Being an artist today

It’s tough being an artist, don’t let anyone tell you anything to the contrary. Nevertheless if you’re a true artist and by that I mean someone who is true to themselves you have to do some soul searching and identify who you are. It’s not a one off task, you need to be constantly searching, looking to see where you are today and more significantly where you are going tomorrow. Tomorrow never comes to those that embrace yesterday. The reason it needs to be a constant, as John Lennon so rightly said is ‘Life gets in the way.’ All sorts of obstacles and setbacks will present themselves along the way and searching and finding out who you are and where you are makes you more able to adapt and change. Be the innovator not the procrastinator.

I love artists, I never was one but sometimes I think I understand them better than they understand themselves. Giving people advice is one thing but it becomes increasingly frustrating when people approach you with a ‘What do I do now?’ If you have no idea what to do how can you expect to achieve anything? Would you get in a car, slam your foot down on the accelerator pedal, glance across hoping someone is there and ask, ‘What do I do now?’ Personally I’d have the same answer for both. Steer!

Artists need to ask themselves from the very start, what is it I want out of this? If you honestly believe you want to make a living from it then map out some sort of plan. Set yourself goals, realistic ones that aren’t, ‘I am the next American Idol.’ If you’re one of those convinced it will happen because you’re passionate then join the rest of the line for a lottery ticket. No one ever finds anyone who hasn’t discovered themselves. Direction for an artist nowadays is more important than ever. If you’re the one in a million who gets a record deal  you still won’t have someone guiding you like they did when I worked in the music industry. Artist development is a long term task. It doesn’t happen today because it takes time and time is something record companies don’t have. If someone was to give you that they wouldn’t have a job because the person over their shoulder is looking for a return and long term doesn’t matter. Short term keeps them in a job.

Filed under: Business Lessons, Uncategorized, artist development, artists, music industry, record companies

Wooden Woods

There’s a rumble in the jungle, Tiger’s back. Either on his back or on top we are going to have to watch his slimy orchestrated moves all over Breakfast, night time and in between time TV, radio, press. Bring on the clowns. Didn’t you just love the orchestrated glum press photo opportunity, the PR people saying ‘Look glum, everyone will use the picture, wear Nike and pass me a zero from you’re bank account. Just do it, Nike will love it and it’ll end up costing you nothing.’ You don’t even need to be cynical to watch this calculated charade play out. Soft press conference and now the soft tournament, the one he’s bound to win and the one where he knows he’ll be adored. Nothing like challenging yourself eh? Perish the thought anyone should berate him. Bring on mum, pat him on his head. Make sure he’s wearing ‘The cap.

Sucks, keep your shoes and hats Nike I’m sticking to my balaclava and flip flip flops. I think you deserve each other and for what it’s worth I have other hats I can wear. I was so mad I went to throw all my golf clubs out, forgetting I’ve never played a game of golf in my life. Not my chosen sport, can’t see the point of playing anything you don’t have to get changed for. Unless you include some ludicrous patterned jumpers and silly shoes.

I have to confess though all the fever pitch excitement I’m here to say my peace, piece. PISS. I even scrapped the idea of another blog once I saw the TV coverage, what a lame ass.I am. Aaaaaargh didn’t it make you want to puke how they slunk out from the foliage, the distance between them picture perfect.  I don’t even like Elfin now or whatever her name is, get back in the bushes where you belong. Cartoon characters in a cartoon world. Camouflage life.

So he’s on his way back and I, like everyone else responded. Hell his actions from the outset must now be costing him a pretty penny, no wonder the Nike caps came out. You can see the baying PR wolves rubbing their paws and howling, ‘Well Tiger if you had got us involved from the start we could have taken care of this but now there’s a lot more image to rebuild. It’s going to take a lot of time, the six month retainer is going to have to be twenty five years. ‘Isn’t this another case of the public loving the hard luck story. What hard luck story are we exactly talking about here? Who was responsible for taking this billionaire’s pants down? Who will go down in history…..All the endless temptations towards the puns, some reference to his exploits being the under dog. It’s strange because before all this Tiger Woods to me was just a bloke with a golf club with a silly name, birdie, nine iron, whatever and the same cap. Nondescript, lacking in personality and someone who appeared to have more money than all the countries I’ve visited. He now strikes me as the most robotic celebrity I have ever seen either up close and personal or from a distance, and the nature of my job I feel qualifies me to voice an opinion.

