July 4, 2000 14:35

'..KISS' CHASE LEADS TO LEGAL WRANGLE

A row breaks out over how the new version of [b]Lil Louis[/b]' 1989 acid house smash should be credited...

Josh Wink has run into a legal wrangle with Pete Tong's label ffrr over his version of the LIL LOUIS' acid house anthem 'FRENCH KISS'.

The record is due to be released in the US on Ovum label at the end of July, but a worldwide release is not likely until agreement has been reached over how the Wink version will be credited.

Speaking to www.muzikweekly.com, the DJ claimed that ffrr, who own the licence for the Lil Louis original, which reached Number Two in 1989, agreed to issue it under the new title 'How's Your Evening So Far?' and credit it to Josh Wink Feat. Lil Louis. But when promo copies were sent out by the label last week, it was under the name 'Lil Louis Vs. Josh Wink' and labelled the 'Wink UK Mix'.

Speaking in Ibiza, Wink said: "They're putting out promos with the wrong labels on them and everything, and I found that out last week. So I called my lawyers, and said 'Hey, send them a letter saying this isn't how it's supposed to be. They (ffrr) apologised, and said that they just had to get it out."

"I sampled one little thing from the beginning of the record, I cleared the sample legally in the United States. Our label went the legal, respectful way to Lil Louis and cleared the sample, paid the money, paid the union fees for it, then we couldn't clear it for the world because ffrr had the record. We haven't signed anything until this date, even though [the label] is going around saying they have it, it's on ffrr and it's a Josh Wink mix."

Despite the wrangle over the credits, the track, which was written in June last year and played out last summer by Wink, is shaping up to become one of the biggest tunes of the year in Ibiza.

Wink added: "People want the Wink mix of this record - and it's not a mix, it's a version, that's the thing."

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