My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields Accuses Sony of Hiding Master Tapes

While fans will be happy knowing they are days from seeing reissues of My Bloody Valentine's classic shoegazer albums Isn't Anything and Loveless, guitarist Kevin Shields says getting to this point was anything but easy.

In a recent interview with Pitchfork, Shields says Sony Music was basically hiding the master tapes from him and they only reappeared after he said he'd get police involved.

"In 2002, I tried to start working on it, but the studio that had the tapes, Metropolis Studios, lost them; the analog multi-tracks were all missing for a year," Shields said. "Only after I started threatening them to get Scotland Yard involved did they magically, suddenly reappear."

Shields then went on to say Sony fell "into complete breach of contract due to various issues" which wasn't sorted out until 2011.

"And then Sony behaved very badly again -- like most sociopathic companies do, they can't help it -- and I had to readjust the situation until it was slightly fair again, and that's why stuff is coming out now."

When asked directly if Sony deliberately hid the tapes back in 2002, Shields said, "Oh, they did."

According to Shields, the 2001 contract "basically gave me ownership of the tapes." However when "the Sony regime" at the time of the 2001 contract was replaced "the tapes disappeared."

"That was relevant because even though I was the owner, it would only revert back to me if I remastered from the original tapes -- if the tapes were gone, I couldn't remaster from them and hence I couldn't ever own them."

Shields also went on to state his disappointment over Warner Bros. licensing of both albums to Plain Records in 2003 which "basically just ripped (the audio) off the CD and put it out on vinyl."

"They did an awful, terrible job," he said. "It was done without my permission and the sound quality was 100 percent wrong. It was a rip-off to anyone who bought it. But I didn't know anything about it until they were in the shops."

Although Warner Bros. did not reply or comment regarding Shields' comments, Sony Music issued the following comment to his accusations:

"We have really enjoyed working on these hugely iconic reissues with Kevin, and can't wait for the release."

My Bloody Valentine have no plans to tour behind the reissues after some sporadic touring in recent years.

In related news the band's bassist Debbie Googe has been named as Primal Scream's touring bassist. The announcement comes after Primal Scream's Mani left the group to concentrate on the Stone Roses reunion dates slated for later this year.