Let’s go Ga Ga

The one thing that keeps us rockers rolling is belief.  We grew up believing in the dream and hard as the industry has worked at screwing it all up  we still hold on to that belief. We love Ga GA, we have to love Ga Ga because she rubs their dirty faces in it and shows us that IF you put something out there that the public actually want, make it sexy and make it relevant then guess what, they’ll go buy it.

Lady Ga Ga didn’t need a record company. In fact the man with the golden touch Antonio ‘LA’ Reid signed her and dropped her in three months, yep the man who signed Pink, Maria Carey, Justin Bieber, Avril Lavigne, TLC, Usher, Outkast and Dido and took them all to multi-platinum status missed out on Ga Ga. How the hell did that happen? It makes you wonder that if she’d have had that clout behind her then what might she have achieved? It’s a shame she’s only managed to sell 15 million albums and 40 million singles in just over two years…

Now we can’t dismiss Jimmy Iovine and the Interscope crew entirely, I suppose they must have done something but when we live in the age of the artist doing all the work I think she kind of surpassed that.  Lady Ga Ga kind of surpasses everything. She’s dragged the average Joe (and Josephine) off the street and in to anywhere that’s still open and selling records. She sent them to their computer, to borrow someone else’s computer and she has got the whole house jumping again. Listen record industry and listen good, if you can get your grubby hands on something that excites people they will buy it.

Let’s go Ga Ga, it’s a good place to be right now. She kicked the industry right where it hurt. While they ‘assumed ‘they knew what we wanted they weren’t even close. Did they really think the public was this stupid? We’ll tell them what they need to like and send them out to buy it, right? No I don’t think so Mr Record company, sadly you got it so wrong. You pushed people away. you made them realize they don’t need music after all. The jury’s out, why the hell did you do that?

Take me Ga Ga I’m yours. I’m not even your target market but I love you. That’s it though isn’t it, the real pop star has no target market they appeal to the masses. Remember Michael Jackson? He targeted the market, every damn one of them. A fan base of everyone who had a wallet, a song and dance man on a mission. An entertainer and a very good one at that and someone who the music industry should have gone back and studied. But that would be admitting they made a mistake and they don’t make mistakes do they?

Filed under: mistakes, record companies, View from the room, jimmy iovine, Lady Ga Ga, Michael Jackson, music industry, record companies

Industry with no know

I’m not getting dragged in to the Idol mass debate, I’m done,  I’ll wait until they finally arrive at a decision regarding the new judges. I thought Tyler and Lopez had been confirmed but apparently not. Actually I’m suprissd at myself more than anything for being taken in by all the furore, I’m not that type of guy. I’m a cynical old fool when it comes to the record industry. That’s how I survived, I saw it as fun first and foremost. I thought it was a total hoot that someone was going to pay me to indulge in my hobby. I thought, if it lasted 6 months it would be a great six months and I could tell my grandchildren, but it lasted over thirty years. A lot of fun and a load of hard work, but what’s work when you’re having fun?

There were a good few of us from that era did it proud though, we LOVED making a living out of a hobby. It isn’t hard to get up in the morning when you love your job. There was no such thing as Monday morning…… Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, bring it on. Midday or Midnight, we were there. We believed in the dream because we made the dream a reality. If someone gave me a great record to promote I felt it my duty to tell others, and what an honor it was. I couldn’t wait to run round the country and barge in to every radio station and enthuse. I had people just as receptive in radio and television, they wanted good tunes and I had shit loads of them! My belief became their belief.

Island Records was a pretty damn fine place to start, Bob Marley, Steve Winwood, John Martyn, Robert Palmer and then of course U2. It could have been worse because there were still a few labels thinking shit worked. Well it didn’t. In fact I’d ask people if they ever gave me a shit record what did they expected me to do with it. And that included you Mr Cowell !  Power Rangers, Zig and Zag and some bus conductor from Coventry. And a dreadful all girl band from Australia who came and went in around a week, thank God. Reminds me, it’s nice when crap doesn’t sell. He thought they’d be the next Spice Girls….more like The Lice Girls. Good bloke though, shit taste in music but a good bloke. He senses a hit and makes it happen in just enough time before the public gets wise to it. By then he’s robbed them of all their cash and it’s on to the next. He’s Robin Hood.

