In 2008, a fire engulfed a Universal Music Group warehouse in Florida, but it wasn't until last year that exactly what was lost was revealed. Now, the record label has confirmed that original recordings of albums by Nirvana, Soundgarden, Slayer, R.E.M., and Elton John, among other artists, were lost.
Confirmation of the losses has now emerged, 12 years after the fire, with a New York Times revealing that the record label never notified the artists affected by the accident. As a result, names like Hole and Soundgarden have filed a lawsuit against Universal.
According to Rolling Stone , as part of the process, the groups asked the record label to list all the recordings that were lost. In response, Universal revealed that the original recordings of 19 artists were “damaged or destroyed” in the fire.
The artists who suffered from the tragedy were: Nirvana, Soundgarden, Slayer, REM, Elton Hohn, …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, Bryan Adams, David Baerwald, Beck, Sheryl Crow, Jimmy Eat World, Les Paul, Peter Frampton, Michael McDonald, Sonic Youth, Soundgarden, Suzanne Vega, The Surfaris, White Zombie and Y&T.
The list seems short, but Universal had revealed that more than 17,000 artists were affected by the fire, according to lawyer Howard King. "Now that they are being sued by the artists themselves, they say that only 19 artists were affected. The discrepancy is inexplicable."
In its defense, Universal said it kept some copies elsewhere, on vinyl and/or tape, but did not specify which artists had their artwork saved by the backup. The master of Nirvana's Nevermind appears to be "lost forever," as is almost all of Beck's catalog.
