Sorry about this - but I really take exception to the person who said that the albums that are not released are not wanted anyway!

TWO of my albums are 'on the shelves' not being released and I can tell you very emphatically that there IS a demand for them! I get requests via my own website regularly. I tried to get the rights back to release these albums over 10 years ago and was told then by Dave Bulmer that he hoped to release them within 18 months. It just never happened.

I tried again in 2004, without success. He wouldn't even give me the rights to add them, in MP3 form, to a HUGE archive that a friend of mine took two years to put together and that we hoped to release in 2002. They were the ONLY albums for which I didn't get the rights back, where I was still able to contact the people who originally recorded them. They were such an important part of my musical history that I couldn't release the archive without them and the whole project was scuppered.

It might also be of interest that I recorded a private album with Bill Leader, completely at my own expense, in 1973 (featuring Ian Hunt, Stuart Marson, Graham Cooper and myself). It therefore belonged to ME - not to Leader records. You can read all about it on my site, under The Lost Leader (tongue in cheek title I gave it deliberately). I didn't release this until 2000 when I got the money together to have it done. The tapes were in perfect condition and were remastered digitally. It has sold through my site - and sold WELL - ever since. I tracked down Bill Leader and talked to him on the phone and he was delighted that it was doing so well. We also talked about other things so I know exactly how he feels about them.

The success of The Lost Leader stimulated me into re-releasing my Plant Life albums and the contrast between their attitude & Celtic's was poles apart. I got the rights back to all my Plant Life albums without a single problem - because as they said - they weren't going to release them and they felt that the music ought to be 'out there' earning money for me and giving people pleasure. What a refreshing attitude! All those albums have sold solidly since via my site.

I did some 'one-off' gigs in 2006, 7, 8 and 9 which all sold out almost immediately and which generated good sales again for my Plant Life albums and would have been a perfect chance to release my Leader albums... but again, NOTHING happened.

When it comes to 'signing contracts more rigorously' - in the early 70s when I signed with Bill Leader, I was young and yes, naive. Being asked to sign with Bill Leader was one of the greatest accolades that any artist on the British Folk Scene could earn at that time and nobody in their right mind turned down the chance. It never occurred to me, nor, I am sure, to many other artistes, that our work could or would be sold from underneath us without someone having to re-negotiate the contract!

The law IS to blame - for allowing people like Bulmer to buy people's work without a re-negotiation of contracts with the people who wrote and/or recorded the material. There should at LEAST be a time-limit for releasing the material, upon the expiration of which rights are returned to the artiste/composer etc. As we all know though - the law is often an ass. However - just because someone has the legal rights to something doesn't mean that they should ignore the ethics of the situation.

When it comes to people getting heated on the subject - I am now heading for 70, disabled and on a very low pension. I would LOVE to have these albums out again and making even a little money for me. My work, from any era, SHOULD be providing me with income where possible. However, despite this, to me, obvious MORAL & ETHICAL fact, they are stuck on some shelves somewhere, unheard, when they could be enjoyed by my fans, old and new. So if I sound angry, it's because I AM flippin' angry - and I am certainly not going to pretend otherwise.   

Lo and behold - what has just dropped into my Inbox? An email asking me if I have Firebird available on CD! Q. E. D. Another one to join the growing list of emails from people waiting for CDs of Second Season Came or Firebird.

Anyone wanting to contact me - you know where I am - www.rosiehardman.com/rosie.htm