Simon Cowell 2009 NME Cover

I haven’t read the whole article but I’m sure by later today, I will add fuel to the fire. Simon Cowell on the front cover of theNME ( New Musical Express, what was once a highly influential paper for discerning record buyers. Repeat WAS) It created intrigue, I didn’t buy a record because of a review but I was curious enough to want to hear it and make my own mind up as how to dispose of my precious disposable income. It was there to whet our appetites and were slavering, hungry and ready for our nourishment. Now the NME matters not and they have splashed the nemesis on the front cover. Nothing is any different from the last five years that Simon Cowell has reigned and all things Simon Cowell continue to dominate the ‘coveted’ Christmas Number One.

First question, why is it coveted? Maybe once it meant something, now it’s a forgone conclusion. And before you jump up and tell me Rage against the Machine pipped him to the post for the first time in half a decade, so what? It won’t change anything, it’s an outcry, we’ve had them against wars, politicians,you name it we’ve voiced it. The public gets on it’s high horse and voices it’s opinion. Within a week Joe X Factor Winner will be outselling Rage against the Machine, everyone will be full of festive bird and trimmings and it’ll be buysiness as usual.
And so to the NME article. And let’s be totally honest here, written to get people to buy a paper they no longer care about. Because the nemesis is on the cover. Whatever you think of Simon… he is bigger than Swine Flu and far more contagious. He changed the way we watched television (we being a generalization) and he changed the way people bought records. He got them to watch his programs and to buy his records,  whereas most recently they bought very few records and didn’t give a fuck about music on television. Arise M(MUSIC????) Televison??

Let us debate.From said article…

Simon Cowell believes he single handedly managed to save the industry from ruin, he says in a new interview with NME. Things were looking pretty grim before he started with the two shows ( X Factor and Britain’s got Talent ). Cowell says and the fact that he managed to get such high ratings on TV boosted interest in the music the contenders on the show made. One thing lead to another, and more and more people started going into music stores to buy music, which would not have happened otherwise, the star says.

“The music industry was in a huge decline. What I would argue in my defense is that shows like Britain’s Got Talent and The X Factor have actually got people more interested in music again and are sending more people into record stores. We haven’t seen this kind of uplift in years,” Cowell tells NME. In making this statement, he also comes to contradict other stars who claim that these two shows only bring out the worst in the industry, in that they artificially promote manufactured pop stars who have no staying power – this, despite the fact that some of those who appeared on the show have gone to sell millions of albums all over the world, like Leona Lewis and Susan Boyle.

Correct, more people did go in to record stores to buy music, but not music as such Simon, they bought YOUR music. He says he single handedly saved the industry from ruin. Again I beg to differ, he saved SONY/BMG from ruin and for that they pay him more than most labels turn over nowadays. I don’t think he saved Universal from the disastrous year they have just had and the massive sums of money they had to be seen to invest in new albums from U2 etc to look like they were playing the game. Which when all is said and done is the incessant, mindless game of catch up. He’s already lapped you several times over, you’re on the starting blocks…….No particular place to go! While Simon Cowell saved the music industry, Universal laid off a bunch of people. Where lies the saviour in that? And  next year… there will be even more redundancies. The music industry is incapable of keeping up with him, because he is more gifted than them in knowing what the  people want. And now he has the only shows that people watch that have music on. He can pick and chose what wannabes and what stillhavetobes are on it. He is the only kid in town, the only one with that choice.
Call it the dumbing down of record buyers, call it apathy, call it what the fuck you want but nobody does it anywhere near as successfully as Simon Cowell and every A and R person in the music business wishes they had and ounce of his midas touch. But they don’t . They cannot lead and they cannot follow, they scratch their combined heads and they have no answer. Simon Cowell will dominate for as long as he chooses to , there is no deposition in sight and he ain’t abdicating. He is too powerful. He started the battle and he won the war. In the music industry people used to be constantly looking over their shoulders to see where the competition was, from wherever. That’s what made it exciting, everyone vying for pole position. You pip someone, they pip you. We were a nation of pippers, now he’s Pip Central, he’s piped the lot of ‘em and they’re all totally pipped off.

Where is the competition, where lies the challenge?  He’s so adept at it now, it can’t be demanding. He’s even working with Clive Davis and Simon Fuller who also know the ropes better than the competition. All for one and one for all… these Three Muskateers all sit under the BMG empire.

