Heroes

For over forty years David Bowie has taught us many things, about fashion,  the birth of Ziggy Stardust and about being innovative, he told us to dance and he told us he was afraid of Americans. He told us to turn and face the change but most of all he told us we could be heroes, if just for one day. And David Bowie knows because David Bowie had heroes too, he had people that inspired him when he was growing up. Maybe he didn’t want to be them but he certainly wanted some of what they had, he wanted to be recognized and appreciated for what he did. He wanted us to pay attention and he made us sit up. Who at some stage in their life wasn’t affected growing up with people like that around you? We were all kindred spirits, we had heroes and our heroes had heroes too. And if we had some for a day we had others for eternity. But most of all we had them.  When I wrote my book it occurred to me, what would it be like if you had never had them to miss them? I honestly can’t imagine that, I don’t know where my path would have lead me because so much of my life was shaped around the people and the music and the people who shared the same liking of music.

And what about the rest of you? Did you have heroes when you were young, did you have people who made a difference to your life? Did they inspire you, did they make you want to be better at what you did? I’m inspired by the words some of the people I admire have said over the years. I remember  Bruce Springsteen saying that when he was young he loved Elvis Presley and it inspired him to want to be a musician. But he also said that wasn’t enough, if he was going to do this he wanted to be GREAT at it, he wanted to be every bit as good as Elvis. Even better.

It’s time to explore the artist and time for me to look back at what I deemed to be great, what I saw in artists and how I saw them develop in to what they became. For the most part I was impressed, mighty impressed and there is no better time to inspire others in to what the meaning of great is. Greatness is everlasting, it’s about creating a legacy.

Today everyone wants to teach everyone how to be a Rock Star. I’m waiting for a Rock Star School to open, better still I’ll grab a few who know and we can open it. Real Rock Stars deserve recognition and not by people who think they know. How could you teach someone to drive if you never sat in a car?

Filed under: Journey Through The Past, View from the room, Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, Heroes, Rock Stars

Being a fan

Back in the day we connected with our favourite artists by buying all their records and going to see their concerts. In doing that we felt a close affinity with our heroes, it was like we had a part of them. Some of us, myself included wanted even more so we’d buy their bootlegs. I have inferior quality recordings by Neil Young , Dylan, Tom Petty etc that I paid almost double the price of an album for just because I wanted more of them. The point being it didn’t matter what it cost it was needing to have as much as you could of them and about being a fan. As a 15 year old I went backstage to meet Led Zeppelin and I felt I had it all.  I won’t recount the story here in case I already have but I might come back and devout an entire blog to it, maybe several. Let me tell you it was worth it, a defining moment for any teenager and an ultra defining moment for me.  As a fan it’s something you don’t ever forget and especially as the years go by you start to understand what those moments mean to you and how much music mattered.

In those days you paid for everything, you didn’t tape your friends records or if you did it was because you were going on some dumb camping holiday where you had nothing to plug your turntable in to so you needed everything to be battery operated. But above all else we cared about our artists and we wanted to be a part of that success, we wanted to help. We wanted heroes, the bands were our heroes and whatever part of them we could have we did. The pleasure they gave us we wanted to pass on to out friends, we wanted to share what we had discovered. It was important to stake your claim, to let people know you were first but after that then whoever you could play those records to you were round like a shot. Endless evenings spent huddled round the turntable watching it go round as though your life depended on it, waiting for that next track. ‘No stop, listen to this one first’ as you carefully picked up the needle and placed it on another track too impatient for it to take it’s natural course. Simple pleasures but totally fulfilling ones. Music was your life.

Fans can get to their artists now with social networking and that can only be a good thing. You can talk to more artists than ever and the ones who reciprocate are the ones most likely too. No artist today is too big to talk to their fans. Even good old Bono said, ‘without our fans we have no job.’  Before it was backstage or catch the band leaving the venue , a quick autograph and that was about it. Some had fan clubs but it was usually just a general letter to all the fans. How cool now that someone could write to you. But remember if they do to be courteous, don’t think they’re there to instant message you for the next 5 hours. You could turn in to an obsession and make them pull away. They have lives even if you don’t!

