Man To Sue Placebo Over Their Debut Album Cover - Music News, Reviews, Interviews and Culture - Music Feeds

Written by Kiel Egging on 23rd June, 2012


The man featured on the cover of Placebo‘s self-titled debut album is planning to sue the band for using the pic without his authorisation – and for the events which have taken place after it.

News.com.au reports that 28-year-old unemployed chef David Fox told UK paper The Times that the picture of him (as a 12-year-old) being used on the hit album severely disrupted his life.

The image of Fox in a red jumper tugging at his cheeks was taken by his cousin, who was a professional photographer.

He later phoned to tell Fox that the picture was becoming the album’s cover image.

Placebo’s self-titled debut album was a huge success, and Fox says being on the cover of the popular album led to him being severely teased and bullied by his peers – and forced him to drop out of school.

“Within a week it was out in the shops”, said Fox.

“It was in Virgin, it was in HMV, it was in Tesco, it was all over the place. I was watching EastEnders with my mum and I saw one of the billboards by the Tube station and it had my face on there.”

Fox said he is using his mother’s savings and “every bit of spare money” he has to file a lawsuit next month.

he should be suing his cousin who took the picture who obviously allowed the band to use the picture.

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hum, he sues now? after all these years? and yes, if anything he should be mad at his cousin.

this is like vampire weekend 2.0

Really. Why now? If it was that, ahem, distressing, why did his mother not initiate action back then instead of waiting 16 odd years to say "Uh, you're going to sue? Wonderful, here's my life savings..." If the bullying indeed caused him to have to drop out of school, him and mummy should have struck while the iron was hot, in terms of the "trauma" and proposed legal action.

Personally, if I were a 12 year old, I would have thought being on the cover of an alt.rock album would have brought around choruses of "**** yeah!" and "awesome!" from my peers, it's not like his image was used on a New Kids On The Block album or something. Come to think of it, you don't hear the guy whose infant image appeared on the cover of "Nevermind" blithering on about how it subsequently messed up his life...What's next, the kids from the cover of "Siamese Dream" suing retrospectively as Billy Corgan went from "maverick" to "despotic, pretentious tosspot", thus causing them untold anguish?

Nah, I definitely would have got the **** kicked out of me if I'd even admitted to liking Placebo. Agree that it's a bit odd that he's waited so long to bring legal action against them though. Can't really see him getting anywhere with it.

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Gradually decreasing the quality of my own obituary.