Houses of the Holy

Another excerpt from the book if for no other reason than someone asked me. Writing all this stuff up has brought back a flood of memories so I’m reaching out to a bunch of friends to help me remember the half of it. It’s a time I’m desperate not to lose any of them!

Book should be out May /June….. even quicker if I get round to replacing my laptop and a spot of writing in more exotic places than my kitchen.

So hear as a sprightly baby of fifteen years old did I get to meet the great Led Zeppelin…

I had tickets to see Led Zeppelin which my friend Ken had bought. They were playing the Free Trade Hall, June 1969 and I could barely contain myself with the excitement. Led Zeppelin in my home town just prior to world domination and I had a seat so near the front I could watch every Jimmy Page grimace and every Robert Plant gyration. I could smell the sweat off Bonzo as he thrashed his drums like a maniac. John Paul Jones’ bass lines went up my leg and in to my belly. This was something else, this was rock heaven. If the bass got so heavy and made me sick at least it was rock puke.

After the show we waited around and asked the old bloke in the foyer (I think they call them security now) if we could take a couple of posters down from the wall. He politely agreed and there we stood with two glorious Zeppelin posters, the one with the orange Zeppelin on the cover.

They didn’t sell merchandise back then so this glorious poster I had before me was set to become a major rarity and worth a small fortune. I got divorced, from wife and poster and the rest is history, or it could have been. Farewell my retirement fund.

We sneaked back in to the empty auditorium and watched as the roadies packed up the equipment…… Now this was rock and roll, this was serious. The Marshall speaker stacks were huge, I would have done anything to touch them, even if one could just fall over and land on me. Oh for the blood of Zeppelin……….

Suddenly out of nowhere Robert Plant appeared, leant down and nodded at us, ‘Want me to sign those fellahs?’ he asked. Dumb question Robbo, I kept calm secretly wanting to make him feel the pop star. No sooner were we staring at his autograph with deep admiration of the task completed than he waved us to the stage door. Now he wanted to see if we would like to meet the other guys…….

I looked at Ken, he looked at me…we looked at Robert (by now he was Robert) I shuffled and wriggled in my Levis to make sure nothing I had expected was going on down there……….

Is this for real? I pinched myself, it hurt. This was for real so why couldn’t I believe it? We had been summoned by royal appointment, His Royal Highness, the right honorable Robert Fucking Plant! If the dog had bollocks…then this was it!!

Led Zeppelin wanted to see us, no one else in the crowd, just us! And never have I EVER used so many exclamation marks in one paragraph! This had to be one of the twelve dreams of Dr Sardonicus, My Dreams of Milk and Honey, The Greatest Story Ever Told.

And I’m not done yet, I will conclude this fab day next time round..

Filed under: About Tony Michaelides, Journey Through The Past, Bonzo, Free Trade hall, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, led zeppelin, Robert Plant

Don’t be an asshole

I’ve been buried in my writings but I haven’t forgot my blog. Just thought I wouldn’t add daily …but then again I might change my mind. Part of what I’m writing is on interpersonal skills which we should all have but some have better than others. I’ll probably include some in this book which is ‘Insights from the engine room’ and about some of the lessons you can learn from rock and roll. There are more planned and I quite fancy the idea of a stand along book on interpersonal skills which I would probably enjoy writing. Let’s face it the older you get the more characters crop up along the way…so let’s not forget them, although some are best forgotten!

Here’s a little something/someone we have all encountered. No apologies if you’re in the chosen category…

The Asshole

Identifying the asshole

The music business is full of assholes. Right, like accountancy, education, coal mining and water polo aren’t and not to mention fencing, waste management and a thousand other work places. Problem is spotting them. Assholes can attract assholes too…bottom line (every pun intended!)

No one likes working with an asshole. It’s much harder to be personable and affable than to be a jerk. Sadly however, the asshole has a problem identifying this…..that’s why they’re an asshole. To them they are misunderstood, it’s others are being awkward, uncooperative and generally just not prepared to help. It isn’t because they necessarily disagree with them……. they don’t want to be in the same room as them. The appearance of the asshole at a gathering or function is not welcome, they are not liked and people don’t want to do business with them. Make you’re excuses and leave, it’ll end in tears anyway.

Lonely is the asshole

Now the asshole is left wanting, they are insecure. The asshole has no purpose, no one loves them. If they can’t realize people don’t like them then it’s not your job to fix it. If you employed them it is …now who’s the asshole.

He who shouts the loudest is often heard the least.

Those who are belligerent and obnoxious are to be avoided…….they feel that shouting gets them heard. Getting heard and being noticed are two entirely different things. People who scream and shout are probably the type who get the runaround at home. They come to work pissed off and need to vent their fury and it’s usually some quite unassuming character that gets the brunt of it.

Filed under: Book Tony Michaelides, mistakes, PR, assholes, communication skills, intersonal skills

Stories for boys……U2 early beginnings

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

Here’s a snippet..

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Times they are a changin’

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

The bottom line, will it make everyone what they are used to earning from a U2 album? Many, many unanswered questions. Time will tell and it’ll give us a sure fire indication of the times ahead. Once the accountants work out what Bruce and U2 have sold it will tell us a lot. Everyone in the industry will be watching, the goalposts have changed.

And what about the tour, where will touring be when they roll out? The promoters will have forked out a fortune and paid up well in advance I would imagine. With the economy in free fall will people just be able to afford it, no matter how good a show it may be? I doubt if anyone has the answer and they’ll all be watching nervously.

Downsizing ….it has to be the way forward. I don’t think anyone can realistically tour in the way they did either. Touring has to be affordable for all, not least of all the fans. If there are no bums on seats then there’s no point touring at any level………but of course touring will continue and now is the time to protect the endangered species before it’s too late.

Touring has been a very lucrative income stream lately for bands. It’s also money they get to keep when they are at the top end and not in need of tour support…..something the record companies would love to change. If they aren’t making on the record they need to get some return on their investment and that’s why they are exploring other income streams.

There we go again…return on investment. That’s the bottom line, what you get back against what you’ve spent…nothing more nothing less. Nothing to do with the act and building something, allowing them to develop and getting a return on their investment…in time. We used to call it careers but I’m not sure it’s a word the music industry uses anymore. Talk of careers and you’ll get a vacant look. We want it now!

 

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