Plenty more to say on this subject but we’ll save it for another day. Be gone, I have things to do.

Filed under: Journey Through The Past, social networking, fan clubs, led zeppelin, social networking

TMP

Running my own company out of the city where I lived was a dream come true but being allowed to indulge in my hobby was way above dreaming!  I’d survived working in the music industry for seven or eight years when the opportunity arose to start my own regional promotion company. ‘What’s that?’ I hear you say. In a nutshell we got paid to get artists on television and their records played on local radio, local being the whole of the British Isles. I’d been initiated in to the world of promotion at Island Records and I can’t think of a better place with better mentors. They had a unique ability to bring together good, talented and hard working people who had a passion for music. Everyone who worked there already owned half of their catalogue and like myself, they were honored to be a part of it. I have mentioned before that it always felt weird thinking I would no longer have to pay for their records, I’d get them free and be paid to give them to other people. I would have gladly done the job for free.

There’s a time and a place and it somehow felt right. I had been offered the head of promotion job at Island but didn’t want to relocate down to London, why should I? Manchester was my home, so let the work come to me. Regional promotions up until was something the record companies handled in house and never to the extent that it was much of  a priority. They knew regional radio existed but it was mostly a task they’d give an assistant to do. If they were mailing records out then they thought if you get some time find out if these people are playing anything. Their entire focus was on the ‘big one’ Radio One, the UK’s national radio station. If they had a record on the playlist there then it had a good chance of being a hit, something I would never dispute. My argument was that more people listened to the combined commercial radio stations than listened to Radio One so they couldn’t be avoided. And furthermore they were on the rise, more and more of them were springing up all the time since the government had changed the monopoly the BBC had. If you want to be at the forefront then don’t get left behind and through the eighties and in to the nineties they continued to grow in numbers and in importance.

I had enormous fun when I began, just me and a mobile phone driving up and down the motorways of England visiting radio and television stations and a girl in the office answering the phone and saying, ‘he’s not here you can get him on his mobile.’ Seemed to make more sense than a random answaphone message and people either hanging up or getting frustrated. Just to be in the music business was enough but to be given an opportunity to run my own company, to stand and fall by my own decisions was more both exciting and motivating.

I say stand and fall by your own decisions because that is exactly what it entailed. In the past I was given records to promote but had no real choice and it wasn’t whether or not I liked them. They were paying my wages so that was my job but now this was something entirely different. Fortunately I had some people I respected in senior positions at records companies plus some others with a proven track record who had started to dabble in the world of record labels so I landed some quite significant projects. And once in I never looked back, it was an amazing journey with some equally amazing people.

Filed under: About Tony Michaelides, Journey Through The Past, PR, record companies, independant promotion, independent local radio, regional promotion, TMP

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

The Factory in Manchester

I have very fond memories of Factory records and that time in general in Manchester. I’d started in the music business in 1974 but for the first four years I was selling records out of the back of a van. It wasn’t until the late seventies when I started in promotions that I started to find my feet. There were so many of us back then that were diving in to the unknown. It may have been unchartered waters and with none of us with much experience, if any. But it was bold and exciting. Adventures don’t change, they’re about the unexpected and Manchester was just that. It was about chancers taking chances.

Tony Wilson had always been on my TV screen so he was the sort of guy you thought you knew. It was that which lead me to nod and say hi at a Bob Marley concert at The Hardrock in Manchester back in 1976 ( I think ..) Oh and before you wonder what Bob Marley and the Wailers were doing crammed in to a burger bar, this was an entirely different Hardrock. It’s was a far meatier joint and where I served  a great part of my music initiation. Tony being Tony and good at ‘local celebrity’ nodded back and smiled. If I remember rightly he had on an Afgan coat, I thought I was ‘cool’ in my long navy  greatcoat. You needed a coat back then and it had nothing to be with the weather. It was a fashion accessory!

It wasn’t until two years later that I met him properly when I used to take the records I was promoting in to Granada Television. 1978 was an amazing period, not just for me when I got a job at my all time favorite record label Island but for music and Manchester in general. Tony was very excited about the club he was opening , The Factory and then the launch of one of the most important labels of our time, Factory Records.

