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

The return of………….me

Whoa, where does the time go? Moving home, relocating and having your world stuffed in a cupboard is hardly conducive for writing and least of all writing anything vaguely interesting. So I resisted the temptation to grumble about it all on here. Instead I selectively chose my friends and now I need to contact them to see if they are still my friends.I’m sure they will be, they’re hardened pro’s and have done their fair share of vexing through time and circumstance, and I listened.

But now, I really am here. No excuses, just plenty to say. So many things have gone on these last few weeks that I’ll be hard pushed to cram a full update in this one note. Suffice to say nothing will keep me away from, at the very least a couple of blogs a week to bring us both up to speed. It’s wonderful how a change from everything energizes you, new people, new places and new beginnings. I’m sat comfortably where I want to be……. writing, reading and preparing to do more of both. My book ‘Insights from the Engine Room, Lessons learned from rock and roll’ should be out by the first week in September and the timing certainly feels right. Any attempts to rush it out sooner would have been a result of my obvious impatience. Damn, I’ve written it , why can’t people read it. And with new ways to blabber and smoke (Captain Beefheart, The Spotlight kid) it’s a good time to start hollering. It’s back to plugging, the thing I know the best but it’s embracing new methods and new ways of doing things. And more than anything it’s a fantastic way to for me to learn how people find out about things. Embrace the change! 

Since I was last on here the book has taken on a new lease and now it will be published by Janson Media instead of us going the self publishing route. Now everyone is helping with all the things that take up a lot more time than my just writing it. Slowly we’re getting there and everything now is becoming very real.

I have been given a great opportunity with an exciting new Social networking site called Tin Can. (www.tincan.tv) It’s a holding page for the first few weeks as August is the ‘soft launch’ with everything starting to kick in for September. They have a great line up of programs with some really fascinating content and to make it even better it comes from my old home town, Manchester! I love working with good, talented, like minded people and this feels so right. here’s to help making it happen. Keep your ears to the ground and I’ll keep you updated on how you can post stuff and promote whatever you have going on, providing it’s not illegal or crap!

So now I have done the decent thing and resurfaced I need to click ‘upload’ and go write more and record more because guess what, I now have my own radio show once again. Manchester radio on line have asked if I’d like to give it a go. I’d be mad to refuse and anyway it’s been thirteen years since my last show on Piccadilly/Key 103 and I have to admit once more it feels the time is right. Mainly for two reasons, firstly the people are so enthusiastic and committed who am I to say no? And secondly it’s on the internet and not governed by all the restrictions that have taken the excitement out of terrestrial radio. If it’s good and it’s worth hearing then it’s on the internet. Made by fans for fans. Shouldn’t take me too long to get my head round the workings so I’ll sign off for now and update you with more just as soon as I get the lowdown. 

Raise a glass we’re getting ready to rock!

Filed under: Book Tony Michaelides, Radio Ga Ga, insights from the engine room, piccaddilly radio, tony michaelides

Radio revisted, perhaps?

I’ve been thinking it might be time to give radio another shot…….I did my first show in 1984 and my last in 1996 so that makes 12 years on and now 12 years off, so 2009 could spell a new beginning. We all know how radio has become crap and the only good radio is the stuff you need to hunt down…..so I can’t lose, I’m either crap like everything else or I become sought after, hunted down. I’ve been toying with the idea for a good few months. It was originally prompted around 9 months ago from an old friend, Guy back in the UK who said ‘Have you ever thought of doing your show again?’ I said no. He asked why and I said I didn’t know. Then I got excited we had a play around at doing it, made a bit of a false start and it kind of fell by the wayside. I think now the time could be right though. It is after all Year of the Tone so I can at least participate. If you think it’s a totally dumb idea then please let me know……. and I’ll remove you from my Christmas card list.

I don’t see anything in Tampa filling the gap, bit like the dentist I went to……. so maybe I should do a show focusing on the new blend of bands coming throught the UK. I have plenty of friends who would be only too willing to help so maybe we should give it a go and see what happens. There’s a cool local station here called WMNF which has a wide variety of shows so maybe they’ll be interested, we’ll give it a whirl and if they say no then we’ll think again…and still do it. I have to admit it would be a gas tapping in to some old pals in the UK and searching for some of the best bands, and I’m positive they would be grateful for some action over here.

I started a group on Facebook a few months ago, The Last Radio Programme mainly so I could recollect some stories from back in the day and blog about them. I was reminded of some funny episodes….I think every time I turned up it was potentially a funny episode anyway! I always thought when Mark Radcliffe went off to London to work for Radio One and I inherited his radio territitory, i.e. the gap he left, that if it lasted 3 months and I brought the station tumbling down then it would be a laugh and at least I could include it in my resume……but twelve and a half years must have meant I got something right. I remember I was the only plugger who could guarantee people at least one play!