I worked there and with all them for 7 years in the 90’s and directly with the two Simons. Clive Davis probably didn’t know me from Adam and he never invited me to his pre Grammy’s Party. For that I am eternally grateful, I hate puking at parties. In those days it was a different set up and a different level of success. Like most record companies, they had success and then they didn’t. I saw Simon Cowell rise from nothing and I know what he has that his competitors don’t have……. belief, resilience and an ability to deliver, consistently. More than the rest of them put together. You may not like it but you can never underestimate the power he has in knowing how to do it. He may appear he’s bitching about RATM but he’s just winding everyone up, he’ll love the fact that he creates so much controversy that a nation must rise against him

The first of many rants I suspect. I will return but for now, Merry Christmas Simon.

There’s a lot going on and I’m really lucky to have a team of highly talented people around me to help me with the stuff I’m totally crap at. I just found out I’m shit at a bunch of things but it’s the more technical stuff really thats take me an eternity to get my head round. I love what it can do but I get frustrated at the time it takes to get it right. I’m amazed to watch people do ’stuff.’ Wow, cool is getting cooler. Wouldn’t it be cooler than the cool of cool if someone invented ‘non nerd voice recognition pro tools.’ Software that you can say ‘Edit the stuff out where I sound a twat’ and it does. Mmmm dangerous though, letting a machine decide your level of incompetence. Anyway I think I know what i’m trying to say. Read on and you all might get a chance.

In fact my techo slow go is why I never became a producer. The band would have written another album before I’d recorded the first. Maybe I’m good at people and not machines? That’s OK. If you get on with a computer and you work well you can’t go grab a beer together after work can you? As it happens I like people, a few have let me down over the years but that happens. You dust yourself down and move on. Another slice of life, a stab at growing up. Shit, I don’t want to do that!

You’re lucky you’re at the end of a computer screen, I’m unbearable right now. I’m so excited about where we’re going with all this, so totally fired up and the people I’m working with all are here for the ride too. They can identify my crap better than I can identify it myself. They’re crap savvy. Position people where they work best and everyone benefits. It’s what motivates us all, we are seeing it all start to take shape.

Interpersonal skills are what got me this far, I think. And if they didn’t then I’m fucked because I’ll have no one to talk to. I even want to teach people about people now. How to work with those you admire and how to tolerate those you don’t. Music schools teach students to be adept at pro tools but that’s no good if you don’t know how to interact with a human being. Who’s going to want to work with anyone who’s a plank?

It’s a bit early so I’m all over the place. I’m currently writing to do lists  but it’s a bit early for that too. I can’t read some of them and I can’t find the others.

And now the sun’s coming up.

Later.

Much as I want to promote this I want to start writing my next one, it’s a killer and the sooner I get started then the sooner I’ll be able to bleat on about it and get repetitive. All I’m saying is that it will involve a whole host of colleagues from over the years.

I will have my You Tube channel up and running by weekend, it’s registered and it’s going to be called TM TV. It’ll be full and feisty and fun at the same time. Got lots of ideas on content.

The plan was to release the book early in the New Year and set it up properly, but I don’t do properly very well so we’ve arrived at a compromise. There’s going to be a limited edition number of copies until the full launch, all signed. I sign them and send you a pencil and you write the number of copy on it. And when you go on holiday you take your book with you and you ask the person next to you on the plane what number theirs is then same again when you get to the hotel. Guests, receptionist, concierge, the lot of them. How else will you know the full value of what you own? If you find someone with the same numbered book send them both in and you get a refund, payable with 10/16  weeks.

Call it marketing. Well call it what you want, like I care?

Just look at the obscene amount of money being spent on yet another comeback. Is she running out of money? Clive should have told her she’d been making shit records for too long instead of proving yet again how artist’s careers are down to him. Wasn’t it last comeback time he recruited a bunch of people to appear on the album and sing with her. Help a Whitney time again. We’ll be having Whitneythons next.

She was the crooner and balladeer for eternity, but since when did eternity have a place on earth. There’s ballads and there are crap ballads……Dolly, I will never forgive you for letting her do that song. ‘Whitters’ made it her own and turned it in to an anthem, albeit at funerals but hey, it’s a powerful song and she sung it well. And she can sing, it’s just everything else that comes out of her mouth. Do we need  Oprah to give her the voice to tell us that Bobby Brown was a train wreck? He’d been a write off for ever, it’s his prerogative. Weird business when you can make a career out of one song. And it’s OK for her to spill out her drug addiction now to win back her fans. Are we supposed to feel sorry for here since she helped to settle Peru’s national debt?

