Episodes

  • Concert Terrorism: The Bataclan massacre and the Manchester Arena bombing | 24

    Concert Terrorism: The Bataclan massacre and the Manchester Arena bombing | 24
    Sep 17 2024
    You would think that going to a concert would be a safe thing for everyone…first, you have thousands of like-minded people looking to have a good time…no one sets out to ruin the evening for everyone else…you paid good money for your tickets and you’ve waited a long time for this night to come. Second, there’s security everywhere…the last thing an artist, a promoter, or a venue wants is there to be some kind of trouble where someone gets hurt—or worse. For 99.999% of all concerts, things run smoothly…yeah, someone might get a little drunk or stoned and cause trouble…maybe a fight breaks out because someone got pushed…but generally, these common issues are dealt with quickly and without any serious repercussions. In other words, concerts (for the most part) are safe spaces…except when they’re not…concerts easy pickings for anyone who wants to cause carnage…they are mass gatherings—and such concentrations of unsuspecting people are easy soft targets for people determined to cause injury and death. If you look at things on a global scale, concerts are more often the target of terrorism than you may realize… the global terrorism database did a study of attacks on concerts and festivals going back to 1970…they found 146 examples. Most targets were religious festivals with 54…but in second place were concerts with 29…the most common type of attack was bombing followed by assaults, which included firearms…most victims were on-site when it happened. Between 1970 and 2019, 244 people were killed at concerts and festivals and 1,656 were injured…those numbers have gone up substantially since that study concluded…they do not, for example, include the deaths and casualties in the Hamas attack on the Supernova Festival in Israel on October 7, 2023…at least 346 people died that day. And if it seems that there have been more terrorist attacks on concerts and festivals, you’re not imagining things…there was a spike starting in 2015 that continued until the COVID lockdown in 2020. I have details on two terrorist attacks that happened during that period…the first was on a seemingly normal Friday night in Paris…the other was late on a Monday evening when everyone was going home. I’m speaking of the Bataclan massacre and the Manchester Arena bombing…this is episode 24 of “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry”…and boy, have I got some stories for you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    41 mins
  • Beware the Help: People Who Betrayed Rock Stars | 23

    Beware the Help: People Who Betrayed Rock Stars | 23
    Sep 3 2024
    When you’re a rock star, life can be very busy…there are songs to write, rehearsals to attend, albums to record, promotional appearances to make, interviews to be conducted, and tours to organize and execute…there’s often not a lot of free time. Maybe you live in a large house or an estate… you might have multiple pied-de-terres around the planet: a home base, a vacation spot or two, and some condos in New York, or London, or Paris. As a rock star, you’re often away your home (or homes) for long stretches of time…someone has to look after those properties, whether you’re there or not. Maybe you’ve been a musician, an artist for such a long time you’ve never had to worry about the things that take up a civilian’s day…do your laundry, walk your dogs, go grocery shopping, take care of the lawn, and all that regular daily stuff. And, of course, you need someone to make sure all the bills get paid…someone has to chase down all outstanding invoices…and because there’s so much money involved in your career coming from multiple streams, you need someone to manage your cash, your bank accounts, and your investments…that means lawyers and accountants and financial advisors. Just so you can be you, a rock star needs an army of employees and contractors so that everything that needs to be done, gets done…you’re far too busy and the business is far too complex for you to handle that part of life on your own. And finding the right people is essential…you need to trust these people to deal with the most important aspects of your career, your family, your life, your possessions, and you’re financial security. But as with all things human, there are those who can’t be trusted…they see all these nice things, maybe have access to cash and assets—and they just can’t help themselves…fingers get sticky…and you don’t know that until it’s way too late. I’m Alan Cross and this is episode 23 of “Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry”…this time, it’s a warning to beware the help…these are people trusted by rock stars but instead ended up ripping them off…and boy, do I have some cautionary tales for you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    40 mins
  • The Strange Ballad of Doc McGhee | 22

