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Interview with "Mr. Moonlight" of Nowhere Man Records
Intro:
The internet has been a godsend to Beatles fans when it comes to unreleased music. Once you had to pay exhorbinant prices for bootleg CD's - but now you can just about find every single title on the web, whether it be music blogs or bittorrent. There have been excellent releases by Purple Chick and Dr Ebbetts, taking up the gap left by the inept and clueless EMI label. Nowhere Man Records is just one of the most recent "players" in the unreleased Beatles music field.
"Mr. Moonlight" agreed to an interview and what follows is our chat about Nowhere Man Records...
E.C.: First, I wanted to ask how Nowhere Man Records came about? How does one go about starting a "label"? What inspired you? Mr. Moonlight: Well it's very flattering to be called a label particularly when you think of all the classic and well known labels that there have been - Swinging Pig, Purple Chick, Lazy Tortoise, Vigotone and Yellow Dog for example. I don't think that we even come close to what they've provided collectors with over the years.
This all actually started as a bit of fun...as you know there are three of us involved, we've never met and don't even live in the same parts of the world..we do however have two major (and many minor) things in common...we're all fanatical Beatles Collectors, and have been for quite a number of years...and a sense of humour which we hope comes through in what we do.
I think that if we were inspired in anyway, it was by Purple Chick who shared what they had at no cost to the fans...we even borrowed their phrase, "Made by fans, For fans. NEVER for sale." E.C.: I know that you have two other colleagues at NMR. Does each of you specialize in a different area? I mean, does one person do the artwork, another song selection, etc? Mr. Moonlight: One of us is a bit of a genius (not me) when it comes to computers and although we all throw things into the melting pot, he is responsible for the Artwork…I usually write the description and the blurb on the Albums which we kick around until we agree on it. Of course the most important thing is the music and that's pretty similar...we all contribute and discuss what to put on and what to leave out. Fortunately there are no egos here, so if it's a two to one vote it doesn't cause any problems. E.C.: A question about your motto, "Nowhere Man Records are fan created - Never For Sale!". I'm not legal-savy, so I'm curious - Does this keep it "legal", since you are not actually "selling" or "exchanging money" for your product? Mr. Moonlight: Now that's a very interesting question and I think that if you asked it of anyone in a similar position to us you'd get the same answer, "I don't honestly know" .I do believe however that the Record Companies are quite tolerant of the collecting world.
Strangely enough most collectors agree with them that Piracy should not be tolerated and that file sharing of commercially available music is totally wrong…most collector sites don't allow the posting of albums that can be bought on the High Street In any event , true collectors have bought all the albums that have been released, In my case in mono, stereo, coloured vinyl, picture discs, boxed sets, tape, and CD...now I'm saving for the Remasters. E.C.: Speaking of artwork, I love the covers that come with each release. The cover for Paul's "Medium Rare" had me in laughing fits, especially with his vegetarian views. So, I imagine that alot of thought and effort goes into the cover art? Mr. Moonlight: Yes that one made me laugh as well although a few people on a well-known site were not amused by it. A lot of thought and care goes into every aspect of what we do, although we sometimes wish that the tracks were available to us in better audio quality.
On the other hand those who love “Medium Rare” really do love it..and a Japanese Bootleg Company have actually pressed up their own version of this (we did get an acknowledgement) and are charging a lot of money for it...whilst imitation is said to be the sincerest form of flattery , it annoys us that some people have paid through the nose for what started out as a free product. We never had any intention of charging anyone for what we do, and that won't change.
This is one of those rare occasions where all of the music was provided by just one person, in this case Jeremy, I personally had very little to do with it, which probably accounts for it's popularity! E.C.: It is also interesting that you sometimes include video segments with each release. Will you ever have a "video only" release? Mr. Moonlight: When we decided to do the Jimmy Nicol retrospective, we thought that it would be a nice idea to include video and that's all it was, no great masterplan. There are people out there who do a wonderful job of compiling and releasing DVDs and we could never compete with them. Although if we found something that hadn't seen the light of day previously we would consider it, but it's not on our agenda. E.C.: Each of your releases has "themes" that are rarely explored by other releases. For example, you have one that just concentrates on Jimmy Nichol; another that covers The Beatles and The Stones; another covers "Carnival of Light". How do you come up with themes? Mr. Moonlight: Again it's just kicking round ideas and discussing who has what. “Carnival of Light” was a bit of fun really and everyone liked the idea including reviewers. We don't actively try to come up with themes, but if something occurs to one of us we explore it and either accept or reject it. E.C.: I'm sure that the next question is what everyone wants to know (ha, ha). Without giving too much away, what are the sources of your material? Mr. Moonlight: Hmm…well two of us are now as old as the decade in which we were teenagers, so we've had a lifetime of collecting. The other one is a mere child in his 30s but like us has amassed a personal collection of some not inconsiderable size. E.C.: Do have a list of upcoming releases, or do they just come to you upon material availability? Can you give us a hint of any upcoming titles? Mr. Moonlight: We were discussing issuing a collection of outfakes including the well known, “Peace of Mind”, “I Love You Too”, the more obscure, “Annie”, “It's Gonna Be Alright” and the downright hokey like “Pink Litmus Paper Shirt”. Within the last few weeks we were beaten to it by someone who has put out a five Disc Collection called “Lies”…and he's made a magnificent job of it!
Our first couple of releases were interview discs so that's under consideration as well…Our fantasy release would be one including the 28 minute “Helter Skelter”, “Etcetera” and the genuine “Carnival of Light”.
Even after all these years there are things we're still searching for.
EAR CANDY:
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Right: Cover of "Medium Rare"