We’re back to that word ‘celebrity.’ Tiger has identified more than anyone where celebrity went wrong, from charismatic like Jack Nicholson to ‘celebrity’ like er, Tiger Woods. Does he even have a Godamn name or did he slip out of the womb and it was a quick call from parentage.’ Mmm not sure, let’s call him after an animal.’ But Tiger? Tiger’s are sleek, charismatic, powerful (OK you might say money gives him power but personally I never had a problem with a real tiger who didn’t carry a black Amex card) The thing is tiger’s are everything he isn’t, he has less charisma than tiger droppings. If his family are reading this please get in touch, in fact don’t I saw his insipid mother groveling at the press conference and the wife elf who took her wedding ring off. Shock horror, who would have expected that. His mistresses each get to wear it for one week until the end of the year. It’s  due back the first of January, Happy New Year.

I”M DONE, with Tiger Wooden I have things to do and it isn’t waitresses. Well for now anyway. If you’re here for the first time welcome to my blog. If you enjoyed it my name’s Tony Michaelides and if you didn’t my name is Rhino Michaelides and I’m horny.

Filed under: mistakes, Uncategorized, View from the room, celebrity, PR, Tiger Woods

False Idols

No matter what anyone says  I’m sure American Idol has had it’s day, they won’t be producing a Carrie Underwood or a Kelly Clarkson for that matter and when you look at all the winners few are ‘stars.’ To be idolized there should be some immortality and where is that in any of them? They’re pop stars, ships in the night. Tonight pop, tomorrow not. Nothing more, nothing less. It’s exactly what Simon wants for his own immortality, if they come and go then so what, he’s always the star because his name is attached to each new ‘idol.’ If they become successful it’s because of him and if they don’t then ‘America voted.’  They chose a donkey, not him. Once again Simon Cowell is in a no lose situation, pure genius.

He has never believed in careers and yet he claims that hearing Elvis was the first time he heard rock and roll?  So if he heard it then it must have made an impact, surely?  And does it not impress him that Elvis, the first artist he really heard as a kid is still an icon today, a true idol? Also ‘She loves you’ by The Beatles was the firsr record he asked his mother to buy for him, that must have had an affect to, right? You sent your mum out damn it! And the same scenario, longevity and careers. It didn’t though and maybe not even wanting to go with his mother to the store to buy the record and sense the excitement said it all, even way back then. He never cared about the music, just the functionality of it. The like, the must want and the must have.

He also says Bob Dylan wouldn’t have been chosen for American Idol, we’d have left him crying in a car park in Idaho and Simon Cowell wouldn’t have cared. But what about the rest of us? Who cares, no Mr Tamborine Man, no All Along the Watchtower and no career if that had been the make of of And R people back then. But fortunately we had people like John Hammond who cared enough to bring through the real artists, they cared about talent and not about themselves. They knew the pedigree of an artist and had the faith to allow them to develop. They helped one another, there were no puppets signed and told to do as they (the A and R people) said and if they didn’t they wouldn’t work with them. It was a collaboration, it was a democracy and a republic. There were no dictators.

So he doesn’t believe in careers, he was influenced by people who had them and still have them and somehow would have passed on Dylan? No comprehendo, Dylan was Dylan because of Dylan and going back to what I said in the previous blog about Elton John, great artists know better than anyone what they have and understand how to cultivate that. Sure they need help but they don’t need anyone doing everything, they’re not that insecure to feel it’s necessary. They are happy to develop and grow at arate that is comfortable for everyone. When you do that people notice, the artist notices and the record company notices. And grow they do, and sustain they do. Careers are born and the spoils follow, and yet we went and destroyed all that so that a few people could own an industry.

If Bob Dylan had been allowed to come through today then Simon wouldn’t have been noticed as much. Weird because Dylan and Elvis left a legacy and Taylor Hicks didn’t………….or Fantasia or Reuben etc etc. The legacy  that remains from all of this is that of Simon Cowell and the power he yields controls his destiny whether with Idol or X Factor. Power destroys everything and everyone in it’s way and for Simon it will have to be his way to work. Music changed our lives and for the better, certainly from where I’m standing and now its changed again. But this time not through a musical revolution be it  rock and roll or punk. I’m not alone in thinking it’s not in all our best interests.

An idol is Elvis, Lennon or James Dean and we’re a long way off that. Idols’ retain their thrones , they don’t come and go. Idols aren’t popular for a while they live forever. Idol means something you worship,  are we now ‘worshiping’ talent show winners?Whatever you think of any of them an idol is ‘an image of a deity other than God. ‘ A God or  goddess, why in the hell are we creating false Gods from American Idol? Daughtry is a rocker, he’s not a God and neither is Fantasia a Goddess. And as for Taylor Hicks, curiously not quite a God.

