Adam Clayton’s bad hair day

Great as it was seeing U2 for the first time the same cannot be said for Adam’s hair. It was bad, the type that you’d imagine not belonging to a head but more as a shock treatment demo and on the end of a pole in a neuro surgeon’s treatment room. It was a harsh Billy idol blond which was always bad on anyone other than Billy, mabe even a repulsive blond. Adam was a wonderful guy but I often thought maybe lacking in friends in those days. Why if someone cared enough about you would they not have mentioned the mane…it’s what friends are for. I think later on when I knew him well enough I did, but also by which time he’d got himself a mirror and didn’t need anyone telling him. Adam always used to have a huge grin on his face when he was playing as if to say I can’t beleive this is happening, always wanting to be a rock star and for years living the part. He just looks so cool now and I’m sure he can laugh at himself…..I hope so. I have a wonderful smiling, grinning, dodgy barnet shot from Gateshead in 1983which my friend Kevin Cummins the photographer had taken when U2 were supporting The Police…so much better than any words can say. I’d swop photos for albums with Kevin back then and he blew up some great shots for me from the show…. a wonderful one of Bono falling backward in to the crowd and being passed around above their heads. I’m going to be putting a site together soon , well my friend Darrin is actually so we can all enjoy some of these rarities……seems so selfish to hold on to these momemts in history.

The Manchester Poly show was a good one for U2. Wylie had pulled a few fans down from Liverpool and there was a presentable local turnout so they got to play in front of a good few people which is more than can be said for the next time they played Manchester, upstairs in a pub in Shudehill….I think maybe it was the Beach Club. There were 9 people there, three of whom were with me! The band soundchecked around 9pm and people were starting to leave thinking that was it….. we had to drag them back and tell them they weren’t on til 11pm. Maybe there were only 7 left when they finally played but U2 being as they are played like it was a full house. They always did that right from the very start. Everyone who came, no matter how small a crowd were treated to a full show, no exceptions. I think out of everyone I ever saw and most certainly everyone I ever worked with they had a very special bond with their audience. They never lost that, everyone who saw them then still goes to see them now…………plus maybe a few others!

After the show had finished we stuck our heads behind to say hello. The band were very excited because Mark Radcliffe the local DJ was there and they were keen to hear what he thought. We both remember them as being very personable, polite and just thrilled to meet everyone and anyone they could…Bono especially. He always wanted to get out front as soon as posssible and meet the fans. It wasn’t long before he knew some of them by name.

I also remember after every show he would always say ‘How was it, what did you think?’ They’d always sit around after gig and have a band meeting so they sort of knew the answer but always asked those who mattered most, the fans. Tonight they were asking us and we said we enjoyed it, because we had. In his perpetual quest to grab the audience’s attention Bono had grabbed on to some pipes directly above him on stage and had been swinging from them…these had been central heating pipes and his hands were red raw. Wrapped up in the moment he probably hadn’t noticed at the time but we certainly had.

Having had a good night and met the boys we said our farewells and left. It was pissing down with rain outside so we made a dash for the car………or at least where we thought we’d left the car. Gone, the damn thing had been stolen and we stood there cursing in the rain. We headed back and in to the gig to call the police and report it, more for the insurance than any likelyhood of ever getting it back. The band were still out front talking to the audience and Bono and The Edge, followed closely by Adam and Larry a couple of moments later came over to ask why we were back.

My lasting memories of the show were of Mark cursing the theft of his car, ‘Fookin bastards, I’ll kill ’em if I ever get hold of ’em,’ blah blah and these young Irish kids showing so much concern and listening intently. Bless!

