Maiden Split from Sanctuary

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The Sanctuary Group PLC has announced that IRON MAIDEN has not renewed its management agreement with the company. Rod Smallwood, who co-founded Sanctuary in the late '70s, discovered IRON MAIDEN in 1979 and managed them ever since, will also leave Sanctuary simultaneously and will continue to manage the band at his new company Phantom Music Management. Smallwood will also be retained as a consultant to Sanctuary for an initial six-month period. In the meantime, Sanctuary has signed MAIDEN to a new long-term contract for tour, retail and licensing of merchandising rights worldwide with Sanctuary-owned Bravado and has signed the band to a new recording agreement for the USA for their new album "A Matter of Life and Death". Sanctuary Records already has USA rights to the majority of MAIDEN's extensive and valuable catalog and will continue to coordinate with the band the release of new product based on that catalog.

Comments Sanctuary Group CEO Frank Presland: "Although we are obviously sad to see the band and Rod depart from a management and company standpoint we are delighted to be able to continue with the band long term as their worldwide merchandiser and U.S. label. MAIDEN are renowned as one of the biggest-grossing bands in the world in all aspects of merchandising with their distinctive Eddie T-shirts worn by multitudes of fans everywhere and for record-breaking merchandising grosses at major venues all over the world. Our label is also delighted to show what it can do by putting the band's new album in the Billboard Top 10 for the first time, at a time when the band are rapidly increasing their U.S. record-selling and touring base. The MAIDEN catalog has always been our biggest seller in America and we look forward to a fruitful ongoing relationship on this and new product based on the catalog.

"The parting with Rod and MAIDEN is entirely amicable and we are delighted that Rod has made himself available to Sanctuary as a consultant and look forward to a long and valuable relationship with him and the band. All at Sanctuary wish them both the very best for the future."

Adds Rod Smallwood: "It's obviously a bit of a wrench leaving Sanctuary after all these years but at this time in my career and with the band's ever-increasing international stature it makes total sense for me to concentrate on developing the band's huge potential in the many areas of what is now a very complex and time-consuming business. The band and l leave many friends at Sanctuary and we wish them and the company every success in the future and look forward the continuing successful relationships in merchandising and U.S. records."
I can see that nobody cares.
 
Well, I'd be curious to know what led up to this split ... I heard about the financial problems at sanctuary, just like everyone else, but there has to be a lot of heavy duty stuff involved for a founder of a corporation to leave like that, wonder if he was bought out and so forth, so that he doesn't have any financial interest there anymore. It's probably a good thing for Maiden tho, because it looked like Sanuctuary was getting so huge that maybe they were getting lost in the crowd or not always high on the priority list, tho there probably wouldn't have even been an Sanctuary Group in the first place, without the marriage between Rod and Maiden all those years ago.

I wonder if the new Phantom company will aslo manage other artists, too ? - since Maiden don't tour or record all the time anymore, tho their assets probably do require a lot of time to manage, as the press release implies.
 
Onhell said:
So what if we don't? I mean, thanks for sharing, if that's what you're looking for.
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A point could be made that Maiden and Smallwood don't need Sanctuary as much as Sanctuary would like to have Maiden on their books. So on that note, we need not be worried - if indeed we were - it's not the end of Maiden.

But it is news nonetheless that Maiden fans would appreciate to know.

If it is, as our Rod states, they could "develop the band's huge potential" by moving away from Sanctuary (I would not argue that Rod knows what he is doing) then maybe this is good news for the band.

Conor said:
I can see that nobody cares.
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Oh and Conor, some of us have to work during the day - so forgive us for not posting during this time. ;)
 
Sanctuary Music in 1979 ... Phantom Music in 2006 ... at this pace, Rod will start naming his company after songs from Killers around the year 2222. :bigsmile:
 
SinisterMinisterX said:
Sanctuary Music in 1979 ... Phantom Music in 2006 ... at this pace, Rod will start naming his company after songs from Killers around the year 2222. :bigsmile:
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:lol:
 
SinisterMinisterX said:
Sanctuary Music in 1979 ... Phantom Music in 2006 ... at this pace, Rod will start naming his company after songs from Killers around the year 2222. :bigsmile:
Click to expand...

Maybe our descendants will be around to see 'Legacy Records' :innocent:
 
After reading Rod's statement, and giving it a second thought, I think this move is probably the best thing for Maiden all the way around. If Rod is focusing all his energies on the band, how can that be a bad thing? They also won't be straddled down by other Sanctuary concerns and priorities. I bet things will bust right through the roof for them again after this because the timing seems to be right again, and Rod might be able to focus his iron-will and expertise on them again the way he did early on, hopefully maximizing what they've been building up these past few years.
 
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