Filed under: Uncategorized, american idol, elvis, Simon Cowell

Cowell with the bit between his teeth

‘Tony, I need you to get them on the radio,’ Simon said. ‘I need to get who on the radio?’ I politely inquired. ‘Westlife, Westlife my new boy band. I couldn’t pretend to be excited, I’d heard he’d signed a band but another boy band? I needed to be convinced they had what it took (whatever it is that’s ‘it’!’) ‘I understand Simon, that’s my job but I’ll need to hear them and then we can discuss it further.’ I replied as a fairly matter of fact retort. Seemed the most sensible way of preventing any further dialogue, as there wasn’t really one I thought, well not about the current topic anyway.

‘Well I Can’t tell you what I think I can do if I hadn’t heard it can I?’ ‘No, I just need you to get them on the radio, I need interviews and I need them on daytime. This is Loius Walsh and Ronan’s new boy band. They’re going to be huge.’ I paused, was I hearing him correctly? He was asking me to get a band no one had heard of or heard anything by, least of all me, on the radio to be interviewed! He had to be kidding. I’m sure this was him out to prove to Louis Walsh who had chosen to sign his band to Simon just what he could do. I uttered the same curiousity, ‘You are joking aren’t you?’

I was wasting my time. We were destined for a trip round the houses by way of anything resembling a conversation. Simon Cowell wanted me to call local radio stations, stations that rarely played anything that weren’t hits and set up a bunch of radio interviews with a boy band no one had ever heard of. He didn’t think it mattered that the radio promotion guy, never mind the radio station had been allowed to hear them.

It makes me laugh now but the look on Lee and the others who I had working for me was hilarious. I put the phone down and shouted across the room. ‘Are you ready for this? Simon Cowell wants us to get interviews for Westlife.’ Reverberating across the room came the reply’ Who the fuck are Westlife.’ Oh I wish I’d have said that to Simon! All for one and one for all we couldn’t believe what he was asking of us. I just shrugged my shoulders and said, trust me there isn’t a conversation we need to go and do it.

You couldn’t reason with Simon over something like this. Never mind Randy Jackson, enter THE dog with his bone, Westlife. Just to think, Boyzone, the only band ever through generations to be a serious threat to Val Doonican were heading for longer woolier jumpers and semi retirement and he (Simon Cowell) had a grip on his babies. And we were the babysitters. He was in diaper heaven. Herein began his stampede and complete domination of the pop charts. He had previously done an amazing job with Robson and Jerome, more of which I’ll recite later, had some continued success with 5ive but now he had the one that he thought would do it for him. Unlike Robson and Jerome who took a lot of persuading, kidnapping, harrasing all by his own admission as they were successful actors and already stars. Simon needed them to make a record , they couldn’t give a toss!

Writing about this all (and they’ll be other stories I’m sure!) makes me smile and makes me understand even more what was it that made Simon Cowell different from the rest. He doesn’t understand the word no! To make it even more hilarious is that we managed to get some interviews for Westlife although we needed Ronan Keating in there as well doing the interviews, that maybe swung it a little as he was ‘famous pretty’ instead of ‘who the fuck are you pretty.’  Hell, what I am saying. None of them are pretty to me. I’d like to think though that the radio stations were doing it for us and not for Westlife or for Simon Cowell. In those days people knew who we were when you called the radio stations and hadn’t a clue who Simon was. How funny is that, if he had tried to call people directly they probably wouldn’t have taken his call!

If I had one question to ask Simon Cowell today it wouldn’t be ‘How did you do it?’ I know how it did it, like a relentless pursuit for something only you know is possible coupled with a gnashing of the teeth only a tigress protecting her cubs would know. I have no tigresses lined up to be interviewed so that question will forever remained unanswered. No my question would be, ‘Did you ever imagine in your wildest dreams that you would become bigger than the sum total of your product, your artists?’

Filed under: Uncategorized

Brown. Sugar wouldn’t melt in his mouth.

Good job Rhianna spat out that plonker from under her Um ber rella. All week ABC TV had been trailing her appearance on last night’s 20/20 program. Every morning on ‘This Morning’ they were showing clips and building up to the climax. The first time SHE had spoken about it.( In case anyone has slept away the last few months, ‘IT’ refers to being smacked around by the love of her life, Chris ‘The Bruiser’ Brown.)

And guess what? Chrissie boy, having bounded in to Larry King’s show a few months ago to ‘apologize’ decided once again, that he should have another right to reply. Like we cared the first time? And MTV opened their door like the reality madhouse they are and let him in. How totally deplorable. I don’t feel it’s disrespectful, which is what others are saying. That isn’t at all appropriate, don’t you have to have respect in the first place in order to disrespect it?

