Simons?!

watch television. The show that every network turned down is now the only show that makes a difference. If you’re a pop act and you have a record out and you get asked to appear, then you do it. That is of course if you have a record out and Whitney Houston doesn’t or if she’s round at Clive’s having tea or massaging his ego. My God could you imagine dinner with those two……pass the hurl bucket.  I digress.

It must be heartening for any artist to hear the stuff people turn down. What happened with American Idol happened with The Beatles, The Stone Roses, you name it…..  they had the knock back. Ponders the question, who are the people elected to pick what works and what doesn’t work? TV and the music business has become dull because of the people making the decisions. They clearly have no idea what people want. Hence we have the most popular  ’music show’ ever where the public actually has to tell them what they want.  And then one success spawns a thousand unimaginative carbon copies. Where once we had an act that attracted an audience now we have an audience that can attract any act because they all have to do it, appear on that show! Simple really, if you want to get seen or heard you line up at Simon Cowell’s door. It’s a monopoly and it’s dangerouse. Further more they’re not budging,  not at least any time soon.

Record companies have no clue whatsoever. (It might have something to do with the fact that most of the people who work there have no idea about music)They constantly turn down what ultimately pays their own wages. Record companies can no longer sign bands because they do not know how to develop bands. They have no fucking idea and what’s worse is they don’t care. They don’t care that what made generations integrate, love one another, even give us a healthy foreign export all revolved around music. Call me idealistic I don’t care, but the people who sit in their halcyon towers crunching the numbers have no feet to put on the ground. They want to see a return straight away when  no relevant band in history paid the rent from day one. What they did do was build a base for an industry to thrive for a very long time until the pendulum swung and the lunatics took over the asylum. Not only did they run it, they enrolled the inmates. We are now fed a staple diet of stuff that doesn’t require us to ponder over whether or not it’s good or not, it’s just there. Who cares if it’s good, as long as it can sell instantly and we can get a return. The law of averages says a proportion of the cattle will chew the cud. Or is it sheep, lemmings even? It’s just fodder when all is said and done.

Where are we going, well as Bob Dylan so rightly said, ‘No Direction home’ There is no route. Over the coming weeks months, years , decades I may be granted time on this turntable we call earth I intend to bring forth and interrogate those that matter, those who gave me a purpose, a reason to get up in the morning and throw myself in to what was an unbelievable place to be. The artists and the record industry, the record stores, the bands, the media we all worked as one . And you know what, we were fucking good. Too good to sit back and see what this industry has become, a playground for the people who were once behind the scenes. We are creating immovable objects, Clive Davis was a music man, once.  There was a time when he wanted to create stars to see what they could become, to let them grow and flourish, to see them last and then to influence others. And now, it’s not because of what they are but because of what they can do for him. The ego is mightier than the music. When in all it’s years have the people behind the scenes become bigger than the artists? I don’t think it was meant to be that way was it? Who’s more successful than Simon Cowell or Clive Davis? Instead of making them (the artists)they made themselves! Simon Fuller is equally as powerful and with an astute mind, a marketing genius…….. but at least he doesn’t have a need to grab the limelight. Instead of pop stars we now have  industry stars.

‘Well I Can’t tell you what I think I can do if I hadn’t heard it can I?’ ‘No, I just need you to get them on the radio, I need interviews and I need them on daytime. This is Loius Walsh and Ronan’s new boy band. They’re going to be huge.’ I paused, was I hearing him correctly? He was asking me to get a band no one had heard of or heard anything by, least of all me, on the radio to be interviewed! He had to be kidding. I’m sure this was him out to prove to Louis Walsh who had chosen to sign his band to Simon just what he could do. I uttered the same curiousity, ‘You are joking aren’t you?’

I was wasting my time. We were destined for a trip round the houses by way of anything resembling a conversation. Simon Cowell wanted me to call local radio stations, stations that rarely played anything that weren’t hits and set up a bunch of radio interviews with a boy band no one had ever heard of. He didn’t think it mattered that the radio promotion guy, never mind the radio station had been allowed to hear them.

