BBC Bait and Switch

[jacey]

Imagine my surprise to get a phone call from Hilary, my band-mate in Artisan, to say that a friend of hers had alerted her to the fact that Artisan was being trailed regularly on BBC Radio 3 for a programme of 'Traditional carols with a modern twist from the Garrison Church, Copenhagen.' She gave me i-Player details and sure enough, at one minute fifty-nine on this morning's Rob Cowan show on Radio3 up pops a trailer.

Checking up in Radio Times the above mentioned song is part of the programme from the Garrison Church performed by Ars Nova Copenhagen, directed by Paul Hillier and that the song 'We Three Kings' is arranged by Hillier.

Believe me when I say that I know the sound of my own voice, and Brian's voice and Hilary's voice, and also the sound of our own recording. The trailer was definitely Artisan singing We Three Kings, our own arrangement from our 1990 CD 'TheSeason of Holly and Ivy' and believe me when I say I know we have never been to Copenhagen, nor have we ever been part of Ars Nova Copenhagen nor sung any Paul Hillier arrangements. In fact I would say that we are about as English as you can get - the only Danish blood maybe coming from long-time Norse ancestors.

I haven't been able to listen to the programme because it's currently being broadcast live and had already gone beyond the Copenhagen segment by the time Hilary phoned, but I fully expect that when I do get round to it on i-Player that we will not be on the programme.

While it's nice to know that our CD is still in the record library at the BBC, couldn't the BBChave managed to trail the programme by playing the actual performers who were being broadcast? Anyone expecting to hear the same (uncredited) music as they heard in the trailer would be sadly disappointed.

Comments

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

No, they don't need permission before playing it as (otherwise Radio 1 would have to get permission for every track it played) and they don't even need to pay royalties if they use under 15 seconds of music. (They should legally log all music and pay the relevant royalty via PRS.) What I object to is the fact that it misrepresents the programme and also leaves our clip anonymous, or more to the point it leaves people thinking that our intellectual copyright belongs to Ars Nova Copenhagen.