Moving,shaking and anticipating

And so to new beginnings. Happily settled in to my new place I feel alive. Unpacking was easy, I gave nearly everything I had away. I think I’m going through my Brian Eno minimalist period and yes, less is definitely more. Or more or less. I think it’s the perfect inspiration for what I’m doing now and no excuse for not to getting back to writing. In fact once the book comes out ( 2 to 3 weeks now methinks) I’m ready to get on with part two! I did a presentation in Tampa a few weeks ago on 24 Hour Party People and it was only afterwards that I realized there’s nothing on Factory in the book! Nothing about the madness and the mayhem, absolutely nothing but in the general context of the book, lessons learned from rock and roll maybe Factory didn’t teach me anything! A lesson in how not to run a business that’s for sure! 

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!

Filed under: About Tony Michaelides, Journey Through The Past, View from the room, record companies , 24 Hour Party People, Factory Records, Island Records, tony michaelides, tony wilson

Stories for boys……U2 early beginnings

Again I apologize for the gaps and infrequent blogging, it will improve but have an excuse as I’m frantically trying to finish the book..Insights from the engine room.. sort out promoting it etc etc

Here’s a snippet..

In 1980 I was working with U2, I’d been taking them in and out of radio stations prior to the release of their first single, ‘11 o’ clock tick tock’ and trying to get them in for interviews wherever I could. They released 3 singles in the six months from May to October and we had been working relentlessly driving up and down the motorways to talk to whoever would have us….and then more of the same upfront of the release of their debut album, ‘Boy.’

You hoped all the hard work would pay off and that opportunities would come your way, you’d take some risks, take a chance on something…..it might go pear shaped but you’d never know if you didn’t give it a go…… It’s the reason you try it in the first place.

If you believe it enough you won’t need convincing and you won’t need to convince others.

November that year was incredible. There were a few of us at Island Records who believed in the band and we were all convinced they could be huge. Rob and Neil in the press department had done an unbelievable job getting journalists along to see them play and were starting to get some really good feedback. All their efforts culminated in an NME (New Musical Express) front cover at the start of the year.

At that time there had still been no significant breakthrough with any national radio or television exposure and we all knew we would struggle to survive on press alone. In order to maintain the great press coverage they (the press) would need to see others pick up on the band……… and to get radio and television interested you needed the press, it was catch 22. We were at the crossroads, something needed to give. We needed to get that break otherwise it would be impossible to keep the momentum going.

I received some amazing news. Tony Hale the Radio One producer who was based in Manchester and therefore a contact of mine, loved the band. Were they available to record a session for the Peter Powell show? WERE THEY AVAILABLE……Damn right they were available! Around the same time, maybe a week or so sooner I got confirmation that Granada TV’s network kids show ‘Get it together’ wanted to book them. I couldn’t believe my luck….all my Christmas’s had come at once. I say luck but in all honesty I had been working hard on the band for most of the year, we all had and felt we deserved this break. This was the most significant result we’d had up until now from national radio and TV in the UK……..now we were really starting to get others to believe in them. At this point we were starting to think, just maybe…..

Filed under: About Tony Michaelides, Journey Through The Past, record companies , Neil Storey, NME, Rob Partridge, U2

Times they are a changin’

Part of me thinks U2 can’t fail, they took chances with Pop and Achtung Baby but not with the same impact as The Unforgettable Fire and The Joshua Tree, well not for me anyway. It’s good that they are prepared to do that and probably the only band alive that can but in this day of dismal sales how will their new album perform? ( As I’m writing this I have yet to hear the whole of the album but I’m thinking, from what I have heard there are no real killer singles. So where will the mass radio play occur? It’s something that they are used to getting and it’s been instrumental to their sales.Will they hover around the 2 million sales mark like Bruce? Where will the sales they are used to come from? It’s not like they need the money, but the record label will……..what will they be prepared to spend when their profits are diminishing? How will the expense justify the result?

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?

