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19 March
2006
Royalty Row
Over James Blunt Hits
James
Blunt
is locked in a royalties dispute with a
producer who says he helped the singer
launch his career.
The
UK Performing Rights
Society
(PRS) has suspended royalties on six songs
from Blunt's hit album Back
to Bedlam.
Lukas
Burton said he worked with James Blunt at
the start of his career but the star
severed ties with him when other industry
figures started taking notice.
James
Blunt's publicist said: "Traditionally,
when a record is this massive, everyone
wants to claim credit for its
success."
She
added: "This is no different." But she
refused to give any further
details.
Blunt's
album sold two million copies in the UK in
2005 and he recently became the first UK
artist to have a US number one single for
nine years.
The
British producer has worked with artists
including Tina Arena, Samantha Mumba and
Dido.
A PRS
spokesperson declined to name the songs
involved in the dispute but said Blunt's
best-known single You're Beautiful was not
among them.
"We've
gone into standard dispute procedures and
payment is frozen until we're advised
otherwise," she said.
Writing
on an internet site, Mr Burton said he met
Blunt in 2001 and his music was "crude,
occasionally laughably direct, and
betrayed his relative lack of musicianship
or discernible influence."
But Mr
Burton could see the commercial potential
and Blunt flew to Los Angeles so the pair
could work together, he wrote. "A couple
of people told me I shouldn't be working
with him without a contract in
place.
"But to
be honest the love couldn't have been
thicker in the air - lots of talk about
how great the record was going to be and
how cool the whole situation
was."
But the
relationship soured when Blunt was
approached by a manager, Mr Burton
wrote.
Blunt
was told to "sever all ties" with the
producer, according to Mr
Burton.
"It
wasn't so much that I was angry, just
completely gutted," he wrote.
"I had
pinned an awful lot of hope on the project
and devoted a huge amount of painstaking
effort to it. I had breathed life into it
and I simply couldn't believe that the
universe was going to repay me with such
abject treachery. James is exactly as
successful as I knew he would be, not that
it does me, my bank balance or my family
much good to say it."
Blunt's
album is currently number two in the US
and the star was named best pop act and
best male solo artist at the
Brit
Awards.
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