We all know Manchester was grey and dull with crumbling buildings back then but if it hadn’t have been like that it wouldn’t have given rise to the creativity that has grown there ever since. It was that backdrop that helped make it what it is today, it fuelled the fire for people like Tony to be actively involved in the re generation of the city. Tony Wilson didn’t just talk about loving Manchester, he proved it by pretty much everything he did. We worked there, he lived there and he went out there. It always pisses me off when people slag him off, they never knew him.

He just loved the banter, with both his friends and his enemies. Well they weren’t really enemies just people who called him ‘wanker.’ The trouble was Tony was usually far more intelligent than his critics and they hated it when they threw abuse at him and he laughed. They expected him to be upset and walk away sulking. Not our Tone, never once. I’d seen that pathetic behavior more than once and he was always cool with it. That pissed me off!

Tony Wilson was a once seen never forgotten type of guy. He generated a reaction and wherever you were or whatever  you might have thought you knew he was there. The perfect type of ambassador for generating profile for all they do.

Filed under: Journey Through The Past, record companies, Factory Records, Joy Division, New Order, The Factory Club, tony wilson

Do artists still want it enough?

You admired those artists and what they had and if you had a bit of that talent you thought you stood a chance. It was worth giving it a go and at least if it didn’t happen it wasn’t the end of the world, you’d given it your best shot. You never needed to look back and think, ‘what if’? What if I hadn’t tried, I might have never known if I could have made it. Hope came from inspiration and even if you were down on your luck something might trigger that dream and you’d go and spend your last thirty  pounds or dollars on a guitar. It was worth it. Do people do that anymore, do they  believe enough or have they been so brainwashed by  an industry that doesn’t believe enough in itself?  The industry is accepting of the fact that music doesn’t sell anymore and they’re looking for new revenue streams to claw on to anything they can. And yet they chose their own burial grave, they even bought up all the lots as year after year they didn’t seem concerned that independent records stores were closing. The first port of call for their new artists was disappearing around them and instead of reaching out to help they increased their discounts to Walmart and anyone else who’d buy in bulk. Never mind that they only bought a few titles, it was quick cash. Talk about biting off the hand that fed them for decades, they didn’t given a toss about the independent retailers who’d done as much as anyone to break their biggest selling artists. Where did they think they came from, Walmart?

So what does drive the people making the music nowadays? Are they too accepting that there is a depressing reality in how many records they can sell? I suppose so, records and selling don’t go hand in hand anymore. Physical product doesn’t sell whoever you are with the odd one off exceptions to the rule like Susan Boyle and we all know where she came from. And furthermore will she be selling records in five years? Somehow I think not  and quite probably the novelty will have worn thin. There have been opera singers since before Elvis, they have always been there. So X Factor found a woman who sang opera OK, so what? They found an ordinary person singing opera, does that makes her extraordinary? She didn’t invent it, where’s the X for factors sake?  And all the Italians in flowing robes learned to sing mighty fine,  they didn’t need a talent show. And in the UK Russell Watson became big a decade ago so still nothing remotely novel or Xy about Susie girl. Funny how we used to do OK for talent before we had talent shows. We had a way to discover music but it started with an interest in it in the first place. Artists were interested in being heard and the public was keen to listen. Today they just don’t care and interest doesn’t even compare to passion. When did we last hear people being passionate about music. They have more passion for a pair of shoes!

Digressed a little there so more to come but that’ll do for today’s episode.

Filed under: Journey Through The Past, Opportunity, record companies, Simon Cowell, Susan Boyle, talent, X Factor

Where are you taking us now, music biz?

So there I was all settled  down last night just checking out Facebook before slumping on the couch and up popped this instant message. It was from Sam and it said ‘ What makes a great debut album.’ One hell of a question I have to say but what an unbelievable topic to explore. What does make a great debut album indeed?

I could pontificate endlessly but let’s face it, and I make no pretense here, times change. Understatement of the year I might add. Maybe we should give 1967/1968 as an answer , what an amazing period, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Moby Grape, The Band, Captain Beefheart, Traffic and The Doors. Not bad for great debut albums and all in just under two years, eh?