    The Strange Ballad of Doc McGhee | 22
    Aug 20 2024
    On August 6, 1989, a chartered 757 nicknamed “The Magic Bus” took off bound for the USSR…on board were Motley Crue, Bon Jovi, The Scorpions, Skid Row, Ozzy Osbourne, Cinderella, and a few others… It was the dying days of the soviet union…but other than the communist hardliners, few people were sad about that…Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the USSR, had ushered in the era of glasnost and perestroika…reforms were being enacted and few freedoms were creeping into soviet society… This trip was part of that…a plane full of western rockers was headed to play a two-day festival in Moscow with attendance expected to top 200,000 people…it was the “Moscow Music Peace Festival”… it was hoped that the event would promote greater understanding between the west and the east during this time of great change at the end of the cold war… It was also set to raise money in conjunction with the “Make a Difference Foundation,” an organization dedicated to helping local Russian people who were addicted to drugs and alcohol…a lot of the money would go to messaging and rehab treatments… Wait—what?... Motley Crue, Ozzy Osbourne, and all these other acts were part of a highly sensitive, properly diplomatic, international anti-drugs-and-alcohol project inside the soviet union?... Oh, yes…and on the plane, Ozzy was drunk the whole time…his guitarist, Zakk Wylde, was tripping on LSD…you had to be careful where you stepped because there were syringes on the floor…at the back of the cabin, people rotated in and out of informal jam sessions fueled by booze and drugs… Now you’re probably wondering who came up with this idea and how it ever actually happened?...well, that’s a bit complicated…it involved the CIA, Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, and 640 tons of marijuana smuggled into North Carolina—and the teenage mutant ninja turtles…and at the centre of all of it was a man named Doc McGhee—who just happened to be the manager of most of the bands on the plane… This is episode 22 of “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry”…it’s how a drug-smuggling band manager helped end the Cold War…have I got a story for you. Show contact info: X (formerly Twitter): @AlanCross Website: curiouscast.ca Email: Alan@alancross.ca Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    39 mins
  • The Great American Payola $candal Part 2 | 21

    The Great American Payola $candal Part 2 | 21
    Aug 6 2024
    In 1960, after months of testimony and investigation, it was made illegal for anyone to bribe a radio station or any of its employees to play a record…payola was forbidden under punishment of jail time and a fine of up to $10,000… This, it was hoped, would keep the marketplace even and fair and no one—not a label, an artist, or anyone promoting that artist—would be able to jump the queue to get a record played on the radio…only songs with true merit would make it to the public…no more pay-for-play!... Yeah, nice try… If one thing was learned from the great American payola scandal, it was that radio airplay was essential to making money from a record…and if promoters could no longer walk into a radio station with a bag of cash, a case of booze, some drugs, a couple of hookers, or the promise of gifts (such as expensive watches), then they needed to get creative… There had to be less obvious ways of tipping the scales in their favour…and there were… After those initial hearings and the laws passed in their wake, payola never went away…instead, it went underground, toughened up, and became even more sleazy… As the music industry got bigger and became more corporatized through the 1960s and 70s, the competition got more intense…the amount of money to be made from music involved got exponentially larger…and it got a lot rougher. Show contact info: X (formerly Twitter): @AlanCross Website: curiouscast.ca Email: Alan@alancross.ca Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    43 mins
  • The Great American Payola $candal Part 1 | 20

    The Great American Payola $candal Part 1 | 20
    Jul 23 2024
    In a fair and just universe, we would live in a meritocracy…the best and most talented would naturally rise to the top and be properly recognized and compensated for their contributions to humanity…yeah, nice idea, but… We’d like to think that music operates this way…the best and the brightest naturally have their songs heard and become popular because, well, they’re good…these artists have hit records and are deservedly rewarded by the world with the fruits of their God-given natural abilities…again, lovely idea, but hopelessly naïve… The music business can be an ugly place…as Hunter S. Thompson allegedly once said, “The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs”…(I should also add that the quote ends with “there’s also a negative side”—but I think he made his point)… It’s a viciously competitive game…and the truth is that sheer talent is not enough to make it big…every potential hit song needs a powerful distribution and marketing system behind it, someone who will work the song by elbowing other artists out of the way… The goal is to get the song heard by any means necessary…once that is achieved, it’s push, push, push to make the song ubiquitous…the more people that are exposed to it, the greater the likelihood of a record being bought or a song being streamed…that’s when the money starts rolling in… But it doesn’t end there…once a song is an actual hit, there are ancillary opportunities for revenue…soundtracks…placement in TV shows…licensing for commercials…covers by other artists…the amount of money that can be made is staggering—and everyone along the way gets a taste… But none of that is possible unless the song is a hit...how can that happen with a perishable commodity in an environment where the end consumer—the music fan—is so fickle and unpredictable...how do you get millions of strangers to buy into a new piece of art?... The answer: you gotta grease the wheels, create some incentives, and make offers that people just can't refuse…this is where we enter the murky and illegal world of payola… I’m Alan Cross and this is “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry”… when it comes to payola, boy, do I have some stories for you. Show contact info: X (formerly Twitter): @AlanCross Website: curiouscast.ca Email: Alan@alancross.ca Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    46 mins
  • Introducing... Dark Poutine | The Quakers and The Killers: The Murder of Peter Lazier

