Lessons learned and stories to tell

Seeing the U2 show last week reminded me of how they became as huge as they are. They had a bunch of songs that helped but it was so much more than that. I’m using my blog to blatantly advertise how we’ll be looking at how artists become successful and what they do to get there. They’ll be the website( www.insightscollection.com) A new You Tube channel called speakmusic.tv , podcasts on I Tunes . Check out www.tincan.tv, www.manchesterradioonline,co.uk and keep glued to this. And I don’t have a clue what might happen tomorrow

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.

Filed under: About The Engine Room, About Tony Michaelides, Uncategorized , Interpersonal skills, U2

Houston, you’re the problem

In all my years in the music business I don’t think I’ve cared less about any person than Whitney Houston. I can’t stand her. Well that’s not true, when I first heard ‘I want to dance with somebody ‘ she looked vibrant, energetic and it was a good little pop song. Ever since then she and Clive Davis’ double act make me want to hurl. Clive did many good things in the 60’s and 70’s but put these two ego’s together and it’s scary, all that glorious, pretentious, I love you so much sicko babble. Yuk. They just can’t stand it when people don’t pay attention. Of course Clive has American Idol too now where they can place him up on his throne and say how wonderful he is but that’s not important, he knows that more than anyone. Clive Davis is the most important thing to ever happen in the music business and it probably says so on his business card.

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.

Filed under: About The Engine Room, About Tony Michaelides , Clive Davis, sun newspaper, Whitney Houston

Insights, foresights and wherever it may go sights.

I’ve been spending the last few weeks gathering equipment, software and generally learning the workings of everything. It’s funny where a blog can take you, and not very funny where filling your head with too much technology can take you. The Insights from the Engine Room started life as a blog until it took on a life of it’s own. Spending all but a year of my working life in the music industry certainly gave me something to talk about ! But it isn’t until now I realized the speed of my own mouth. ‘Whoa boy, slow down’ I thought. What’s the rush,let if flow. I make no excuses other than the boyish enthusiasm that’s got me through life so far and long may it continue. The excitement that the recollections of youth bring make me to want to share those experiences and tell the stories. The thought of thoughts is enthralling!

Now where was I? Foolishly I had VHI on in the background and the Shakira video just came on. I needed to get some water. I feel invigorated but I must convince myself it’s from the desire to tell the stories and not the Shakira video. Thank God I don’t have a dvd recorder, be gone Devil Woman. But not too far, eh?

So back and focused I’m putting some semblance to my disorder. As regular blog visitors may have noticed there is a certain randomness to all of this that I want(have) to continue. I have this overwhelming desire to share those life and times but I also want it to both entertain and educate so for that reason I welcome the ‘new order’ ( No, not them). I’m putting my life in order….no get up, I don’t need help! I decided that writing a book, The Insights from the Engine Room was a natural progression but as soon as I’d finished it I had others I wanted to write so IFTER becomes the first in a series of Insight Collections. Then came the realization from others ( thank you Darrin, Brain and Paul) of how this could develop and in what different forms, a bit like me really!

IFTER (picture paints a thousand words, then why can’t I?) Well I can. Content is already up on a new site www.tincan.tv where I have my own page and you can hear both audio and video and more scribblings. They are serializing the book and each week there are audio excerpts, I’m there blabbering.  In addition to that the coming weeks will see the introduction of the Engine Room’s own You Tube channel and Lord only knows what will be uncovered there. And in amongst it all the unearthing of the Insights Collection website. I’m selling up, it’s where I’m going to live. I’ll be issuing laminates shortly.

There’s more, www.manchesteronline will allow me to revisit radio and more on that very shortly. In short, there will be no getting away from me now, unless you’re on another planet but I know all about that anyway!

I’m off for a walk on the beach now with Shakira and gather some more thoughts. Time for 5 mile an hour and not 100 mile a minute. I am so excited at the prospects, I think Shakira will be too.

I do, I really t doesn’t need to be feels like a rush to get i all out

Filed under: About The Engine Room, Book Tony Michaelides , insights, manchester radio online, tin can

Hometown Homemade

Stealthily creeping back in to the world of blog there a whole bunch of things I need to say, write about. There has been lots going on with lots more to come. I met a bunch of nice people over the last week and I’m sure that’ll act as all the inspiration I need. That and driving across bridges over The Gulf of Mexico certainly help. Why would anyone move in summer with this humidity? But then you’d have to be me to understand that. Fortunately you’re not.

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!