Well there’s a suprise, she’s got a new record out. Funny how you don’t do these things when you DON”T have a record out and you’re on the front page of a newspaper looking like a char woman but less sexy. What’s the point, there’s no money to be made and you can’t let us know ‘I’m back.’ Cos you’re not, you’re slipping out the back.

Just go away, this is (was) a business about embracing new talent and unless you’re relevant (Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin or The Pink Floyd and there are plenty more, just not you , luv) you’re history, and not good history at that. It’s about the great records you gave us. Step up to the table and tell me one great record you’ve plastered your name and face all over? There aren’t any, you just have a mentor who or for some reason thinks you walk on water. My cup runneth over, you suck.

I could go on forever about you woman but it’s still more publicity and you don’t deserve it, you’re just one of those people that can’t stand the thought of being ignored. Well hopefully the world will realize that you’re a waste of theirs and everyone else’s money.

How can you justify what I just read in the Sun newspaper….

Her comeback could cost her a whopping £6.8million.

That’s the amount leading accountancy firm AAT has calculated it will take for the pop queen to launch a comeback in these credit crunched times. The legendary solo artist’s record label faces shelling out £675,000 for an album, £5.6million for a world tour, an image update at £16k and nearly £11k for a team of hairdressers, stylists and make-up artists.

And in the current economic situation that’s nothing short of obscene. Money that could be spent on new exciting talent that record companies no longer want to spend. Well how can they when they are to spend THAT on THIS. How many careers could you launch with that instead of habitually reigniting the dying embers from someone who should have long since faded. How many of those talents would ever be afforded two days on Oprah seeking forgiveness(record sales)

Whitney Houston never did any promo when she didn’t have to, and now she does she gets the biggest show on earth. If God had a chat show she’d be the first guest. Now the reality is that no one would give a toss whether or not she made a record, it just means that whatever they need to spend to make her feel the Queen of all Divas they will. And they do even though she KNOWS she’s the Queen of the Divas. She invented it.

Bye bye Whitney, gone and forever forgotten you’d hope. But as long as Clive Davis is around how many more Whitney Houston comebacks will we be forced to endure. If you’ve gone away, there’s a reason. Please stay away.

I had a great time earlier in the week when I went over to see my friend Paul’s band ‘Jealous’ playing in Orlando and met some really nice people. I had to laugh though, I was invited on to a panel where they were discussing everything from the current scene to how an Orlando band perceived going to the UK and vice versa. All was fine until the moderator Chris asked me a question and the tape ran out. I apologized but told him ‘You asked me what was Insights from the Engine Room all about then. Bad question!

To be frank though (Frank who?) I’m really not apologizing at all, on the contrary I’m really pleased I’m in total promo mode. I’m on the verge of a new career and I’m letting nothing slip. If people are interested to hear what I’ve done over the past thirty odd years then I’m happy to talk to them. When all is said and done, once a promo guy, always a promo guy.

I spent a huge part of my working career setting up radio, TV(and in the early days press) for up and coming acts which included multi million selling acts like U2, Matchbox Twenty etc and I know as well as anyone the importance of having the media buy in to what you’re doing. Back in the day it was very different but when it all comes down to it nothing really changes, it’s still about getting in front of the right people. Back then it may have been a TV show or on the radio, now it could be a blogger, podcast or somewhere else on the internet. It may be somewhere else altogether but one thing I know for sure, as one thing becomes popular something else comes along to replace it. You contantly need to be on the look out. What’s right for your career might be wrong for someone else’s. Let one person know and they’ll tell someone else, one becomes ten, ten comes a hundred. But you need to start somewhere.

Writing the book, telling stories and offering up advice from my side of the fence has given me an overwhelming urge( Now if there was ever a need to change my name by deed pole it should be Tony Overwhelming, it’s got that ring to it!) I digress, an overwhelming urge to help bands on the way up and to put some ideas in their head, send them away with something to think about. You can have the most talented , creative people in the world who just haven’t afforded themselves the time to think,’ right, what next?’

