what I had to offer to the emerging dance music scene. 

It’s long overdue but to be successful I need your help.

So what happened?

I produced ‘Voodoo Ray’ and the album ‘Hot Lemonade’ way back in 1988. They were released on Rham! Records - a label out of Merseyside, Liverpool. 'Voodoo Ray' was the biggest selling single of 1988. 

As ‘Voodoo Ray’ raced to No.12 in the charts, I had to live in a squat, work at McDonalds and give interviews out of phone boxes. Yet the guys running the label, selling my music, never paid me a single penny for my part in the label’s success. 

Can you imagine the frustration? Acid House’s Summer of Love was in full swing and all I could think about was survival, while these guys spent the next four years exploiting my music. 

They ditched the label in 1992 and the rights in my recordings reverted to me, since there was only ever a verbal agreement. 

What now?

Everything went quiet until 2019, then another nightmare began. The former assistant to the original owner registered a new company called 'Rham Records', but there is no agreement between me and this company, verbal or otherwise. 

The dance music scene is huge now, and there are royalties and Spotify fees and all manner of digital rights fees to be made, again from my art, my work. If cashing in on my music once wasn't enough, this guy is callously making deals with music distribution companies, collecting my royalties, and using my name and likeness without my permission. 

It’s time to end this. My work is blatantly being taken advantage of, again, and I’m reaching out to you, asking for your help to stop this crook who is stealing from me. 

This company doesn’t have the right to profit from my music. 

While I now have everything that I need to mount a legal challenge, I need your help to cover the legal fees. It looks like it’s going to take about £20,000 to turn this around. 

What’s in this for you?

What I can offer you is my art, my music, and some of the rewards will include exclusive, previously unreleased recordings - old and new. 

If anybody can help out, anything you can contribute would be appreciated. 

Peace

A Guy Called Gerald

Breaking Beats Since 1988
guycalledgerald.com

----------------------------------

30 Tracks That Shaped Dance Music - BBC6 Music

We take a closer look at 30 essential tracks that have shaped dance music from '88 onwards....

A Guy Called Gerald - Voodoo Ray (1988)

How it changed dance music:
With the Second Summer of Love in full swing, a record came along in 1988 that soundtracked the era-defining times; A Guy Called Gerald's Voodoo Ray.

The Moss Side DJ's hit was ever-present at the now-iconic Haçienda club and gave the city a classic. It was so huge that the song, which sampled Peter Cook and Dudley Moore and was recorded over the course of just two days, only took a single day to sell out its initial run of 500 copies.

Voodoo Ray wasn’t just big in the Madchester scene either - across the UK the track’s thumping bassline and transfixing melody got clubbers moving, marking possibly the first acid house mega-hit.

Who it influenced:
A Guy Called Gerald's classic was ubiquitous in the late-80s, inspiring everyone from Leftfield and Orbital to Happy Mondays and Sasha, who told Clash magazine: "It was the record at the Haçienda, it was one of those defining records. There were a few records that really defined that 88 to 90 period and they were really hard to get hold of and I remember just craving those records so much that when I finally got hold of them, I wore them out.”

----------------------------------

Massive Tunes: A Guy Called Gerald "Voodoo Ray" - Ministry Of Sound

Instantly recognisable as one of the greatest dance tracks of all time, "Voodoo Ray" was probably the UK's biggest contribution to the acid house catalogue.... read more

----------------------------------

Game Changers : Voodoo Ray - DJ Mag

Seminal Tracks that altered dance forever...
It's one of the most iconic acid house records of all-time, but did you know that the amazing 'Voodoo Ray' by A Guy Called Gerald samples a couple of controversial British comedians? read more

----------------------------------

21 Records That Changed The World Forever: A Guy Called Gerald - Voodoo Ray - Mixmag

Responsible for: Soundtracking the Haçienda and becoming the UK's best acid hit.

"VOODOO RAY WAS a brand new voice for music in the UK," says the Stone Roses' Ian Brown. We couldn't have said it better ourselves. read more

----------------------------------

----------------------------------

----------------------------------