AUDIOSLAVE Cough Up Cash For Rights To Name

The following article comes to us courtesy of NME.com:

AUDIOSLAVE, the supergroup featuring former members of SOUNDGARDEN and RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE, have handed over $30,000 just to share their name with an unsigned Liverpool, UK band.

AUDIOSLAVE were formed in 2001 with ex-SOUNDGARDEN singer Chris Cornell on vocals and RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE members Tom Morello, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk.

Here, NME.com can unveil the original AUDIOSLAVE — an unsigned four-piece from Liverpool. The group were approached by US lawyers when the American AUDIOSLAVE were worried they might be confused with their English namesakes, who are more used to playing low-key gigs around the North-West.

The Liverpool AUDIOSLAVE, whose rock songs include "Everyday's A Hangover", "We're All Fucked Now" and "Enemy in Me", have now come to an "amicable settlement" with Cornell and co.

Singer Christopher Price, who works as a nurse in the A&E Department of the Royal University Hospital in Liverpool, said: "We'd had a few messages posted on our website from fans telling us that an American band was trying to steal our name — but we didn't take them seriously at first. Then, one day, our manager got a call from the US to say they were interested in negotiating a deal — and it was then we decided we should get a solicitor involved. But we're all big fans of the American rock scene anyway, and we felt quite chuffed they wanted our name."

The band's manager, Dave Hession, said: "When the Americans first contacted us they made us an initial offer of $5,000 and said they wanted exclusive use of the name, but we thought this wasn't enough for the effort for we'd put into the band. So, eventually, they upped the offer to $30,000 and agreed that both bands could use the name AUDIOSLAVE — which is an indication of the respect they had for us."

The solicitor who brokered deal, Francis McEntegart, added: "Both parties have signed a concurrent use agreement, which means both bands can continue calling themselves AUDIOSLAVE, as long as they don't try to use misleading marketing - when they're on tour for example."

AUDIOSLAVE – that's the Americans – release their debut album "Audioslave" on November 19.