Filed under: About The Engine Room, About Tony Michaelides, Book Tony Michaelides , BAAMO, Homemade Music Symposium

Been gone too long

Haven’t been up here for as few days posting but don’t worry I wasn’t going to leave you for too long. I’ve busy working on my book and dealing with a family illness which has seen the days fly by. The positive in all of it has been that it has allowed me to go through the blogs as I am writing and has exposed a few gaps.

I know that they’ll be people keen to know more of the Factory years and it’ll be a delight continuing that story. They were some glorious years and at a time when the business was a lot of fun. They knew it, they were a label at the right place at the right time and they found some great bands to introduce to the public. . James, The Railway Children, A Certain Ratio, OMD moved on, while New Order, Happy Mondays and The Durutti Column saw it through to the end and felt the emotions with us all. New Order did of course move to London Records but only once Factory were dead and buried. I don’t think the dealings with London toward the end of Factory went quite the way Tony Wilson and the other Factory directors had hoped and sadly it meant an end for bands like Northside and The Wendy’s, The Adventure Babies.

I’ll come back to Factory just as soon as I see where I left off. There were other labels with the same agenda back then and releasing records by artists they loved so we’ll have a look at that also.. I suppose I should comment on The Brits but I haven’t a clue what went on, I’ll need to take a look at You Tube and speak to a few of my pals. I do know that Elbow won best something( band I would have thought??) and that was nice to see especially being together for so long.

I felt especially pleased for Guy Lovelady, not only a lifelong fan but the first person to bring them to anyone’s attention when he signed them to his Ugly Man Records back in the 80’s…at least I think it was the 80’s. I’ll need to ask him. You can read all you would ever want to know about Elbow on Guy’s blog, I’ll get the right blog address for next time but I’m pretty sure if you Google Ugly Man you’ll get directed to it.

That will have to do for now but it shouldn’t take me too long to make a few notes and start to fill in a few gaps from the bygone days of the music industry. Hang in there.

Filed under: About The Engine Room, Journey Through The Past, record companies , Factory Records, Guy Lovelady, Happy Mondays, New Order, OMD, tony wilson

Where did you go to my lovely..

With the New Year barely upon us you can but wonder what is in
store for the record business…..mmmm, records and stores, you don’t hear those two words together much nowadays. One thing is painfully obvious is that record sales continue to drop year after year and together with the miserable state of the economy you wonder if even the mergers of the last few years will make any difference to an industry in free fall…….an industry in free fall in an economy that isn’t going to save them. I can’t see the government being there to bail the record industry out of a hole largely of their own boring!

Dismal, maybe even closed for business is the sign in many record company doorways for this year…..and who will pull them out of this mess? Once you could have said ‘the next big thing’ but where is that coming from in an industry that cares much for the moment and has long passed on the longevity of the artist. They have passed on artist development in preference to the quick buck, the quick buck they thought was going to save them. That quick buck got them in to this mess in the first place but it’s unlikely you’ll find any one of them admit to their own failings. When record companies merged it was to cut overheads but no one mentioned the economy to these people, the ones who always thought themselves recession proof.

I could see it starting to change ten years ago but I never expected to see what it has become. For every American Idol instant success story there are a million instant failures. Tempt them with a dollar and still they come running, a public still desperate for their fifteen minutes of fame…..a short term public chasing a short term industry.

Filed under: About The Engine Room, Uncategorized , american idol, record companies

Acres of Peel

I was just speaking with my old friend Barry from Record Collector in Sheffield and we were relaying a bunch of stories when, as usual he reminded me of some Engine Room Insights. Once again other people’s recollections are better than my own. He did tell me though of his memories of the late John Peel and it made me think that here is a man we must never forget.

For those on this side of the pond maybe Peel isn’t recognized the way we Brits acknowledge his importance in music history. In a nutshell, John Peel was the first to play just about everyone who ever mattered. He picked up on The Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Sex Pistols, The Clash…even those we tend to forget, like Elton John, Rod Stewart etc. His passion for discovering new music never waned even in to his sixties and even though we’d all agree he’d been known to play some crap of late he was always ‘Peel.’ I think even now the mere mention of his name brings a smile to your face…..everyone adored John Peel and even if you questioned his musical taste you couldn’t help but love his dry sense of humor.

I was under the impression I had never met John Peel though I do remember I was in the same room as him on more than one occasion. I’m sure he had his fair share of well wishers although secretly I would have liked to whisper in his ear how much of an influence he was on me and how he helped forge my musical tastes Just recently I was reminded by my friend Alison that we had in fact met and that I had been formally introduced to him. She and her partner had been friendly with Peel and his wife Sheila for many years and there was this time when he was up in Manchester visiting her……. Alison was working with me at the time and Peel needed to send a fax urgently to London so in she came with the man himself. Shame on me for forgetting that one but nevertheless I was proud to have been John Peel’s office for that one day!

