Joss: I'll pay £2m to quit EMI

By [lvennells] louise vennells

SOUL sensation Joss Stone is ready to pay up to £2 million so she can leave the record label EMI because she has "no working relationship" with the company, according to reports.

The singer, from Devon, has even gone to the lengths of recording a song, called Free Me, about her desire to leave – but the company, which was bought up by private equity firm Terra Firma in 2007, is taking legal action to make her stay.

According to the Mail on Sunday, EMI has accused her of failing to deliver the master tapes to her new album, Colour Me Free.

It claims she is prepared to give up £1.2 million from a £7.5 million advance she was given in 2006, as well as £800,000 that will be due to her when the album is delivered.

Ms Stone is one of a string of stars to fall out with EMI since the corporate takeover. Among those to have left are the Rolling Stones, Supergrass and Radiohead, and Robbie Williams is embroiled in a bitter row over his next album.

The label was losing money before it changed hands, because of the consumer appetite for downloading from the Internet. But artists now say that the label is no longer about creativity, but is purely financially driven.

The album, her second for EMI, was recorded early last year in just over a week at Mama Stone's, a venue in Somerset owned by Ms Stone's mother Wendy Joseph.

Insiders say the singer had expected to deliver the album late last year so that it could be released in April.

But sources say she has become increasingly frustrated with EMI since it was taken over by Terra Firma.

An insider said: "Joss has completely lost faith in EMI. It's all pie charts and products and there's no creativity.

"She has no working relationship with them and no confidence they will support her or market her album properly.

"She's actually prepared to pay £2 million for her freedom – that's how bad it is. She wants to give back this money from her advance to EMI so that she can get out of the deal. Then she'll release the album some other way."

The star, who shot to fame at 16, signed a £7.5 million four-album deal with the company in December 2006.

Almost half the amount was put in a special "escrow" holding account, controlled by accountants OJ Kilkenny, to be paid to Ms Stone when she delivered each of the albums to EMI.

But EMI claims in a lawsuit lodged at the High Court against OJ Kilkenny that she failed to deliver the second album in time for the deadline of December 31, 2008.

EMI wants OJ Kilkenny to pay back £1.2 million from the escrow account.

But it has refused so far because Ms Stone's lawyers dispute the claim that she has not delivered the album.

Ms Stone is not named as a party to the court case but at a hearing on June 22, she is expected to make an application to be named as co-defendant.

The source told the Mail on Sunday: "Joss has already agreed to pay back the money and forgo another £800,000 she would receive for delivering the album.

"But instead of signing the deal, EMI has started this lawsuit."