Filed under: record companies , Bruce Springsteen, record companies, U2

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

Pity the poor Whitney

Well fancy mentioning the Grammys and forgetting the star turn, Whitney Houston…….that was of course a joke. Whitney Houston has less personality than a lump of lard and far less flavor. What the hell is that all about??….when a hall full of Grammy groupies all feel the need to bring the house down for the woman who last did what??…marry the greatest catch of all time Sir Bobbins Brown? The perfect couple, Mrs yuk and Master plonk (note,deliberate absence of capitals.) Maybe it’s time for Bobby to relaunch his ‘career’ and re release ‘My prerogative’ for the ???? time. Talk about a career on one song…shame about the follow up(s)

Don’t you just love that ‘Clive Davis loves Whitney’ routine. Every opportunity he drools accolades over her, re invents her , she slides away again(thankfully) then it’s Grammy night and it’s all about the ego, Clive Davis and wheeling Whitney out. ( what a great idea for a board game ‘Wheeling Whitney Out’) He even has his own Clive pre Grammys party. Apparently it’s the place to be…well it would be, Clive’s there!

I don’t dispute he did things in his day but he just can’t back off. His obsession with creating ’stars’ (the people we now call ’stars’….. the ones who get manufactured and propelled in to pop stardom and then can’t even get a lift to therapy from the ones who created them.) Their ego’s are too vast they have no time for failures. You’re done, I have my ego to take care of, you’re on your own. Clive just won’t let go, he just can’t bear it if he’s not in the spotlight. He’s done alright out of the business but when did the business last do alright by him and his short term pop star? Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson in a decade? They had a leg up but I think they’re fine doing it their way nowadays. Where the hell are the rest? Swept under the carpet so you won’t ever mention their names again. That really would not do!

Urgh, pukesville…what was all that blowing kisses and mouthing ‘I love you’ between the odd couple.GET A ROOM.! What place does that have?… except of course, a global audience. I’ll cancel cable when we get The Clive and Whitney show’

The good thing is that it’s over..Clive, Whitney, The Grammys, Clive’s party, Clive’s ‘I’m an icon’ award. All done. Lord only knows what next year’s show has to offer. Maybe it’ll be Coldplay, U2, Clive Davis, Carrie Underwood, the list of inevitables goes on and on and on……..oh and Whitney Houston , her new dress and a new way of blowing kisses to Mr Showbiz.

And finally we had Paul McCartney from the greatest band the music business has, or ever will create…….. and on this night of the stars and together with a global audience they forgot to mention it was the 45th anniversary of The Beatles debut on The Ed Sullivan show. The rest as they say was history….the other ‘rest’ wasn’t.

Filed under: Journey Through The Past, View from the room, record companies , Grammys, Whitney Houston, Clive Davis

Sell out or selling?

Bruce and the E -Street band really tore things up at the Superbowl half time show and I think he inspired both teams because they came out and treated us to a spectacular second half. A few of those players genuinely Born to Run with some amazing sprints. I can’t use the correct jargon because even though I saw the game the language they use passes right over me….not a clue what they’re talking about.

It had been a troublesome week for Bruce after he admitted to a faux pas…..his dealings with Walmart. In case you missed it he had given exclusivity to Sam’s brand for the selling of his 12 track anthology album together with a 10 bucks price tag. Bruce had become just like The Eagles and a bunch of others, ‘cept The Eagles to their credit never claimed to be anything different. I remember many years ago seeing a Rolling Stone feature on them when I think it was Glenn Frey was quoted as saying ‘The only difference between laid back and boring is a million dollars’ If you want to take the money and run then as long as you say so who can complain? You don’t like it then don’t buy their records. Looking at the sales of Hotel California and the bulk of their back catalogue everyone seemed fine with it.

The thing is Bruce didn’t used to compromise, he cared about the common man, kept it rock n roll because that’s what rock n roll was supposed to be…. doing things differently, being a rebel. The bottom line is that when push comes to shove (nice Superbowl lingo!) Bruce was faced with the stark reality that no matter how good an album he released it just wasn’t going to sell in the way he was used to and I think he panicked or maybe for the first time listened to his record company. As I previously mentioned he stood up and said at this week’s press conference he was doing it because he had a new record out…..and that’s what ya gotta do nowadays.

