Discussion. 1. Have you ever signed a contract then regretted it afterwards?

1. Have you ever signed a contract then regretted it afterwards? Why?

2. What are your top tips for checking contracts?

3. What are some of the things to watch out for in contracts?

Bands come and go. Some become famous. Others don't. Some enjoy great wealth. Others make nothing. But why? Sometimes they just aren't popular enough. But other times it's because of the contract.

The Beatles had lots of problems with their first contract. In 1963, the band's manager Brian Epstein, allowed his lawyer to sign away the band's merchandising rights in return for just 10% of the profits. And that was a lot of money to give away. In 1964, while The Beatles were conquering America, The Wall Street Journal estimated the group's merchandising would be worth $100 million dollars that year. This meant that the band had given away $90 million! To be fair to Epstein, he had no idea how much the merchandising could be worth - no band had ever been so popular. Since then, bands have been careful to keep control of their merchandising rights.

Post-punk bands Joy Division and New Order also signed pretty poor contracts. The bands' contracts were with DJ Rob Gretton, legendary owner of the The Hacienda Club in Manchester. As part of the deal, Gretton could use the money from the bands to financially support the club. In the end, the club survived but Joy Divison didn’t (lead singer Ian Curtis committed suicide, reportedly because of marital problems). New Order were extremely successful as a group, but there weren't many profits. In fact, their most successful hit, "Blue Monday" cost so much to make that the song made a loss. And what money there was, went straight back into the club.

Singer-songwriter Gilbert O'Sullivan had a string of hits in the early 1970s. But things turned sour when Gilbert eventually discovered that the recording contract he had with MAM Records greatly favoured the label's owner, Gordon Mills. Gilbert sued and won £7 million, but his career was put on hold during the court case... and it never recovered. Even Bruce Springsteen has suffered. His first management contract was so bad that he had to get legal help to get out of it. But while this was going on, he couldn't record any new material. The result? No new Springsteen albums for almost two years between 1976 and 1978.

Sometimes it's dad who causes the problems. Michael Jackson and The Beach Boys are two examples of this. Murray Wilson, the Beach Boys manager (and Brian Wilson's dad), sold the band's song catalogue for less than $1 million at the height of their fame. Brian later claimed that it was "like losing his children". Paul Weller's dad was his manager for a while. An ex-boxer who had no respect for record company executives, he once demanded a large advance for Paul's new contract. The record company couldn't believe their luck, and were more than happy to pay as it was less than half what they had been expecting to fork out! Dad doesn't always know best, it seems.

But sometimes it's the musicians themselves who are their own worst managers. The Beatles made a terrible mess of their business affairs when they took control after the death of Brian Epstein. Even more disastrous was John Fogerty, leader of Creedence Clearwater Survival. He signed a contract with a recording company and then rejected their offer to appear on the album and film of the music festival Woodstock. These days, who remembers that the most famous rock festival of all time was headlined by Creedence Clearwater Survival? No one! Except John Fogerty, presumably.

How do you listen to music?