Filed under: About Tony Michaelides, Journey Through The Past, Radio Ga Ga, Adam Clayton, Bono, Kevin Cummins, Larry Mullen, Mark Radcliffe, The Edge, The Police at Gateshead, U2

Bono, his face, first time…the story unfolds

The decision made, Mark called the Polytechnic in Manchester and we were added to the guest list. Having your lodger on the radio back then was a major plus and saved us a fortune in gigs! I think the social secretary at the Poly was a guy called Elliot Rashman who later went on to manage Simply Red, he definitely was the next time I turned up there to see U2 ….with my record breaking guest list of 104!  By then they had signed to Island and I was rallying round bringing everyone I could from radio and TV to see them. If they had prior arrangements I told them to bring whoever with them….and they did. It made for a very special night and hilarious too when after the show the band asked me to bring everyone backstage so they could say hi. I got out of that one, ‘Oh, just come out front when you’re ready guys, we’ll be at the bar.

U2 came on around 8-30pm and as Wah Heat had been creating a bit of a buzz there was a decent turn out. We’d already arrived by then and were downing a couple of pints at the bar. We turned round to see and there before us were a bunch of awkard looking kids doing what bands do, re tuning, a bit of a bass drum thumping away and the singer adjusting his mike stand………’We’re U2 and we’re from Dublin.’ Little did I know that this was the beginning of an amazing journey for all of us.

We moved down nearer to the front so we could get a good look, if we made the effort to come and see them then I don’t see the point in propping up the bar. There’s seeing a band and there’s being at the bar, hardly the same thing. They sounded like they should have done, raw but with a lot of energy and most of it coming from their singer. The guy, who even then went by the name of Bono had such a determined, almost demonic look about him you could see his sole ambition was to make sure everyone know who they were by the time they left the stage…..and bad boots and haircut were helping, but not maybe in the way he had planned.

Boots aside, he did this by repeating who they were another couple more times, lauding up Wylie and his mob, telling us they had a record contract and also that their producer was Martin Hannett. This prompted a curious glance at each other from me and Mark and a certain’ tell us more?’ Hannett had produced Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures and Radcliffe had recently recorded a session with them for his show on Piccadilly Radio  but neither of us knew he’d made a record with this lot. Mark was a big Joy Division fan, he’d even called his show ‘Transmission’ after their epic. After announcing their association with Hannett they went on to play the track he’d done with them, what was to be their forthcoming single ’11 o’clock tick tock’ 

Wow this was a bit special, an extraordinary sound and particularly from this slightly gauntish, again fairly awkward guitar player, The Edge. He played an unusual Gibson Explorer guitar and moved it around his torso like he was feeling every note. His sound even back then was quite unique and we both loved what he was doing. By now we were both starting to look a lot more at what was going on up there onstage. Fairly charismatic singer, original and very impressive guitar sound…. and then the rhythm section. Larry was the James Dean of the band, a real beauty that had all the girls in the audience nudging each other……. and a competent drummer, nothing more who was just learning with every show. And then came Adam. I don’t think I’m alone in saying that Adam was the least talented back then and to see how he has blossomed in to his look and the feel he has for his bass now is quite amazing. I don’t think anyone saw that one coming! 

It reminded me of my bass playing youth….the ability, not the haircut which I will have to come back to. I was hell bent on being a rock star, not just me but all my friends and especially my bandmates. Myself our drummer Kenny, and legendary singer Sudi always came up with the band names and mighty fine they were too!  I vividly remember ‘ Dwarf Cornell’ which I’m sure was mine! Oh I have to stop and keep this blog deserving of it’s own place, too fond a memory to absorb within Adam Clayton’s haircut methinks.

I’m afraid the remainder of the U2 show is going to have to be finished later on …it’s the usual boring  borrowing/returning laptop scenario. One day soon things will be different and I can just tune in, turn on and write out.

 

 

get

Filed under: About Tony Michaelides, Journey Through The Past, Radio Ga Ga, Bono, Joy Division, Mark Radcliffe, Martin Hannett, Piccadilly Radio, The Edge, U2, Unknown Pleasures

The first time ever I saw your face….Bono

I remember the first time I heard about U2 was from my old friend Neil Storey at Island.( Incidentally I’m taking full credit for the boy Storey starting his own blog, Neil Storey/Blogspot which I will link up to as soon as I get enough time from borrowed computers to sort it out and so you can read his stuff. Neil’s a great writer and as he gets older he’ll be able to grumble and rant better than ever!

