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.

The bottom line, will it make everyone what they are used to earning from a U2 album? Many, many unanswered questions. Time will tell and it’ll give us a sure fire indication of the times ahead. Once the accountants work out what Bruce and U2 have sold it will tell us a lot. Everyone in the industry will be watching, the goalposts have changed.

And what about the tour, where will touring be when they roll out? The promoters will have forked out a fortune and paid up well in advance I would imagine. With the economy in free fall will people just be able to afford it, no matter how good a show it may be? I doubt if anyone has the answer and they’ll all be watching nervously.

Downsizing, it has to be the way forward. I don’t think anyone can realistically tour in the way they did either. Touring has to be affordable for all, not least of all the fans. If there are no bums on seats then there’s no point touring at any level but of course touring will continue and now is the time to protect the endangered species before it’s too late.

Touring has been a very lucrative income stream lately for bands. It’s also money they get to keep when they are at the top end and not in need of tour support, something the record companies would love to change. If they aren’t making on the record they need to get some return on their investment and that’s why they are exploring other income streams.

There we go again, return on investment. That’s the bottom line, what you get back against what you’ve spent. Nothing more nothing less. Nothing to do with the act and building something, allowing them to develop and getting a return on their investment. In time. We used to call it careers but I’m not sure it’s a word the music industry uses anymore. Talk of careers and you’ll get a vacant look. We want it now!

I meant to write about Factory records, so what happened there?

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?

Nowadays, where you need the artist to do so much for themselves ,it’s the role of manager that has changed. At the top end you need a powerful, influential manager who can act as the buffer between the artist and the record company. Where the record company might want to exert their influence because they have money invested, the manager can ensure protecting their act. Record companies will want to pressurize them to deliver records to suit their projected quarterly targets as a successful act is their lifeline there. No good manager would ever allow that and where they have good management, the record company would be less inclined to ask.

At the other end where the act is unknown it is difficult to secure good management. Some of the more reputable ones are ‘full up’ with no room to take on new acts. Sad but true, it’s the smaller acts that often require the greater work. An unknown manager without a reputation is going to find it hard to get to record companies. Apart from them signing fewer and fewer acts, they rarely listen to unsolicited material. What that effectively means is if they don’t know you they won’t listen to what you have. In defense of the record companies, they simply don’t have the resource any longer to wade through endless CD’s of mostly crap artists. With regard to the better managers, it is very hard to spend all the time you need to on an act that is earning you nothing, and at the expense of the one that is. They could get very pissed off and that could jeopardize their managerial position with them. Whichever way you turn you can’t win, but at least the good are wise to that.

Yes waiting, it’s something that you still see happen back in football in England and I’m sure it happens all over the world, and with other sports too. They have a youth policy, they sign someone with talent and allow them to develop and then when the time is right they throw them in at the higher level and watch them perform. The artists start to maximise their potential, become successful and then they see a return on their investment. Like the footballer learns his trade, plays better and more people come to see him so to does the songwriter. They begin to evolve, write better songs and become a better performer. Their doing well benefits everyone and makes for a better business. The artist becomes self sufficient, gains more artistic control and starts to make better records, maybe even ending up with a better record deal as a result of their success. Of course it doesn’t happen every time but guess what happens when it does is it allows the record company to go back and do it all over again with some other talent.

It makes for a much better record industry and that in turn allows the flow of good, successful and consistent homegrown talent and an opportunity to export that talent and become successful overseas. The UK record industry used to be a right little earner! Breaking acts overseas, especially in America was considered vital in their development, a viable export and something that helped put the ‘great’ in Britain. That is something that has started to deteriorate over the years especially in the US where you just hear the occassional successs story, Coldplay, James Blunt. It’s the safest of England, it’s OK but it’s not groundbreaking. It makes the risk of failure less likely, it appeals to the masses and it’s easy to promote, and usually you hear more about the UK acts who don’t crack America, Robbie Williams, Oasis etc

Everything else is back to doing it the same old fashioned way, by touring their asses off. Everyone who ever broke America did with blood sweat and tears, sleeping on people’s floors or driving overnight to their next show to save on hotels. It was relentless and it was ‘paying your dues’ and it left you better prepared for success, you’d earned it. Has it ever been any different? Led Zeppelin in the late 60’s and 70’s, U2 in the 80’s. Radiohead, Bush etc and we go back to not needing a record company. The only thing a record company could do is give them tour support, something again they are less likely to do today. In Led Zeppelin’s case their first ever was funded by themselves, they recouped and made money on every tour after that! They didn’t even need the weight of Atlantic Records.

The simplest, most obvious way of doing things is always the best. Long live rock and roll.