Radio has changed radically but the diffence between traditional and the rest is vast. There must be a place for me to float in radio ocean…..after all my last tune on my last show was Neil Young’s ‘I’m the ocean’ Float on, Tone.

Filed under: About Tony Michaelides, Journey Through The Past, Radio Ga Ga, Last Radio Programme, tony michaelides, Tony the Greek, WMNF

Acres of Peel

I was just speaking with my old friend Barry from Record Collector in Sheffield and we were relaying a bunch of stories when, as usual he reminded me of some Engine Room Insights. Once again other people’s recollections are better than my own. He did tell me though of his memories of the late John Peel and it made me think that here is a man we must never forget.

For those on this side of the pond maybe Peel isn’t recognized the way we Brits acknowledge his importance in music history. In a nutshell, John Peel was the first to play just about everyone who ever mattered. He picked up on The Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Sex Pistols, The Clash…even those we tend to forget, like Elton John, Rod Stewart etc. His passion for discovering new music never waned even in to his sixties and even though we’d all agree he’d been known to play some crap of late he was always ‘Peel.’ I think even now the mere mention of his name brings a smile to your face…..everyone adored John Peel and even if you questioned his musical taste you couldn’t help but love his dry sense of humor.

I was under the impression I had never met John Peel though I do remember I was in the same room as him on more than one occasion. I’m sure he had his fair share of well wishers although secretly I would have liked to whisper in his ear how much of an influence he was on me and how he helped forge my musical tastes Just recently I was reminded by my friend Alison that we had in fact met and that I had been formally introduced to him. She and her partner had been friendly with Peel and his wife Sheila for many years and there was this time when he was up in Manchester visiting her……. Alison was working with me at the time and Peel needed to send a fax urgently to London so in she came with the man himself. Shame on me for forgetting that one but nevertheless I was proud to have been John Peel’s office for that one day!

Barry told me how he had first heard Peel when he was a teenager at boarding school just outside of Cambridge. He had felt fairly isolated living there and Peel played an important role in linking him in to the outside world. He would listen, like myself to the pirate stations, Radio London and Radio Caroline where he’d hear track after track of amazing songs. Apart from the pirates all we had back then was Radio Luxembourg and Alan Freeman’s Saturday Club….. anything we might be remotely interested in we’d hear on his show.

John Peel previously had a show on Radio London called ‘The Perfumed Garden’ which was where he had made a name for himself with the more discerning listeners. Come the late sixties he found himself on the newly created national station Radio One where he was to present the legendary ‘Top Gear’ each and every Saturday afternoon. Barry was to tell me more….

Filed under: About The Engine Room, Radio Ga Ga, Alan Freeman, John Peel, record collector shop, Top Gear

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

Closing Time …THE last radio programme

After REM came in they followed in droves. At first I started to pull in a few favors ….bands I knew and people I’d worked with. It was sort of…’you won’t believe this, they’ve put me on the radio. You couldn’t help me out could you, I’m busking it?’

 

The following week I had an interview with Frankie goes to Hollywood and the week after that U2, just as they had begun to work with Brian Eno.  I was fortunate enough to get the opportunity to record another one with them late that year, an hour special around The Unforgetable Fire,  that was broadcast on New Years Eve 1984…… just as they were ‘going to go away to dream it up all over again’ They did that one pretty well.

 

I remember I finished the interview with a my most profound statement ever. ‘and rest assured this time next year there will no greater act on earth’ Little did I know that the following summer they would appear on Live Aid and awake the following morning with the whole world at their feet. I wanted to go away and have some business cards made up Tony Michaelides—– Prophet!

 

Even though I was working these bands they were only too glad to help me in trying to establish a show and get people’s attention. Radio play and support at the level these people were at was vital too so I saw at as us all helping each other.

 

As previously mentioned I only ended up on the radio because I complained at Piccadilly’s plan to not replace Mark Radcliffe when he moved to London and the national station, Radio 1. You need shows like these and you need them all the time. You can’t dump them when one guy leaves!…. they have to have their place. Fortune prevailed, they saw sense……..and ruined my weekends for the next 12 years. No dirty weekends unless they involved grunge bands.

