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SAN FRANCISCO
Paul Kantner sued for using 'Starship' name
Band's ex-manager says trademark is being infringed onBob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, March 23, 2007
The jousting Jeffersons, more noted for litigation than music since the glory days of the Airplane and Starship, are back in court with a suit by their former manager, joined by vocalist Grace Slick, accusing guitarist Paul Kantner of illegally exploiting the Starship name in concerts and promotional contracts.The suit, filed Tuesday in federal court in San Francisco, says Kantner -- who has been touring for more than 15 years under variations of the Jefferson Starship name -- is violating trademark rights and an $80,000 legal settlement he signed in 1985, a year after he left the band.
In exchange for the money, Kantner promised never to perform as Jefferson Starship and never to use the names "Jefferson'' or "Airplane'' without consent from Slick, the majority shareholder in Jefferson Starship Inc., the suit said.
Kantner's current band, which sometimes includes Airplane vocalist and co-founder Marty Balin, is one of the many incarnations of the Jefferson Airplane, the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame band that pioneered the "San Francisco sound'' in the mid-1960s with hits that included "Somebody to Love'' and "White Rabbit.''
After the band was grounded by feuds and a lawsuit, Kantner and Slick formed the Jefferson Starship in 1974, taking the name from a Kantner solo album. Slick stayed on after Kantner left, and had a few more hits, including "We Built This City,'' before the band folded in the late 1980s.
Kantner started performing in 1991 as Paul Kantner's Starship, while Mickey Thomas, another ex-Starship vocalist, has been touring under the name of Mickey Thomas' Starship. Kantner and Balin's use of the Airplane name in a 2000 concert tour brought another lawsuit and an injunction. Two other original Jefferson Airplane members, Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady, still perform as Hot Tuna.
Follow Ups:
tear down the walls mother trucker- We are all outlaws in the eyes of amerika-in order to survive we steal live fast get high forge and deal- we are obcene dirty dangerous and violent and dumb-Up against the wall Up against the wall Tear down the wall tear down the wall
There once was a note Pure and Easy,playing so free like a breath trickling by. It's all in one note, Just Listen!
... if the suit is to stop Kantner using the name Jefferson Starship, and he is playing as Paul Kantner's Starship it appears to be a non-starter as he isn't using the name.
Once again the old truism that the only people getting rich are the lawyers and drug dealers seems at least half right.
Wasn't there a moment in JS history where more members used to be in The Elvin Bishop Band than any previous Jefferson ... line-up?
I seem to remember that.
Ah well, they used to want to fight for the planet, or the end of the war, now there's just the money.
Plus ca change...
Mickey Thomas and the drummer Baldwin (can't remember his first name...) were with Elvin Bishop for a few years before they were in the Starship thingystuff. I agree about the lawyers and the drug dealers, though at this point with these folks it's probably the legal drug dealers, aka the pharmaceuticals. That's were the big dough is to be had...
"I always play jazz records backwards, they sound better that way"
-Thomas Edison
and who was once in a band with Dave Jenkins from Pablo Cruz. That band with the 2 of them I road managed and struggled with to get them recognized.....
Donny and Mickey did play with EB, however neither were original members of the JA. I, of course, had a senior moment and read the question as being Jefferson Airplane.
I cannot recall the name that Dave and Donny had for that band....things were so screwed up that some guy that Dave knew invited us all up to his "ranch" in Oregon to live and practice for a northwest bar tour. So we all load up all the crap and after a couple of weeks we set off. During that 2 weeks I lined up something like 20 gigs. We arrive at the "ranch" and our housing consists of several 2 man pup-tents along the river. There was a nice wooden stage to practice on. Nowhere on the entire "ranch" (about one acre) was there electricity. Needless to say we slunk back to Palo Alto and the whole shot at fame evaporated.....
After my house burned down, my girlfriend and I were taken in by Phil and Joni Scoma, he of the Chocolate Watchband. Phil introduced me to DJ and DB.
Nice trip down memory lane
Saw him many times with EB, a band I saw more than any other. At the height of his popularity, circa 1976, EB would play the Old Waldorf in SF frequently and a friend of a friend would open, so we'd get in on the guest list. Some pretty great shows, and EB's music was always perfect for accompaning the drugs and the booze AND the booze and the drugs, which we consumed with wild, passionate abandon. Another friend lived with Elvin's sister and I vaguely remember a party at their place with members of the Marshal Tucker Band and EB's band. Vaguely.
Must have been a good party...I was jelly in this period of time. Grape I think, but possiblly a muti-fruit blend.
Nice rememberance from you about your experience(s) with Jenkins and Baldwin and sorry to hear the about the subsequent tragedy of Phil Scoma.
"I always play jazz records backwards, they sound better that way"
-Thomas Edison
I went looking on the net for Phil Scoma.....I am not at all happy with what I found.
He seems suspiciously young.
how many Phil and Joanie (looks like she remarried) Scomas can there be in a small town? It explains his absence at the recent Chocolate Watchband reunions...not an original member....but a player in the band...
I have been deeply bummed out to see this turn of fate. A couple who reached out for me and RJ when we only had our clothes we were wearing at the time, a car and our 2 cats. Took us in, fed us, bought us clothes, gave us shelter and cried with us.
Phil could nail you to the wall with his guitar artistry.....
the singer Danny Phay died when he fell asleep in bed. This was in Shady Grove, Oregon. I had been drinking shots with him earlier that night.
I will now have a drink to the days of old......
- http://www.amazon.com/Melts-Your-Brain-Not-Wrist/dp/B0007RFONE/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-4448155-9581464?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1174786632&sr=8-1 (Open in New Window)
bleep
none played with Elvin, however there were numerous jams....I recall none of them for at the time I was jelly.
...that Starship was as bad a band as has ever been cobbled together, it's pretty pathetic that he wanted to tap into its legacy.
In 1970 Paul Kantner got a group of California musicians together and released a legendary solo album, "Blows Against the Empire" . IMO one of the finest albums to ever be recorded. He caled the group Paul Kantner's Jefferson Starship . Later he renamed the remnants of the Jefferson Airplane the Jeffereson Starship.
...the name became synonymous with the worst sort of rock dreck and it surprises me he'd want to bring it back.
Yes, it is one of the finest ever recorded. The second side is killer.
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