It makes me laugh now but the look on Lee and the others who I had working for me was hilarious. I put the phone down and shouted across the room. ‘Are you ready for this? Simon Cowell wants us to get interviews for Westlife.’ Reverberating across the room came the reply’ Who the fuck are Westlife.’ Oh I wish I’d have said that to Simon! All for one and one for all we couldn’t believe what he was asking of us. I just shrugged my shoulders and said, trust me there isn’t a conversation we need to go and do it.

You couldn’t reason with Simon over something like this. Never mind Randy Jackson, enter THE dog with his bone, Westlife. Just to think, Boyzone, the only band ever through generations to be a serious threat to Val Doonican were heading for longer woolier jumpers and semi retirement and he (Simon Cowell) had a grip on his babies. And we were the babysitters. He was in diaper heaven. Herein began his stampede and complete domination of the pop charts. He had previously done an amazing job with Robson and Jerome, more of which I’ll recite later, had some continued success with 5ive but now he had the one that he thought would do it for him. Unlike Robson and Jerome who took a lot of persuading, kidnapping, harrasing all by his own admission as they were successful actors and already stars. Simon needed them to make a record , they couldn’t give a toss!

Writing about this all (and they’ll be other stories I’m sure!) makes me smile and makes me understand even more what was it that made Simon Cowell different from the rest. He doesn’t understand the word no! To make it even more hilarious is that we managed to get some interviews for Westlife although we needed Ronan Keating in there as well doing the interviews, that maybe swung it a little as he was ‘famous pretty’ instead of ‘who the fuck are you pretty.’  Hell, what I am saying. None of them are pretty to me. I’d like to think though that the radio stations were doing it for us and not for Westlife or for Simon Cowell. In those days people knew who we were when you called the radio stations and hadn’t a clue who Simon was. How funny is that, if he had tried to call people directly they probably wouldn’t have taken his call!

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?

Take That are very smart, they listen and they learn. In the early days they were masterminded by an excellent manager in Nigel Martin Smith. He was a mini Brian Epstein, he built the band from nothing, had the right ideas and worked very well with the record company, RCA. He worked the band hard with plenty of public appearances where they would perfect their dance routines and build a fan base and he got the record company to support all of that.

Has it really been any different, getting out there and finding out who your fans are? It worked very well, they got their break and they had earned it. All the time the band were listening to others. They were learning and showing a great deal of interest in their own careers yet they understood they were young, had no experience and needed guidance. Now they are able to use that knowledge and experience and are getting it right the first time of coming back !

I’m very impressed and delighted for them, they are on the verge of selling a million copies of their new album. It would seem like their career is doing better than his and that’s why he wants in. Take That could end up with the best comeback of all time and could do that quite easily without ‘The Robster.’ That would be very hard for him and his ego to handle, he really thought they’d struggle without him.

He hated Gary being singled out as the only one capable of a sustaining a solo career. When Take That split up Gary’s label BMG mounted a huge promotional campaign for him, one that was aimed at showing the world how successful they could be with the band’s main songwriter. They wanted to turn Gary Barlow in to the new George Michael and I don’t that was fair to Gary. It’s something that’s typical of record companies, they fail to realize the public is quite happy with one George Michael. In the past did they ever try to give us the new Frank Sinatra, the next Freddie Mercury, Elton John? No, they’d be out there searching for the next big thing and not replicating the last.

Don’t get me started on that, well not until next time at least.

I had been a new recruit to the world of promotion and Island fortunately was my first port of call. If you were in the music business there was no better place to be, not only did they have the acts but they had the staff. Stars in their own right, and a few of them platinum! I joined early in 1978 after a few years on the road selling records and now I had to sell them the artists…my job was to get them radio and TV. As part of the package I had Stiff to promote also but with an artist roster that boasted Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Ian Dury ‘n all it wasn’t too hideous a task!