Barry told me how he had first heard Peel when he was a teenager at boarding school just outside of Cambridge. He had felt fairly isolated living there and Peel played an important role in linking him in to the outside world. He would listen, like myself to the pirate stations, Radio London and Radio Caroline where he’d hear track after track of amazing songs. Apart from the pirates all we had back then was Radio Luxembourg and Alan Freeman’s Saturday Club….. anything we might be remotely interested in we’d hear on his show.

John Peel previously had a show on Radio London called ‘The Perfumed Garden’ which was where he had made a name for himself with the more discerning listeners. Come the late sixties he found himself on the newly created national station Radio One where he was to present the legendary ‘Top Gear’ each and every Saturday afternoon. Barry was to tell me more….

Filed under: About The Engine Room, Radio Ga Ga , Alan Freeman, John Peel, record collector shop, Top Gear

Closing the door but leaving the light on

I have just been reading Neil’s blog about the funeral of our friend Rob Partidge (neilstorey.blogspot.com) and would recommend you do the same. It sounded just like a celebration of his life which we had all hoped for and even though everyone mourned the loss of their dear friend and colleague Rob had clearly given Tina his lovely wife the lowdown on how matters be conducted on the day. It would be an injustice to comment on the events of the day when Neil’s blog says it all….you really had to be there, and sadly I wasn’t. What would anyone have given to see the look on his face as he watched the gathering of the masses….or more to the point what would he have said.

I was pleased to see that U2 , Tom Waits and a multitude of others had made the effort to show how much they loved and respected him. It seemed like every journalist of any note was there too, a symbol of just what an important figure Rob was to all of them, and someone they all knew personally. That’s what made him so very special…you could never call Rob Partidge faceless in the music business, he believed in relationships and he nurtured them with both artists, colleagues and journalists. He encouraged others to do the same, an wonderful mentor to so many. Another legend from the engine room sadly departed, gone but never forgotten.

After reading Neil’s blog I thought of how he must have felt after such an emotional rollercoaster of a day, how so many memories must have come flooding back, those wonderful times at Island Records and when they made the decision to set up on their own. They had done as much as they could at Island and without Chris Blackwell as the figurehead how it wasn’t really Island anymore.I wasn’t there at that time…. I just know I would have been right behind them.

Neil and Rob made a formidable team in their time at Island Records and helped all of us do our jobs. If the acts you are promoting to radio and TV are being written about in the press then your job becomes easier. It’s weird but sometimes people needed to know they wouldn’t be the first to champion a band or artist, don’t ask me why, I never understood that one either! I suppose in commercial radio they needed the comfort factor that if people were paying attention then it might just be a hit. It also made me appreciate doing my own show and being allowed to play exactly what I wanted with no interference from Piccadilly Radio who were brave(or stupid!) enough to let me loose on the airwaves all those years ago.

Every time I write about events back then, whether radio or the record industry in general I keep saying how glorious it was….but it was. It was so exciting, so much fun, something I never want to apologize for. I can understand how and why it has changed but could never argue it was for the better. No way! As was the case with Rob it helped created the people I always want to write about….the legends from the Engine Room.They are immortal.

Filed under: About The Engine Room, Journey Through The Past , Add new tag, Neil Storey, Piccadilly Radio, Rob Partridge, Tom Waits, U2

Factory and the building of a legacy

Firstly let me apologize for the posts not being added as frequently as I’d like over the past couple of days. My laptop has the blue screen !! ………and throws me off in the middle of everything. The posts will be little briefer and trust me…..I’m doing my best. I’ll try and put a few of the same story up, but split them up in to bite size chunks

 

I first met Tony Wilson in 1978 when I started working at Island Records, although we had previously exchanged a nod and an ‘alright, mate a couple of years earlier. It was one evening in 1975, July 20^th to be exact when Bob Marley and the Wailers brought the Natty Dread tour to an old bowling alley in Stetford, Manchester……The Hardrock. I had never seen anything quite like it, a show fuelled with just about everything…and more. By the end of the night I was exhausted. I had been brought up on a stable of some of the greatest rock music but for me Bob Marley ranks up there with the best and still remains one of the greatest performers of all time. Little did I know but a few years later I’d be working with both of them. Sadly with Marley only a precious 3 years, but the Factory affair lasted almost 15 years.