Anyway, I digress…….we used to work as regional pluggers at Island Records in the late 70’s, Neil did the South East and I covered the North West….England that is. We all got laid off around 1980 and he blagged his way in to the press department at Island where he resided for a good few years. During that time he, along with his oppo Rob Partidge were the first people there to pick up on these fledgling Irishmen. They spent pretty much all their spare time going to see them play in London which they did quite frequently in late 79 and early 1980. They were building up a good deal of interest in the press from the likes of Paul Morley and some other journalists, but I’ll nudge him in to telling the story and then cut and paste it over here…..more for self preservation because if I get anything wrong he’ll be down on me with venom! Well worth knowing though and no matter who might say what this will be telling the story as it was.

I think I was working at Charisma at the time and was on the road with both Genesis and Peter Gabriel who both had fairly extensive tours so I relished the days off. Neil called me and told me about this band who were playing Manchester Polytechnic on saturday night supporting Pete Wylie who had his band Wah Heat touring . They’d just released an amazing single Seven minutes to midnight and prior to that Better Scream so they were on a bit of a high. I think we’re talking early 1980 here if my fading memory is helping any???

At the time Mark Radcliffe was living at my house and we both knew of Wylie’s stuff so even though it was a lousy night and pissing down with rain we decided to treck down and see what was going on………..and Mark had agreed to drive, so that was even better! I had known Wylie over the years from back in the early 70’s when he was forever in Probe Records in Liverpool. It sounded like a good show even though I’d no idea about this U2 bad Neil had been going on about.

Computer has to go back now so I’ll finish the story off later.

 

an even greater grumbler

Filed under: About Tony Michaelides, Journey Through The Past, Mark Radcliffe, Neil Storey, Pete Wylie, tony michaelides, U2, Wah Heat

Let them grow and they will flourish.

Today the artists are doing what the record companies can longer do , or have no desire to do, build careers. It involves work, hard work by dedicated people and there used to be a word for it, artist development…OK two words then but you still never hear it mentioned anymore by record companies. It gave the artist longevity and at the same time it gave the label the likelyhood of  re couping, and then start to make BIG money. Isn’t that what investment is, putting money in and waiting for a return?Y

Yes waiting, it’s something that you still see happen back in football in England and I’m sure it happens all over the world, and with other sports too. They have a youth policy, they sign someone with talent and allow them to develop and then when the time is right they throw them in at the higher level and watch them perform. The artists start to maximise their potential, become successful and then they see a return on their investment. Like the footballer learns his trade, plays better and more people come to see him so to does the songwriter. They begin to evolve, write better songs and become a better performer. Their doing well benefits everyone and makes for a better business. The artist becomes self sufficient, gains more artistic control and starts to make better records, maybe even ending up with a better record deal as a result of their success. Of course it doesn’t happen every time but guess what happens when it does…… it allows the record company to go back and do it all over again with some other talent.

It makes for a much better record industry and that in turn allows the flow of good, successful and consistent homegrown talent…..and an opportunity to export that talent and become successful overseas. The UK record industry used to be a right little earner! Breaking acts overseas, especially in America was considered vital in their development, a viable export and something that helped put the ‘great’ in Britain. That is something that has started to deteriorate over the years especially in the US where you just hear the occassional successs story, Coldplay, James Blunt. It’s the safest of England, it’s OK but it’s not groundbreaking………..it makes the risk of failure less likely, it appeals to the masses and it’s easy to promote, and usually you hear more about the UK acts who don’t crack America, Robbie Williams, Oasis etc

Everything else is back to doing it the same old fashioned way, by touring their asses off. Everyone who ever broke America did with blood sweat and tears, sleeping on people’s floors or driving overnight to their next show to save on hotels. It was relentless and it was ‘paying your dues’ and it left you better prepared for success, you’d earned it. Has it ever been any different?….Led Zeppelin in the late 60’s and 70’s, U2 in the 80’s…Radiohead, Bush etc and we go back to not needing a record company. The only thing a record company could do is give them tour support, something again they are less likely to do today. In Led Zeppelin’s case their first ever was funded by themselves, they recouped and made money on every tour after that! They didn’t even need the weight of Atlantic Records.