It never ceases to amaze me how a music industry for so long thinks things are always going too be the next so and so. Pray tell 40 years later where are the next Led Zeppelin, the next Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Neil Young or Bob Dylan. They don’t exist, great talent that lasts is unique, you  have the dross that filters through but it never lasts. We all get dog shit on our shoes but we flick it off once we know it’s there. There is a dictionary for the word talent, please use it.

I’m still a believing kind of guy, what was that all time famous karaoke song Journey gave us, ‘Don’t stop believing?’  Too many times we’ve had the midnight train going nowhere and still the music industry assumes the public are thick and will buy what they are told to. Well the public just woke up, shit doesn’t sell. Back in the day the lovable Monkees told us, ‘I’m a Believer.’ Let’s hang on to that notion and believe in real talent, let’s encourage it to come through. But can we please have some help from those who are in a position to help? OK, I expected as much.

OK TM time, we’re back in Time Module. Let’s go back to Elvis, to The Beatles to a whole host of relevant exciting bands and artists that got everyone on the same playing field. We all needed music in our lives because it enriched all our  lives. It made them happy, it made us happy. It sent them to work happy it sent them in to relationships happy. It got them paid and it got them laid.

I am about to enter a very noisy time about the music industry, trust me I know me as well as anyone. There are things that need debating and thank you Mr and Mrs Internet for giving me that platform to vent. Why sit around in music industry conference and debate it amongst yourselves, what the hell will that solve.? You got it wrong for so long now and you’re still getting it wrong. Let Joe and Jospehine public have their say.

If it’s anything else and it’s gone past it’s sell by date they remove it from the shelf, here they just repackage it and force feed it us again and again! Plenty more to come but for now, I am at peace.

Filed under: About The Engine Room, record companies, View from the room, Island Records, music industry, Record business, Simon Cowell

Creating an artist

Over the years the artist benefited from a music industry swelling with a backroom of talent. It was the creative infrastructure of the music industry and what I like to call ‘The Engine Room.’ It’s where collaborations were born and where the road used to begin.

When you signed to a record company it was the beginning, it meant the start of a relationship. And the better the relationship the greater the chance of success. You see success was something everyone used to share and it was an industry that drove people to succeed. The pleasure was shared with everyone because everyone played an equal part. Today with a rapidly diminishing return I don’t think it’s a unity, it’s a jungle mentality. Eat or be eaten, artist against the record company. They want a piece of every part of the pie.

Many of the things that worked so well in the past seem to be lacking today. Yet so many of these things are quite simple when you think about it. Everyone is scared of losing their jobs and even the artists nowadays are scared of being dropped. Why should that be any different though? It’s supposed to be a risk business, it’s supposed to be about taking chances and pushing out that little bit further. We lost our mavericks and we lost our risk takers. We lost our innovators and we lost our way. We are not creating anything anyone is going to remember. And before I hear you say Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift or Kelly Clarkson, Beyonce, Justin or even Jay Z. They’ll be here next year but I doubt they’ll be here next decade.

The relationships were everywhere, the artist with their manager, the manager with the label, the label with the publisher. Then the producer and the A and R manager and it went on. The only thing that may have changed as we face up to the demise of the ‘pop star’ is that the fan has a closer relationship with the artist. Or they should have if both parties are reaching out like they should.  Today artists should be connecting with their audience, a bit like John Mayer until he has his sudden whacko swings towards lunacy and he over communicates to the detriment of others and damages something he worked so hard at creating.

Filed under: About The Engine Room, Managing Creativity, record companies, social networking, A and R people, artist development, creating talent, record companies

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

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

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

Letting the days go by

I just got a note on my Facebook page from an old pal and colleague at Piccadilly Radio David Dunne attaching a clip from a bygone era. Oh how I laughed, it’s funny how you never remember how you looked. And then I found myself saying, ‘I wonder what ever happened to that jacket?’ All nonsense really but all good clean innocent nonsense.

