I'm curious about the band's internal business deal. Let's say they win damages in this suit. Do James and D'Arcy see any of that settlement, or from a business standpoint is the band now strictly Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlain? Presumably the two former members still get royalties on the older albums, but I wonder how stuff like this works. After all, those two were a part of making the Smashing Pumpkins name the commodity it is.

Smashing Pumpkins' Corgan speaks on Virgin lawsuit

Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan has spoken about the lawsuit the band have filed against their former label Virgin.

The group, who reformed last year after seven years away, are suing the label for allowing their name to be used in a promotion with Amazon.com and Pepsi.

Speaknig to Billboard, Corgan said: "I'm sure they indicated to Pepsi that the had a right to do this, full well knowing they do not have the right."

The lawsuit claims that Virgin have 'irreparably harmed the group, their reputation and goodwill with their fans'.

Virgin and Smashing Pumpkins are reportedly partners in the ownership of the band's back catalogue, but Corgan claims he and his band members have the right to veto any deals of this manner.

The frontman added: "You're going to see more of this playing fast and loose with the rules, hoping they don't get caught. At face value, it's not a large deal. But in terms of precedent it is, because there will be much more of this coming."

Corgan also said that he has made offers to buy the band's catalogue back from Virgin, but he explained that they are not keen to enter into discussion.

He admitted: "They wouldn't put a number on it. They've atrophied the catalogue down so low that they probably hope we'll crawl back and ask for cash."

The problem is that according to the contract the Pumpkins renegotiated with Virgin in the late '90s, both parties are partners where the catalog is concerned. Corgan claims he's made frequent overtures to Virgin about repositioning the back catalog, offering expanded editions of vintage albums and releasing archival material, but has been met with resistance at every step of the way....

That won't stop the band from offering unreleased music to fans before the year is out. Potentially in the pipeline are ultra-rare early Smashing Pumpkins shows, studio tracks that have never seen the light of day or alternate versions of songs from sessions that spawned classic albums like "Siamese Dream" and "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness."

The group, which is now a free agent after the expiration of its one-album deal with Warner Bros., is also conceptualizing the gradual release of new music in bundles, culminating in an eventual album project. "We may start to release pieces as we go along, and the album comes out over two to three years," says Corgan, who labels this period as both "fun" and "exciting."

Smashing Pumpkins to be inducted into Hollywood RockWalk

The Smashing Pumpkins will be inducted into Hollywood's RockWalk later this month, it was announced today (April 14).

Frontman Billy Corgan and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin will be on hand at a ceremony in their honour at the Hollywood Guitar Center on April 23.

During the event, their handprints will be placed in cement alongside other honourees' including Eric Clapton, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Stevie Wonder and Brian Wilson.

Hollywood’s RockWalk is the only sidewalk gallery in the US dedicated to honouring artists who have made a significant impact and lasting contribution to the evolution of rock, blues and R&B.

Hello music lovers.

As the tour winds down I would just like to say what a pleasure and an honor it was to play for so many of you. I try to never forget that my job is a sacred privilege. Music, the thing that binds you to me and all of us to the Universe is my light.

Let me also say that this band, The Smashing Pumpkins, will continue to write, record, release, and perform AS LONG AS WE ARE ABLE!

Some of you may have read bits of an interview that was done in confidence by yours truly in which I say that the Pumpkins probably won't record cd's anymore. What I meant by this is this: Although we may not use the "album" or "full length cd" as a format anymore, WE WILL WRITE AND RECORD MUSIC UNTIL WE ARE DEAD!!!!!!!! WE ARE NOT GOING AWAY!!!!!!!!

I could go on about how I was stolen from, violated, lied to by some ignoble journalist, but what's the point?

I choose light.

Love Jimmy.

The Smashing Pumpkins are back in the studio recording a new single (reported earlier) that will be available this September.

The new single will be titled G.L.O.W. and is the first studio effort from the band since the American Gothic sessions.

The has been no word on the style or arrangement of the song at this time.

Rocket: The Final Single from Siamese Dream
Article written by sunky of Smashingpumpkins.com


This week marks the 15 year anniversary of the release of Siamese Dream, and to celebrate this event I wanted to give a special focus to the release of Rocket, the song and the single. The fourth and final single from Siamese Dream is known to be both a rare collectors item and a song with a meaning that symbolizes the entire Siamese Dream era, but due to a limited release is sometimes over shadowed by the other singles from the album.
With the well known intro we've all heard hundreds or even thousands of times in our lives, there is still that unmistakeable shiver you get when you hear Billy Corgan sing ... "Bleed in your own light ...".