 

Radio can be so spontaneous and so much fun if you just let things go with the flow. I had no fear of failure. How could the show be bad if it always had good music in it? I never tried to be a lousy jock and mostly I did OK but sometimes I would open my mouth and utter shite would come out. Going with the flow was never meant to mean verbal diarrhea. I wanted to take a mirror in so I could look at myself and say ‘What did you just say?’  If at times you say something that you don’t understand then how the hell can you expect anyone else to!  At least I made others laugh………

 

It was handy though, this was a gig I never had to rehearse for. The one thing I did rehearse was my closing link. After 12 years I wanted to go out with a bang. I wanted to leave a damn legacy….I wanted go out ‘cool’

 

I timed the length of the track up to the vocal……for the first time in my life I wanted to be a DJ, I wanted to kill ’em !… I wanted to talk up to the vocal. It was Neil Young’s ‘I’m the ocean’ For some perverse reason maybe I thought this was my broadcast burial, how the hell do I know! Neil was taking my ashes out to sea and scattering them over the ocean less north west. It was his way of saying thank you for the amount of money he had made by the amount of times I’d played his records.

 

So here I was, out of an ad break and I started my link. I’d even run through it again in the news. It was all ‘thank you for listening, for being there for the last 12 years, it’s been a gas, so many memories, so much fun , thank you for everyone who made this possible………all the classic bollocks and so perfectly timed. You’d have thought I just had my last curry and they were taking me down the corridor to the electric chair….. I wish they had!

 

Then…………he started singing. THE BASTARD starting singing, and I hadn’t finished, it was supposed to end with my saying ‘My name is Tony Michaelides, I am the ocean, Goodnight’ and then in came Neil, my friend Neil, the person I had supported all these years, played so much of his music…..it even had the line in ‘I’m the giant undertow’  How cool is that, he put my name in a song and I sounded like Bridgette Bardot was sexing me up. I’d finish (not with Bridgette) and I was to utter those final words….. ‘ I am the ocean ‘ and he was to cascade in with this thunderous guitar screaming the opening line. He was bidding me farewell, we’d REHEARSED IT. Neil should have been hurting, I was being taken off air. It was a funeral….instead he was fucking up …Damn it was all coming back to haunt me on my final link, he even had a song called ‘Fucking up!’

 

It was so final, it was so supposed to be perfect, oh so perfect. I hadn’t got anywhere near my closing line and he was bloody singing all over me. WHY??? he’d done the song so many times and on my show, and tonight my last show he came in early!! Why did he do that? This was my swansong, Neil how could you!!!!!

 

And if that wasn’t enough I emigrated 10 years later to Florida and still he came back to haunt me. Three hurricanes ripped right through where I was living…………I don’t listen to ‘Like a hurricane’ now quite the way I used to in the past.

 

Filed under: About Tony Michaelides, Journey Through The Past, Radio Ga Ga, BBC Radio 1, Frankie goes to Hollywood, Im the ocean, like a hurricane, Mark Radcliffe, neil young, Piccadilly Radio, REM, U2

Play it again Sam….and again, and again , and again

Being a record plugger is an incredibly important job. I’m not just saying that because I was one but I thought we held an enormous amount of responsibility. We were on the front line and we took all the bullets……from managers, from the sales department, marketing……. and product managers who were quite often the funniest.

 

Whenever they got grief from a manager or internally from someone at the record company, they’d get on the phone and bark at the regional people. If a record wasn’t getting any radio play they thought by getting on the phone and screaming at you then we would frighten the regional radio stations in to playing it. You would try to explain to them how it worked…..Independent radio is just that, independent, they need to stand on their own two feet. They aren’t funded by the license payer’s money like the BBC are …… if they screw up they’ll still get another chunk of money the following year. They nee to satisfy advertisers and in doing that satisfy the shareholders or the advertisers will go and spend their dollars/pounds elsewhere. No audience, no advertising ,  no advertising, no profits, no profits, no radio station. It all seemed quite logical to me, but then again it was my job know what regional radio was ….and I’d actually been in these places, unlike this mob who stuck them in the ‘north of Watford’ box.

 

I think a promotion person’s role was even more important than that of an A and R person. How many dodgy signings got lucky, had radio play and went on to become successful?  We helped them get bonuses, points on records and probably a pay rise. If they signed crap bands we still had to get them played. Bit of a vicious circle really because if we did get them played they’d go and sign more shit!  We had some common ground, you’re only ever as good as your last record.

 

Everyone looked to traditional radio back then. There wasn’t much alternative, no My Space, no internet radio, no satellite radio….. no viral marketing at all. Radio One was the national station and was so important…. and they knew it. If they playlisted a record and it was A or B listed you could get 20 to 30 plays. It’s that familiarity with an audience that gets them to like the record and then hopefully buy it.  When local radio was in it’s infancy they were usually only in the major cities. Now if you’ve got an ice cream shop, you’ve got a radio station. Over the years regional radio got more important and more influential but listening to it now I think you’d hear better stuff in a lift.

