Release Lillywhite Recordings Campaign
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An online campaign founded by Dave Matthews Band fan Pankaj Arora, formed in efforts to urge RCA Records to release a shelved set of Dave Matthews Band recordings commonly referred to as the Lillywhite Sessions. As stated on the campaign’s website:
The Official Release Lillywhite Recordings Campaign (RLRC) was founded by a fan for the fans with the goal of ensuring the band realizes the enormous demand and desire for the studio versions of the songs produced with Lillywhite, and with the hopes that they will at the very least simply consider possibly releasing the works after realizing the immense demand and desire for it. It could be another CD, they could freely distribute the album across the Internet as the Smashing Pumpkins once did, they could give it to people who donate blood—it doesn’t matter, it would be great to have the opportunity to enjoy the hard work the band and Lillywhite put into the recordings.
The significance of this campaign comes in several forms. First, the grassroots campaign recruited over 10,000 fans that supported the cause, with their feedback delivered directly to RCA Records by the campaign. Second, in 2001, the campaign was featured on many popular media outlets including MTV, VH1, E!, Rolling Stone, and Entertainment Weekly -- publicly catching the attention of the band and its publicist Ambrosia Healy [citation needed], as well as producers Steve Lillywhite [citation needed] and Steve Harris -- an accomplishment considering its grassroots nature. And finally, in 2002, the band returned to the studio to record Busted Stuff, a CD containing new treatments of much of the Sessions material, along with newly written songs "You Never Know" and the hit single "Where Are You Going?," successfully fulfilling the mission of the campaign.
Due to the campaign’s media coverage and popularity, there is some belief that it may have influenced the decision for an official release of the tracks—perhaps among other factors such as the controversial leak of the The Lillywhite Sessions. The record company and those directly involved in the album release have refused to confirm that assertion, while independent sources have gone as far as stating that the campaign may have worked and/our pushed along the cause. Regardless, due to the Sessions leak and the release of Busted Stuff, the songs are indeed now widely available. Dave Matthews—in a Rolling Stone article mentioning the campaign—stated in response to the widespread demand for the Sessions tracks, “I do feel vindicated that my faith in these recordings is shared by so many other people.” Busted Stuff debuted at #1, and contained the Top 40 Single Sessions remake of Grey Street.
[edit] References
- Gaslin, Glenn. "Dave Rave", Entertainment Weekly, May 2001.
- Heller, Greg. "The Long, Botched Summer: The birth, death and rebirth of a DMB album", Rolling Stone, July 2001.
- Johnson, Tina. "Scrapped Dave Matthews Band Sessions Available On Napster", MTV, March 2001.
- Jaquith, Waldo. "Interview with Steve Harris", Nancies.org, October 2002.
- Harkness, Geoff. "Side Notes: Not your 'Everyday' CD", Lawrence Journal-World, July 2001.
- Boucher, Geoff. "Though deemed too dark to sell well, a ditched Dave Matthews recording thrives on the Internet", Los Angeles Times, June 2001.
- Bosley, Eric. "Dave Matthews' Latest: Busted Stuff", Campus Hook.
- Fox, David. "Bootlegs on the Internet - Dave Matthews Band Lillywhite Sessions", University of Florida - Interactive Media Lab Project, Spring 2002.
- Jaquith, Waldo. "Busted Stuff Debuts at #1", Nancies.org, July 2002.
- The Official Release Lillywhite Recordings Campaign. Archive.org. Retrieved on November 26, 2006.
