Rapid Fire demos... some news

[D-GenerationX]

I would love to hear these recordings.

But man. That letter is extremely unprofessional.

It absolutely is.

This guy is a lawyer? Would you want him representing your interests in something important to you?

"I don't care what the actual law is, here is my interpretation of it and how it should be". Are you fucking for real with that?

[Rdeyahlxp]

I would love to hear these recordings.

But man. That letter is extremely unprofessional.

It absolutely is.

This guy is a lawyer? Would you want him representing your interests in something important to you?

"I don't care what the actual law is, here is my interpretation of it and how it should be". Are you fucking for real with that?

His friend/brother who hung himself was a lawyer. He is clearly boasting himself in this letter and not in a good way.

"Uhmmm.. these recordings are all mine, soo.. i'm gonna release them... and you c-c-can't s-s-stop me from re-rel-releasing them!!"

That said, hope this will see the light of the day, I'm sick of Axl's antics and lies in interviews by DJ, Tommy etc. etc.

[D-GenerationX]

Recordings Axl made as a kid with some garage band in Indiana over 30 years ago do nothing for me today.

How often do any of you break out your 'Roots Of Guns N' Roses' CDs?

[Yesterdays-Civil-War]

Recordings Axl made as a kid with some garage band in Indiana over 30 years ago do nothing for me today.

How often do any of you break out your 'Roots Of Guns N' Roses' CDs?

That thing was just awful. And that's what these will most likely be as well, awful.

[DieselDaisy]

Recordings Axl made as a kid with some garage band in Indiana over 30 years ago do nothing for me today.

How often do any of you break out your 'Roots Of Guns N' Roses' CDs?

It is a historic thing. How many Beatles fans dig out their Anthology 1. Personally, I like to hear things like this.

[D-GenerationX]

Recordings Axl made as a kid with some garage band in Indiana over 30 years ago do nothing for me today.

How often do any of you break out your 'Roots Of Guns N' Roses' CDs?

It is a historic thing. How many Beatles fans dig out their Anthology 1. Personally, I like to hear things like this.

But this is akin to having tracks done by The Quarrymen, not The Beatles.

[DieselDaisy]

Recordings Axl made as a kid with some garage band in Indiana over 30 years ago do nothing for me today.

How often do any of you break out your 'Roots Of Guns N' Roses' CDs?

It is a historic thing. How many Beatles fans dig out their Anthology 1. Personally, I like to hear things like this.

But this is akin to having tracks done by The Quarrymen, not The Beatles.

It is the very first recording made my Axl Rose. Yes, it will probably be more interesting than good - as these things tend to be - but it will be nice to hear. You can usually trace the development of artists. The Hollywood Rose disc was highly interesting, as, it revealed they were more, Judas Priest, than Aerosmith; you can see what Slash and Duff brought to the band, the blues and punk. Do I play it often? No, but every now and then I do and I am glad to have gained some impression of what Hollywood Rose - which are like a, pre-GN'R - sounded like. I find things like this fascinating.

It would be similar for Rapid Fire.

[dalsh327]

I wish them luck on their release, as long as they avoid trying to exploit the GNR name, the way the Hollywood Rose demos had gone about it. They're pre fame demos worth listening to.

I think for the fans, it's good to hear where Axl started from, even though this wasn't his first band, but it may have been the first band that got booked into a place like Gazzarri's, so even if Kim Fowley didn't like it, they had to have been pretty good to play there.

[jbhutto]

Newest post:

https://www.facebook.com/Rapidfire1983

"OK..... Its up tuned and ready to launch the Kickstarter account. Once it goes live I can announce the URL. I cant wait till midnight. Im gonna go live at 6pm PST..... 42 minutes..... Hell yes!!! Let's do this together!!!... Kevin."

EDIT: Now the kickstarter is up:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rapidfire/rapidfire-the-first-recordings-of-bill-bailey-aka

Edited May 1, 2014 by jbhutto

[axlrosefan4life]

Just pledged!

[DR DOOM]

How often do any of you break out your 'Roots Of Guns N' Roses' CDs?

More often than I break out my Chinese Democracy CD, that's for sure.

I don't think the Hollywood Rose stuff is that bad at all to be honest, Reckless Life and Anything Goes in particular.

[axlrosefan4life]

$100 you get a cd w/ special packaging, t shirt, flier, and photos

[31illusions]

Doesn't sound like this idea makes sense. I would buy the CD if it was for sale at a normal price but since he wants to

do it this way, I'll just wait till one of you guys get it and upload it and then I'll download it for free later. Done and Done.

Edited May 1, 2014 by 31illusions

[gunsguy]

What happens if he collects the money and doesnt make good on the product?

