The glorious days of radio and the pirates seem to come and go all too quickly, but what a memorable time it was for all of us that had the opportunity to experience those rebels at sea doing what they passionately believed in, giving us the chance to hear great music. All day every day.

Sadly the Marine Offences Act became law at midnight on August 14th 1968, and battle as they did, the pirates slowly, one by one sank.  In 1968 the UK’s national ‘official’ station Radio One launched off the back of the demise of the pirates. After crushing any competition it wasn’t going to be hard for them, the public had been left with nothing.  They were owned by the BBC and they were funded by license payer’s money. Everyone who had a TV license was contributing to radio, whether they liked it or not.

Then the independent radio stations started to spring up.  Piccadilly Radio in Manchester, BRMB in Birmingham, Radio Clyde in Glasgow, and Capital Radio in London were four of the first ones.  Radio One poached some of the pirate DJ’s, guys like John Peel and Tony Blackburn, and  Johnny Walker, a pirate through and through and one who stayed loyal even when they were banned. I often find it hard trying to explain to people just what pirate radio sounded like back then but it’s so very hard. All I know is that there never has and never will be anything quite like it ever again. Even as they were sinking they still sounded as new and as fresh as the day they were born. It was revolutionary then and it’s still revolutionary now.

Simon Cowell the next Oprah?

Looks like Simon Cowell is about to surpass Tiger Woods and maybe the sponsors will have a new kid in town. Simon has so much money but I don’t think he’s even tapped in to that income stream yet. I wonder why? By his own admission he does this to make as much money as possible which begs the question, how much money does any one person need? How much is enough? Clearly the motivation is power but when power surpasses wealth as the reason you get up in the morning, we have scary monster. Power wants more power until the frenzy becomes fueled by the desire to dominate. One person is taking over the media, they are about to do whatever he says. Whatever Simon touches turns to gold and we are a society of gold diggers or at least the media is. They are not the miners but they are the mine. ‘Dig me up and give me a career,’ they are saying and if there is a chance to work with Simon Cowell they will. He is their lifeline, grab his coat tails and do as he says, it works. Power to invincible power.

Simon now will be looking at Oprah and thinking, that’s me in two years. As Oprah steps aside at around that very same time, Mr Cowell will be poised. I can see them polishing their silverware. What is left, why not sit on her throne?  You have proved your popularity and after all how many more times do you really want to sit through the auditions of American Idol and assemble the first two programs of people humiliating themselves in the name of fame. Famous for being talentless, allowing a baying mob to laugh hysterically and take that laughter to the pub. Film an audition for the sole purpose of entertainment. Since when did nothing mean something?

Arise Sir Cowell I knock you not. I worked with him and I’d be a liar if I said I wasn’t impressed with his relentless pursuit for success. It was always about his confidence in knowing he could deliver. This immovable object, himself. Nothing would deter him from proving everyone wrong. And now there are Facebook groups determined to prevent him getting to number one. We’ll see how powerful power is when that coveted Christmas No 1 comes. But whatever happens it won’t spoil his Christmas. He is Santa Claus, he’s every fucking clause television ever drew up.

Why not give him his own show, damn give him his own network, let him do what he wants. It hardly matters now, if Simon Cowell was to front a show on the significance of hedge trimming for the new decade people will tune in. He has commanded the attention of everyone, if Tiger Woods had a brain he would caddy for him. How can one man do this and survive with his flies zipped up is commendable. Simon has waved his magic wand and it isn’t that one. Dignity reigns!

Simon needs to take a well earned rest and come back safe in the knowledge that no one will take his crown. There is no one coming up behind, no one even close. If it’s power he craves then back off and watch the competition fight for pole position …and then walk on to prime time television once more and tell everyone you are back. All that will happen in between is people will write how much you are missed. They’ll talk about you even when you’re doing nothing, you doing nothing is more newsworthy than others doing anything!

I heard that X Factor, the show that did for the UK what American Idol did for the US has, together with Britain’s got talent(Remember Susan Boyle…) has just being picked up as a joint deal in the US. Now wait and see what happens. He will double his income and his net wort is already 125 million. Nice work if you can get it.

Why would he care about the next series of American Idol? What can it do that it already hasn’t done. Who cares who wins, the final of X Factor attracted an audience of 20 million in the UK last weekend when it was aired. Out of a country of 55 million or so, over a third of the population watched it. And what a time to go an negotiate a contract for the US. Negotiate is hardly the right word, negotiation is a two way thing, this is an open check book. Simon will take no prisoners, sign here I have empires to build.

How much is enough?