It’s not just about having a great debut album, it’s about being an artist and having greatness in you.  When I was growing up so many of the people I admired aspired to greatness and if you were a fan you knew it was only a matter of time before they reached that.  You bought their album because maybe you’d seen them live, you’d heard them on the radio and you liked them. If you bought the album and there were a few fillers what the hell, we’ve all been there, correct? But more than anything you believed in them and they too believed in you, the fan. They didn’t wan to short change you, they chose this path to earn their living and they felt it necessary to give value for money. They were hungry and they were committed, they put their heart and soul in to it. And not only that, right through the sixites and up until the nineties the record company was committed too. They would send you back in to the studio if they thought what you brought them was unsatisfactory. They signed you because they knew you could do it and if what they heard was substandard then, go do it again. It’ was a bit like being kept behind at school .

Labels were proud of what they released and they didn’t want anything substandard on their roster either . I wasn’t alone in collecting records back then on Island and Electra. I knew that most of the time I’d like what I heard. They set standards and if it was a new band and it was on one of those labels I’d be the first in to the store to listen to it. I was excited. labels got excited and the artist was excited to hear what the media had to say about them. They were prepared to be judged.

Nowadays it’s all changed. You could say no one gives a fuck but naturally that would be a generalization. There are some labels that genuinely care but there are a bunch sticking stuff out to suit a demographic knowing they can sell X amount and far more importantly, not lose their job. It’s about safety, if they can’t or don’t know how to market it then they won’t sign it because if they do they are leaving themselves exposed. It beggars the question, do we have the talent at the labels that we once had. I’m bound to say no but just work it out for yourselves, are you getting what you want or are you getting what they think you deserve? Is it a discerning audience, I think not. People growing up don’t really know what they are missing. If you’re on TV then they think you’re famous. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it a thousand times, YOU’RE NOT. You’re notorious.  Rapists, murderers, terrorists and child molesters are on the television, are those twats famous? Though even I wouldn’t tag today’s ‘stars’ quiet that badly.

For me it’s a massive point of debate. Where does the hunger come from now, where is the desire to dazzle. What does the artist look for when they deliver their work. It’s a thousand questions and it’s a million answers. I’ll be back to discuss much more on this. It doesn’t seem right we stand back and let it happen but sadly we’re mostly powerless. The people who need to care don’t and those don’t never will. Feels like we’re in a minority and the force feeding to the masses has turned us in to arena addicts.

Where are our gladiators when we need them?

Filed under: Journey Through The Past, Opportunity, record companies, Risk, creativity, Island Records, record companies

Days at the old schoolyard

Many visibly tremble when they hear  the words, ‘your childhood will come back to haunt you.’ Not me, I embrace my childhood. As I said in my book, I was a happy child, I still am. I really don’t have any bad memories of growing up, my parents did their best for me and for that I was eternally grateful. I had a roof above my head and warm clothes, I had to, we didn’t have central heating and in winter I remember waking up with frost on the windows. I wrote my first symphony by the age of five and was on the catwalk with Briggitte Bardot when I was nine. I stood for parliament two years later and turned down my own TV show because it interfered with weekend soccer. ( OK the last bit was total bollocks but I was still a beautiful, luscious and inventive child who rebelled being an adult)

To be honest they were more romantic memories than anything likely to haunt me. In fact if I’d been able to communicate without dribbling I bet I would have blurted out that  I was a happy baby. Where would we be without our memories, and where would we be without Facebook? I’m sure we all thought there were people from our childhood who we’d lost contact with, forever. Our lives moved us in different directions and time drifted us apart. So much so that you don’t even remember until something such as writing about your childhood stirs the memory. It happened to me in the book and it triggered up a whole host of fond memories.

Our lives move at a quicker pace as adults because we have to take care of business. When we get older we have to take care of others but when we are young we are only taking care of ourselves. There’s a time and a place you’re together and then there’s a time and a place when you’re not. We move on, we went to school together and then we work apart. C’est la vie.

Over the year or so I’ve been on Facebook I’ve thrilled at some of the people who have mysteriously reappeared. I suppose I’m easier to find with my name than some of the girls I knew who have married and changed names. I kept my maiden name if only for those maidens! Suddenly up pops a notification and up pops a smile, mine. How wonderful a name can be to remind you of fond memories that seemed distant and forgotten. Pivotal moments in yourlife.