As the website takes on a life of it’s own and I hunt down the people who know the answers to a bunch of the questions let’s see if we can make a difference to someone and help to give them the motivation. Not just the motivation, there are plenty who have that but are sadly lack in other areas. Let’s see if we can help them to make others believe in them in the way they believe in themselves.

But now, I really am here. No excuses, just plenty to say. So many things have gone on these last few weeks that I’ll be hard pushed to cram a full update in this one note. Suffice to say nothing will keep me away from, at the very least a couple of blogs a week to bring us both up to speed. It’s wonderful how a change from everything energizes you, new people, new places and new beginnings. I’m sat comfortably where I want to be, writing, reading and preparing to do more of both. My book ‘Insights from the Engine Room, Lessons learned from rock and roll’ should be out by the first week in September and the timing certainly feels right. Any attempts to rush it out sooner would have been a result of my obvious impatience. Damn, I’ve written it , why can’t people read it. And with new ways to blabber and smoke (Captain Beefheart, The Spotlight kid) it’s a good time to start hollering. It’s back to plugging, the thing I know the best but it’s embracing new methods and new ways of doing things. And more than anything it’s a fantastic way to for me to learn how people find out about things. Embrace the change!

Since I was last on here the book has taken on a new lease and now it will be published by Janson Media instead of us going the self publishing route. Now everyone is helping with all the things that take up a lot more time than my just writing it. Slowly we’re getting there and everything now is becoming very real.

I have been given a great opportunity with an exciting new Social networking site called Tin Can. (www.tincan.tv) It’s a holding page for the first few weeks as August is the ’soft launch’ with everything starting to kick in for September. They have a great line up of programs with some really fascinating content and to make it even better it comes from my old home town, Manchester! I love working with good, talented, like minded people and this feels so right. here’s to help making it happen. Keep your ears to the ground and I’ll keep you updated on how you can post stuff and promote whatever you have going on, providing it’s not illegal or crap!

So now I have done the decent thing and resurfaced I need to click ‘upload’ and go write more and record more because guess what, I now have my own radio show once again. Manchester radio on line have asked if I’d like to give it a go. I’d be mad to refuse and anyway it’s been thirteen years since my last show on Piccadilly/Key 103 and I have to admit once more it feels the time is right. Mainly for two reasons, firstly the people are so enthusiastic and committed who am I to say no? And secondly it’s on the internet and not governed by all the restrictions that have taken the excitement out of terrestrial radio. If it’s good and it’s worth hearing then it’s on the internet. Made by fans for fans. Shouldn’t take me too long to get my head round the workings so I’ll sign off for now and update you with more just as soon as I get the lowdown.

Raise a glass we’re getting ready to rock!

I remember some of the great moments at Factory and the look on their faces when their records started to take off. Tony Wilson’s look of utter amazement thinking ‘How did that happen?’ That excitement sadly was the beginning of the end. We all knew they never should have moved to an office with such an insane overhead but you couldn’t tell them anything. That was the beauty of it. It wasn’t an arrogance, Factory did what Factory did and for a while it worked wonderfully. And we all loved it. It was a time and it was a place and I loved nearly every minute of it. I say nearly because I don’t think I really loved it when the collapse came and I was owed a horrendous amount of money. My immediate concern then was how I was going to keep myself afloat and my own staff in a job. Factory went, I cashed in some insurance policies in bought a barge, went off to Bali and Lombok for a holiday (not on the barge I hasten to add), shoved some money in to my company, TMP dusted myself down and careered on for another ten amazing years. It’s the things that seem the most daunting at the time that make you stronger, more resilient. When the dust finally settled I thought if I could survive that I could survive anything.

Factory was more a way of life, not to dissimilar to Island Records in some ways in that it was a bunch of people putting records out they liked, records they’d be proud to have in their own record collection. They thrived on loving what they did. It wasn’t a job, music and records was their hobby. Everything was so very different back then where  the media would respond to quality and respect what those pioneer labels were trying to do. They would join in their success. They weren’t hell bent on creating trends for people to follow they just loved it when they heard something original, something that moved them enough to write about it.

And we went from that to journalists trying to make a name for themselves by being controversial and writing reviews that would get them noticed rather than the music. And quite often reviews that you couldn’t understand. I’d find myself reading stuff and thinking ‘Does he like this’ ( I say he because it always seemed to be guys writing all the ‘look at me, aren’t I great’ pieces.’