"There's this line from the song 'Rocket', 'Bleed in your own light'. I wanna fuckin' bleed in my own light, not in Kurt Cobain's, not in Perry Farrell's. I wanna go down in my own fuckin' ship. That's what I'm about." - Billy Corgan [1]

We all have our own take on the song, but I think we can agree that it was this lyric that summed up what the Smashing Pumpkins wanted to achieve with the entire Siamese Dream era: to be seen as their own band.

Rocket had everything else the other singles had; an instantly recognizable guitar intro, some of Corgan's best lyrics, that signature sound from Siamese Dream and of course a memorable accompanying video. With all of these similarities it suffered one major difference; Rocket would only be released as a CD single in Australia, a very limited 7" vinyl release in the UK (as part of the now highly sought-after Siamese Singles box set) and a radio promo in selected territories around the world.

From this somewhat commercial 'failure' would come a positive for all fans. We would have a rare collectors item that most of us are still willing to part with good money for.

It wasn't just the limited numbers that propelled Rocket into instant rarity status but two more attributes that would see this become a prized piece of Pumpkins history. After many discussions with a number of collectors over the years it seems to be the general consensus that in addition to the limited physical release of the single, both the artwork and b-side 'Never Let Me Down Again' contributed to a Rocket becoming a special part of any fans collection.



The Artwork

To make a collectable limited release single even more collectable, you make sure the cover artwork is designed by the lead singer of the band. Billy's child-like hand drawing for the CD and 7" vinyl releases had a subtle relationship to the video clip of Rocket which tells the story of four children building a rocket to fly into outer space.

The front cover of an abstract person reaching out their hands would be one of the first times the number 7 would appear in any Smashing Pumpkins artwork. The symbolism of this would become relevant many years later during discussions of alchemy and philosophy in the Machina era.

With the CD release consisting of a slim-line jewel case with a simple typed track-listing on the liner insert, the 7" vinyl release would see a stick figure drawing of the 4 members of the Smashing Pumpkins along with the tracks Rocket and Never Let Me Down listed.

You can see some close-up scans of the artwork on SPFreaks: Rocket (CD Single) and Rocket (7").

The B-Side: Never Let Me Down ... or should that be 'Never Let Me Down Again'?

Yes, that's right there was an obvious error on the artwork. The word 'again' was dropped from the title of the Depeche Mode cover 'Never Let Me Down Again', a track from their album Music for the Masses. However this was commonly how fans of Depeche Mode and even the band themselves referred to the title of the song.

With the typo aside, the song itself soon became a rarity for all Smashing Pumpkins fans as the limited Rocket single release was the only way to hear it. To really appreciate the rarity of this song at the time you have to remember the lengths one had to go to in 1994 - no CD burners to make copies and no internet to upload a MP3 on your blog for fans to download. It took real effort to find a copy of this 'holy grail'.

The cover was chosen to pay tribute to Depeche Mode, a huge influence on the early 'goth' days of the Smashing Pumpkins. In 1998, D'arcy made mention of the influence in an interview with Undercover Magazine: "I was intensely into Depeche Mode' when I was 17". [2]. In the same interview she goes on to mention that the song was recorded practically in one take on September 12, 1993 at the BBC Studios in London, and the same session would spawn the another well known cover: 'Landslide' by Stevie Nicks.

Even only with this one take the Smashing Pumpkins transformed this song into their own, stripping it back from the keyboard synth-heavy original and turning it into something that couldn't even be defined as 'the Smashing Pumpkins sound'. It was a new sound. A new style from this young band and gave fans a glimpse into the variety of sounds and capabilities of the band.

This remarkable tribute was the last puzzle piece that added to the rarity of the Rocket single. Pumpkins fans fell in love with this cover. Depeche Mode fans loved how the Smashing Pumpkins re-interpreted the original. Dave Gahan, lead singer of Depeche Mode had this to say about the Pumpkins cover:

"I particularly like the Smashing Pumpkins version of 'Never Let Me Down', because it's kind of like the opposite of what you'd expect the Pumpkins to do with it. I actually like their version a lot better than ours." - Dave Gahan [3]

To say that you prefer somebody's cover over your own original version is more than just a passing compliment.