 

I considered it an honor to have had that opportunity to work with two people who contributed so much for so many and left a legacy worthy of anyone in this business. The engine room isn’t about legends, it’s about real people who did real jobs and made a real difference. They did that too, and very admirably. It was never an exclusive club …… but then as people go about their daily tasks and by making a difference the cream rises to the top. They will always be remembered and will always be missed, and how young they both were to have been taken away. I would never claim to be religious but when things like this happen you sort of feel yourself coming out with ‘religiousisms’ I wonder if some greater force had deemed  they’d done more than enough.

 

How appropriate Island Records called Marley’s album ‘Legend’ and how respectful they didn’t succumb to the record company greed of releasing a ‘best of/greatest hits package immediately. Everyone was able to grieve over his death and then celebrate his life with this truly amazing record, still the biggest selling reggae album of all time. But it’s not really a reggae record, it’s more than that, it appeals to everyone. If you don’t have it, you should. I was at Island when he died and organized all the TV obituaries but that’s for later. I couldn’t say I knew Bob because bless him, the amount of herb he consumed put us on separate planets and all he ever said on my being introduced was ‘Jah will provide, blessed be the almighty one, Jah Raaaaaaaasta fariiii’ Naturally I nodded, but it was different to my nod at Tony at the Hardrock. So Wilson and Marley..and both my introductions…..a pair of noddies. 

 

Tony I knew very well and was able to watch closely as Factory evolved over some quite amazing years. Like any love affair you celebrate the good times and ride with the bad. It’s fall signified the end of a true remarkable era in the glorious scene that was Manchester and it’s music. Manchester will survive where Factory couldn’t. There are many stories I’m currently recounting and will bring as many as possible to these pages. A rare label indeed and as with Tony Wilson, something the likes of which I doubt we’ll see again.

Filed under: About The Engine Room, About Tony Michaelides, Journey Through The Past, View from the room , About The Engine Room, tony michaelides, Factory Records, tony wilson, Bob Marley and the Wailers, The Hardrock, Manchester, Bob Marley Legend

Morning has broken…..Hit the road, Jack

Today’s the day the Engine Room hits the road. My first gig in my newly adopted speaking career! It’s my ‘Now let the natives suffer’ world tour. T.M in full effect. I’m just getting ready for a walk along the bay and a little talk to myself and maybe a dry run presenting to a few smiling dolphins who,  if they play their fins right I may put on the guest list. Talking is good, to myself better…..treatable but better.I spoke to a wall in my 12 years on the radio….walls love me, oceans too. If all gets too much, the waves pull back, the walls peel and crumble but still they’re always there for me, they care.

 

I think it’s the Greek shipping magnate in me, my love for the sea. Whilst I wouldn’t want to send out any signs that it’s OK for you to drown me, I do love the sea. In fact it isn’t just the sea…..it’s all things waterly and nautical. I love inventing words too, it’s my passion…. isn’t waterly a wonderful word, it pisses my spell check off but what do I care. This piece of laptopwear that takes my English U’s out of favor, flavor, color…………do you think I care for madam spellcheck, well no I don’t!

 

It’s what I wanted to be when I grew up, be a word maker…..but again, it wasn’t on the career’s officer’s list, that poxy, lousy list that had no jobs for me. Careersless officer for all the use he was to me. Here son, nothing for you , you’re fucked!  I told him it wasn’t just that I wanted to make up words, I wanted to do road names too……….who does that?  it’s always irritated me. Anyway whoever it is, I’d be loads better.Fancy having a roadname at the top of a winding road, a sharp left and a cul de sac… ‘Wherethefuckarewe Lane’  The alley round the back of the pub ‘Pukers Row’  outside the court house ‘Clink view’ I would have names that would be so much more descriptive and make sense instead of all that ‘Devonshire Street ‘ bollocks. Anyway I’m still available if you know who’s in charge. Anyway I never grew up so what does it matter…..I took the right career path and became a record plugger instead.

 

I have to go now as the sun is coming up and duty calls. Once Poseidon gets the low down on what the plan is for today I’ll be back. The laptop was playing up yesterday and kept turning itself off so I wasn’t able to post anything. I owe you that much…….and don’t think I didn’t have anything to say. Don’t EVER think I don’t have anything to say, or I’ll be straight round your house.

 

Coffee’s packed, pieces of paper and flip flops. Later, gators.

Filed under: About The Engine Room, About Tony Michaelides, Journey Through The Past, View from the room , About The Engine Room, tony michaelides, View from the room, public speaking