Ga Ga ra ra ra.

Image or talent, how many times have we heard that? The music industry thrived on both and over many genres, artists who made great music just had that look. From Bowie to The Rolling Stones, from Elvis to Tina Turner. They looked worthy of a stage,  they almost needed one. It was their place for them to perform and our duty to rush to see them. So how come things got a little different?

We keep hearing about the X Factor and although the show here in the US has yet to begin Simon the C keeps telling us that is what they are looking for. Pray tell where might we see this? Where in the world is there a fraction of X in the entire line up of contestants either thrown off or left in the last six of this series of American Idol? Where did they ever even dream up the word idol? Same place as brought us the two definitions of famous, famous now as in train wreck and famous then as in Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley. What ever happened to our stars, damn it!

So we have Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson? They are arguably as good as Idol has given us and I agree they can sing, but X Factor,? I think not. Nice girls, average songs, nice voice, nothing special with regard to image. That’s it when all is said and done, there is no image. There are a thousand women walking the streets that could be them.

And then came Lady Ga Ga, the greatest pop star since Michael Jackson in his ‘Thriller’ prime. Image, voice, performance, video and all round X Factor. She oozes it, she’s X , Y and Z, she has it all. She is the most important thing to happen to pop for eons. When Michael Jackson died I wrote he was the last pop star but  today we celebrate a new birth, a true pop star in every sense of the word. But will she be a one off, I sincerely hope not.

Lady Ga Ga is 24, she will last as long as she wants to. She can surpass Madonna as she is more of a chameleon, Madonna had some great images but some equally crap ones. Lady GG hasn’t put a foot, an eye liner or any lingerie wrong and I doubt she will. She’s totally sussed and the best performance artist for a very very long time. I only hope she can inspire those wanting to make a career in music in understanding that you can throw the American Idol right out of the window and have a career that elapses that of all the Idol winners put together. She will do more in a year than the others do in a lifetime. She is a complete master at constantly reinventing herself. She is the reincarnation of Ziggy.

I have more to say on all of this but for now rest my Lady, we’ve all gone Ga Ga over you.

Filed under: TV, american idol, Lady Ga Ga, Pop stars, ziggy stardust

Facebook, to infinity and back

I was trawling through my Facebook page trying to think back to how long I’ve been a member but there doesn’t seem to be a ‘member since’ section, shame. The thing that did occur to me though is how could we ever do without it now? It has had so much of an effect on people’s lives no matter where they are or who they are. Who hasn’t experienced something happening via Facebook that just would never have happened in real life. Real life, don’t you just love it, like any of us have real lives left when we turn the computer off! And yet our ‘new best friend’ is Facebook itself.

Initially I had my doubts, never been a My Space fan and without a demo to hawk around, why would I? But Facebook is totally different. My debut friend request came from someone even older than me which I have to confess made me sit up and think because to start with I thought, ah just for kids. I do admit  though it is a great way to find your children and connect, especially when they’re on a different continent. But then I can go on about the wonders of  Skype also. Stop!

It’s great to think the largest growth area on Facebook is now the over 35’s who have embraced it big time. Suddenly this demographic aren’t writing letters the way they used to and didn’t really even embrace e-mail for that purpose. Facebook is for everyone , everywhere. It does exactly what it says on the packet, it re connects people. We have people who we speak to regularly on there but that’s not the important bit, we have people on there who we thought we’d lost. For ever!

Every time you see a friend request you wonder, who could this be? Sometimes it’s someone with a need for popularity and who is just after numbers, the My Space disease. But then up pops that ‘Oh My God’ moment. I’ve had them as friends requests but I’ve also had them arrive as random e-mails. Either way don’t you just love those ‘Oh My God’ moments? I cannot count how many people I have reconnected with who through time or distance you just thought had gone. And then all of a sudden it’s like they never left. I’d never done ‘Friends Reunited’ at all and was delighted to be  a Facebook boy before most of my friends, I added them! To some I even had to explain what it was. Now there’s a first.

Just last week I received an enquiry from a lady by the name of Emily Liebert who had a very interesting book out culled from inspirational stories that came from Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/FacebookFairytales) Sadly mine didn’t qualify but my being back in touch after 41 years with a girl I used to walk home from school was pretty darn freaky. Now how on earth would she have found me? Actually I tell a lie, someone told her that I mentioned her in my book. Still it had to be Facebook that re connected us.