The song would eventually be the opening track to the 1998 star-studded tribute album to Depeche Mode - "For the Masses" and this would be the first time that 'the masses' in the Smashing Pumpkins fan base were able to buy a CD with this song on it. This release however didn't affect the rarity of the Rocket single for Smashing Pumpkins collectors. Most likely it had the reverse effect as it introduced more people to this cover and in turn more fans started to seek out this original release.

Alright, so where can you find a copy?

Who knows what the small indie record store around the corner has in the bargain bin? Its always worth a look, right? A safer and more accessible option is obviously online stores or auction sites like eBay, but if you want to add this single to your collection, be prepared to part with some money. Over the years I've seen copies sell for $150 US plus. But if you're a collector, to own a copy of this rare disc is definitely worth every cent.

Obviously you can't put a single dollar value on any item, it comes down to sentimental value and how much you're willing to part with in order to secure another piece of the puzzle and ultimately a Pumpkins collector's 'holy grail' item. At the end of the day, these are rare endangered Pumpkins items, so if you do stumble across one make sure they go to a good home and know that you're preserving a piece of Pumpkins history.

THE SMASHING PUMPKINS TO DEBUT NEW SINGLE "G.L.O.W." AS PART OF DOWNLOADABLE SONGPACK EXCLUSIVELY FOR GUITAR HERO(R) WORLD TOUR
In-Game Model of Vocalist and Lead Guitarist, Billy Corgan, and "Today" from Four Times-Platinum Album Siamese Dream To Rock On-Disc at Launch

Santa Monica, CA - September 2, 2008 - The Smashing Pumpkins, one of rock's defining and most acclaimed bands who've sold over 30 million albums, is coming to Activision Publishing, Inc.'s (Nasdaq: ATVI) Guitar Hero(R) World Tour in a ground-breaking way as the band will debut their new single "G.L.O.W." exclusively in the game. This marks the first time a band has recorded a new song exclusively for the franchise which will be released afterwards, giving Guitar Hero(R) fans exclusive access to Smashing Pumpkins music before anyone else. The new track, bundled with two other rocking Smashing Pumpkins hits, "1979" and "The Everlasting Gaze," will be available post-launch of the game as a three-song downloaded content pack.

Additionally, on-disc with the release of Guitar Hero World Tour this fall, The Smashing Pumpkins' singer, songwriter and lead guitarist Billy Corgan will appear as an in-game character and will bring with him "Today," the band's smash hit from their pivotal and four-times platinum 1993 album Siamese Dream. "Today" is one of the band's many hits that have defined the alternative music era and continue to resonate on modern rock radio, influencing a whole new generation. Players will be able to experience the unique alternative rocker's likeness in-game as he sings and shreds on guitar, or play as the revered rock star throughout their vocal and axe careers.

When the house lights go down this fall, a new generation of guitarists, drummers and fearless frontmen will come together and rock with Guitar Hero World Tour. The latest installment in the #1 best-selling video game franchise of 2007, Guitar Hero World Tour transforms music gaming by expanding Guitar Hero's signature guitar gameplay into a cooperative band experience that combines the most advanced wireless controllers with new revolutionary online* and offline gameplay modes including Band Career and 8-player "Battle of the Bands," which allows two full bands to compete head-to-head online for the first time ever. The game features a slick newly redesigned guitar controller, drum kit controller and a microphone, as well as an innovative Music Studio music creator that lets players compose, record, edit and share their own rock 'n' roll anthems. Music creators will also be able to share their recordings with their friends online through GHTunesSM where other gamers can download and play an endless supply of unique creations.

Guitar Hero World Tour is being developed by Neversoft Entertainment for the Xbox 360(R) video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PLAYSTATION(R)3 computer entertainment system. The Wii(TM) version is being developed by Vicarious Visions. The PlayStation(R)2 computer entertainment system version is being developed by Budcat. The game is rated "T" for Teen by the ESRB. For more information on Guitar Hero World Tour, please visit http://www.guitarhero.com.

About Activision Publishing, Inc. Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision Publishing, Inc. is a leading worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment and leisure products.

Activision Publishing maintains operations in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Spain, the Netherlands, Australia, Japan and South Korea. More information about Activision Publishing and its products can be found on the company's website, http://www.activision.com.