So by the end of 1985 MAUSOLEUM was in desperate need of cash. We needed money to pay ICP studios up front, or otherwise they wouldn’t allow JOS KLOEK to finish mixing the KILLER double live album STILL ALIVE IN EIGHTY-FIVE, which we had recorded with the high-priced DIERCKX MOBILE studio. And this was a release that could have solved quite a few - if not all of our problems - since we had a realistic sales expectancy of around 30.000 units. So with only four tracks of the KILLER album mixed, and the remaining master tapes stuck in the studio, JOS and I decided to stage the second coming of the SHOCKWAVE INTERNATIONAL HEAVY METAL FESTIVAL. We had organized such an extravaganza the year before, at the height of MAUSOLEUM-mania, with KILLER, WILDFIRE, OSTROGOTH, CROSSFIRE, LIONSPRIDE, BLACK WIDOW and with special guests RAVEN, a NEAT RECORDS act who were also immensely popular in those days. The festival had not only proven a great promotional showcase for our artists, but we had also made quite a bit of money on the night. We decided that the 1985 epic scheduled for October 5th, 1985, at the LIMBURGHAL in Genk, should even be of more extreme proportions than the previous edition.

The task was not to be underestimated since by this time there were only three of us left at MAUSOLEUM: JOS KLOEK, my assistant JAN DE GEEST, and myself. BLACKLACE were conveniently touring Europe, so they would be present, and we also invited FAITHFUL BREATH, MCCOY, CROSSFIRE, LIONSPRIDE and TSA. In the end ALASKA - a band fronted by BERNIE MARSDEN, guitar virtuoso and founder member of WHITESNAKE - also turned up. We not only recorded the whole festival with the intention of later releasing several live albums, but we also filmed the whole marathon show, since I had pre-sold the visual rights to VESTRON, a now defunct American video company.

Alas the festival was by far not sufficiently successful to dig us out of the hole we were in, and FILMTRAX, the London based Media Company who had brokered the video deal with VESTRON, furthermore cheated us out of the bulk of the income from that project. So the KILLER master tapes remained unmixed at the studio, and there were very few presents under the Christmas tree that year.

JOS, JAN and myself still released a few mediocre albums in the beginning of 1986 but sales understandably dwindled so that the income barely kept us alive. We effectively threw in the towel in the spring of 1986, but the damn company refused to die. All mechanical copyright had been paid to the last penny, and since the beginning I had been paying most of the recording costs out of my own pocket, which in retrospect turned out to be a blessing since it allowed me to retain ownership of some masters after the demise of the label. So paradoxically the business didn’t have that large a debt. We did have a very substantial liability of approximately $ 150,000 towards the bank, which - with a lot of help from my parents and by forfeiting my lifesavings - I personally reimbursed. We had also racked up a debt of more than $ 100,000 towards the bank’s offshoot factoring firm for which I had personally singed, so I was obliged to resolve that debt also, albeit ten years later. In later years a few artists vociferously complained that they had not been paid all of their royalties. And though it is certainly true that some of them fiscally suffered from the bankruptcy, some chose to conveniently ignore the fact that they had received advances, tour support, merchandise, or in certain cases simply had not recouped recording budgets. A few inflated egos boastfully exaggerated the sales figures of their own records, in the end convincing only themselves of the accuracy of their fantasy arithmetic in order to sustain their fairy tales about being owed lots of money. Rival labels, envious of our past success, and the gutter journalism of certain not-so-honourable so-called-journalists, of course often gratuitously fueled these fictional sagas. The truth being that only myself, and absolutely nobody else lost the big bucks.

Finally on October 22nd 1986, ELDORADO ENTERTAINMENT & COMMUNICATIONS, the parent company of MAUSOLEUM RECORDS, was officially declared bankrupt, thus ending part one of the story of the legendary heavy metal label. Stay tuned for part two, because next month we’ll enlighten you with chronicles about MAUSOLEUM from the 1991 resuscitation onwards, once more featuring yours truly, KILLER, and other great rock bands such as NAZARETH, ANVIL, ROUGH SILK, JOEY BELLADONNA, VOIVOD, to name but a handful.

Alfie FALCKENBACH
Founder
March 2002

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