I am a lifelong Petula Clark fan and in the past have helped compile official and legal issues for Sanctuary Music, their predecessors (Castle, Knight, Sequel) of Petula’s and other artists (Sandie Shaw, Gary Miller, Cleo Laine etc). I thus have had contact over the years with various staff from Sanctuary and allied labels.
Some months ago I was contacted by Roger Dopson (who I had not been in contact with for some years) who stated he had moved from the now virtually defunct Sanctuary label to a new label Acrobat, which was being run , he said, by Bob Fisher who I had contact with previously.
He asked for my advice on an EARLY YEARS public domain boxed set which I stated I would give. I suggested that a double CD of Petula singing public domain standards would sell best in my opinion.
He then said that Acrobat also owned rights to a Petula Clark album but they were unsure of its release history (i.e., really had no idea what it was). I got him to read me the track listing and it included thesongs GIVE IT A TRY and MAD ABOUT YOU. I thus knew that this was the Jango sessions. I asked him if he was certain Acrobat had the rights and he assured me this was so. I have no idea whether or not this is true.
I told him the history of the set and he said that Acrobat were going to issue it and he asked if I had the original issue. I of course did and agreed to lend it to him so that Acrobat could scan the original pictures and issue it as it had been intended. Many companies have issued this with completely misleading photographs (mainly 1960’s but occasionally 1950’s and some snap shots that were not flattering). I duly lent him the CD by post so that he could scan it (he assured me they had master tapes).
Not long after Roger Dopson sent me a tracklisting of a boxed set which dismayed me. It was clearly a joining up of well researched prestigious releases on the Jasmine and Sepia labels (even the titles were annotated in the same way as on these releases). There were certain very rare tracks that could only have been sourced from existing releases. I was dismayed. In particular he has listed a song from THE HUGGETTS ABROAD film which had never been issued commercially and which had Petula’s co-stars chatting in the middle of it . This was to start the first CD.
I felt this a very poor commercial choice and felt they had not sourced the song from the film but had merely copied the now issued copy from the recent CD on Jasmine.I emailed Acrobat and told them my feelings regarding the CD. Their reply was that they were the experts and that they did not want or need my help. Very strange considering they had traced me (my email having changed) and had specifically requested my advice.
I told them I wanted nothing to do with them or their label and that in no way was I to be mentioned on their releases. I also asked for my GIVE IT A TRY CD to be returned. Over several months I emailed Roger Dopsonabout 8 times demanding its return. I then contacted Bob Fisher several times by email. From Mr Dopson I got no reply but Bob Fisher did reply.
Eventually about 2 weeks ago after many more emails I got my CD back in the post. The following day I got an email from Roger Dopson, somewhat hysterical in nature, stating that Acrobat was going out of business except as a download only company. I can forward this email to you if it will be of interest.
I am the owner of an acetate from the 40’s which had no issue until 1994, when I gave rpm records permission to use it for three years. This is its one and only issue – the track is called GET WELL SOON. I notice that Acrobat have issued this on their boxed set and I repeatedly asked for an explanation. Eventually Bob Fisher admitted in an email that they had sourced it from the rpm CD. He stated this was legal as the track was public domain. Not so – the publication date is 1994.
On their box set they quite childishly state in the notes (largely borrowed from ones written me for other sets – without any permission from me to use them ) that Harry Richards did not want to be mentioned. (My name being Richard Harries). As opposed to not mentioning me as required by me. Most offensive. I feel that this company have acted in a disgraceful and reprehensible way. If I had realised the sort of business they were I would not have had any contact with them .
Yours Sincerely
Richard Harries
PETULA CLARK 
It goes to show how very little Acrobat know about the business in which they are in – it’s no wonder that they have had to recently make most of their staff redundant – their CEO was even dismissed.
The Give It A Try collection of songs which is re-records plus 2 new songs has now been released in almost every country of the world in some 50 different guises. Why does Acrobat think that a product costing GBP 6.99 is going to sell?
Early Years 4 CD Box Set
The level to which this company has lowered itself to in relation to a 40s / 50s box set released by Acrobat earlier this year has been ripped from a number of CDs, this was later admitted by a member of its staff. A CD master can easily be made simply by ripping and collating tracks from various CDs creating a rather uneven CD master. Acrobat didn’t even pay to have these tracks re-mastered – they chose instead to take from small labels such as Jasmine and RPM. For this, this box set has a list price of GBP 16.99!
These releases by Acrobat SHOULD BE AVOIDED AT *ALL* COSTS. -SMW for http://www.petulaclark.co.uk
It seems that things have gone from bad to worse for Acrobat Music. Having seen an advert for their CDs in the magazine Record Collector (Christmas 2008 No.357 issue), I tried to visit their website, which was mentioned in the advertisement, only to receive a “Forbidden You don’t have permission to access / on this server” error message. Google searches pointed to the same URL, so it wasn’t a question of an incorrectly printed address in the advert. Perhaps Acrobat has now gone out of business completely.
The latest editions of the ‘British Hit Parade’ series were supposed to be released on Monday 12/1/09. According to the Amazon website the release date is now 23/2/09.
Does anyone know what is going on with Acrobat? Surely Amazon must have received details of the revised date for them to publish on their site.
Interesting comments from Richard Harries on the Give It A Try collection from Acrobat. I have not been able to locate a genuine CD (it is generally available from download sites) with the liner notes by Richard Harries. I would like to read them, can they be posted here, since Acrobat appears to be out of business.