This showdown was fast becoming a battle of the brands. She has a career, his was falling apart around him. Guess what baby boy, no one likes an abuser. No matter what talent you have it just shows you up as a lowlife, a bully, a coward and what’s the word? WANKER. I’m sure there’s plenty of us out there putting blog to work and commenting on last night’s circus. She decided to speak after a long period of silence and not only did HE speak, he reacted! Good job she wasn’t around or likely he would have pounced. The tiger would have been cornered once again.

He thought she was wrong, he said it was between him and her and it should be private. OK, big boy then go make your records and keep them private. Don’t release them because if you do then you’re public domain and if you beat the shit out of someone then people have a right to know. Sadly though your public side likes you to be noticed and definitely your bank account does. You wouldn’t want that to take a beating now would you? You wouldn’t want to see that beaten and broken. Oh and by the way if it was that private then why did you go on national TV and talk about it? ……TWICE!

You can smell the PR all around him, you need to do this, and now. They’ll be people wanting to hear your side of the story, why don’t you do it to deflect from her when she’s on Prime Time on ABC. The only thing it will salvage is a few who might have flicked between channels. What is there to explain? You’re a bully and you smacked a woman.

It must be really hard doing interviews when you’re stupid, but if you’re stupid and successful then you have PR. And the PR will get you in front of the right people, they’ll work at finding you the opportunity to redeem yourself. Damn, they forgot that it involves opening your mouth and sounding believable. How could you not feel this had everything to do with him and nothing to do with her. HE GOT CAUGHT OUT, he’s not that smart and he’s trying to claw his way back. Her face hurt but his ego was was really took a beating. All of a sudden people didn’t like him and when you’re used to adoration you can’t bear the thought that you are getting bad publicity. Most of the abusers around get away with it because it doesn’t get reported and it isn’t in the papers, on TV. Thank God some of these cowards get caught out.

I’m thinking the PR people here should have given him a script to learn and told him not to deviate from it. But his ego would never allow that, the media wants to talk to him and he gets to have his say. I’d cringe if I had to put this geezer on TV and worry at what he might come out with. He needs to dance and on a stage. He’s good at that but when you try to dance around questions and interrogation you just ain’t good enough, son. It’s not what you do. And to see how you react to being cornered by a defenseless girl who wanted to know why, when you were going out with her were you texting another girl. How dare you ask me that, how dare you catch me out. If I hit her hard enough she’ll stop interrogating me. Smack, shut the fuck up!

And out come the industry folks would want to try and clean up the shit, keep his career on track. They have a living to make too. Where’s the record company honchos condemning their artist, even sacking him. They daren’t, they have precious few artists who are keeping them in work nowadays as it is. Let’s not kick the shit out of the hand that feeds us.

You have to admire the Chairman of Wigan Athletic Football Club though who sacked that other wanker who smacked a female about because she didn’t accept ‘Who he was!’ It’s always been a killer of a line hasn’t it guys when you have to use that to entice the female of the species. It sounds better than, I’m a twat, I can’t string a sentence together but would you like to have a look at my bank statement before I allow you to shag me. Oh how the footballer is the great Lothario, the real master of seduction. Wasn’t it great the Chairman came out and condemned Stupid Marvin whatshisname  and said he regretted signing him. You’re history, fuck off , you’re sacked.

Starvin Marvin soon we might hope. He thought he could bully and attack if he didn’t get his own way. They slung him inside for 6 months so what’s twathead Brown doing on the tele anyway?

Filed under: Uncategorized, View from the room, ABC 20/20, Chris Brown, MTV, Rhianna

When U2 comes to town

It’s incredible to see the media go in to free fall when the U2 show comes to town. As an exercise in how to promote your show no one does it better and no one will ever do it better. It’s close to an invasion, no matter what may be going on in the world they literally command centre stage. U2 is the number one news story. In a day when records, sorry CD sales are at an all time low it’s the only way you can hope to trigger off what meagre sales are out there. Let them know you’re here. And when it comes to record sales even U2 are finding it hard going, the public has not fallen in love with their latest album/ CD. However,  wild horses wouldn’t keep those same people away from the live show.

The band are taking plenty of flack for the carbon emissions from taking this gargantuan beast on the road and you can understand why. Personally though, I believe  The Edge when he says they will offset that carbon footprint in some way. They’d probably already thought about it long before all the knives came out.  Unfortunately at around the same time he bought 156 acres on a cliff in Malibu overlooking the Pacific Ocean to build an eco friendly  home. Well five in fact, his own 10,000 square foot palace and another four to flog. Nice work if you can get it! He does want to make it his main homestead though and having seen the place I think I would too! Needless to say the activists came out in force stating that to build whatever he was building they would need to flatten a part of the cliff to build an access road.