The simplest, most obvious way of doing things is always the best. Long live rock and roll.

Filed under: Journey Through The Past, mistakes, record companies, artist development, Coldplay, James Blunt, led zeppelin, oasis, U2

Bono remembers

I came across this when I was just checking on a few dates before writing a blog. I was trying to remember the exact date I first saw U2 supporting Wah Heat at the Polytechnic in Manchester with my then lodger Mark Radclifffe.

David Fricke had just written a review of the re issue of U2’s first album, ‘Boy’ for rollingstone.com and it prompted a response from the band’s singer…….How cool.

Entering the blogosphere, a review of BOY from the singer who was one at the time of recording… We the members of said post punk combo are very complimented by DAVID FRICKES 4.5 star review of our debut, an album we always believed in. I remember now a generous JON PARELES review from the VILLAGE VOICE in 1980, a line something along the lines of “this is peter pan, I hope they break up before they grow up.” Anyway, as my band mates and I attempt to finish our most complete and radical album yet, here’s my why and what i think is right and wrong about BOY having listened to it for the first time in over twenty years if you start from the pseudo british accent and the little reported fact that the singer sounds like a girl, things don’t look too promising …the annoying gene is present in self consciousness and self immolation… you do want to give the singer a slap for lots of reasons but let’s start with the pretentiousness….the singer has obviously been listening to SIOUXIE AND THE BANSHEES, JOY DIVISION and a few others whose combined archness and artfulness was just too much for the freckled face teenager from northside of DUBLIN…. neither fully protestant or catholic, IRELAND had left the boy with a face like a baked bean and in search of a nonregional identity…a theme that continues to the present.
you can have everything the songs, the production, the face, the attitude but still not have “IT”… U2 had nothing really, nothing but “IT”… For us music was a sacrament …an even more demanding and sometimes more demeaning thing than music as ART, we wanted to make a music to take you in and out of your body, out of your comfort zone, out of your self, as well as your bedroom, a music that finds you looking under your bed for God to protect your innocence…

…i’m proud of this little Polaroid of a life I cant fully recall. As well as the ability to make embarrassing mistakes, the demands of a great debut might be fresh ideas, fresh paint and sometimes for its canvas, a fresh face.

I miss my boyhood.

Bono, 3rd August 2008

You can read the full reply on rollingstone.com

It reminded me so much of when I heard ‘Boy ‘ and the feelings that it evoked. I thought it was amazing how it stirred a reaction in Bono so strong. It reminded me too of how much blogging makes you miss your childhood, but in the fondest of ways.

‘For I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now’ Bob Dylan 1964

Filed under: About Tony Michaelides, Journey Through The Past, mistakes, Bono, david fricke, Joy Division, Mark Radcliffe, Rollingstone.com, U2, village voice

Back catalogue, the life blood of the record business

Back catalogue has always been the very soul of the record business, great artists make great records and great records sell….. and like any art form, it doesn’t date. Over the years new generations discover them and they continue to sell, it’s a never ending circle…or at least you thought it was. While great artists are timeless record companies are time sensitive, they no longer give their artists the time to produce those great pieces of work. They have created a climate by melting our icebergs and letting our lifeblood float away, the back catalogue is drifting aimlessly. As new acts were being developed by the labels they always had a steady roster of artists with back catalogue that would keep ticking away. At some time somwhere in the world someone would be buying one of these records, and it just kept going.

There is now a real danger of there being no back catalogue in the future, or that the back catalogue we have today will still be the same back catalogue of the future. Can we seriously expect that Britney Spears, Amy Winehouse or Nickelback to sell in thirty years like Led Zeppelin, The Pink Floyd or Dylan?

