|
 |
 | | | | | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| | You are in: Entertainment: Music | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | | Friday, 8 February, 2002, 17:19 GMT Russell Watson at centre of legal fight  Mr Watson has sung in front of the Pope Opera star Russell Watson is at the centre of a legal fight involving two companies who say they jointly discovered him. Union Music and Arias say that Mr Watson dumped them after they catapulted the Salford singer to international stardom. They say they want their money back, having helped him on the road to stardom. Mr Watson's lawyers are disputing the claim, saying the singer does not owe his success to the companies. Breakthrough Harvey Stringfellow is representing Union Music and Arias, and said the companies bankrolled the star when he was unknown. He said: "Union Music and Arias claim that they discovered Mr Watson as an unknown. "Having spent the greater part of �100,000 developing his career, including paying him �50,000 a year salary, they secured him a career breakthrough." Mr Stringfellow said the two companies obtained a record deal, brought him to the "brink of success" and were then "dumped" by the singer. However Joseph Shammah, who is representing Mr Watson, claim his client was a "victim of their exploitation" who "mistakenly put his trust and confidence in their hands".
A High Court action was started in 2000 to force the singer to hand over the money and the legal process is continuing. It has taken just two years for Mr Watson to hit the top. Reputation While working on the shop floor of a Manchester engineering firm, he started to use his spare time for singing, performing arias in working men's clubs and local halls. His reputation spread by word of mouth until he came to the attention of Martin Edwards, chairman of Manchester United football club. Mr Edwards invited him to sing at Old Trafford at United's end of season game against Tottenham Hotspur in 1999. Mr Watson's national breakthrough was the release in September 2000 of the album The Voice, which sold 450,000 copies in the UK in its first three months. It remained at the top of the classical charts for more than a year. Mr Watson has won two classical Brit awards and has sung for the Pope. | | See also:  Top Music stories now:  Links to more Music stories are at the foot of the page. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Links to more Music stories |
 | | ^^ Back to top News Front Page | World | UK | UK Politics | Business | Sci/Tech | Health | Education | Entertainment | Talking Point | In Depth | AudioVideo ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To BBC Sport>> | To BBC Weather>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © MMIII|News Sources|Privacy  |
E-mail this story to a friend