 

 

Filed under: About Tony Michaelides, Journey Through The Past, Radio Ga Ga, A and R people, Add new tag, BBC Radio 1, independent local radio, my space, radio one, record pluggers, record promotion

Radio Ga Ga ……Red light spells danger

Cast your mind, or in fact my mind, back years ago. I can see myself sat there in my radio big man chair with these huge speakers hanging from the ceiling. Proper equipment and proper people milling around, newsreaders, glass panels and lots of big doors leading to different places with different equipment….and not a clue what any of it did. And then the big red light would come on and light up the room. I’d have my headphones on and it was…….SHOW TIME! …… All I knew was the red light said we were on air. It was always a relief to see that….and when you didn’t it meant dead air. Not good, not good at all. When that happened you would always see the other red light…the one on the telephone switchboard…..the ex directory line. Uh oh…..in radio jargon it signified a fuck up. The fuhrer was on the phone breathing fire….well he was always quite gentle really ’What happened then’ he’d say. I would always say the same ‘Nothing’ It seemed like the right answer and in fact totally right…nothing did happen, no music, no voice, no nothing! …….and not much of a follow up conversation either. Well I mean I didn’t want to be distracted now did I?

 

 The lights were dim, always doubly dim………so dim in fact I could rarely read what it said on the record sleeve and too dark to find the angle poise. I’d turn the music up and settle down to the best night in you could ever have. I only needed a bath, but that may have gotten a little tricky. I’d always pick out a ‘stonker’ for my first record. Out with the news jingle, a station ident as they call them and then crash, wallop one of Stu Allen’s highly polished and produced ‘Tony the Greek’ jingles. It made me sound like Wolfman Jack or some other mighty radio toff. I HAD to come out of that with maybe three killer cuts( radio jargon that signifies boss tunes) with the hope that after that it didn’t matter what shite I might spout off about. Having someone else voice over the show’s opening jingle always meant I got my name right too. Good start.

 

 

It was all chancing it.I just loved the risk, the thrill of the ride and how it could all fall apart at the seams.The red light meant live, totally live….it meant it was happening there and then. No props , no safety net. I mean what could go wrong.I wasn’t thinking that if the show wasn’t slick and polished that my mates wouldn’t come round and see me at the weekend. Business as usual. You go in , you do the show.Sometimes it was great , other times it wasn’t. Half of the fun was the never knowing , the sheer unexpentancy of it all. Why would I want to sit there for three hours if I knew everything that would happen , to the minute.Boring.

 

 

I played a lot of bands and artists that became successful……but by the same token the law of averages says I played loads of bands you’ve never heard of!  I would always try and support local stuff as much as I could but I could never, in my heart play something that was truly dreadful….and we never had payola then so I was never tempted!………..I mean who wants to be sent on holiday with a drop dead gorgeous model on an all expenses paid trip just for giving a crappy record one play, when I could get in to the International to see some lousy band I didn’t want to see for free just because the manager would call me every day and hassle the hell out of me. Half the time it was just easier to go……..and the other half said the model was nowhere to be seen.

 

Promoting records to specialist programs on the one hand and promoting them by playing them on the other was quite strange. Especially when I would phone some London based record companies up when I first started my show. You’d have some smart arsed plugger at the other end giving you the Spanish inquisition! I would tell them I was on the radio in Manchester and if they wanted to add me to their mailing lists.…… ‘Who are you?’. What radio station are you on? Where’s that…..  I never had any patience with them, after all it’s their job to find out where these shows are and actively promote to them…..and especially in local radio where there are so few programs that had free choice. I’d end up saying ‘Forget it’ I wasn’t going to be begging for free records, I was helping them do their jobs, damn it!’

 

Then these same dickheads would phone up and ask if I’d interview their artists as they were playing in Manchester……..’What group, what label are you from?’ I would delight in saying before leaving them to tidy up their own mess. I bet these people love it now that that can e-mail and text people and don’t have to expose their lame personalities to presenters. I must be honest I was critical of bad pluggers,  I always regarded it as a vitally important job. Can you imagine being a manager and knowing that this was the way they were representing your acts. The art of plugging is not far away in a plug blog to come !

 

Filed under: About Tony Michaelides, Journey Through The Past, Radio Ga Ga, Risk, Add new tag, Last Radio Programme, Piccadilly Radio, Stu Allen, tony michaelides, Tony the Greek