HE gave us ‘The Ballad of Joey Johns’, and for that we are eternally grateful.
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But Newcastle folk/alternative musician Joshua Ballico, who performs under the name Bofolk Ballico, wasn’t done.
He’s put together a band, Nah Mate, whose first release, a full recording of the unofficial Newcastle anthem complete with a new video dropped last week, and the group plan on releasing more original rugby league-themed songs.
As well as Ballico, Nah Mate consists of Sam Cupitt (vocals), Ryan Cox (harmonica and electric guitar), Dhare Labbe (bass) and Andrew Greentree (drums). But for ‘The Ballad of Joey Johns’ they were also assisted by Shaun Danger on electric guitar and Spencer Scott on bass.
We wanted to know what other songs the band might cover, and suggested maybe a Cliffy Lyons themed tune that centered on his penchant for rolled cigarettes and inch-perfect inside balls.
“I don't want to give too much away, but I'll say that we discuss Newcastle rivals in one of our songs,” Ballico said.
“We also flashback to the 2002 Origin series and discuss one of our favourite commentators. “The attention received by the original video was enough to make me think there was an audience out there for these songs. “A niche. “But after recording the original I practiced the song with my band. “It went really well live and sounded great with a full band. “That's really what motivated me to make this recording and video. “Sam Cupitt had endless lyric ideas that were all worth pursuing.
“The songs will not exclusively be about Newcastle players, but will all be sung from a Novocastrian perspective.”
MONKEY LAWSUIT SETTLES
IF you’ve done a communication degree, a media law course or shown any interest in copyright then, chances are, you’d be familiar with the monkey that took a selfie.
In 2008, British nature photographer David Slater traveled to Indonesia to take photographs of the critically endangered Celebes crested macaques.
But the case, which is now referred to as Naruto et al v David Slater, didn’t gain wider public attention until the photographs were published as monkey self-portraits by a news agency in 2011. And we’d hoped that a recent US lawsuit over who owns the copyright to the selfie photographs snapped by Naruto would finally, once and for all, answer the novel legal question.
But, alas, the thing about courts, particularly in the US, is if they can settle a case without proceeding to trial, they will.
Under the deal, Mr Slater agreed to donate 25 per cent of any future revenue to charities dedicated to protecting crested macaques, lawyers for an animal-rights group said last week. They said they would seek to dismiss the case pending before the San Francisco- based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sued on behalf of the macaque monkey in 2015, seeking financial control of the photographs for the benefit of Naruto. Lawyers for Mr Slater argued that his company, Wildlife Personalities Ltd., owns worldwide commercial rights to the photos, including a now-famous selfie of the monkey's toothy grin.
Slater argued that he engineered the photographs in 2011 by travelling to an Indonesian jungle, spending three days with a troupe of monkeys to gain their trust and deliberately making his camera accessible to the animals to take photographs.
A lower court ruled in the photographer's favour, saying that animals could not hold copyrights. The 9th Circuit was considering PETA's appeal. The lawyers notified the appeals court on August 4 that they were nearing a settlement and asked the 9th Circuit not to rule.
