Brown. Sugar wouldn’t melt in his mouth.

Good job Rhianna spat out that plonker from under her Um ber rella. All week ABC TV had been trailing her appearance on last night’s 20/20 program. Every morning on ‘This Morning’ they were showing clips and building up to the climax. The first time SHE had spoken about it.( In case anyone has slept away the last few months, ‘IT’ refers to being smacked around by the love of her life, Chris ‘The Bruiser’ Brown.)

And guess what? Chrissie boy, having bounded in to Larry King’s show a few months ago to ‘apologize’ decided once again, that he should have another right to reply. Like we cared the first time? And MTV opened their door like the reality madhouse they are and let him in. How totally deplorable. I don’t feel it’s disrespectful, which is what others are saying. That isn’t at all appropriate, don’t you have to have respect in the first place in order to disrespect it?

This showdown was fast becoming a battle of the brands. She has a career, his was falling apart around him. Guess what baby boy, no one likes an abuser. No matter what talent you have it just shows you up as a lowlife, a bully, a coward and what’s the word? WANKER. I’m sure there’s plenty of us out there putting blog to work and commenting on last night’s circus. She decided to speak after a long period of silence and not only did HE speak, he reacted! Good job she wasn’t around or likely he would have pounced. The tiger would have been cornered once again.

He thought she was wrong, he said it was between him and her and it should be private. OK, big boy then go make your records and keep them private. Don’t release them because if you do then you’re public domain and if you beat the shit out of someone then people have a right to know. Sadly though your public side likes you to be noticed and definitely your bank account does. You wouldn’t want that to take a beating now would you? You wouldn’t want to see that beaten and broken. Oh and by the way if it was that private then why did you go on national TV and talk about it? ……TWICE!

You can smell the PR all around him, you need to do this, and now. They’ll be people wanting to hear your side of the story, why don’t you do it to deflect from her when she’s on Prime Time on ABC. The only thing it will salvage is a few who might have flicked between channels. What is there to explain? You’re a bully and you smacked a woman.

It must be really hard doing interviews when you’re stupid, but if you’re stupid and successful then you have PR. And the PR will get you in front of the right people, they’ll work at finding you the opportunity to redeem yourself. Damn, they forgot that it involves opening your mouth and sounding believable. How could you not feel this had everything to do with him and nothing to do with her. HE GOT CAUGHT OUT, he’s not that smart and he’s trying to claw his way back. Her face hurt but his ego was was really took a beating. All of a sudden people didn’t like him and when you’re used to adoration you can’t bear the thought that you are getting bad publicity. Most of the abusers around get away with it because it doesn’t get reported and it isn’t in the papers, on TV. Thank God some of these cowards get caught out.

I’m thinking the PR people here should have given him a script to learn and told him not to deviate from it. But his ego would never allow that, the media wants to talk to him and he gets to have his say. I’d cringe if I had to put this geezer on TV and worry at what he might come out with. He needs to dance and on a stage. He’s good at that but when you try to dance around questions and interrogation you just ain’t good enough, son. It’s not what you do. And to see how you react to being cornered by a defenseless girl who wanted to know why, when you were going out with her were you texting another girl. How dare you ask me that, how dare you catch me out. If I hit her hard enough she’ll stop interrogating me. Smack, shut the fuck up!

And out come the industry folks would want to try and clean up the shit, keep his career on track. They have a living to make too. Where’s the record company honchos condemning their artist, even sacking him. They daren’t, they have precious few artists who are keeping them in work nowadays as it is. Let’s not kick the shit out of the hand that feeds us.

You have to admire the Chairman of Wigan Athletic Football Club though who sacked that other wanker who smacked a female about because she didn’t accept ‘Who he was!’ It’s always been a killer of a line hasn’t it guys when you have to use that to entice the female of the species. It sounds better than, I’m a twat, I can’t string a sentence together but would you like to have a look at my bank statement before I allow you to shag me. Oh how the footballer is the great Lothario, the real master of seduction. Wasn’t it great the Chairman came out and condemned Stupid Marvin whatshisname  and said he regretted signing him. You’re history, fuck off , you’re sacked.

Starvin Marvin soon we might hope. He thought he could bully and attack if he didn’t get his own way. They slung him inside for 6 months so what’s twathead Brown doing on the tele anyway?

Filed under: View from the room , ABC 20/20, Chris Brown, MTV, Rhianna

U2. Me2, them too and you too.

