The idea of regional promotion tours were to help create awareness for the artist and more often than not they did. You would take artists in to do radio interviews, there would be an opportunity to meet the radio folks, the odd lunch, a drink here and there and then when you went back in to try and get their record played they’d be able to put a face to the name……….it didn’t guarantee you’d get on the playlist but it didn’t do any harm either.
The same principle didn’t really apply to television because the first time they usually met the act was when they were on camera. Although I made some great friends in television over the years Granada was always my favorite TV station. In the 70’s and 80’s they had an amazing bunch of people working there, all very talented but equally great to deal as well. When I first started plugging, Tony Wilson was one of those guys. It was very important for me to try and get my acts on ‘What’s on’ which was part of Granada Reports, the local news show which he presented. I had a fair amount of success, he’d done U2, The B2’s, Eddie and the Hot Rods, Grace Jones etc for me but this time round I’d sold him on the idea of Japan’s equivalent to The B52’s, a zany outfit called The Plastics.
I’d given Tony their album and we’d agreed they looked the part, a lovely lead singer called Chica and her partner, main man and guitarist Hajime Tachibana……he’d have them in, a short interview followed by a clip of their video, it would look great and do wonders to promote the upcoming show.The press they were getting was good but there was nothing like TV for whetting people’s appetite. I thanked Tony and went ahead arranging to fly them up to Manchester for the appearance.
The day arrived, they had flown up the night before and the plan was to collect them at the hotel late afternoon……perfect, it gave me time to drive over the Pennines to Yorkshire, get a few things done and still be back by 5pm. I did what I had to do and headed back to Manchester. I remember it well, it was a lousy day, the mist had descended and there were a couple of nasty pile ups on the stretch of the motorway that took me over the moors. It looks bleak up there at the best of times, that day it looked like a scene from Hound of the Baskervilles. I was sure Sherlock Holmes and the good doctor would emerge from the fog, maybe they’d offer me a lift. Even if they had, the weather was that bad I probably would have mistaken them for Gollum or a couple of Trolls and run a mile. By now the dark was descending to make everything totally ethereal. I hit the play button on the cassette, I had recorded one of my favorite radio shows the previous night, I couldn’t believe it, Jim Morrison was singing ‘The End’
‘This is end, beautiful friend, the end.’ I believed him, eerily I left the cassette playing and Jim kept reminding me…….
Filed under: Journey Through The Past, View from the room , Granada TV, Jim Morrison, The Plastics, tony wilson