Well I’ve had the weird stories but none weirder than last week. Up popped an e-mail header ‘Penny Belshaw,’ oh My God! My childhood sweetheart, the girl I used to walk home 41 years ago! In fact she lived a little further away than me so technically maybe she was walking me home. I’m sure that must have pissed her off and that’s why she disappeared for all this time. Low and behold last week I got  a note saying’ Someone told me you mention me in your book?’ Er, small world indeed. How on earth did she know that? It transpires that an old school friend Nigel who again found me through Facebok and had bought my book found her on Friends Re united. And he told her. All the weirdest and most wonderful of coincidences.

We spoke on the phone and it was like being back at a time and a place. 1960 something, school, and walking home with her. I won’t recount the episode in the book ( go buy it you cheapskate!) apart from saying we didn’t have four children and name them after each member of Led Zeppelin. As if! It was so funny though because all the time we walked home I’d get home and rehearse trying to ask her out, building up the courage. Each new stroll home it would be ‘this is it’ and it went on for a couple of years. Lame? Nah, I think In was just being cute!

Just being in my early teens was enough but here was this sassy chick (see I remember my rock terminology!) putting out, as she says in her own words in the best way she could for a fourteen year old. It must have been killing me  because secretly I would have been terrified of rejection. What if she had said no? Would I have ever asked another girl out again. You have to remember back then we had to ASK girls out, it wasn’t a text that said, ‘You’re hot, what are you doing wednesday xoxo.) No I had to stand there and confront her and tremble.

It got even more funny because after a few e -mails she admitted that the attraction was mutual ( YEEEEEEEES!!!) Sorry I had to know at least that much after all these years. And then she said, ‘But you were so damn cool! I’d get in and wonder what the hell I had to do to get you to ask me out.’

Cool at fourteen, how cool is that! See if you’re destined fort coolness you gotta start early and if the chick has to suffer then so be it. It’s still making me smile but you know, I wouldn’t have had it any other way. It’s funny to see what an outrageous flirt I became and maybe that was destiny too. I flirt with everyone, animal, vegetable, mineral. If it moves I flirt with it, it’s a target and I love it.

But it was such a golden period. I really think it helps shape you, makes you who you are. Those gone but never forgotten moments and just last week a part of my life stood still. And I sloped back to those glorious strolls home with my first true love just me and her, and my unashamed innocence. When I was so fuckin’ cool!!!!

Filed under: About Tony Michaelides, Journey Through The Past, View from the room, first love, Journey Through The Past, teenage years, tony michaelides

5ive to Westlife

It was late 1990’s and Simon Cowell had had success in the UK with a boy band  called 5ive. My promotion company handled their regional promotion for the duration and had them out doing interviews and the like. They’d had a number of hits and now Simon was approaching the arena of ‘manufactured pop,’ something he’d experienced with Sinitta much earlier but never with a level of consistency. And he was about to do what only he thought possible, take it over. He’d seen what his future business partner Simon Fuller had achieved with The Spice Girls and nearer to home what his BMG colleagues had done with Take That. Secretly he wished he’d had that to get his teeth in to, publicly he made everyone know he would! Even earlier than that he greatly admired what Pete Waterman, his earliest mentor had done with Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan. Waterman created stars, in a pure pop way where he and his cohorts, Aitkin and Stock wrote the songs, produced the records, styled the artists and groomed them for the media. And for Simon Cowell the world beckoned, he wanted to create bigger stars. More of them and more of the time.

Loius Walsh who had managed the Irish boy band Boyzone approached him with the new act he was managing with Ronan Keating, their singer. They were called Westlife. Boy bands were starting to have an impact on the charts and Simon’s determination alone, together with what I already knew about him told me we were in for a full on, slam dunk, brain battering of how we WERE going to make this huge. not my cup of tea but hardly the point.

