Bittersweet Royalty Des Plaines Rebirth
Richard Ashcroft
Twenty-two years after the Verve’s “Bittersweet Symphony” was released, vocalist Richard Ashcroft
announced that "the Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger and Keith Richards had assigned to him the songwriter
royalties and rights to the song, "which samples one of their compositions, and removed their writing cred-
its. The songwriting royalties and rights had been assigned to Jagger and Richards in a legal dispute around
the time of the song’s original release in 1997," according to Variety.
Ashcroft’s statements regarding the history of the “Bittersweet Symphony” situation is quite a tale.
“Over 20 years ago Richard Ashcroft wrote one of his most important songs, “Bitter Sweet Symphony,” but near
the end of the creative process, a four-second sample of an Andrew Loog Oldham orchestral recording of The Last Time
was sampled and used as a loop in the backing track. Permission for the use of the recording was obtained but for what-
ever reason at the time permission for the use of the song was overlooked. By the time the mistake was realized a huge
number of copies of the “Urban Hymns” album had been manufactured around the world, and the record company
was reluctant to scrap them. They were confident they would be able to do a deal with the publishers and convinced
Richard to allow the release of the album as it stood. However, Mr. Allen Klein, the owner of ABKCO, was very pro-
tective of his copyright and the only deal that he was prepared to do involved Richard effectively signing away all of his
rights in one of his most iconic songs, including the total lyrical content.
Richard has endured that loss for many years.
A few months ago, his management decided to pursue a strategy which any number of people had been told over the
years was a futile course of action with zero chance of success. They decided to appeal to Mick Jagger and Keith
Richards directly to try to regain the song for Richard to the extent it was within their power to do so.
Mick and Keith immediately, unhesitatingly and unconditionally agreed to this request. Incredibly generously and
as an indication of what great artists and men they are, they have agreed that to the extent it is within their power they
have given Richard his song back.
R
on Onesti, Operator of the acclaimed Arcada Theatre in St. Charles, is
expanding his musical empire. Last month Onesti signed an agreement to
serve as Operator of the historic Des Plaines Theatre located at 1476
Miner Road in downtown Des Plaines.
Since 1925, the Des Plaines Theatre has served as a historic landmark, debut-
ing as a vaudeville theatre and later as a first-run movie theatre. The venue is a
Spanish Baroque Revival treasure, featuring a distinguishing marquee which has
made it symbolic of the city for generations. The theatre has been closed since
2014. Onesti told IE, “This is something I’ve been looking into for over ten years.
The most exciting part is the community and municipal support for the project.
I consider it an honor and a privileged responsibility that is very important to
me, and I look forward to bringing excitement back to the community and this
iconic city landmark.”
In 2018, the city of Des Plaines, with financial assistance from Rivers Casino,
purchased the theater property for $1.275 million intending to have it restored
and operated as an entertainment center. The city of Des Plaines unanimously
approved Ron Onesti to become the new Operator of the theatre, which is sched-
uled to re-open later this year. The building is currently gutted, and Onesti is
designing the interior with plans to include a 700-900 seat theatre, two restaurant
spaces, and a retail location. The beloved marquee will also be restored. Onesti
said, “The city has given me a tremendous piece of clay to mold into something
breathtaking.”
Fyre Water
06•2019
Music Family Reunion
T
hose who caught Hinder on their latest tour may have seen Seattle-based heavy alt-rockers The
Adarna as the opener. The Adarna are celebrating the band’s 10th National Tour by joining Hinder,
Saving Abel, and American Sin as part of the Lucky 7 Tour. In the past, The Adarna has headlined
nine solo tours, not afraid to focus on less conventional rock venues including anime/comic conventions,
schools, and DIY shows. What makes their appearance at Q Bar in Darien on June 29 extra special is that
it features a first-ever brother and sister musical match-up. Guitarist Andreka Jasek performs in the head-
lining band (The Ardana) and her brother, Zig Jasek is the drummer for the opening band, emerging, local
classic tribute rockers 8-Track. The Jasek's parents divorced when the siblings were young, and their mom
kept Andreka in Seattle, while their dad took Zig to Chicago. This show is the first time the siblings will
perform together. The Jasek musical family reunion takes place on June 29th in Darien.
6 illinoisentertainer.com june 2019
Former Netflix creative director Mike Cessario has acquired $1.6 million to
bring his punk rock water, Liquid Death, his direct-to-consumer canned-water
startup to prime time. Not kidding, the tall-boy cans don’t contain malt liquor
– it’s just Austrian Spring Water. According to Business Insider, “Cessario is
familiar with eye-catching marketing, having worked on viral promotions for
the Netflix original series "House of Cards," "Stranger Things," and "Narcos."
He tapped into his background playing in punk and heavy metal bands to
come up with Liquid Death, because, he says, "nothing's better than water at
murdering your thirst." "When we first started, we wondered why is it that
products and [consumer packaged goods] products have to play by these 1950s
bland and boring rules, while other entertainment things can play by much
more fun rules," Cessario told Business Insider.
"Cessario's "straight edge" contemporaries were looking for a water brand
that spoke to them, instead of to "Whole Foods yoga moms," as he puts it.
Straight-edge punks are sober, Cessario said, but still otherwise all-in on the
punk lifestyle."
Liquid Death is available exclusively on their website. "Interested customers,
punk and not, can purchase the sustainably sourced Austrian water in 12-packs
of tallboy cans. Cessario said that while his company was initially designed for
straight-edgers, he's still selling a product — that is, water — that could appeal
to any demographic" with money to burn. Liquid Death sells for $19.08 for a
twelve pack at liquiddeath.com.