Of course we dare not think about all the lunatics out there who are seeing it as the ultimate tool for praying on young innocents. Fortunately though I don’t think Facebook has suffered as badly as it could have done considering how huge it has become. Also I think parents are being a little more vigilant as to what their children are up to on the internet nowadays as well. And of course the police have done a good job trapping them by posing as juveniles on the web.

It’s actually quite strange when you meet people who don’t have a Facebook profile. I actually saw someone the other day who looked completely dumbfounded when someone confessed, the look on their face was priceless, ‘You what?’ So where will it all end up, it’s hard to see anything really replacing it though something probably will  in this tech crazed world we live in. If I had one criticism I suppose it would be why change stuff that works well and confuse some of us in the process. If it ain’t broke then don’t Facebook fix it!

Filed under: social networking, Emily Liebert, Facebook, Facebook Fairytales, social networking

Being Simon

How can you hate Simon Cowell?  Yet I met someone the other day who said just that, ‘I hate Cowell.’ Now I can understand if you’re a music fan and don’t like the way Simon indulges his pop pastime, fair enough but to hate him? There isn’t anything to hate about him, he’s actually very good at everything he does.

Before we start to dig deeper in to the man let’s start with image. Now Tiger the tosser could have done worse than put a call in to him. When have you ever seen Simon Cowell on the front pages of Newsweek, Entertainment doo dah and TMZ? That’s just it, he’s a public figure of great renown and yet his private life is both public and private. You never see him sneaking out of some porn star’s hot tub at 5am clad in a leopardskin towel, he’s never been stoned at Ozfest and he doesn’t shag at Wendy’s. And even if he did it’s not on anyone’s menu.  Simon actually conducts himself brilliantly both on and off camera.

He always has a word for photographers and journalists, he’ll even cross a busy road and leave his swanky car to offer a comment and a smile. He’s actually  a completely charming man. What others don’t realize is that if the media is always getting a ‘no comment’ they naturally get pissed off. Their job is to report and if they report nothing then they’ll have no one reading or watching. If you ask Simon if he’s getting married he’ll give you a Simon smile and people then report that he smirked when asked the question rather than berate him for being awkward. Whether or not he’s getting married is private but he doesn’t look like thunder when you ask him, he understands. He plays the game and he’s a master at it. Like any public celebrity he also understands how far they go to publicize him and as that affords him all the things in life he loves then why piss them off?

Simon’s a master manipulator of the media, the artists and all who surround him. He knows when to push and when to hold back and he knows exactly what he wants to get out of who. He is also the master who paid his apprenticeship by watching others. He watched he listened and he learned. His understanding of the media is as good as I’ve ever witnessed. He revels in all the attention, it’s his job to let everyone know what he’s up to and he does it brilliantly. People are bound to watch for a variety of reasons.

So if you still don’t like him just ask yourself why you don’t like him and you’ll probably end up discovering there’s more to like about him than to dislike.

Filed under: TV, TV hosts, View from the room, Ryan Seacrest, Simon Cowell

Radio Ga Ga

So many of the radio stations sound all the same today, not only here in the US but in the UK too and I suppose if I was listening in France, Holland or Germany they’d be much of  a muchness there also. Unless they maybe had Red Light Radio in wonderful Amsterdam. The big guns like Clear Channel and others came in and bought up the larger radio groups and suddenly we had one station beaming out  over most of the country with just a different name and some local advertising. The voices too sounded all the same, playing the same music and saying the same stuff. Nothing of any identity left.

Before leaving the UK I remember driving up and down motorways and tuning in and out of radio stations and not knowing where I was when there once was a time you could know where you were by your car radio. The DJ’s maybe had a local accent, you’d hear local stories about last night’s soccer match or what was on the TV. Not any more but no point bitching about it as is the case with with record companies they’re no longer about the music just the bottom line, satisfying the shareholders.Whatever the dross they pump out it hardly matters if the advertisers are happy. It’s a while since I heard any new exciting DJ’s too because they are pretty much programed to be the same. It’s robotic and you have to scour the internet to find new exciting music driven shows who have the presenters you’d want to hear also.

Might  this be an opportunity to blatantly publicize my return to radio broadcasting last Sunday night after a 14 year hiatus? No I couldn’t possibly do that….(www.manchesterradioonline.co.uk Has to be the longest title of a radio station ever! What happened to W  ANK and cute sounding stations like that?) I’d never really thought about a return to radio until recently and with the ease and comfort of internet radio it wasn’t a hard choice. There’s a difference between wanting to be on the radio and being allowed to do a show in the way you want. It’s something that fortunately my bosses  back in the day at Piccadilly Radio in Manchester always allowed me to do. I wanted to do a show that I would listen to, it’s the way I do everything, if it works for me then it can work for others.

