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?

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.

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.

I was just catching up on a few of the reviews and comments from the audience regarding last night’s U2 ‘360 Degree’ show. ( Very close to the temperature, too!)Pretty mixed really, and an amazing amount of people who were seeing them for the first time. For them it was quite an experience and for one person it was their first concert! Where the hell do you go after that. Love them or hate them, whichever way you look at it it has to be the biggest show on earth by a mile.

As it’s all anyone is talking about here in the Tampa Bay area I thought I’d make a start on a series of U2 blogs. I just got a note from my old pal Neil who’s about to step on a plane so no doubt we will end discussing this even more over the coming weeks. (Neilstorey.blogspot.com.) In fact Neil goes back even further than I do with U2…… and that’s nearly 30 years. He was responsible for persuading myself and my then lodger, Mark Radcliffe to drag ourselves out on a  filthy wet saturday night to see them supporting Wah Heat at what was then the Art College in Manchester( was it 1981?) It was soon to become the ‘Poly’ and  where they played several times when I was working with them and where I still hold the record guest list……..106 people when I took most of Granada TV along to see them.

Merely mention U2 to me and so many memories come flooding back. I dread to think of how many shows I did with them in the early 80’s and watched them blossom and flourish until they finally exploded. You can’t ever imagine the belief that band had in themselves from the very beginning. Even now they helped inspire me as much as anyone to write my book.

Last night was special. My friend Darrin who did pretty much everything other than write the damn book, Insights from the Engine Room really wanted to go, I was hot and had been all week so the thought of standing in a field for hours sounded like a lot of work. A 72,000 record breaking audience is pretty smelly in this humidity but I thought I should do the decent thing and see if I could get us some tickets. I sent a note to Paul McGuinness their manager and tickets, backstage passes and hospitality was provided the same as it has every year since they managed to make a living without me. I stood on the mixing desk and watched in amazement. I amazed myself, I should be used to it all by now. Somehow I doubt I ever will be.

I’m still tired as it was one hell of an exhausting but fulfilling night so I’ll get to bed and come back and write some more later. And don’t you dare wake me.

Another mad busy week getting everything ready for the book to go to the printers. Everyone seems to have done their bit, well almost til I interfere and make some changes. Call me a pain in the ass but whenever I see something that can be better I want to make it better so it’s better, and now it is better! Seems like I’ve lived with this for an eternity but a few changes along the way have meant a couple of delays but I’m sure it’s all worth it. So by the time I write my next blog I’ll be announcing that it’s on it’s way and then to the fabulous world of social networking to launch myself upon an unsuspecting public. Expect that is those that know me then it’ll be an expected expectation, the suspect, me and it (the book.)

Much as I want to promote this I want to start writing my next one, it’s a killer and the sooner I get started then the sooner I’ll be able to bleat on about it and get repetitive. All I’m saying is that it will involve a whole host of colleagues from over the years.

I will have my You Tube channel up and running by weekend, it’s registered and it’s going to be called TM TV. It’ll be full and feisty and fun at the same time. Got lots of ideas on content.

The plan was to release the book early in the New Year and set it up properly, but I don’t do properly very well so we’ve arrived at a compromise. There’s going to be a limited edition number of copies until the full launch, all signed. I sign them and send you a pencil and you write the number of copy on it. And when you go on holiday you take your book with you and you ask the person next to you on the plane what number theirs is then same again when you get to the hotel. Guests, receptionist, concierge, the lot of them. How else will you know the full value of what you own? If you find someone with the same numbered book send them both in and you get a refund, payable with 10/16  weeks.

Call it marketing. Well call it what you want, like I care?

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.

I can’t believe we’re half way through September! And before I know it I’ll be coming up with another dumb ass comment ‘What happened to 2009?’ I shouldn’t complain though, at least I’ve got things to do and probably enough things to do that’ll pre empt the ‘what happened to 2010 extra dumb ass comment.

I had a great time earlier in the week when I went over to see my friend Paul’s band ‘Jealous’ playing in Orlando and met some really nice people. I had to laugh though, I was invited on to a panel where they were discussing everything from the current scene to how an Orlando band perceived going to the UK and vice versa. All was fine until the moderator Chris asked me a question and the tape ran out. I apologized but told him ‘You asked me what was Insights from the Engine Room all about then…Bad question!

