Singer Tom Waits fails to stop hit show using his songs

Paris (AFP) – US singer Tom Waits failed Thursday to halt a hit Paris horse and dance show from using his songs without permission, a court source told AFP.

The cult California songwriter, famous for his croaky “cigarettes and bourbon-soaked” voice and his ballads from the underbelly of US life, wanted the acclaimed equestrian show “They Shoot Angels, Don’t They?” pulled.

He is also demanding half a million euros ($562,000) in damages.

The show, a mix of dance, circus and theatre using horses and actors, was a huge critical success last year for the world-famous Zingaro troupe.

Its theme of death and laughing in the face of horror came in the wake of the first Paris terror attacks.

Called “On acheve bien les anges (Elegies)” in French, it is set to begin a new run later this month at Zingaro’s specially built theatre in northeast Paris.

Waits, 66, said Zingaro had used 15 of his recordings without asking him and had also been inspired by the downbeat “universe” of his ballads.

“I had the feeling someone had emptied my pockets while I had my head turned,” he told the French edition of Vanity Fair magazine last month.

Zingaro, which is led by charismatic director Bartabas the Furious (real name Clement Marty), had denied any wrongdoing.

The theatre’s lawyer, Sophie Viaris, told AFP that it had got authorisation to use the songs from the relevant French authorities and had paid “considerable royalties”.

Days after the show opened jihadist gunmen massacred 90 people at the Bataclan concert hall in another wave of attacks on the French capital that left 130 dead.

Viaris said several attempts had been made to mediate the dispute amicably and that Bartabas was “extremely pained by this affair”.

She said they had never attempted to hide the American bluesman’s influence on the show. 

The court ordered Waits to pay Bartabas and Zingaro 2,500 euros each in costs, a court source told AFP.

The ruling does not affect a separate case the singer is bringing against the theatre for using his work without his permission.