Before long it’ll become the two of them. They’ll want to put them in the jungle, ‘I’m an ass Cole, get me out of here.’ The TV program makers nowadays need the easiest, dumbest material to work with, they’ll be welcomed with open arms. They put them in a bath with cockroaches ( insert your own choice of footballers here) and they’ll make them eat things that wriggle. She’ll scream and he’ll sneak off and shag someone and the ratings will hit the roof. He’ll be sorry. He is sorry, very sorry. And then it’ll be over and they’ll go home richer and happier because the publicity will be everywhere. What supermarket wouldn’t want them to open their new perfume department. And then there’s the books

Do I sound bitter? Never, just disillusioned. I’d love to meet the person who first thought all this shite was an idea worth pursuing in the first place. He (it’s bound to be a bloke) should be flogged, publicly. The ratings would be excellent. Worse still why is a public accepting of this. What’s wrong with you Britain, you pay your license fee and you let them do this to you. At least in the USA you don’t have to pay for cable if you don’t like it. ( I don’t) Neither do I have 400 channels, all of them showing varying degrees of crap. People are going to the gym nowadays to work on their wrists so they can channel hop, it’s tiring. I make better TV in my head and it’s free. Pop round sometime.

It’s always interesting to observe from a distance and comment on something you haven’t actually seen but by all accounts, it’s not that hard. Same female judges who just seem to look the part, not that either has any relevance in being able to mentor or guide anyone. They are both nothing short of average, why would anyone give a flying fuck about any advice they gave them. After all no one in their right mind would aspire to wanting to be them….or would they? Has Victoria Spice, sorry Beckham( better brand) shaped the future for the female icon. Wherever she got the name ‘Posh’ from I have no clue unless pops having some dosh allows you to claim the title. Posh must mean wealthy, it used to mean upper class. Mmm, not quite sure where that fits, she’s not that…

This is sure to continue ( I haven’t even mentioned Simon Cowell! )but now I must return to more mundane things like sorting out my life. It’s there it just needs some order. What I can promise you is plenty more from Blog Tone. It all started here for me in Blogsville, I loved it and it lead to my book and already I have more I’m itching to write. I don’t seem to get the time to blog. I’m an idiot, pass me a football and make it a posh one.

this show seems to be the UK’s American Idol.

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!

Nevertheless it’s popular. The adds run at $3 million for a 30 second commercial and sadly they were all booked pre recession.$100,000 per second! Rhianna played the other night, The Eagles last night, there’s Fleetwood Mac, Puff Daddy, whoops P.Diddy who turned up in St Pete early this morning for a party. Snoop is snooping around, it’s all going on. Meanwhile I’m checking out Fox Soccer Channel and I think Wigan on the box will do just fine, no problem. Leave ‘em all to paaaaaaaaarty.

Oh and then of course there’s The Boss, the man who knows about as much about the game as me, Bruce Springsteen. He’s turned it down a million times but Boss times are hard and like he boldly admits, he has a new album out. There’s no fee but they’ll cover expenses, nice, him and Patti get a hotel room but then again the audience for his 12 minute half time show is a billion! No need for a sweat drenched 3 hour show. Boss move by Boss man. Nice work if you can get it.

Bruce did a press conference on Thursday and no suprise, it was all over everywhere. It was the first he’d done since 1987 and the media lapped it up. Brucey boy seemed in good spirits and I did like his honesty about not being a football fan and wanting to shamlessly plug his new album. One thing both he and Miami Steve said got me thinking. They said they came out of an era when the music was brilliant and the artists set a very high standard and they felt it their job to maintain those standards, they wanted to be great. It’s a wonderful philosophy, admire you’re peers but at the same time try and emulate them.

Springsteen has worked relentlesly for several decades to be where he is. He shunned CBS’s (now Sony) hype campaign and the posters that claimed ‘I have seen the future of rock n roll and it is Bruce Springsteen’ He hated it, he demanded they take them all down. As was the case with his heroes and when he was growing up, he wanted to be judged on merit and not some overhyped record company campaign.

He was right, he was more than a commodity, he had a vision and he wasn’t prepared to compromise.The artists that have survived are the ones who had a say in their career, they too had a vision and weren’t prepared to stand back and let the record company turn them in to what they thought they should be, and create something that would make their job easier, make them marketable. They had belief and they had guts and if was going to take time then so be it. It worked then but they won’t let it work now, they all watched as everything came tumbling down. They pushed the self destruct button while blaming everyone apart from themselves.They knew it all.