He made a mistake and said he made a rash decision …or was it a rushed decision? Bruce and the E -Street band are perfectionists, I admire and respect them and I think they are brilliant. It moved me this week when he said that they came out of a generation where growing up their heroes were great and if they were going to be in a band they wanted to emulate that, they weanted to be great.

Bruce has been criticized now by the New York Times and others for admitting his mistake. The media have dug their teeth in because he has come out and said it. It’s good copy, it’s worth writing about and it sells newspapers and they certainly need to do that. It’s Superbowl week too and everyone is reading everything. Bruce probably didn’t expect as much of the limelight, or at least only wanted to be written about for his performance. He isn’t used to this type of publicity.

It’ll be the same for U2 when they land their new album on us as it’ll be the same for everyone. Acts are looking for ways to get their albums to the masses, new ways to promote and market. Promotion and marketing for the older acts is radically different and they are faced with younger people promoting their records and they will have to understand that maybe they know best in today’s marketplace…or in reality maybe they just know better. The stark reality is they just have to accept the inevitablity of it all, you won’t sell what you did. Those who once sold 10/15 million must be happy with 2/3 million, their big selling days are gone.

Filed under: mistakes, record companies , Bruce Springsteen, E street band, Superbowl, The Eagles, Walmart

Superbowl Superboss

Tampa is awash with Superbowlites, they’re everywhere and all to see the men with big shoulders running around shouting until eventually throwing an odd shaped ball out of the ground. Everyone jumps up, play stops……. and an entire new team runs on. I don’t understand American football and I don’t think I ever will.

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.

Filed under: Journey Through The Past, Opportunity, record companies , Bruce Springsteen, CBS, Superbowl

Sweet little mystery no more

I woke this morning expecting to see some replies to my e-mails from friends and colleagues…..I log on, nothing! I grumbled to my mother who is staying with me at present while cursing the internet. Bless, she offered to take me in to town to see if I could buy the internet….

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……..every little thing gonna be alright.

Filed under: Journey Through The Past, PR, record companies , Chris Blackwell, Island Records, John Martyn, Rob Partidge

Get it together

I’ve been moving furniture around and I’m knackered. I’ve lost half the stuff I put in places to make it easier to find them but I suppose it’s bound to get easier when I eventually do find them……. Nevertheless good things happen and Facebook once more re introduces figures from the past and more glorious memories come flooding back. An old TV pal from many moons ago, Sally located me and we have been exchanging e-mails furiously. As she has now spent more time on my blog than I have she’ll be vital in helping me drag out a few more gems, especially from the great times spent on music television shows.

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?

Filed under: Journey Through The Past, Opportunity, PR, record companies , get it together, Granada TV, music television

I wanna make you a star

We need stars, we don’t have them any more and the ones that we do call stars are different, they’re train wrecks, they’re misfits, they’re tortured ‘artists’…. but Lindsay, Britney, Madonna even, aren’t tortured like Janis was, Jimi Hendrix or Brian Jones were they are just people craving attention. It doesn’t matter if it’s they who crave it, their manager, their agent, their publicist or their record company…… they all crave it and they’ll do whatever it takes.

People used to love to pin up posters on their walls idolizing their heroes, they loved what they did and they could never get enough. They looked forward to what they were going to do next, they were loyal. It what being a fan was, supporting their favorite pop stars careers and always being interested in what they were up to.

The music business loved stars too and not just for the money they made from them either. They knew how to create stars , knew how to deal with them and most importantly they knew how to get the best out of them. They understood what was needed to be a great act and they were prepared to persevere. The music industry and the artist grew up side by side, you couldn’t have one without the other……..now most artists are left to grow in spite of the industry! If success comes then it’ll be more down to their work ehthic and doing it for themselves.

They have more patience and they have greater belief in themselves and are in it for the long haul. Record companies are the shorter than short haul, they want it now……..and if it doesn’t come they don’t want to know.

Filed under: Journey Through The Past, View from the room, record companies , artist development, music industry, music fans