If people you want you and they approach you it’s for a reason so why compromise? If they leave you alone you’re likely to do it better because of the trust they’ve instilled in you, they believe in you. And in return you do your best to repay that trust and you set out to do it right. Nothing ever worked or ever kept working if people stood still, you have to take chances, you have to push out  a little. We getting engulfed and suffocated by the same old formulas, American Idol works let’s all do it. People watch crap on TV, let’s give them more. Ever thought people watch crap because there’s nothing else to watch because all you do is make crap programs. They have no choice, you’ve conditioned them, yes you Frankenstein.

OK back to the dishes now.

Filed under: manchester radio on line, Radio Ga Ga, TV, clear channel, manchester radio online, Piccadilly Radio, radio, tony michaelides

Days I remember all my life

I tuned in to my new found radio home ( http://www.manchesterradioonline)  because radio honcho man Paul Ripley had uttered the words ‘Guess who’s on my show? ‘ And the guess who was none other than the Martian Spider himself Woody Woodmansey. All of a sudden I was working while I was listening to the radio and I thought I’d discovered multi tasking. I was wrong, I stopped and I listened. Radio heaven, a spider talking about the web he lived in.

It’s hard to believe that Ziggy celebrates his 40th year anniversary this June and they are still not teaching it at schools, even worse why isn’t it a case study at music schools, business schools, everywhere! Paul started proceedings with ‘Five Years’ from the Hunky Dory album, well that was it. I downed tools and gloriously fell back in time, I was at The Hardrock  (no please, no burger references, it wasn’t that one) and I was rammed close up front and personal and gazing forward at what still remains one of the greatest concerts of my life. Not of course that I’ve been to many….It was September 1972, Saturday 2nd to be exact and I went back the next night to see them again. And again in December, he played that same venue four times that year. And yes I did.

That song took me back to my college years and when I first heard it. I had just bought Ziggy Stardust and was thrilled to bits. I had just also starting dating a ‘college cutie’ I think we call them now, back then she was just a chick. I think we’d been for  a drink, maybe  a movie and then it was back to listen to records until God knows what hour until I’d hitch home. You did these things back then, it was the norm for teenagers like us. Can you imaging even thinking of doing that now, never mind hitching home but just the mere thought of listening to a record !

Anyway she pulled out Hunky Dory and stuck on Five Years, and then initiated me with the rest of the album. That was it, I never left and were married six years later. Why wouldn’t you marry a girl with a record collection like that, Marie I thank you! Oh and for our two beautiful children but let’s face it Bowie came first.

Back to the show. Woody was an unassuming character, happy with his lot today yet proud and very grateful for what he’d had. Well who wouldn’t be, there was only him and three others after all. It was fascinating to hear someone other than Bowie talking about that period and especially from where he was standing, behind the man and driving home a relentless beat. What a seat! He spoke of how he got the gig and also about the late Mick Ronson, never a forgotten hero to me and many others. I can see him now with his glam pants and mad hair, and that iconic rock pose with Bowie sliding under his legs and dragging the solo out of him. Bowie loved him and although Mick  was a wonderful guitar player Woody said he never saw himself like that. Bowie would ask him to play a solo and then tell the producer, ‘keep it’ although Mick thought he needed to go back and do it over and over again. When you’re that good you’re good first time round.

Woody also talked of those wondrous eccentricities that are David Bowie. How he would ‘mess about,’ pick up an accordion that was lying around and tell the producer Ken Scott, ‘record this.’ The band would sit around and watch all this going on thinking, why is he pissing about, let’s get on with it. Then it would be played around with in creative , innovative ways with his producer and himself and they’d look at each other and say, ‘how the hell did he get it sound like that?’ And it would end up on the album and the rest indeed is history.

Great stories makes great radio and this was great in itself. Good questions that came over like any fan would ask and a responsive totally normal guy telling it like it was. It could have gone on forever, I’m first in line to request a repeat. Get him back and roll the tape once more. It gives you hope and brings back your faith in radio once more. Bring it on.

Thank you for the days,
Those endless days, those sacred days you gave me.
I’m thinking of the days,
I won’t forget a single day, believe me.