It was amazing to think how old the footage was, from late 90’s and a program featuring Happy Mondays. The funniest thing of all was it has been screened numerous times over the years as an ‘educational program.’ Information Technology was the title of the show though Lord knows how Happy Mondays made it in to a BBC educational show!. Having written a book about the lessons I learned from rock and roll strangely enough The Mondays were absent. It was pleasantly funny to see the recorded interview between myself and Factory Records supremo the late Tony Wilson where I was a bit pissed off at the Mondays constant absentiesm when it came to radio interviews. Then I wondered why on earth did I ever even attempt at getting the Mondays any interviews. As lovable as they were they were usually so wrecked they couldn’t speak anyway and having to go and collect them to take them to radio interviews was hardly my easiest promo task. Ah they don’t make pop combos like that anymore. A totally wonderful band  but no suprise they never won anything at The Brits. they didn’t have a ‘Best band from  another planet’ category. Best International artist didn’t cover the galaxy.

Maybe the Mondays were the last of the great bands, part of a pedigree of bands that work in a totally unique, unconventional manner. What they were had just as much to do with being with a label like Factory. No other label would have been able to allow them to develop in to what they became, they wouldn’t have had the patience and they would have tired of their antics and dumped them. It’s the exact same scenario as A and M Records and EMI, they had no idea what to do with The Sex Pistols so they let them go. They are both bands who know what they are doing and need a label to support them but to leave them to their own ‘artistic’ devices bizarre as they may seem. Both acts worked because of Factory and because of Virgin and because their A and R people understood they were a little different from everyone else. Thank God.

Filed under: Managing Creativity, record companies, View from the room, david dunne, Factory Records, Sex Pistols, The Happy Mondays, tony wilson

Another Brit in the wall

The Brits. that much lauded, much laughed at awards ceremony celebrating what’s best in British music. But has it really ever done that? Those who think they know put together a list of nominees, spread them around the labels they work for and then troll along to the event knowing that their expenses will get signed off,  because they sign them. When they start off there is speculation, will they get it right and then as each year goes by your expectations become less and less. Until you expect nothing and you’re satisfied. . Next year I vow to not even comment, though I might have said that last year. I only watched for curiosities sake and Lady Ga Ga who by a mark of respect for Alexander McQueen was very low key on the night.

I’m just glad they haven’t come up with a ‘Lifetime Whinger’ award for Whitney Houston or ‘The Lifetime Ego’ award for Clive Davis. In fact it would need to be  ‘The Clive Davis Award’ so Clive can come up on stage to present it to himself every year, and then when he pops it Whitney can come up and accept it posthumously on his behalf and tell us how he will always be missed. ‘I will always love me.’ Clive’s cover version of Whitney’s cover of Dolly’s song. (Parton the pun.)

The funny thing is I didn’t see the whole of The Brits but I saw enough on You Tube and read various reports all saying the same thing as it’s said every year. It is what it is, but does is what it is make it what it should be? The problem is we don’t have anything to celebrate now, no one’s buying records so the only way they can get anyone to watch a show is to put the only artists on who sell anything. So then we are left with a show to showcase the artists who’s records we have already bought.

You’d be tempted to call the proceedings ‘safe’ if it wasn’t for the predictable controversy of ‘anarchy.’ We’d had the water thrown over John Prescott outrage. We’ve had the Michael Jackson carry on from Jarvis Cocker. We’ve had the Sam Fox, Mick Fleetwood great presenters of our time show. We’ve had the lot but they always manage to find something that will make it to the papers. But didn’t you expect it the moment Liam Gallagher stepped up on the stage, that sweet aroma of predictability where he wants to grow old disgracefully and The Brits is the place to do it. I saw him swagger up and I was going ‘Go on Liam do something outrageous, be respectful and say what a fantastic ride Oasis had been.’ Thank others for allowing you your own bit of the limelight but no he did the most obvious thing possible. He was Liam twenty years on.

He wasn’t there to celebrate anything, he just thought he needed a bit of attention and he knew the media would lap it up. But now when you’ve been and gone wouldn’t it have been more outrageous then to do something not outrageous? People would have given him a rousing reception but he’d rather take the swipes, it’s mens work. How utterly ludicrous to thank his band apart from the one person who allowed their very existence. Why would we have ever wanted another swaggering monkey when we still had the King Monkey himself, Ian Brown?  And let’s face it Ian Brown has always been and still is cooler than Liam Gallagher. Sorry Liam you worked well in the band as a front man but all the tired tactics? It’s no longer relevant.

Maybe you should have kissed Robbie Williams live at The Brits. Damn, I’ve given them an idea for next year. it if not for whom it wouldn’t have been much of a band.