It’s incredible to see the media go in to free fall when the U2 show comes to town. As an exercise in how to promote your show no one does it better and no one will ever do it better. It’s close to an invasion, no matter what may be going on in the world they literally command centre stage. U2 is the number one news story. In a day when records, sorry CD sales are at an all time low it’s the only way you can hope to trigger off what meagre sales are out there. Let them know you’re here. And when it comes to record sales even U2 are finding it hard going, the public has not fallen in love with their latest album/ CD. However,  wild horses wouldn’t keep those same people away from the live show.

The band are taking plenty of flack for the carbon emissions from taking this gargantuan beast on the road and you can understand why. Personally though, I believe  The Edge when he says they will offset that carbon footprint in some way. They’d probably already thought about it long before all the knives came out.  Unfortunately at around the same time he bought 156 acres on a cliff in Malibu overlooking the Pacific Ocean to build an eco friendly  home. Well five in fact, his own 10,000 square foot palace and another four to flog. Nice work if you can get it! He does want to make it his main homestead though and having seen the place I think I would too! Needless to say the activists came out in force stating that to build whatever he was building they would need to flatten a part of the cliff to build an access road.

No matter what anyone says about U2, whether it’s the new album, the carbon non friendly size of the tour or anything else for that matter the one thing you can’t ignore is the experience almost every single person who attends the show takes home. For them it’s worth every penny. U2 bring them a happiness that a lot of other bands don’t and for them it’s the best night of their lives. Paul McGuinness  has been quoted as saying they don’t break even until the back end of the US tour so you cannot argue about their desire to give people an experience second to none. The Edge on the edge. Of a cliff.

I don’t think the tour will have a significant effect on their record sales either and I’m sure they know that better than anyone. Their motivation will be their desire (no pun intended) to give something back to the people who have stuck with them forever, it’ll be trying to let them experience something unique, something completely different…….to anything. Add to that the corporate, footballer world flocking to the U2 show as the place to be seen and we have ‘the event’. It’s kinda funny too, what about those who haven’t seen a live show before? Where do they go from here, anything is going to seem sub standard after Claw Wars!

And where do U2 go from here, the return of The Claw? I don’t think so , it won’t be anywhere other than rest for a while and I think we can all allow them that indulgence! But what next, where can you go. Personally I think it’ll be stripped right down and four guys will take their songs to the masses. U2 have reached such a level now that being the ‘hottest ticket’ they could do anything. They’ve earned it. They haven’t earned it because of a gigantic claw and a production of epidemic proportion, they earned it from 30 plus years on the road. They’ve earned it from playing every tiny club that wanted to book them to every fan who wanted to see them. They’ve earned it from signing every autograph for every one of those fans who believed in them enough to give them a chance to do this. And through it all they stuck at it. They posed for every picture with every fan no matter how exhausted they were after giving their all in a performance, and for many years to under a hundred people and not a hundred thousand. They stepped out front to meet and greet the fans for as long as it was safe to do so. They paid their dues, they have earned it.

For me U2, David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Bruce or Led Zeppelin don’t have to prove anything to me or anyone else. They earned it, damn right they earned it. It’s called a work ethic and it’s called graft. Blood, sweat and tears. It’s called taking chances and making mistakes and it’s called entertainment. It isn’t about any one tour, it’s about understanding why you came in to this business and giving people something they have earned. The opportunity to take their hard earned cash and spend it how they want to. And if that is on two hours of a thrill of a lifetime who are we to judge?  When entertainers get this big let’s not lose site of the fact that they are still meant to entertain. It’s what they do and it’s what they should always do.

Filed under: Journey Through The Past, Risk, Uncategorized , David Bowie, led zeppelin, touring, U2, u2 360 tour

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

All this according to me

I’m done with apologizing, I’m guilty. I’ve been lax, lame and utterly absent from here for no other reason than ……I’ve been busy. What with writing and finishing the book I had to put it on the back burner, something I can be thankful to from the blogs. It sort of started on here and I’m really glad I decided to continue the writing. I think I felt I needed to focus on one and not the other. Don’t worry I have my reasons, if I had been blogging and returning to book writing then neither would have made sense but now with my litertary ducks in their formal rows I will return to doing  both. More books but gradually,damn I need to get this one out first!

The Insights Collection for which Insights from the Engine Room, lessons learned from rock and roll is the first should be hitting wherever it hits in a matter of a couple of weeks.It’s been fun, even without the tools of the trade…..a laptop that works and not a desktop formerly used by Zeus’ eldest lad.

I am now the proud borrower of a Mac, and after I’d already finished the book. I love it and a big shout out to Peter for the loan, currently freezing in my old homey country of UK (and further north than I was.)

I also had even more excuses,I had family visiting which naturally took up some quality time, after all a guy’s gotta walk his little girl on the beach now hasn’t he? Just in case I thought I might have a spare minute  I decided it was time to move too. All in all a whole new beginning and right now I’m happy with where I’m at..

