A Guy Called Gerald says he hasn't been paid for 'Voodoo Ray'

A Guy Called Gerald, the nom de plume of Gerald Simpson, released a statement on Facebook on May 20 saying that he never received money from the sales of his single ‘Voodoo Ray’ or his 1989 album ‘Hot Lemonade’ in what he has called ‘the curse of Voodoo Ray’.

Both the single and album were released on the Merseyside label Rham Records. In his statement, Simpson says, ‘It ceased operations in 1992 when Peter Leay, the owner, disappeared, after telling me the bad news about the collapse of the record’s earlier distributor.

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‘Peter Leay had ran off with what was going to be my future. I had plans to build a studio in Manchester to develop artists like me. In the end I had to sign Subscape with Sony/CBS where I had to focus on the GCG artist project.’ Later on, Simpson was able to locate Leay and get his music signed back to him, although ‘all the original money had got tied up in a Merseyside corner shop’.

Simpson then details how, when Rham was rebooted in 2019 by a man who was Leay’s assistant, the label uploaded his music and likeness to Spotify without permission or paying royalties.

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Rham has provided a statement responding to Simpson: ‘We are aware of a recent social media post by Gerald Simpson regarding payment of royalties. We refute the allegations made in his statement, and his recollection of events. We have repeatedly attempted to communicate with Gerald and his business manager in order to pay royalties due to him, but he has not so far acknowledged us. If Gerald would like to contact us we will be happy to send any money currently due to him immediately.’

There has so far been no public response from Simpson.

Jemima Skala is Mixmag’s Weekend Editor. Follow her on Twitter

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