The cable guy, Verizon Fios guy to be exact appeared with new router, a tweak here, an extra box there and we are back on. I log on and there before me a bunch of e-mails from my old cohorts at Island Records with the header ‘John Martyn 1948 to 2009′ and the inevitable news that he has died. Maybe some of you here in America might not have heard of him but John was a giant, I’d like to say a gentle giant and at times he was, at other times a ferocious beast. Sadly at times the demon alcohol took over and he was erratic and scary. Whichever John Martyn turned up he was always a total genius, a brilliant guitarist and a fantastic songwriter. If you don’t know him you’ll know Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Dave Gimour and others who played with him or recorded his songs and their versions of ‘Sweet little mystery’ and ‘May you never’ John Martyn’s songs were timeless songs. Sadly another one gone who seemed to be around as long as you had been into music and collecting records.

John Martyn had many music biz friends who were also fans,he was very much admired. A rare talent and another one who won’t ever be replaced. Like many others I am saddened by his loss yet not totally suprised, he ravaged his body and it just eventually gave up. Just a few years ago he had a leg amputated and though not entirely sure this may have been alcohol abuse related. He joked about it. His cause of death was cited as pneumonia, how much of anymore could his body have taken, his immune system must have packed up years ago.

John Martyn had demons but a sensitivity in his songwriting that you don’t often see. ‘Some keep diaries’ he said.’I write songs.’ Chris Blackwell, the guy who first signed him was a good friend and originally could not release his ‘Grace and Danger’ album as he found it too upsetting, he had known John and Beverley both. John pleaded with him as it as a carthatic release for him, he needed it .Chris eventually obliged. It was a moving piece of music and as always with John Martyn it cut straight from the heart. Nothing about John Martyn was ever safe, yet always sacred.

I worked with him in the seventies and eighties. He made me laugh and he made me cry. He would go in to a radio station and leave us all gasping for breath with some mindblowing guitar and another time he would sit outside in my car refusing to move and refusing to let me take him in for a pre arranged interview. Another time he announced he didn’t want to do anything in Scotland and wanted to go see his dad who still lived there in Glasgow. Testing times for an embryonic plugger. How do you explain to someone sat in reception that your artist will not budge. How can you answer ‘Why’? And if I was to confront him and tell him not to be silly I was terrified of the consequences, I put up and shut up. Driving him in my car once from one radio station to another his accent changed, we hit Glasgow and he became Glasweigen! We did the interview and he wanted a drink, it was 10-30am and I was petrified. Working with John Martyn could be hard but at other times wonderful. He could be so warm and friendly too, delighted to see you.

I remember once when he played Manchester Polytechnic, he walked out on stage blind drunk clad in great coat, slided his guitar alongside his amp took two steps to the side and promptly puked up. Once over he dragged his shirt sleeve across his mouth, took two steps forward and took off in to song like nothing had ever happened! Some hapless character, mop in hand slipped on to the stage having been assigned puke retival duties. The set was blistering.

John Martyn is now gone but won’t be forgotten. Along with Bob Marley and Robert Palmer the mainstay of early Island is disappearing but with it too come fond memories of what made this the greatest label ever, the people. Memories too of Martyn’s press officer for so many years who dealt with his erratic behaviour so well, the much loved Rob Partridge who slowly slipped away and left us just before Christmas.

For all of us who were there so many things remind us of all the good times we shared. It takes every kinda people.

Don’t worry ’bout a thing. Eevery little thing gonna be alright.

I don’t see anything in Tampa filling the gap, bit like the dentist I went to so maybe I should do a show focusing on the new blend of bands coming throught the UK. I have plenty of friends who would be only too willing to help so maybe we should give it a go and see what happens. There’s a cool local station here called WMNF which has a wide variety of shows so maybe they’ll be interested, we’ll give it a whirl and if they say no then we’ll think again, and still do it. I have to admit it would be a gas tapping in to some old pals in the UK and searching for some of the best bands, and I’m positive they would be grateful for some action over here.

I started a group on Facebook a few months ago, The Last Radio Programme mainly so I could recollect some stories from back in the day and blog about them. I was reminded of some funny episodes, I think every time I turned up it was potentially a funny episode anyway! I always thought when Mark Radcliffe went off to London to work for Radio One and I inherited his radio territitory, i.e. the gap he left, that if it lasted 3 months and I brought the station tumbling down then it would be a laugh and at least I could include it in my resume.  But twelve and a half years must have meant I got something right. I remember I was the only plugger who could guarantee people at least one play!

Radio has changed radically but the diffence between traditional and the rest is vast. There must be a place for me to float in radio ocean, after all my last tune on my last show was Neil Young’s ‘I’m the ocean’ Float on, Tone.