Back catalogue and a great artist roster is also what helps attract the best of the new artists to a label. Island Records for three decades had a plethora of acts like Free, Traffic, Bob Marley, U2, Steve Winwood etc who would build the foundations to attract these new acts. How many independent acts over the years would have given anything to be on Factory and the same label as Joy Division and New Order, or 4AD and The Pixies? And those labels would only want acts who were worthy to stand alongside those giants. The artists had integrity and hadn’t become some record company’s puppet jumping to their every tune. They were confident in their ability to produce the best they could, the label left them to it and in return those acts left the promoting in the capable hands of their label. The right people doing the right jobs with the least interference, a harmonious relationship and a solid base from which to build.

Filed under: About Tony Michaelides, record companies, 4AD, back catalogue, Factory Records, Island Records

Some things cost nothing….

‘I peak early in the morning. it’s downhill from there.’ not my own quote but something Bono said in 2004

I was up as usual at the crack of dawn, well actually it was a crack well before before dawn. I live in Tampa Bay on the breathtaking coastline that is the Gulf of Mexico so I clutch on to dawn for as long as possible. It’s those times when the sun is gloriously rising and that time at the end of the day when it is reluctant to fade that are positively magical…. and the time writing becomes more than a hobby, it’s a passion, something you HAVE to do. It’s true what they say, the best things in life are free. What price could you put on a sunrise or a sunset when no two are alike?

I wake up excited with this bizarre need to share things, maybe it’s the escape of living on your own and sharing a coffee with a complete stranger that makes blogging so wonderful.  It’s never feels like it’s an obligation and it’s obviously a great way for those that don’t know you to find out a little more…..oh and a must when you want to talk to people as well as write……me! I’m still really excited about going around and storytelling, what a great way to remember some amazing times and to share them with others…and with some who weren’t even born then. Scary.

The colors cascade in to morn and it all becomes a frantic stab at the keybpad to write as much as is going on in my head, made a thousand times harder by a laptop that just decides to stop when it’s had enough……..technology telling you to slow down. It’s so abrupt, it’ll just tap out the letters I typed when it feels like it!…by which time you’ve had pause, and not for thought. It could lead to another tirade of expletives about the death of my laptop but I’ll refrain…… it was behaving badly before but it’s sod’s law that I should inherit it’s brother, albeit temporarily.

How the little things excite you the most, I can’t wait to get a new one and maybe come up with my best work yet, or knowing me drop it in a puddle and end of back at square one! Back to my train of thought with what next to blog….which never ends where it begins.

Filed under: About Tony Michaelides, blogging

Ch ch changes.

So we identified the problem, the record business had the experience because of the people who worked there, and slowly they started to dwindle.  The record business was losing ‘record people’ and they were being replaced by the accountants and lawyers. The old guard were the innovators and the risk takers, they were the people who could spot talent and know what to do with it. They were charismatic and dynamic, exciting people at an exciting time and in an exciting place……along came the lawyers and we lost the excitement, it became like any other business.

Too right the business has changed, and succeeded in what? Well it streamlined the operation, reduced the overhead, dropped a load of bands and satisfied the shareholders. They got a return on their investment, everyone else suffered, and most of all the public got bored . The record companies put themselves in a position where they couldn’t sign anyone who didn’t give them a quick return and in doing that they missed out on the very lifeblood of the industry, the one thing that gave them a job in the first place and that kept the industry afloat for so long…..back catalogue.

The record companies pissed the public off, they got bored with constant re issues, endless different mixes designed with the sole intention of forcing a record in to the charts…not through it’s popularity but by getting the same people to buy it several times so they could get the extra track or the new mix. The record companies underestimated the public thinking that if you liked Iron Maiden or whoever then you would merrily buy every version you chose to release. I was suprised the bands didn’t think more of their fans and put a stop to it. It made the charts a farce. The charts were supposed to reflect the most popular records and at times it had singles in there that some people had several copies of.

After CD’s had come along and saved the companies in the eighties now they were at the point of no return…they’d run out of ideas to squeeze every last cent out of people and they politely abstained, they had other things to spend their disposable income on that just weren’t available to them in the past.