[jbhutto]

Yeah, the award options could be better, needs the option for an affordable standard CD, and also vinyl from the get-go

would be a pretty good idea too since there's a decent market for that now.

$5-10 - Flyer

$15-20 - Standard CD

$30 - Poster + Standard CD

$35-40 T-Shirt + rest of the other stuff

$75 - Limited Edition Vinyl / CD + other stuff.

Something like that anyway.

[Estranged Reality]

he's a seriously sleazy dude based on that video. (i thought so before he got to the 'i own a porn studio' part.) yeah, it'd be cool to hear the recordings. i'm not paying him $100 for the opportunity.

[highvoltage]

I just want to make it clear to everyone... be careful pledging to this guy. Donate at your own risk.

I want to hear the recordings as much as anybody else, but Kevin doesn't really appear to be the innocent party he's making out in all this. If he DOES own the recordings, songs, etc.... why not just release the material and stop promoting Axl as being on it? He's using Axl's image and reputation to promote the product without his consent. That in itself doesn't seem right, regardless of who owns the rights to the actual music that was recorded.

I suspect the legal issues with this project will continue well into the future, despite what he's been saying. Be aware that there is every chance you'll never hear that album, even if the $20k gets hit. This passage of text really does absolutely nothing to inspire confidence:

As far as fulfillment I am confident that Amazon fulfillment is the wisest choice. They are a bit pricy, but I figure that it's worth the stability. No copyright mishaps because I legally owns the rights to everything. Also all the players get their performance royalties so there's no hassles or problems with that. We don't anticipate any major setbacks as the law and correct paperwork is on our side. The songs sound GREAT and they are an integral part of Rock 'n' Roll history. I hope you enjoy our project. Rock on!!! \m/.

"We don't anticipate any major setbacks" - if he really believes this, he's in for a pretty rude shock when the hammer falls.

[gunsguy]

I just want to make it clear to everyone... be careful pledging to this guy. Donate at your own risk.

I want to hear the recordings as much as anybody else, but Kevin doesn't really appear to be the innocent party he's making out in all this. If he DOES own the recordings, songs, etc.... why not just release the material and stop promoting Axl as being on it? He's using Axl's image and reputation to promote the product without his consent. That in itself doesn't seem right, regardless of who owns the rights to the actual music that was recorded.

I suspect the legal issues with this project will continue well into the future, despite what he's been saying. Be aware that there is every chance you'll never hear that album, even if the $20k gets hit. This passage of text really does absolutely nothing to inspire confidence:

As far as fulfillment I am confident that Amazon fulfillment is the wisest choice. They are a bit pricy, but I figure that it's worth the stability. No copyright mishaps because I legally owns the rights to everything. Also all the players get their performance royalties so there's no hassles or problems with that. We don't anticipate any major setbacks as the law and correct paperwork is on our side. The songs sound GREAT and they are an integral part of Rock 'n' Roll history. I hope you enjoy our project. Rock on!!! \m/.

"We don't anticipate any major setbacks" - if he really believes this, he's in for a pretty rude shock when the hammer falls.

I am with you on this. Even if he does own the copyrights, IF Axl or anyone else involved makes a claim, this could end up in litigation for years to come. The money would be tied up for a long time.

If it comes out, I may hear it, but I aint giving any $ out

[highvoltage]

jeeze its only 100 bucks, its not like the world is gona come to an end if it all turns to custard.

Of course not! But I still think it's irresponsible for him to ask for and accept money from people for the release when there's a high likelihood it will get torpedoed.

The guy is running pretty high on emotion after his friend's suicide (his lawyer on the project), and I don't think he's acting rationally any longer.

So yeah... it's only 100 bucks, but that's a lot of money to some people, and I don't think he's been upfront enough about the risks the project faces into the future.

[hellobeatle]

I've been a practicing attorney for some time and I'm just going to re-post this thing I wrote about RapidFire - keep in mind, if a viable lawsuit engages, all funds will be held in escrow and nothing released till resolved (also keep in mind most lawsuits occur once money is generated or promotion occurs):

"It's pretty simple and most people have already summed it up. As an attorney I have a few key points:

Axl has a legitimate (and certainly non-frivolous) legal argument.

First, nobody knows Axl's view on the intent of these recordings, we are only hearing one side. When Axl recorded them he could easily argue the intent was for group ownership of the recordings - or for that matter, his own ownership. There is no written contract so it's really a "he says, she says" argument that requires court intervention to determine the true intent. There was likely no intent when he performed on these that it would be released commercially. There is no evidence who wrote what or who owns the song publishing, again requiring an evidentiary hearing based on parole (non-written) evidence to determine the true ownership.

