More rock economics

Following the implosion of Hearsay, MediaGuardian sat down with a pen and a calculator and worked out that, under the controversial deal struck when Popstars was being put together, London Weekend Television have made a million quid out of the band's sales. Not from Pure and Simple - because that was heavily promoted on ITV programming, it would have been against the rules - but from the subsequent singles and albums (apparently, by then, the series' influence must have mysteriously evaporated). The Hearsay thinkspeople are miffed, saying that the "band's managers" should have been allowed to negotiate the deal after they'd been chosen, rather than just being presented with a signed deal from before the competition had started.

Thud. Let's go through this again, shall we? The people in Hearsay had no part in putting the band together. They had no part in choosing their own role, or others. They didn't od the marketing; they didn't write the songs. They didn't choose the name. They didn't play instruments. And as soon as the protective coccoon of LWT was withdrawn, the band first flopped, and then fell apart. The outrage is not that the company that spawned Hearsay made twice as much as the original members, but that the likes of Suzanne and Mylene made half a million each for being little more than the modern equivalent of Fogwell Flax.