Former bandmates J Spaceman and Sonic Boom have re-teamed to ask fans of Spacemen 3 not to buy any of that group’s three Record Store Day vinyl releases in the U.K. this Saturday, saying they’re in a dispute with their former manager, and that “any monies from those sales will go directly to him and help fund his side of the dispute.”
The message to fans is posted on the Facebook page for Spiritualized, the current band of Jason “J Spaceman” Pierce, and is credited to both J Spaceman and Sonic Boom, aka Pete Kember.
The two are asking fans “not to buy the Spacemen 3 releases and any merchandise that are being offered for sale on Record Store Day” via Gerald Palmer’s Space Age Recordings, with which the two former Spacemen 3 members say they are in an ongoing legal dispute. Palmer is the group’s onetime manager, and was Pierce’s and Kember’s business partner in Spacemen 3.
Space Age has three titles by the psych-rockers set for vinyl release Saturday in the U.K. for Record Store Day (they are not on the U.S. list): For All the Fucked Up Children, Recurring and Playing with Fire.
Read the full Spacemen 3 statement below :
PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS
- Spiritualized’s ‘Fucked Up Inside’ live album to be reissued on 180-gram vinyl
- Spacemen 3’s full catalog to be reissued by Fire Records on 180-gram, colored vinyl
- Video: Spacemen 3 reunites with MBV’s Kevin Shields filling in for absent Jason Pierce
Bit of a blow for the shops that have already bought in the records, surely?
Aye, there’s the rub. These are non-refundable items (as is standared with RSD releases). As such, the money has already been made. They now exist as inventory at indie stores who have spent a giant chunk of their yearly budget on this RSD fiasco, and to not buy them actually punishes the stores who are already struggling – it doesn’t punish Space Age Recordings one bit as their purse has already been filled.
Sad all around.