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Big Worries For Alex Lloyd, Hit With A Large Lawsuit
Posted by Clem Bastow at 2:29 PM on April 3, 2008
We opted out of the "Amazing" puns being made left, right and centre about this: Alex Lloyd, Mr Car Commercial himself, is evidently being sued by... some bloke, who claims to have co-written Lloyd's big hit, Amazing, in the front bar of a Sydney pub.
Wouldn't know it, not only did mystery man apparently co-write the song, he now feels the need to claim his rightful share of the massive bags of cash Lloyd pocketed when the song was a hit and later licensed to within an inch of its life.
Alex Lloyd has been sued for a share of his personal fortune after a man claimed they wrote the hit song Amazing together on the back of coasters in a Sydney pub.
Mark O'Keefe claims he made a deal with a 14-year-old Lloyd that Lloyd would register the rock song in both their names with the Australasian Performing Rights Association.The music business is peppered with these sorts of stories and we're always inclined to think the same thing (particularly when these types conveniently remember they've been wronged only after the song starts cashing megabucks cheques).But Lloyd is understood to claim that he has never met Mr O'Keefe, who launched the case last month.
Little is known about Mr O'Keefe, who argues the pair agreed to split the royalties in half, payments which by now would amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Mr O'Keefe has not yet specified how much money he is seeking from Lloyd. He claims the song was written on the back of beer coasters in the Bridge Hotel in the inner-west Sydney suburb of Rozelle in the early hours of November 3, 1989.
That is, why didn't he grab another coaster, draft something up in lieu of a contract, then whip down to the local pigs to get a stat-dec signed and sealed? If you've got a pen and something to write on then it'd be the least you could do.
Comments
John
Posted April 5, 2008 9:47 PM
Hi, that "some bloke" is a pretty good singer/songwriter in his own right. http://www.myspace.com/whatsnext13 his old band.
By the way, I was witness to the whole affair and it happed as he said, Mark had written half the song and Slim (Alex LLoyd)from Slim and the Beefs who played at the same pub at the time, was suppose to finnish the song and return it to mark, as well as song writing, Mark immparted a great deal of his music and general knowledge on that night, thats why slim was there, Mark was performing 30 of his own songs, oh, and the grape vine was saying David Bowie was expected to turn up, strange but true.
mick
Posted June 7, 2008 7:48 PM
Hey Clem
You sound like you know a lot about this,well I was there that night and witnessed this event.Some bloke is quite a talented musician and song writer,as well as this he is a very honest and spritual person, qualities Alex can only aspire to.
Mark O'Keefe's only mistake was to help an aspiring young musician who asked Mark how he wrote such good songs.There was an agreement made on this night and I witnessed it.Have a look at the lyrics to amazing then look at the rest of Alex's lyrics,you might notice some differences.
How stupid/arrogant is Alex to shun the man who gave him his only hit and guess what Alex,he has already written your next one.Alex is a thieving hypocryt and anyone else in the music industry who has had anything to do with Alex should check his work also.
Best of luck with the Cold Chisel covers Alex and I cant wait for the greatest hits album and just hope karma is not too hard on you Alex.
I will be standing by Mark during this, as will John and others.
Just for the record Clem,Mark did explain the royalty system to Alex and expected him if he had the capability to finish the work to register it with APRA.