To be frank though (Frank who?) I’m really not apologizing at all, on the contrary I’m really pleased I’m in total promo mode. I’m on the verge of a new career and I’m letting nothing slip. If people are interested to hear what I’ve done over the past thirty odd years then I’m happy to talk to them. When all is said and done, once a promo guy, always a promo guy.

I spent a huge part of my working career setting up radio, TV(and in the early days press) for up and coming acts which included multi million selling acts like U2, Matchbox Twenty etc and I know as well as anyone the importance of having the media buy in to what you’re doing. Back in the day it was very different but when it all comes down to it nothing really changes, it’s still about getting in front of the right people. Back then it may have been a TV show or on the radio, now it could be a blogger, podcast or somewhere else on the internet. It may be somewhere else altogether but one thing I know for sure, as one thing becomes popular something else comes along to replace it. You contantly need to be on the look out. What’s right for your career might be wrong for someone else’s. Let one person know and they’ll tell someone else, one becomes ten, ten comes a hundred. But you need to start somewhere.

Writing the book, telling stories and offering up advice from my side of the fence has given me an overwhelming urge( Now if there was ever a need to change my name by deed pole it should be Tony Overwhelming, it’s got that ring to it!) I digress, an overwhelming urge to help bands on the way up and to put some ideas in their head, send them away with something to think about. You can have the most talented , creative people in the world who just haven’t afforded themselves the time to think,’ right, what next?’

As the website takes on a life of it’s own and I hunt down the people who know the answers to a bunch of the questions let’s see if we can make a difference to someone and help to give them the motivation. Not just the motivation, there are plenty who have that but are sadly lack in other areas. Let’s see if we can help them to make others believe in them in the way they believe in themselves.

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

Whoa, where does the time go? Moving home, relocating and having your world stuffed in a cupboard is hardly conducive for writing and least of all writing anything vaguely interesting. So I resisted the temptation to grumble about it all on here. Instead I selectively chose my friends and now I need to contact them to see if they are still my friends.I’m sure they will be, they’re hardened pro’s and have done their fair share of vexing through time and circumstance, and I listened.

But now, I really am here. No excuses, just plenty to say. So many things have gone on these last few weeks that I’ll be hard pushed to cram a full update in this one note. Suffice to say nothing will keep me away from, at the very least a couple of blogs a week to bring us both up to speed. It’s wonderful how a change from everything energizes you, new people, new places and new beginnings. I’m sat comfortably where I want to be……. writing, reading and preparing to do more of both. My book ‘Insights from the Engine Room, Lessons learned from rock and roll’ should be out by the first week in September and the timing certainly feels right. Any attempts to rush it out sooner would have been a result of my obvious impatience. Damn, I’ve written it , why can’t people read it. And with new ways to blabber and smoke (Captain Beefheart, The Spotlight kid) it’s a good time to start hollering. It’s back to plugging, the thing I know the best but it’s embracing new methods and new ways of doing things. And more than anything it’s a fantastic way to for me to learn how people find out about things. Embrace the change! 

Since I was last on here the book has taken on a new lease and now it will be published by Janson Media instead of us going the self publishing route. Now everyone is helping with all the things that take up a lot more time than my just writing it. Slowly we’re getting there and everything now is becoming very real.

I have been given a great opportunity with an exciting new Social networking site called Tin Can. (www.tincan.tv) It’s a holding page for the first few weeks as August is the ’soft launch’ with everything starting to kick in for September. They have a great line up of programs with some really fascinating content and to make it even better it comes from my old home town, Manchester! I love working with good, talented, like minded people and this feels so right. here’s to help making it happen. Keep your ears to the ground and I’ll keep you updated on how you can post stuff and promote whatever you have going on, providing it’s not illegal or crap!

So now I have done the decent thing and resurfaced I need to click ‘upload’ and go write more and record more because guess what, I now have my own radio show once again. Manchester radio on line have asked if I’d like to give it a go. I’d be mad to refuse and anyway it’s been thirteen years since my last show on Piccadilly/Key 103 and I have to admit once more it feels the time is right. Mainly for two reasons, firstly the people are so enthusiastic and committed who am I to say no? And secondly it’s on the internet and not governed by all the restrictions that have taken the excitement out of terrestrial radio. If it’s good and it’s worth hearing then it’s on the internet. Made by fans for fans. Shouldn’t take me too long to get my head round the workings so I’ll sign off for now and update you with more just as soon as I get the lowdown. 

Raise a glass we’re getting ready to rock!

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!