Andrew Lloyd Webber: PEBKAC

[snopes]

Comment: The QE column in the June 5, 2007 Chicago Sun Times claimed that
Andrew Lloyd Webber's cat climbed into his electronic piano and deleted
the almost completed score for Phantom of the Opera II. I cannot find
anything to substantiate this. I told the patron that this was probably a
tongue-in-cheek spoof by QT but my patron is sure it is true.

[Bryan With a 'Y']

Problem Exists Between Keyboard and Cat?

ETA: All together now:
Oh,
Well, I never!
Was there ever
A music critic like Magical Mister Mistoffelees!

[Morrigan]

Well, I'm not sure if the score was deleted, but he is on board for the sequel, called "Phantom of Manhattan."

http://www.broadwayworld.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=16517
http://www.topix.net/who/andrew-lloy...hattan-planned
http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/enterta...up.-35193.html

[Morrigan]

As for the cat: "Andrew Lloyd Webber’s sequel to The Phantom Of The Opera is one of theatreland’s most anticipated events.
But, I can reveal, a bizarre mishap means that it is likely to be longer than expected before it reaches the stage.

Lloyd Webber, 59, was working on the score at his computerised grand piano when his six-month-old kitten Otto clambered into its frame and managed to delete everything he had written so far.

The digital Clavinova piano has an inbuilt computer and the ability to play back thousands of songs from its memory.

But Lloyd Webber was unable to recover his work from the high-tech instrument after Otto, a rare-breed Turkish Van, had done his worst.

Says the composer: “I was trying to write some new music; Otto got into the grand piano, jumped onto the computer and destroyed the entire score for the new Phantom in one fell swoop.” "

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/liv..._author_id=230

Morrigan

[Nonny Mouse]

Otto was obviously miffed that Webber wasn't working on a sequel to Cats.

Nonny

[Mouse]

No, Otto was clearly a Gaston Leroux fan in disguise. I've read parts of The Phantom of Manhattan and that book is an abomination in print.

[chillas]

Originally Posted by Morrigan

Says the composer: “I was trying to write some new music... [snip]

Sounds like this is just a preemptive warning that the music for this show is going to sound exactly like the music he wrote for all of his other shows.

How talented must that cat be to delete an entire score >.>

Surely his piano doesn't have a one-touch, no confirmation, delete absolutely everything button?

[Tarquin Farquart]

The cat had good taste. (Cheap shot I know!)

[Richard W]

There was a similar story in Private Eye's Funny Old World section this week, about a fire at the fantasy writer David Eddings' house in January that may have destroyed his manuscripts. I was going to ask, but this one does seem to be true, despite the source:

Novelist accidentally burns down office

Fantasy writer David Eddings, 75, said he was using water to flush out the gas tank of his broken-down Excalibur sports car, when some fluid leaked. In a lapse of judgment he readily admitted, Eddings lit a piece of paper and threw into the puddle to test if it was still flammable. The answer came in an orange torrent.

The Daily Mail article seems to be the usual cited source for the Andrew Lloyd Webber story. Shame Wikipedia changed the first version of their account - it's funnier than the current one.

[Troberg]

Well, at least he'll do proper backups the next time.

Originally Posted by Troberg

Well, at least he'll do proper backups the next time.

I work in the music software industry, and have yet to hear of anyone doing scoring on a digital piano. Sequencing -- definitely. Scoring (where an actual printed score is the final product), not so much.

My guess is he had knocked out some initial dry-runs and "recorded" them on the piano, and they got deleted. That's a far-cry from "my publisher-quality score was just deleted", though.

-Tim

In a lapse of judgment he readily admitted, Eddings lit a piece of paper and threw into the puddle to test if it was still flammable. The answer came in an orange torrent.

Moments like this in my own life sometimes make me wonder how I'm still alive. And give me a great amount of sympathy for some of the "What a stupid accident" victims. Sometimes, curiosity makes me the most impulsive idiot on the planet. And it often involves fire...

[Kris Takuya]

Originally Posted by EricB

Sometimes, curiosity makes me the most impulsive idiot on the planet. And it often involves fire...

May I please have this for my sig line?

Certainly, I'll feel famous And err...embarrassed :o

[TrishDaDish]

Originally Posted by snopes

Comment: The QE column in the June 5, 2007 Chicago Sun Times claimed that Andrew Lloyd Webber's cat climbed into his electronic piano and deleted the almost completed score for Phantom of the Opera II.

I think it's was Roger Waters' cat. Good lord above, he can't stand Andrew Lloyd Webber for Phantom, since he believes Webber ripped off a chord progression from the Floyd 1971 song Echoes.

We cower in our shelters
With our hands over our ears
Lloyd-Webber's awful stuff
Runs for years and years and years
An earthquake hits the theatre
But the operetta lingers
Then the piano lids comes down
And break his nfbsking fingers
It's a miracle

-It's A Miracle, Roger Waters

[inkrose115]

Originally Posted by EricB

How talented must that cat be to delete an entire score >.>

Surely his piano doesn't have a one-touch, no confirmation, delete absolutely everything button?

My BILs cat knows how to wreck my BILs computer by walking on the keys. Ctrl-Alt-Delete here I come. Then he gives my BIL the look which says 'You were ignoring me. So there!'