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Love And Caring
As of Friday, the epic, two-year-long dispute between Trevor Brown and Crystal Castles over the band’s unauthorized use of Brown’s image of Madonna has quickly and decisively come to an end.
Brown announced on his blog that the band’s new worldwide managers, James Sandom and Paul Everett of the London-based SuperVision Management Group, sent him a letter apologizing on behalf of the band, then quickly made him a new offer, and, when the terms were agreed upon—the band now has full rights to the image, Brown reproduction rights—promptly followed up with cash in hand within twenty-four hours.
In what Brown calls a “happy ending finally,” he wrote that Crystal Castles have “at last…woken up to the fact this was their mess to clean up—it was pissing on their career more than mine—the negative press was never going to stop.” He has a point: we’ve heard whispers that the band’s extracurricular activities barred them from getting nominated for this year’s Polaris Prize, and the fight certainly didn’t help their reputation, especially after the news jumped from here to Pitchfork and beyond. The grudge on Brown’s end is over, though: as he wrote, “Absolution can never be absolute of course—but I think Crystal Castles have paid the penalty for their indiscretions.”
Brown told Torontoist that he’s “just happy to plant a flag of victory on top of the huge mound of excreta left by the armchair analysts and ex-manager,” those last words a parting shot at Mikey Apples, who Sandom confirmed has been moved by Crystal Castles out of management and “into a new role.” (We emailed Apples last night for comment, but he has yet to reply.) As Sandom puts it, the resolution marks “a very calm conclusion to a situation that became unnecessarily inflamed in the past.” Amazing what a change of management can accomplish. Now, about that other thing…
Thanks to rek for the tip.