Filed under: About Tony Michaelides, Journey Through The Past, record companies, record company marketing

The plan from HQ

We have a plan. Podcasts……..seems I am of mouthaplenty so my friend Darrin from the Innovation Hangar here in the bay of Tampa  is about to resurrect all things TM. Should be a lot of fun, they’ll be a myriad of stories, some whacky, others unbelievable but non of them dull I hope….well hardly likely with the characters I plan to introduce. Again more legends from inside the engine room and they’ll be more opportunities for the stories that there just isn’t time for in presentations. Can’t wait as they are all worthy of a mention, and this way I can accompany you in the car, maybe we can jog together, take a bath? I’m still fascinated by the oportunties so let battle begin.

There’s also a plan to re launch the radio show, there seems to be a good response from the Facebook page and a few e-mails so more than enough reason to have some fun. I’ll keep you updated when I know a little more……..I’m dusting down some archive interviews too from around 20 years ago with REM, U2, Leonard Cohen, Bryan Ferry, New Order, Frankie etc etc and thought it may be nice to put some clips up.

The internet is such a powerful voice and I’m excited as much about learning about it as doing it. There seem so many avenues available now so that when you have something to say you can be heard. The same applies to bands and the ability they have through the net to market themselves, build a fan base and reach out to people with more information, content,ideas and just about everything else they have going on than any record company could dream of, plus of course the ability to sell their songs, merchandise etc. They control the content and the delivery…nice!

I have a lot of ideas I want to include in here so I need to sit down and device a structure, a little dangerous I hear you say…. those that know me  anyway, and probably everyone else who has worked me out. When I say structure i probably have a different meaning, I couldn’t get too organized or it would all fall apart, it’s more me jotting down the stories and an order. The problem I have there is the one I always have, as I write one another one comes in to my head, and it’s a different one. Maybe I leave well alone.

So please don’t desert me in these laptopless times, we need each other more than ever.

Filed under: About Tony Michaelides, Uncategorized, blogs, podcasts

The golden years

Onwards and upwards in the perpetual quest to borrow someones laptop and get something up here, there’s never having time to read other blogs and a mountain of catching up to do. I think I’m being tested, while I survive…damn right I will. Oh but for the day I can curl up to my new laptop and have some normality. Anyway best thrash on……

Thinking further and deeper about the fans that were the music business of old reminded me once more of the people who worked in the record stores, and again when I first read Smith3000’s blog about Sifter’s which really stirred it all up for me, made me sort of mad thinking what happened to all these people. I suppose the truth is, selling records went over to the supermarkets and the Walmarts of the world. Record companies giving them discounts that they weren’t offering to the indie stores, the ones who were brave enough to stock those records when no one had a clue who the artists were. Nice payback. Then the supermarkets held the industry to ransom, if they had any overstocks they forced the major record companies to take them back……..or else they wouldn’t order in such volume next time. What that would mean is that the record companies wouldn’t reach target on new releases, and people might lose jobs. Result, the multiple record retailers 1 Record Companies 0. No equalizer, no extra time.

More than any other sector it was the people in the stores who had the real zest for music….just to be able to be surrounded by vinyl and have the opportunity to listen to and discover new bands was enough for this lot, kids in a sweetshop. No matter what time of day I would go in to a record store there was always something on the turntable and invariably something that would stop me in my tracks and force me to ask the question, ‘What the hell is this?’   

Record stores employed enthusiasts, before you were ‘allowed ‘ to work there you had to pass the test….did you love music, how much did you know, were you able to answer the questions the customers might have?That’s what brought people back in to the shops, someone who was knowledgable and could point them in the right direction, someone who might suggest they listen to this new release and could answer any queries. That’s exactly the type of people who worked in One Stop records in Manchester, my first foray in to record buying and there before HMV who were later to become my designated supplier when sadly, One Stop closed their doors. After that it was the very wonderful Record Collector in Sheffield, one of THE stores who’s owner became a good friend to this day…..time to return the laptop, more later.

Filed under: Journey Through The Past, HMV, one stop records, record collector, record retailers