Second, the release of these items will be solely profiting on Axl's goodwill (i.e. the marketable of Axl's name that he solely worked to build-up, not Rapidfire). For other members of Rapidfire to profit equally (or solely) from Axl's goodwill (in the most basic of legal terms) would be unjust enrichment.

Axl could argue that it may hurt his reputation and de-value his goodwill but that would not stand up as a claim in and of itself. He could still argue damages but IMO don't see it winning over a judge. However, this argument would at the very least be one of many points addressed in the above claims.

Now, in reality, since Axl has superior finances to the other Rapidfire members here's the question - Q: will he use his lawyers to draw the ordeal out, essentially forcing Rapidfire members to spend money they don't have on lawyers with hopes of them abandoning the project? A: sure he will. That happens all the time and is expected, nothing new there.

I'm basing this all as an outsider's view. I'm sure entertainment contract lawyers in LA who handle this stuff day-in-day-out have much more up their sleeves, but even a basic understanding of contract tort can see Axl's position as valid, as will the Court. How the Court decides is anyone's guess as we don't have all the evidence but his argument and opposition is not unfounded."

Hypothetical: maybe raising money for their defense suit against Axl?

Edited May 1, 2014 by hellobeatle

[highvoltage]

I've been a practicing attorney for some time and I'm just going to re-post this thing I wrote about RapidFire - keep in mind, if a viable lawsuit engages, all funds will be held in escrow and nothing released till resolved (also keep in mind most lawsuits occur once money is generated or promotion occurs):

"It's pretty simple and most people have already summed it up. As an attorney I have a few key points:

Axl has a legitimate (and certainly non-frivolous) legal argument.

First, nobody knows Axl's view on the intent of these recordings, we are only hearing one side. When Axl recorded them he could easily argue the intent was for group ownership of the recordings - or for that matter, his own ownership. There is no written contract so it's really a "he says, she says" argument that requires court intervention to determine the true intent. There was likely no intent when he performed on these that it would be released commercially. There is no evidence who wrote what or who owns the song publishing, again requiring an evidentiary hearing based on parole (non-written) evidence to determine the true ownership.

Second, the release of these items will be solely profiting on Axl's goodwill (i.e. the marketable of Axl's name that he solely worked to build-up, not Rapidfire). For other members of Rapidfire to profit equally (or solely) from Axl's goodwill (in the most basic of legal terms) would be unjust enrichment.

Axl could argue that it may hurt his reputation and de-value his goodwill but that would not stand up as a claim in and of itself. He could still argue damages but IMO don't see it winning over a judge. However, this argument would at the very least be one of many points addressed in the above claims.

Now, in reality, since Axl has superior finances to the other Rapidfire members here's the question - Q: will he use his lawyers to draw the ordeal out, essentially forcing Rapidfire members to spend money they don't have on lawyers with hopes of them abandoning the project? A: sure he will. That happens all the time and is expected, nothing new there.

I'm basing this all as an outsider's view. I'm sure entertainment contract lawyers in LA who handle this stuff day-in-day-out have much more up their sleeves, but even a basic understanding of contract tort can see Axl's position as valid, as will the Court. How the Court decides is anyone's guess as we don't have all the evidence but his argument and opposition is not unfounded."

Hypothetical: maybe raising money for their defense suit against Axl?

I think your reasoning is pretty sound, even if it's only a superficial analysis based on what little information we have.

I had thought about things from the promotional angle (marketing using his name), but hadn't thought about how the original intent surrounding the recordings might affect things as well. The intent behind a contract/agreement is almost as important as the wording of the document or a signature itself.

Even without knowing the specifics of entertainment contracts, or the details of this case - there are a lot of red flags to be observed, and he just seems way too dismissive of them at this point. I studied contracts 4 or 5 years ago, and even I can tell that Axl seems to have a legitimate complaint.

[YOUCOULDBEMINE.]

That dude is crazy. For real.

[highvoltage]

looks like he might drop by the forum

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rapidfire/rapidfire-the-first-recordings-of-bill-bailey-aka/comments

Would be happy for him to join - haven't seen any "KevinLawrence" users in the registration queue, so Kevin if you're having issues, shoot an email to webmaster@mygnrforum.com.

[Subtle Signs]

I hope Kevin does post on the Forum. Maybe he can set straight the few people on here who seem to think he's in it for the money. I would love to hear his stories.

Edited May 1, 2014 by xGNRxSTARx

[Apollo]

Very cool.

Funny that we're going to hear 30 year old unreleased music from Axl before we hear music from his current band.