One morning in who cares when I was sat at my desk when the phone went. ‘Simon Cowell for you.’ came the holler across my office from Lee my right hand man. ‘Hi Tony it’s Vanya, I have Simon for you.’ I’d never had a problem with Simon, I always liked the guy, like I said previously he kept us promotion people on our toes. Sure we argued and agreed to disagree but I’ve never rated anyone in my life where you haven’t had a disagreement.  If you don’t believe how do you expect anyone else to? Simon demanded his records got attention and as I always I told him, if people thought they were crap he needed to know that. He wasn’t changing, and neither the fuck was I, I’d managed to survive the previous 15 years without him and my credibility was seriously being challenged by The Teletubbies and Zig and Zag. Frankly I didn’t rate them as songwriters, I much preferred Dylan. I knew he wasn’t calling to see if I’d had a good weekend. It was even previous to the marketing meeting and my hearing Westlife, so the conversation was one way. How could I defend, criticize, applaud anything I hadn’t heard. One nil to Simon Cowell.

To be continued, miss it at your peril!

Filed under: Journey Through The Past, Opportunity, record companies, Risk, View from the room

No longer behind the scenes

Simon Cowell and Simon Fuller have single handedly changed the way Americans watch television. The show that every network turned down is now the only show that makes a difference. If you’re a pop act and you have a record out and you get asked to appear, then you do it.

It must be heartening for any artist to hear the stuff people turn down. What happened with American Idol happened with The Beatles, The Stone Roses, you name it…..  they had the knock back. Ponders the question, who are the people elected to pick what works and what doesn’t work? TV and the music business has become dull because of the people making the decisions. They clearly have no idea what people want. Hence we have the most popular  ‘music show’ ever where the public actually has to tell them what they want.  And then one success spawns a thousand unimaginative carbon copies. Where once we had an act that attracted an audience now we have an audience that can attract any act because they all have to do it, appear on that show! Simple really, if you want to get seen or heard you line up at Simon Cowell’s door. It’s a monopoly and it’s dangerouse. Further more they’re not budging,  not at least any time soon.

Record companies have no clue whatsoever. (It might have something to do with the fact that most of the people who work there have no idea about music)They constantly turn down what ultimately pays their own wages. Record companies can no longer sign bands because they do not know how to develop bands. They have no fucking idea and what’s worse is they don’t care. They don’t care that what made generations integrate, love one another, even give us a healthy foreign export all revolved around music. Call me idealistic I don’t care, but the people who sit in their halcyon towers crunching the numbers have no feet to put on the ground. They want to see a return straight away when  no relevant band in history paid the rent from day one. What they did do was build a base for an industry to thrive for a very long time until the pendulum swung and the lunatics took over the asylum. Not only did they run it, they enrolled the inmates. We are now fed a staple diet of stuff that doesn’t require us to ponder over whether or not it’s good or not, it’s just there. Who cares if it’s good, as long as it can sell instantly and we can get a return. The law of averages says a proportion of the cattle will chew the cud. Or is it sheep, lemmings even? It’s just fodder when all is said and done.

Where are we going, well as Bob Dylan so rightly said, ‘No Direction home’ There is no route. Over the coming weeks months, years , decades I may be granted time on this turntable we call earth I intend to bring forth and interrogate those that matter, those who gave me a purpose, a reason to get up in the morning and throw myself in to what was an unbelievable place to be. The artists and the record industry, the record stores, the bands, the media we all worked as one . And you know what, we were fucking good. Too good to sit back and see what this industry has become, a playground for the people who were once behind the scenes. We are creating immovable objects, Clive Davis was a music man, once.  There was a time when he wanted to create stars to see what they could become, to let them grow and flourish, to see them last and then to influence others. And now, it’s not because of what they are but because of what they can do for him. The ego is mightier than the music. When in all it’s years have the people behind the scenes become bigger than the artists? I don’t think it was meant to be that way was it? Who’s more successful than Simon Cowell or Clive Davis? Instead of making them (the artists)they made themselves! Simon Fuller is equally as powerful and with an astute mind, a marketing genius…….. but at least he doesn’t have a need to grab the limelight. Instead of pop stars we now have  industry stars.

Filed under: About The Engine Room, Journey Through The Past, record companies, TV, american idol, Clive Davis, music industry, Simon Cowell, simon fuller