Ray Davies 1968

Filed under: About Tony Michaelides, manchester radio on line, Opportunity, Radio Ga Ga, Hunky Dory, Mick Ronson, Woody Woodmansey, ziggy stardust

Sid and Malc

Management and the style of management can vary so much. Good managers always act in the best interests of the artist and that requires a huge understanding of what it is you want to get out of them. That doesn’t mean always agreeing with them, on the contrary sometimes that means vehemently disagreeing with them and getting them to shape up. At the top level you’re protecting them from the record company and if you’re lower down the pecking order you’re often having to protect them from themselves.

The classic example here would be Malcolm McLaren and a quarter of his act, Sid Vicious. Just the other day I was, together with many others praising McLaren and what he had achieved in his years and I still stand by that. He played a large part in a small part of musical history, the revolutionary part which is always the exciting bit. McLaren’s relentless pursuit was always about the end product, The Sex Pistols and in doing that he was almost encouraging Sid to spiral out of control. It worked in the general scheme of things, he wanted the Pistols to be a train wreck and whatever carnage had to happen then so be it. It all added to the end product and the media frenzy.

Sid was that rollercoaster of a train wreck, his whole tragic world in turmoil and too brain dead to ever be bothered. And while it all fell apart underneath him he paid the ultimate price, he’s not here anymore. The whole Sid and Nancy tragic opera was played out to it’s inevitable conclusion and alongside  John Lydon we remember Sid more than the others and for just that. the messed up smack head that he was. We love tragedy in rock, Jim Morrison, Hendrix, Janis and Brian Jones, not to mention Kurt Cobain and Elvis Presley. It’s hard being a legend while you’re alive.

McLaren, cruel as it sounds almost encouraged Sid and left him too it. Whatever Sid got up to was front page news and that was what  always worked in the bigger picture. It was front page news from the start of his heroin addiction and his behavior right through to Nancy’s death. And the ultimate swanson, his own death where he was Romeo to his Juliete.

You wonder if Malcolm felt any remorse deep down inside because he never showed it. Did he think it was worth sacrificing a human life, maybe two in the quest for publicity? Is a life that important, somehow I doubt it. And yet if it wasn’t for the end who would remember Sid? He was a punk star because of all that, no more significant than the other three yet there he lies in rock’s tragic corner. Famous for careering out of control.

Filed under: management, mistakes, View from the room, John Lydon, Malcolm McLaren, Sid Vicious, The Sex Pistols

McLaren’s final pit stop

Few people leave their mark in pop music the way Malcolm McLaren did.  That’s the problem with the music industry today it’s too safe, too squeeky clean and  too uninspiring. It lacks characters like McLaren, Tony Wilson and other mavericks, the rebels who believed in getting their artists known because, stupid as it sounds they believed in them.  Malcolm left his mark in a way few will ever emulate and few will ever forget. Successful as Simon Cowell is the whole  American Idol funfare is safer than safe. Uninspiring artists covering tried and tested songs, one of them wins and they give them a song to release, make all the money and then they’re done. Nothing remotely exciting, you expect nothing and you’re content  to get nothing. But then again Simon Cowell believes in pop music as a disposable commodity, there is no longevity in it so who am I to judge? Memories are not always made by hits.

People like McLaren made the music industry great, he made people sit up and take notice. He was driven and he was noisy, he was a man on  a mission. A relentless bulldog and once he had the bit between his teeth he was off and running.   To quote his own words’ “I have been called many things: a charlatan, a con man, or, most flatteringly, the culprit responsible for turning British popular culture into nothing more than a cheap marketing gimmick”  And most of the people who see that as criticism probably inspired him to do more of the same. Great publicists like to get noticed and McLaren did more than enough of that. When you hear the words ‘cheap marketing gimmick’ applied to the likes of The Sex Pistols, New York Dolls or Bow Wow Wow it makes you wonder what we’ve replaced the word ‘cheap’ with today, worthless? It’s definitely cheaper than cheap.

The Sex Pistols got on more front covers of national newspapers in six months than a high profile act would get in their entire career. You couldn’t avoid finding out what they were up to and McLaren couldn’t give a toss about what people were saying about the band as long as they were saying it. He got noticed and they got noticed, he hit a nerve and he generated a reaction. And again like Tony Wilson, if you met him you knew you’d met him. He was never, whatshisname? If he didn’t think it would create a fuss then he couldn’t be bothered and his ability to manipulate the media to get what he wanted was unique.

