LEAVING THE BUILDING

'The Lucrative Afterlife of Music Estates' is the sub-title of this engrossing tome which gives incredible insight into the management of every aspect of a deceased musician and pop star's posthumous career. For example Roy Orbison had a massive selling album with the RPO on the back of a nationwide solo 'tour' followed by another with 'Buddy Holly'. Surreal and true since he was already dead. 'I can't waste time mourning. There's plenty of people ready to come in and cut the ground from under your feet.' The words of Colonel Tom Parker following Elvis Presley's death might appear cold and heartless, but they distil the essence of a music estate's duty to keep a dead artist alive - at least culturally and economically. Music estates generate staggering sums of money each year and they are the reason many artists have longer and more lucrative careers in death than they had in life. Featuring interviews with some of the biggest music estates in history (Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix, Whitney Houston) the book looks at the importance of the Will, complex companies and trusts, debts, charitable donations, 'The second marriage tinderbox', DNA tests, when a bank runs the estate, the elegant renaissance of Nick Drake and Eva Cassidy, branding, policing bootlegs, stepping into Prince's private world, museums and property, management and lawyers, rights and catalogues, historic sexual abuse claims and litigation and the long history of the holographic resurrection. A whopping 502 pages with a Forbes Posthumous Rich List of the value in millions left behind with Elvis Presley appearing in the top five every year since 2001.