And so change started to happen and the music business began to change. And my God did it change! What did happen seems to be a daily conversation with the people I talk to. We are all older and more reflective, we look back and think ‘Wow what a roller coaster of a ride.’ Over the coming weeks I’ll share some of those thoughts and look back. Should be fun. Main thing is I”M BACK!

I’ve just participated in a local Tampa Bay event, Homemade Music Symposium (www.artistsandwritersgroup.com) Hampton and David organized the whole thing via this for non profit organization and I’d personally like to thank them for all their efforts in staging a very cool, pleasant and informative event. Any community needs people like them to give all those grumbling out there somewhere where they come and complain about the local music scene or whatever grumblers grumble about on any given day. And who could forget Laura at BAAMO (www.baaamo.org) for all the hard work she puts in and all for the love of it. And a personal thanks for all her help, guidance and opinions on my book, presentations and life in general. Go girl!

The event was well supported by the local area music scene who turned up to play all around Ybor city. And on porches in the less than pleasant Florida summers. You deserve an award, I was frying just watching!

Panels littered the weekend offering us valuable information on press, marketing and new media. Especially interesting for me as it’s something I’m rapidly trying to get my aging head around. I’m lucky to have the panel moderator Darrin guiding me in this area. I now have a twitter account he has set up for me. My excuse for not using it, he neglected to give me the password. Twatter!

I’ll be back later with a little more , and then a little more. Followed shortly after by a lot more but for now it’s final editing stage for the book as we are putting together a digital version too. I feel like Iron Maiden with a bunch of remixes.

I’ll also let you know about twitter, just as soon as I do!

I was about to wax lyrically about the demise of the star, where he, she, they went. Who was responsible and why it was ever allowed to happen. Rock n’ roll was everything, it invented the dogs bollocks, dogs had no bollocks before rock and roll. I grew up with heroes and I want them back.

When you got in to music it was enough to reach out and want to touch any part of it. I admired the bands and the artists making the music and I wanted to be them. But I was crap and when I realised there was no chance of being one, hey no worries I was still just as happy. It was the music that was keeping my attention and keeping me happy.

I was deliriously happy, content to just be a fan but I got lucky and got to work behind the scenes but still I never lost the fan in me. No matter what happened to the business and the people buying the music it never lost my attention. Sadly though today you can read as much about the mess it’s in as you can about any artist.

I still want my heroes though. Music created stars, stars had dreams and we had dreams too. Music had so much to do with everything you did, where you went, who you went there with, who you dated and who you hated. Now I know why I never kept a diary, I didn’t need to, I could trace most major events in my life to what records were released! I know what music was played at my wedding(s) what I was listening to at school and each year I was listening to it, at college where I was when I first heared Dylan, Bowie, Hendrix, Led Zeppelin. Talk to me about David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust tour in the 70’s at the Hardrock in Manchester and I’m there. I can tell you where I stood, who I went with, who I saw there and how I even got there. I’m there!…and even weirder from someone with a self confessed lousy memory. I can even tell you how I lost it.

There’s a lot more ranting here methinks. I need to get my soapbox and return to this but right now I need to forget about the heady days of rock and roll and empty the dishwasher.

I must apologize for the lack of blogs the last couple of days but I really have no excuse, Fox soccer channel was ramped up with match after match and like I said, I was thinking. Whatever, I missed you all so I thought I’d say hello.

A New Year beckons and the challenges are there, bring ‘em on! This year was a time to reposition myself but now I’m ready to finally feel like I’ve emigrated. Managing to get my green card was one thing, preparing for what was to come I had no idea. In a weird sort of way I’m not the kind of guy to want it all there on a plate for me, I wanna go get it, make it happen. We make mistakes, but it’s all a learning curve. We weave and we wander but we, or me particularly in this instance come out stronger and wiser. And yes I do say that every year!

And so for a further slob out on the couch and enjoy Boxing Day, or what’s left of it..none if you’re American , they haven’t a clue what I’m talking about. Back to work for them and those that didn’t have to go in may have stumbled in to the malls. You can’t but help feel worried for the retailers though and the Christmas they must have had sitting there and wondering how they are going to shift any excess stock as we stumble in to a horrendous 2009. Some places were offering 90% off and buy one get two free! Everyone is feeling the pinch and battening down the hatches. The world is a worried place but stick around, shit happens.