I met him once when I interviewed him the mid 90’s and no matter what the question might be he would swerve the conversation into exactly what he wanted to say. He lapped up any media opportunity and of course being articulate and interesting in the way he explained stuff always helped.  He was a brilliant marketing guy who also knew a lot about other people’s jobs and if you were below par he had no problem telling you. Record labels had a hard time with him!

There is no doubt The Sex Pistols had the best manager they could ever have dreamed for. They’d never admit it and it’s well documented that they, particularly John Lydon/Rotten had their problems with him but it was only to be expected that when it was over he would be the target of criticism. How else could they maintain their image unless they still had a reason to be angry and controversial. If it’s not around you anymore then all of a sudden you have to recreate it. But if you look at everything that got them noticed, the  publicity it was all his doing. The anarchy, the boat trip down the River Thames on the Queen’s Jubilee, the whole God Save the Queen outrage in fact. When it came to shock he near as damn invented it.  He knew how to get his band on the front cover and he would stop at nothing. It was almost too easy for him, why employ a publicist when he could do it all himself?

Malcolm McLaren, Malcom in the middle. Of everything.

Filed under: management, Managing Creativity, Opportunity, Malcolm McLaren, Sex Pistols, Simon Cowell, tony wilson

My Manchester

Living and working, in fact just being there in Manchester in the 70’s and 80’s was very exciting. A whole hub of creative industries grew up alongside a lot of great music. All over the world people were sitting up and becoming aware of Manchester. It wasn’t the type of place (or people) you could ignore, us Mancs were noisy.  Manchester was alive and kicking, frantically.

There were venues springing up for bands to play and there were nightclubs and people were going to both. Whatever you wanted was there and it had an effect on the culture, the whole dance indie scene was vibrant. People wanted to hear good music and dance so they went to gigs and they also went to clubs. The stuff being played at The Hacienda was way ahead of it’s time and the people playing that music knew what they were doing. Music has always been about innovators setting the pace and creating a scene and here you have to give credit to everyone, the fans, the bands, the music and the DJ’s.

Factory Records was alive and kicking, The International Club was attracting many of the best live acts and when the capacity wasn’t enough for some of them they bought a larger venue closer to the city center, International 2. Whoever was touring never missed playing a show in Manchester, they couldn’t afford to. Alongside the International there were the universities, The Apollo, G-Mex arena and the even bigger arena which I think then was still calling itself Nynex.

The city was abundant with creative industries, record industry people, photographers, journalists, booking agents, publicists, you name it they were all working out of Manchester never seeing the need to move to London. Back in those days you’d go to gigs and there were so many people there you knew you already had a crowd! Manchester had one of the largest commercial radio stations in Piccadilly Radio and the ever adventurous Granada TV who’d built a reputation for being the first with the TV debuts of the greats. From The Beatles to The Sex Pistols, Elvis Costello, U2 and Blondie Granada were always way ahead of the rest when it came to music. The only one who came close was Tyne Tees in Newcastle when The Tube sprung up.

All throughout my 30 year career in the music industry I never moved out of Manchester, why would I? My company was ideally situated to look after the UK for regional promotion as we were smack dab in the middle. Why move to London and spend half your life on the road traveling to radio stations? Although it was hard explaining to some Londoners it made perfect sense to me. I was nearer 80% of the stations living where I did. The trouble with the music industry is they think nothing goes on or can go on outside of London, ‘You live in Manchester?’ they’d complain as though it was anywhere they’d ever been anyway! Ah the times I’d answer the phone and they’d chirp, ‘aye up Tone.’

They’ll be more soon on my life and times spent in Manchester. I did eventually move but out of the country and not to another city, how could I ?

Filed under: About Tony Michaelides, Journey Through The Past, View from the room, Factory Records, International Club, Manchester, The Hacienda

A future for American Idol?

I have been thinking a while about the future of the music industry and the type of things that need to be done and I always have  a simple solution to all their problems. I have a theory but that will have to wait for the next time round. In a previous last blog I’d sorted out replacing Simon on American Idol with the obvious solution, don’t try. Dump the panel. No Cowell, no point. Maybe when they finally decide on a new series( which they will) they might get some qualified people to rummage through the deluge of hopefuls and at least find some talent.

