Been gone too long

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pity the poor Whitney

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Wham Bammy’s

They’re over before they begin……at least if you do what I’ve been doing for the last few years, recording the Grammys. And the nominations aaaaaaaargh. A million blogs, endless questions and most of them pondering the same one, do they mean anything anymore? They could have saved some money for next year’s by recording  U2, Coldplay etc and not even bother having them turn up. Coldplay have become the house band. NASCAR whoops,  sorry NARAS ( Not Actually Relevant Artists Serenading) just adore them. They are safe as houses (personally I don’t have anything against them), yet they do seem to be the foundation for the House of Grammy though. You don’t need to see the nominations in advance nowadays, there is no element of suprise They are the standard bearers and let’s throw in some quirky Brits for good measure and to look cool. The Grammys nowadays looks thrown together, it looks like come the end of the year someone thinks…’ Mmm February’s not far off, pass me a pad, I’ll make some notes.’ It has ceased to be an event anymore, it’s appeal lies in it’s history.

The question everyone has is what relevance do they have today? The mere mention of the word ‘Grammy’ used to make you tingle …the big night, night of a thousand stars but now??? What I did learn was that NARAS has had the same production team for 30 years…and the same director ! Does he have no shame. Why on earth would he want to attach his name to show …well silly question, probably for the pay check and none of the grief, leave that to the organizers. It’s formula with a capital F.

These are the ones who seem to think that Stevie Wonder and The Jonas Brothers are a good fit. What the hell does Myley Circus add to Taylor Swift’s song? After all she wrote it and performs it perfectly well  by herself….. or is it saying let’s be all things to all people. That can be the only explanation for Stevie Wonder and The Jonas Brothers. Next year maybe we’ll have  Lindsay Lohan playing pedal steel guitar with B. B. King., possibly Jay Z and Don Williams. Britney and Obama?The only thing it does is remind me is who she  has for a dad…..Billy Ray who?

The sound was appalling. The jury is out on the U2 song. Was it the sound or the song? Personally I was very grateful for the backdrop displaying the lyrics as I didn’t have had a clue what Bono was prancing and singing about. On first hearing it didn’t do it for me, we’ll see…. maybe it’ll grow. I like the band and when they go away to make a record I expect the first track they showcase to be a killer. They need to sell a lot of records and now isn’t the time. Good luck guys. No doubt they’ll be glancing over their shoulder and seeing how Bruce performs, how many records he sells even after the Superbowl performance fresh in people’s minds. Time will tell us all, it’ll be tough.

Filed under: View from the room, Coldplay, Grammys, Jonas Bros, NARAS, U2

Sell out or selling?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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