Oh what I wasn’t happy with was the drains backing up on the hottest day of the year AND with the family still here……….. the shit really did hit the fan!

Nuff said I’m here and I’m staying, so they’ll be two or three blogs a week and an update on the development from my side of the world. Go get the book when it’s out and I can be kept doing what I like, talking and writing!

Anyway how have you  been?

Filed under: Uncategorized

Man on a mission

Just thought I’d drop in with a little update. Plan is the book gets released on May 15th. The title(today) is Insights from the Engine Room but we have a focus group planned for 30th so things may change. I’ve had some great help from Dave directing me and avoiding me going in places named ‘all over the.’ Also meeting my old pal Colin over from Edinburgh and lovely missus Avril plus new Minister says pal Jake invigorates me even more.

Lots more to say but as they say in showbiz…I have a deadline. I have to get all my relevant press pack and some more together.

I won’t be able to avoid ranting on about it because the truth is that as a novice I have thoroughly enjoyed myself, so much in fact that I’m not stopping here. I’ll probably get wrapped up in Twitter and uptweet current info as it seems all the craze.

What’s it about? Well it’s about me, what did you expect it to be about! Here’s an excerpt from the intro that I condensed down from War and Peace length. I needed a long intro because I’ve got wear a lot of T shirts and I have a lot to say. I’ve mapped out the internet cafes along the beach and…….’I've started so I’ll finish.’

Here’s a sneak preview, sneak away

It still wasn’t enough, I want to write a book that I’d read. I want it to include some stories, be entertaining, have humour but I want there to be something people could learn from the stories. I wanted them to benefit and to learn as I had learned from the people I had worked with.

I wanted them to see the mistakes these people had made, the opportunities that came their way and the pivotal moments that had both motivated and inspired me. I wanted them to see that no matter who you are……shit happens!

No shit

We all shit and I wanted to share my shit with their shit and see how it can help you with your shit. I started to make some notes, relive some of those experiences. Result…wow I really want to do this, I want to pass this on.

Difficult but challenging, I definitely was on a mission now. How long should it be, what should I cover, what will I call it? I was starting to feel invincible now, I’d made the decision…I’m writing a book! I started to think about the cover…what should it be?

That’s it! …it’ll have me on the cover in a Super hero costume….maybe ‘Shitman.’

I scribbled some more notes and identified the things I wanted to cover, one page, two pages…..there was too much, time to prioritize.

There may be more, let’s see how we do with this first. It has to begin………at the beginning. It has to introduce me from my childhood to my adulthood but we need to cover my in between hood because my in between hood…… was good.

Filed under: Uncategorized

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 fans, music industry

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

A nice leisurely drive…

The weekend came upon us for the Bickershaw Pop Festival, the glorious British month of May……..If there was ever a worse weekend for weather you’ll have to remind me, I think it rained from the moment we left home until our last gasp return….it was the pits!!! It happened early on in my experiences of outdoor festival and I don’t have a clue as to why I ever even considered going to another. Standing knee deep in mud in the pouring rain to watch anybody is just not worth it yet somehow I enjoyed every minute of it.

The time came and we congregated at the pre determined meeting point for our journey in to the unknown. I wish I could remember where that meeting point was, let’s say college but I can’t be sure. I do know it was Saturday May 5th. No need for a role call, everyone was there on time…. rucksacks at the ready, a few stale sandwiches, some coke ( a cola that is…) and the exciting air of anticipation circling over us. A pop festival here in Lancashire, and in Wigan of all places……somewhere unknown in rock legend and certainly not a landmark on any rock n roll tour!

I’d picked up the van the night before, proudly produced my new driver’s license and drove it home. I parked it on the street so everyone could see it. The following morning I arrived at what I thought was early at our rendezvous point and already half the chosen few were there. Within thirty minutes everyone had turned up, we loaded up people and possessions and were off. I had a map and chose to go on the M6 to get to Wigan, not the quickest route but the biggest, sexiest road for a novice driver……I’d only passed my test a few weeks earlier.

Away we went, merry and singing along the way to the compilation cassette I had put together for the drive. Good stuff, shite voices!
The rain was relentless and though I wasn’t speeding it was time to pull past this grubby lorry that was throwing all sorts of shit up at us. I had remembered my highway code and all the rules of the road….to accelerate drop down a gear. I was doing around 55mph by then and as I indicated and pulled out into the center lane I dropped from fourth to third gear( I don’t think fifth had been invented then…) Wham! about a dozen bodies came hurtling through and slammed in to the back of our seats with a couple almost flying over it. ‘What the fu……’ they cried in unison, my only defense being that it had said in the driver’s bible that if you needed to increase your speed drop down a gear…….well I did that. I don’t remember anything about what speed you needed to be doing…

About an hour later and still raining we arrived at our first sign which proudly declared ‘Bickershaw’ left, 3 miles.