They have the final twenty, right get the party started. Stick them on TV and get the audience to vote by texting. Nothing new here except they text in their comments during their performance and the captions run across the bottom of the screen. Just think a texter can now have their fifteen minutes of fame. They’re on TV! Post random names and comments up there during the voting. Just think, people glued to the TV frantically voting in case their name pops up. Their name on screens all over America, they are famous! After the show the lines are open and the only foreseeable problem is that the system taking the money might crash. A running total appears on the screen and the public reach fever pitch. They’re foaming at the mouth when their  favorite ‘Idol’ is nearing the finishing line and pipping their closest rival.

There we go, I even have a new title for it, ‘Rival Idol.’ It’s the public vying for pole position, they’ll love that and now it’s bigger and sexier than ever. They’re the next American Idol, voter. This has been proven, when the audience gets to participate they’re there and the way to keep them is to keep involving them. And the way to bring them back is to involve them more.

The bottom line of course is more money for the makers of the show. If you don’t have millions to pay the panel it’s a cash cow, make that bison! It’s worked a million times over, it’s the wiki theory. A show for the people run by the people. Last week I was proved right, Simon got it right, it didn’t matter that the panel thought whatshisnamehe was pants. They told him not to smile at everything they said, they couldn’t have been more wrong. Smiling got him through, the next American Idol has to be able to sing crap but smile. Smiley boy got the vote and won. He didn’t need to turn up, he could have stayed at home and smiled. In fact he can not tour and just smile or go on stage a smile. He’s the man, Smiley man.

Filed under: View from the room, american idol, judging panels, Simon Cowell

Early days at Factory

Two sometimes three times week I’d call by the Factory offices usually on my way in to Manchester. It was equidistant between my home and the city centre so a good stopping off point. They were located in a suburb of south manchester called Didsbury and at the time it was just this big old house which had been converted to flats. It was also home to one of it’s director’s Alan Erasmus. Over thirty years later it has now become part of the city’s heritage, a rock monument where the factory disciples flock armed with cameras. It looks exactly the same, well at least it did a few years ago when I last drove by.

My first forays in to the building were when Mark Radcliffe was living with us. He used to present his show on Piccadilly Radio back then and Factory being Factory would drop stuff off at the radio station if anyone happened to be going in to Manchester. And of course as long as they remembered. As I knew Tony (Wilson) I told him I’d call by and pick stuff up for Mark and save them the trip, after all parking wasn’t easy when you had records to promote. So my Factory days really started like that.

This was Factory at it’s heyday, all of the fun and none of the financial headaches. It was a label started by some friends who saw nothing more than an opportunity to release records they liked. I don’t think they had any aspirations back then but then neither did a lot of the other independent labels. They were just fans of good music, all in it for the right reasons. Punk had exploded and The Factory, the club they had opened on the outskirts of the city was the inspiration for the label.  It was a natural progression for Alan, Tony Wilson, a local TV presenter and Peter Saville a graphic designer who had been studying in Manchester.

They were originally on the ground floor (which becomes the first floor when you move to America? Don’t ask!) but moved upstairs to a larger apartment. When I first used to go there Rob Gretton’s girlfriend Lesley was running the office. Rob back then was Joy Division’s manager, there was no New Order. Writing this puts me right back to that room and looking over Lesley’s shoulder and on to Palatine road, one of the main roads in to the city. It’s hard to imagine we are but a month away from the thirtieth anniversary of the death of both Ian Curtis and Joy Division.

For all it did wrong Factory did so much right. A label started for all the right reasons, it was just a shame they had to use currency. If they had been able to manufacture and distribute the records for nothing I’m sure they would have given them away for free. Although the bands might have had something to say about that. They had a policy from the beginning with the bands that once they had recouped the recording costs which was their expense then they would split the profits fifty fifty. Can you imagine any record company even thinking of doing that? That of course was fine if the artist recouped but mostly became a write off for Factory as most didn’t! And in those early days Joy Division and then New Order were affording Factory the luxury of losing money on a bunch of their other acts. In spite of this they still continued to offer artists a home and somewhere to release their records. That was incredibly good for the bands because the music press loved the label and it ensured that at least their acts would be heard and more often than not reviewed.

Joy Division had become the band that everyone wanted to emulate. They had managed the proud distinction of being both cool and successful. Others bands wanted that but few came close.

Filed under: record companies, View from the room, Alan Erasmus, Factory Records, Joy Division, New Order, peter saville, Rob Gretton, tony wilson