This a difficult thing to decide but what do you think? Should BL become a famous signed band or stay as it is?

erm... bit of an odd question really cuz they were signed. I have a feeling I remember Paul commenting on being unsigned as a good thing, cuz it meant he was making the music he wanted to make, not what the companies wanted him to make... if you get my drift?

Yeah but the thing is that if they were signed they would be HUGE? I agree with what Paul said but... its a tricky question.

I vote negative based on what they have been able to do thus far without a label. As long as they can get their music out there and make enough money off of it to support themselves I think they should keep it like it is.

If they want to add a national tour to their agenda, I think it would be wise to at least get with a management company. I would imagine that doing advertising and contacting every venue without any help would be too expensive and time-consuming to do without any help.

I totally agree... it wouldn't be the same cuz there ist a label in the world who would just give free reign to artists on their work.

It's important to realize that their ability to pull off being unsigned so well is in part due to the fact that they once had access to major label exposure. At least I think so. Having been on TV, in movies, on the radio, and on national tours brought their music to a lot of people who are still around on this site buying records and t-shirts.

I voted 'no' because I'd guess that'd be Paul's and Andy's vote right now. As has already been pointed out, record labels tend to suck the soul out of anything they touch. And as someone who has interned with the (ridiculously bad) record label Roadrunner, I can say this is indeed true.

You'd be surprised what can be done without all the bureaucracy of management and companies.
I know a little about putting on shows, I've done publicity and websites for a few groups in the north of the uk, and I did it myself -- graphics images and publicity pics can all be done with a decent camera, a copy of photoshop and a website can be thrown together without you even having extensive knowledge of html.

Ofcourse all this takes time, but it does make you wonder what exactly the point would be of paying other people to do all of this when Paul and Andy have already managed to do it themselves.
And they've done a damn good job.

I voted no haveing watched what happend last time. I have no faith in the big machine and that it will not try to corrupt Black Lab. If it did, Paul would walk away again and then we would have anouther long break with nothing.

Hey Sarah, nice to see you back around here. It's been a while.

So this topic is pretty old, but this is kinda related, and really enlightening as to how "the big machines" work. I think. It's worth reading at least:

http://www.arancidamoeba.com/mrr/problemwithmusic.html

Skip the first two paragraphs at first.