A charity concert in aid of needy musicians starring Dame Evelyn Glennie and the BBC Radio 4 announcer Zeb Soanes has been hit by an “embarrassing” copyright row over six minutes of suggestive comedy jazz.
The event at Cadogan Hall in London on 1 April mostly featured humorous arrangements of out-of-copyright classical works, and was intended to raise money for the Help Musicians charity.
But the Performing Right Society (PRS), which collects royalties, is charging the organiser more than £1,000 – equivalent to up to half of the charitable earnings – because the programme included two short pieces that are still in copyright.
The organiser and conductor Rainer Hersch, a stalwart of the comedy music scene, said the move was “pretty shocking, especially given this concert and the beneficiary, Help Musicians, which is the backstop for freelance musicians in this country.”
The show featured Soanes reading a shipping forecast interspersed with snippets of classical music and Glennie playing percussion on household objects including a plant pot, a beer bottle and a frying pan.
It ran into trouble when Hersch arranged two songs by Earl Okin, a comedy performer of suggestive jazz songs. The PRS is charging £1,086.78 for royalties and publishing fees, which means “40% to 50% of what we hoped to send to Help Musicians has just gone woosh”, Hersch said.
Okin, 76, who first recorded at Abbey Road in 1967, said the situation was embarrassing and he did not want the money. If he received it, he would send it on to the charity, he said.
“I don’t know why they got involved,” he said. “There are many more things the PRS should be doing.”
PRS collects royalties and distributes them to its members when their work is performed, broadcast, streamed, downloaded, reproduced, played in public or used in film and TV.
It said it could not make an exception by waiving the charge but would ringfence the payment to Okin so he could choose to donate it to charity.
Hersch said: “When I think of all the donations of time, talent and services that went into this event, not least the six months I personally spent working on it, this makes me sick to the core. Shame on you PRS – who are you serving except yourselves?”
A PRS spokesperson said: “We are working with the writer composers whose works were included in the 1 April concert at Cadogan Hall to ensure that they can identify all earnings from this concert.
“From our experience, this makes onward donation simpler for all involved. We have operated similarly in the past with charity concerts held in aid of Ukraine and with Ariana Grande’s One Love Manchester concert.
“PRS for Music works closely with Help Musicians, including recently co-ordinating efforts to support music creators through the pandemic.”