Sally worked at Granada for a good few years and was there 30 years ago when I managed to get a bunch of Irish kiddies a nice little break. I have to admire them for booking U2 way ahead of anyone else around the time ‘I will follow’ came out. Back then U2 were only getting interviews on specialist radio shows so it was very bold on Granada’s part to stick their necks out and book them, especially on a kid’s show. Not only did they get on TV but the show was broadcast nationally.

Looking back at that footage nowadays is incredible and yet so few web sites even list it. We know it exists, we were there. U2 looked so young but then again so did I !!! They were always so grateful for every opportunity, very humble and lapped up the chance to meet the media.They were the perfect band to get on radio or television…you got them on and they did the rest. They made a plugger’s job easy. I’ll get blasted here from Sal if I’m wrong but the show was ‘Get it together’ presented by one of the world’s most famous owls, ‘Ollie Beak.’ The show’s producer was Muriel Young, a lovely lady who sadly passed away a few years ago but someone who I can still picture vividly. She came out of an era in television, the 60’s where some of the most amazing bands passed through their doors. I missed that one professionally (yes, too young!) but still had my radio and TV there to give me the most amazing education.

Television back in the 70’s , especially music television which was where I was hovering was littered with the best bunch of people you could ever hope to meet. I made some great friends there. If you loved music and worked in television you were allowed to work on music programmes. Whoever thought up that recipe deserves a medal, music people for music televsion. Then again the same could be said of record pluggers, we loved music so all day you were exchanging stories, talking about great new records that had come out, booking bands on to shows, doing the work and having great fun at the same time. TV researchers trusted you and no matter how much I wanted to get my bands on to TV I prided myself on never trying to force stuff on them that clearly wasn’t right for the show. There were other places to book other bands so why even try to get an act on a show that wouldn’t be right for their audience anyway, what’s the point?

Music industry people like Chris Blackwell and Ahmet Ertegun, Herb Alpert and a smattering of others from the past together with the Michael Lippmans and Paul McGuinesses of the present still retain their mantles and their success is deserving. In their own domain they have successfully managed every part of the process and gained the respect of their artists. But where do the others turn to for guidance. These people have their own houses to keep in order but nowadays what do they see around them, where do they turn find the like minded people of old that they rely on to work with? Where is the support, the back up they once had. Labels believed in their artists and would do everything they could to show that support, they used to inspire one another.

Where are the people who once were so enthusiastic about the music they couldn’t wait to spread the word. They needed to make money but it was the music that drove them. When I first started in the music business in 1974 my immediate boss Ray Cooper was first and foremost a fan, it was why he wanted to work in the music business. And he’s still a fan today. Back then we’d spend as much time discussing music on other labels as we did on the stuff we were selling, the same at Island later on. There didn’t seem to be anyone there who wasn’t there for the right reasons.

Once this was an industry abundant with adventurous, creative people, now it’s an industry scared of risk, frightened by mistake, confused, tried and tested. And found guilty.

We can hope for change but this isn’t the change President Elect Obama had in mind. This is one thing he or no one else could manage to change. We will look at what happens now in the music industry and if last year was a year of radical change then this year is going to see even bigger change. And for those that can survive it, good luck.

Springsteen has done well to hold on to his crown but when you look around it’s not hard to understand why. He’s the real thing, he lives and breathes every minute of every show. What I love about him is that even though he has adoring fans he still plays as though he wants to win over a new crowd. His stamina never falters and he has a unique charisma. Springsteen plays like he is playing just for you. I think he is still the greatest exponent at working a crowd, he pushes each and every button, every time. You certainly know when you’ve been to a Bruce Springsteen concert.

Bruce has sincerity, he’s one of us. He feels for the common man and he cares and although he has amassed a small fortune from his many years at the top he still has an understanding of the world we live in and he prays for things to change. He’s the sort of guy you feel you’d like to get to know, the type you could sit and have a beer with him. If you had a problem, you could tell him. In fact when I met him briefly after the Talking Heads,U2 show in London in the early 80’s he was lovely, a real gent. I wanted to take him home and sit up all night listening to and discussing records. I wanted to find out all about him.

Indeed long may Bruce Springsteen reign, he’s a hard act to follow. When I saw him earlier this year it was a particularly difficult time for him as he’s lost his long time friend and fellow band member Danny Federici after a long illness. The show was on off for a few days but eventually he played and although a little subdued to begin with he still gave us all a great show. I only wished it could have been at a small, intimate venue not just for me but for him too.