The Jimi Hendrix Experience burnt briefly but brightly in mid-Sixties London, and now those acting for two of the deceased band members are lighting up the High Court.
The estates of the bassist, Noel Redding, and the drummer, Mitch Mitchell, are suing Sony Music Entertainment UK over music streaming rights.
On the first day of the trial on Tuesday, Mr Justice Edwin Johnson was told that both members of Hendrix’s band “died in relative poverty”.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience performing at the Marquee Club, London, in 1967
RAY STEVENSON
The Redding and Mitchell estates have argued that they are entitled to copyright and performers’ rights on three of the band’s albums: Are You Experienced?, Axis: Bold As Love and Electric Ladyland.
Redding and Mitchell formed the band with Hendrix in 1966, but the group broke up shortly before the Seattle guitarist was found dead from a drug overdose, aged 27, in the basement of a London hotel in 1970.
Redding died in 2003 in Ireland, aged 57, and Mitchell died in Portland, Oregon, five years later, aged 61.
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Simon Malynicz KC, representing both estates, said in written submissions that although the band were “one of the most commercially successful acts of its era”, Redding and Mitchell “were excluded early on in their lifetimes” and “died in relative poverty”.
However, the band’s recordings continued to be a “lucrative source of revenue” in the streaming era, he said, adding: “Since their passing, their successors, who might normally be entitled to a share of the revenue via these inheritable property rights, have also been excluded throughout.”
Redding. Below, Mitchell
MARK KELLEHER
Malynicz emphasised to the court that Hendrix had not financially marginalised the pair, and instead pointed the finger at the administrators of the American guitarist’s estate and the “multinational which refuses to recognise or remunerate their copyright and performers’ rights”.
Sony is defending against the claim. Its lawyer, Robert Howe KC, told the court in his written submissions that the producers of the albums owned the original recording copyright, not the musicians.
He also said both musicians had relinquished their rights to the songs when they were alive.
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Howe also referred to claims brought by both in the 1970s in New York, which resulted in separate payments at the time of $100,000 and $247,500.
The case is expected to conclude on Thursday next week and a judgment is likely to be reserved until a later date.