There are subtle ways of telling a band they're really not fit to be on your record label's roster, and then there's the way you do it if you're EMI in 1980. Which is pretty straightforward and a little bit brutal.
Journalist Bart Gabriel posted on his Tumblr a little while back the amazing rejection letter Venom received from EMI in 1980 after submitting a demo. You might have to read this letter twice to really get the message, because EMI were serious wordsmiths:
Not that EMI needed the band to make money since they had acts like Iron Maiden, but Venom raked in a pretty hefty amount of money over the years due mainly to the fact they pioneered black metal with Welcome to Hell and Black Metal in the early 80's. Nice guys.
[via Metal Insider]