Filed under: mistakes, Opportunity, record companies, View from the room, Ian Brown, Lady Ga Ga, Liam Gallagher, The Brits, You Tube channel

One hit makes you wonder

Take a handful of artists away from the mix (not literally of course) and you’ll find there just isn’t the investment being put in to the record. If you’re signed to a record company they aren’t spending what they used to, they can’t afford to. They probably won’t be able to afford a top rate producer but just allocate a recording budget that will do little more than suffice. Independent promotion, nah we’ll save money and do it in house. They stick it out at minimum costs to see if there’s a bite and take it from there. It stinks of no confidence, who ever knew for certain any one record would be guaranteed to sell? Anything could bomb but a spend shows a commitment and a belief that you want to make it happen, or at least it did. If you let everyone know you had a great record then you still need a public eager to purchase.

Record companies were used to breaking an act and then selling records, and records meant albums. Today if you have a hit it’s because people have bought a song. It’s possible you may never sell another, and you can’t create stars least of all big selling acts when you’re peddling songs. The public is conditioned in to downloading something they might hear off the radio and even then as current statistics are showing most of them are ‘acquiring it.’ And what that means is no one is getting paid, people have something where no revenue has been created. You don’t need a Think Tank here to work out that if you can’t get paid for something why or how can you continue. Worse still where lies the future when writing songs want earn you a living wage, never mind make you a star.

We just don’t haver a generation growing up that are likely to change that. People like me can’t understand that and the people growing up don’t understand why I can’t understand it because it doesn’t matter to them. So we’ve arrived at a stalemate because you can’t educate people who don’t want to be educated, they’ll do it their way.

What made the music business exciting was it was driven by cycles, something was in and then next year something else was in.  You can leave a door open but you still need people to want to come in. They need to be curious and they’re not.

Filed under: record companies, View from the room, creating stars, downloading, one hit

Ready, set, go

Once the  jury was out and back with the verdict then time to put the wheels in motion. Was it good enough? If all were agreed about the finished product the planning would begin. They’d have ideas about a single , they would decide on the order of the tracks and start to engage in constructive planning. Everyone would have some input even before they planned the planning!  It was driven by enthusiasm and an air of excitement. There was anticipation. How long since people sensed that? As Tom Petty said ‘the waiting is the hardest part.’ We’d have to wait, however long it took but it never mattered. If you are prepared to wait then it means it’s worth waiting for, right?. Your sheer love for music allowed you to do that.

And then there was the eagerness to get it out and get it heard. We, the pluggers would have our say and would maybe play some key people at radio a couple of songs , get their input. Everyone would run around like kids comparing new toys at Christmas. You’d create a buzz without even trying, a real buzz. Regularly we’d talk about other people’s records, I always thought it was the best form of promotion if you had someone else talking about the records you were promoting. If you gave a record plugger from another company a record you were promoting you knew the next time you saw them they’d have heard it and they’d then tell you what they thought. We all shared the same common interest, we loved music.

And the fans did too, they loved talking about it as well as listening to it and if you heard something you liked then you would want to share that with others and pass it on. It was viral marketing in it’s infancy and before the web. Chances are that if your friends liked it they would be out at the first available opportunity buying it for themselves. A tape? Bollocks to that we all wanted our own copy!

Maybe the artist wanted it so much more then, they saw creating great new music as the ultimate challenge because they knew there was an audience out there begging for it. The music industry has always been a place where you wash your dirty laundry in public. If you release an inferior product somewhere else, in fashion, a new range of kitchen appliances, new trainers etc all that happens is it  doesn’t sell. People don’t go around critiquing it and talking about it but when your next album isn’t as good as your last everyone knows. There’s an outcry. If you’re disappointed then again it only shows you care enough.

So where are we now? If the public aren’t buying and the record companies aren’t signing then have the artists given up trying? Is everyone to blame for what has happened to the music industry? Has it gone the way of shipbuilding and cotton, was it a once a great place to be and now merely a shadow of it’s former self? Have the good old days gone and do we need to accept that however it evolves in whatever way it just won’t ever recapture the excitement and give us that adrenalin rush we all got from being a spectator or an insider?

Is all we have left, memories?

Filed under: PR, record companies, View from the room, re, record companies, record pluggers