Filed under: About Tony Michaelides, Journey Through The Past, Uncategorized , Bickershaw pop festival

Who’s on the bench

We were previously looking at a transfer market for bands and Neil commented on the need to extend the squad where necessary which I thought a terribly sensible suggestion. By implementing a squad policy there are various permutations that wouldn’t be possible with the standard band line up. I should mention that if you think I am totally mad just scroll back a few blogs to the ‘let’s change the goalposts’ blog and it’ll all make perfect sense…

Here’s the plan…. I think we ditch the idea of traditional support bands and replace them with the tribute band for the relevant headliner. This would make it a competitive market and encourage people to form tribute bands with the prospect of a major tour as reward. The tribute band would open and play for around 40 minutes, mainly B sides and rarer material that the headline act normally wouldn’t perform. The other alternative might be that they did requests, maybe the audience could text the roadies during a number and vote for the next song. What Neil was suggesting was that the tribute band came on during the headliners set , maybe when they’d peaked and effectively subbed for the main act. This is a brilliant idea, the lead singer could give a powerful performance and reach notes early on in the set he might otherwise never attempt but also have the reassurance that if he was struggling the tribute ’sub singer ‘ could be come on.

As with baseball, football and many other sports this could work in a variety of ways. If there was an extended drum solo as might be the case in a rock band’s set then on could come the tribute drummer either to complement the solo or ‘be handed the baton.’ There could even be an instance where the substitute guitar player could play a particular solo better than the main guitarist…on he/she would come.

I can see nothing but success for all involved. Tribute bands have become very popular over the years and here, as well as continuing to be the tribute band they would also get a crack at being the headliner. A good performance by the substitute singer could see them selected for the next show…controversial but very exciting.

The other thing worth mentioning is the sending of rule. Text messaging is very popular all over the world now so I think it should be encouraged as the audience’s way of communicating their opinions. If they were disappointed with a show in the past then there wasn’t much they could do, they paid their money and that was it. If for any reason the audience thought they were being cheated, maybe a poor performance from a band member then they could yellow card him…two yellows and he’s off.

In the event of a band member being sent off he would naturally miss the next three shows, and could additionally face a fine by the manager.

Filed under: Uncategorized , tribute bands

Let’s change the goalposts

OK let’s do normal for a minute….well maybe not then. I often used to think wouldn’t it be great if there was a transfer market in the music industry much the same as in soccer. When you get Real Madrid bidding 75 million for Ronaldo, what could the boy Bono go for? Can you imagine if Radiohead took a dip in sales and they put Thom Yorke on the transfer list and bid 30 million for Bono. It could be a straight payment, part swap where Thom goes to U2. Maybe they even part ex drummers. The popularity of a band might dip if they knew the singer had been transfer listed, it would keep everyone on their toes though.

Just think if Pink Floyd were still touring they could have two subs. If Dave Gilmour lost his voice and it went ‘Comfortably numb’ then they could bring on another singer with a number 12 shirt on. It would be a strategical managerial decision, Dave wasn’t cutting it and his manager would lift a card at the side of the stage and at the end of the number, pull him off. The audience would be cool,they’d understand……it’s tactics

You could make it even better if the band didn’t announce their squad before the gig so you’d have no idea who the sub(special guest) was. It could even change the result, there may be extra time….no penalties though, that may be a little harder.

Look at the publicity, you’d have the photo of the manager and his new artist leaning over the contract and the headline ‘Bono goes to Kiss for 30 million’ If you had someone like Robert Plant who was a great singer but getting on a bit he could maybe go to The Jonas Brothers on a free for the season. What would happen if Sheryl Crow blew it in rehearsals and she was dropped on the night, and her backing band went on and did just instrumentals. If a singer was drunk and off key he could get sent off and again the band would have to play instrumentals. You would have to be strict in the event of a sending off, naturally you wouldn’t e allowed to bring a substitute singer on. It would be the equivalent of playing out for a scoreless draw away from home.

Of course you could get a scenario like Nicolas Anelka though when he was swapping clubs every month,that would attract the greedy agents. Every time an artist went to a band they’d get their 20% so it’s in their own interests for them to move around. It could get messy though because you could have a situation where a four piece have four different managers. It makes it interesting though, don’t you think?

I’m off for a little lie down now……….

.

Filed under: Managing Creativity, View from the room , band managers, Bono, pink Floyd, transfer deals