The gig took place at Rafter’s on Oxford Street in Manchester and I went along on my own knowing there would likely be a few of the usual suspects thinking just the same. I knew for sure local Sounds writer Mick Middles and NME photographer Kevin Cummins would be there, Tony Wilson too.
Tony was well known in Manchester as the local news anchor but now he was also the man fronting the soon to be legendary ‘So it goes’ music show. I’d recently got to know him as he’d put a couple of my acts on TV and personally found him a good guy though to some he was a target for ridicule by some senseless clowns. Just jealously I had always thought.

Back then Joy Division were faceless wannabees and their singer Ian Curtis was in ranting mood that night. He was also the most vociferous when it came to promoting them. Ian was especially pissed off that so many bands were being showcased on the show while his own band were being ignored. As is normally the case, drink increases the bravado and his cursing of Wilson was extreme to say the least. However bad the language may have been, he hit home when making his point and Tony was left intrigued. Also present that night were Rob Gretton, Martin Hannett and Alan Erasmus although I didn’t get to know them until much later.

I’m not sure if Tony and Alan had started their Friday night band nights at the Russell Club in Hulme yet (known as The Factory)or whether that came later but I’m pretty sure the buzz they got that night sowed the seed for the label the following year. Tony wanted much more than just to front a TV show, he wanted to be in the thick of it. That night Rob was a local DJ but after the show was over he made plans to go and watch them rehearse and the rest is history. He became their manager and mentor and undertook the same task for New Order after Ian’s suicide.

If an artist manager thought they didn’t see enough activity from the record company, and it’s their job to make sure something does happen for the act they represent then they would bark and scream at varying levels to usually the product manager. At the highest level a very influential manager may call the President directly to complain and they in turn might just sack the culprit so they could get on with the rest of their day. Anything that required the least amount of sorting out usually involved sacking someone.

If a release was struggling at getting any national interest ie national radio play or network TV then it was assumed that regional activity would happen. Never did quite work that one out. We would get ‘the call’ not asking, consulting or seeking advice , we would just be told we needed to put a regional promo tour together. It didn’t matter if the record was badly received they just needed to show the manager something was happening. In turn I’d get on the phone call some radio stations tell them what was required and make it happen, irrespective of whether I thought it made any sense or would have any effect on the record. And we wonder how record companies pissed it all away.

I had made a lot of good friends in regional radio and TV so it was always good to see them anyway and after the work was done we’d go out and have some fun. Pleasurable yes, productive from a professional standpoint, not always. Naturally when you had a new artist like Massive Attack, Neneh Cherry, Natalie Imbruglia, U2 who had killer debut singles you were only too happy to take them out on a promo tour, but those decisions should always be left to those that know, who’s job it was to identify what was the best way to promote the act they had entrusted in you. Common sense really, why would you employ anyone if you didn’t think they had the ideas and could do the job?

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.

Too right the business has changed, and succeeded in what? Well it streamlined the operation, reduced the overhead, dropped a load of bands and satisfied the shareholders. They got a return on their investment, everyone else suffered, and most of all the public got bored . The record companies put themselves in a position where they couldn’t sign anyone who didn’t give them a quick return and in doing that they missed out on the very lifeblood of the industry, the one thing that gave them a job in the first place and that kept the industry afloat for so long. Back catalogue.

The record companies pissed the public off, they got bored with constant re issues, endless different mixes designed with the sole intention of forcing a record in to the charts, not through it’s popularity but by getting the same people to buy it several times so they could get the extra track or the new mix. The record companies underestimated the public thinking that if you liked Iron Maiden or whoever then you would merrily buy every version you chose to release. I was suprised the bands didn’t think more of their fans and put a stop to it. It made the charts a farce. The charts were supposed to reflect the most popular records and at times it had singles in there that some people had several copies of.

After CD’s had come along and saved the companies in the eighties now they were at the point of no return. They’d run out of ideas to squeeze every last cent out of people and they politely abstained, they had other things to spend their disposable income on that just weren’t available to them in the past.