From the editorial of the Concord Montior.NH







There's been a lot of theater at the State House in recent weeks: anti-tax protesters, pro- and anti-gay-marriage demonstrators, state workers picketing for benefits, home-schooled children, kilt-wearing bagpipers and more. So you can be forgiven if you completely missed the cameo appearance at the Senate Judiciary Committee by one Jon Bauman, more commonly known as Bowzer from Sha-Na-Na.

This was more than just a doo-wop nostalgia trip. Bowzer, whose claims to fame include "Rock and Roll is Here to Stay," is touring state capitals with a serious message. He's championing legislation to outlaw performances by bogus bands - upstart groups that swipe the names and music of old favorites, passing themselves off as the real deal. It's a phenomenon that rips off the consumer, Bowzer says, and hurts the surviving members of old groups who have trouble making money when the fakers will perform for less.

This is a particular problem in the doo-wop world. The Drifters (of "Under the Boardwalk" fame), the Coasters ("Charlie Brown") and the Platters ("Smoke Gets in Your Eyes"), popular in the 1950s and '60s, are most often the victims. Multiple fake versions of all three groups are performing regularly all over the country - to the dismay of the remaining originals. For a first-person account of the trouble, check out a memoir by Carl Gardner, founder of the Coasters, called Yakety Yak, I Fought Back.

Are concert-goers really fooled? Bowzer says yes. Most people don't remember what the original members looked like and therefore can't tell a Drifter from a grifter. Some of the fakers include at least one aging musician, leaving audiences to assume he must be a surviving original member - and that the band is therefore kosher. But it's not.

Existing trademark law apparently hasn't shut the fakers down. Laws that protect words, symbols or phrases are generally designed to protect products. But recording groups fall into a gray area because the performers are the product - which changes as group members change.

Bowzer's proposed Truth in Music Law, sponsored by state Sen. Jacalyn Cilley of Barrington, makes it mandatory for a live performance to include at least one recording member of the group who still has the right to use the group name or trademark. Otherwise, the act must be billed as a "tribute" or a "salute," so the public knows what it's paying for.

The bill includes the threat of fines and restitution. But in the states where such a law is already in place, most fakers end up simply making clear to audiences that they are, in fact, tribute bands.

The New Hampshire Senate, which is desperate for the public to pay more attention to the work it's doing to ease the effects of the economic recession, nonetheless made time to pass the legislation last month, joining lawmakers in more than two dozen other states. House members should too. It's a modest bill but one that may help protect the artistic rights of some pioneering musicians against the trickery of some not-so-great pretenders.