    Introducing... Dark Poutine | The Quakers and The Killers: The Murder of Peter Lazier
    Jul 16 2024
    Episode 294: On the evening of December 21, 1883, near Bloomfield, Ontario, visitor Peter Lazier was murdered by two intruders at the farmhouse of Quakers Gilbert and Margaret Jones. The community, deeply affected, quickly organized a search. They traced footprints in the snow, leading to Joseph Thomset and the Lowder family's homes near West Lake. By the next day, Joseph Thomset and brothers David and George Lowder were arrested and charged with murder. The legal process moved rapidly. The coroner's inquest began the next day, followed by formal proceedings within a week. The trial, held at the Prince Edward County Courthouse in Picton just five months later, suggested the motive was robbery, aimed at stealing the $555 Gilbert Jones earned from selling hops. George Lowder and Joseph Thomset were found guilty of murder and hanged in June of 1884. Many felt justice was served, but others believed the law got it wrong, acting hastily without sufficient evidence. Sources: Prince Edward County The Canadian Encyclopedia | Quakers The Lazier Murder: Prince Edward County, 1884 — Robert J. Sharpe The Kingston Whig-Standard 24 Dec 1883, page 2 Ottawa Daily Citizen 24 Dec 1883, page 1 Manitoba Weekly Free Press 15 May 1884, page 2 The Lazier murder trial of 1884 – did they get the right men? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 4 mins
  • The Mysterious Death of Brian Jones | 19

    The Mysterious Death of Brian Jones | 19
    Jul 9 2024
    In 1969, the Rolling Stones were about to enter their imperial phase, a time in their career where everything they did seemed to go right…they were on their way to being the biggest rock band in the world… In December 1968, they released “Beggar’s Banquet,” their biggest-selling album so far…work had started on “Let It Bleed,” another record that would become a classic…that would eventually be followed by “Sticky Fingers” in 1971, “exile on main street” in 1972, and half a dozen more albums that would cement their place in rock history… But let’s back up to 1969…things were not good within the band…in fact, they were terrible…hard drugs had been seeping into the group and founder Brian Jones was a mess… Not only was he unable to contribute to the group in any meaningful musical way, but his mood swings made him impossible to deal with…sometimes he wouldn’t show up to rehearsals—and when he did, he was useless… He neglected to look after the band’s communal car and it was towed away…jones crashed his motorcycle into a shop window and spent time in the hospital…and his drug convictions made it impossible for him to get a visa to tour the U.S… The Stones desperately needed to tour because some insanely large tax bills were due…they needed the month…something had to give… On June 8, 1969, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards told Brian Jones that he was fired from the band he created…he was no longer a rolling stone… Less than a month later, he was dead…was it a drug-related Rock’N’Roll misadventure?...did he accidentally drown in his swimming pool?...or was it something more evil… Ever since the news broke on July 3, 1969, that Brian Jones had died, there have been questions…it’s a very curious case—and some believe (including his family) that he may have been murdered…I’m Alan Cross and this is “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry,” episode 19…the mysterious death of Brian Jones… Show contact info: X (formerly Twitter): @AlanCross Website: curiouscast.ca Email: Alan@alancross.ca Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    46 mins
  • Unscrupulous Managers | 18

    Unscrupulous Managers | 18
    Jun 26 2024
    If you’re an artist and things are working out well, there will come a time when you need a manager…you need someone to take care of the business end of things while you focus on the music…that’s when you need a manager… A manager does everything from booking gigs to devising career strategies… which includes promotion and marketing, networking, and conducting any negotiations on your behalf…and the manager is in charge of financial management…hold that thought… A manager is incentivized by your success…the usual fee is 15% of whatever you make…obviously, the more you make, the more the manager makes and everyone is happy, right?... The entire relationship is based on trust…you, as the artist, must believe that your manager always has your best interests in mind…and you must believe that your manager will never take advantage of you or rip you off…again, you trust your manager with your money… In the vast majority of artist-manager relationships, things are professional and legal…the best managers will take a bullet for their clients…some are even legendary for their skills, dedication, and loyalty to their artists… That includes Peter Grant, who did whatever he needed to do to protect Led Zeppelin and to extract maximum profit from record deals and concert tours… It includes Paul McGuinness, a veteran who took a very young U2 under his wing in 1978 and built them into the biggest band in the world… And then there’s Peter Mensch and Cliff Bernstein who have looked after Metallica, AC/DC, Smashing Pumpkins, the Chili Peppers, Muse, Def Leppard, Snow Patrol, and Cage the Elephant, among others… But it’s not always sunshine, chocolate, and unicorns…there are bad managers, too…and I’m not talking about general incompetence…I’m talking about people who steal, embezzle, and extort from the very people they’re supposed to protect and nurture… This is “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry,” episode 18…these are three of the worst, most unscrupulous, and most dishonest managers in rock…have I got some stories for you. Show contact info: X (formerly Twitter): @AlanCross Website: curiouscast.ca Email: Alan@alancross.ca Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    45 mins