No matter what anyone says about U2, whether it’s the new album, the carbon non friendly size of the tour or anything else for that matter the one thing you can’t ignore is the experience almost every single person who attends the show takes home. For them it’s worth every penny. U2 bring them a happiness that a lot of other bands don’t and for them it’s the best night of their lives. Paul McGuinness  has been quoted as saying they don’t break even until the back end of the US tour so you cannot argue about their desire to give people an experience second to none. The Edge on the edge. Of a cliff.

I don’t think the tour will have a significant effect on their record sales either and I’m sure they know that better than anyone. Their motivation will be their desire (no pun intended) to give something back to the people who have stuck with them forever, it’ll be trying to let them experience something unique, something completely different…….to anything. Add to that the corporate, footballer world flocking to the U2 show as the place to be seen and we have ‘the event’. It’s kinda funny too, what about those who haven’t seen a live show before? Where do they go from here, anything is going to seem sub standard after Claw Wars!

And where do U2 go from here, the return of The Claw? I don’t think so , it won’t be anywhere other than rest for a while and I think we can all allow them that indulgence! But what next, where can you go. Personally I think it’ll be stripped right down and four guys will take their songs to the masses. U2 have reached such a level now that being the ‘hottest ticket’ they could do anything. They’ve earned it. They haven’t earned it because of a gigantic claw and a production of epidemic proportion, they earned it from 30 plus years on the road. They’ve earned it from playing every tiny club that wanted to book them to every fan who wanted to see them. They’ve earned it from signing every autograph for every one of those fans who believed in them enough to give them a chance to do this. And through it all they stuck at it. They posed for every picture with every fan no matter how exhausted they were after giving their all in a performance, and for many years to under a hundred people and not a hundred thousand. They stepped out front to meet and greet the fans for as long as it was safe to do so. They paid their dues, they have earned it.

For me U2, David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Bruce or Led Zeppelin don’t have to prove anything to me or anyone else. They earned it, damn right they earned it. It’s called a work ethic and it’s called graft. Blood, sweat and tears. It’s called taking chances and making mistakes and it’s called entertainment. It isn’t about any one tour, it’s about understanding why you came in to this business and giving people something they have earned. The opportunity to take their hard earned cash and spend it how they want to. And if that is on two hours of a thrill of a lifetime who are we to judge?  When entertainers get this big let’s not lose site of the fact that they are still meant to entertain. It’s what they do and it’s what they should always do.

Filed under: Journey Through The Past, Risk, Uncategorized, David Bowie, led zeppelin, touring, U2, u2 360 tour

Lessons learned and stories to tell

Seeing the U2 show last week reminded me of how they became as huge as they are. They had a bunch of songs that helped but it was so much more than that. I’m using my blog to blatantly advertise how we’ll be looking at how artists become successful and what they do to get there. They’ll be the website( http://www.insightscollection.com) A new You Tube channel called speakmusic.tv , podcasts on I Tunes . Check out http://www.tincan.tv, http://www.manchesterradioonline,co.uk and keep glued to this. And I don’t have a clue what might happen tomorrow

There’s a lot going on and I’m really lucky to have a team of highly talented people around me to help me with the stuff I’m totally crap at. I just found out I’m shit at a bunch of things but it’s the more technical stuff really thats take me an eternity to get my head round. I love what it can do but I get frustrated at the time it takes to get it right. I’m amazed to watch people do ‘stuff.’ Wow, cool is getting cooler. Wouldn’t it be cooler than the cool of cool if someone invented ‘non nerd voice recognition pro tools.’ Software that you can say ‘Edit the stuff out where I sound a twat’ and it does. Mmmm dangerous though, letting a machine decide your level of incompetence. Anyway I think I know what i’m trying to say. Read on and you all might get a chance.

In fact my techo slow go is why I never became a producer. The band would have written another album before I’d recorded the first. Maybe I’m good at people and not machines? That’s OK. If you get on with a computer and you work well you can’t go grab a beer together after work can you? As it happens I like people, a few have let me down over the years but that happens. You dust yourself down and move on. Another slice of life, a stab at growing up. Shit, I don’t want to do that!

You’re lucky you’re at the end of a computer screen, I’m unbearable right now. I’m so excited about where we’re going with all this, so totally fired up and the people I’m working with all are here for the ride too. They can identify my crap better than I can identify it myself. They’re crap savvy. Position people where they work best and everyone benefits. It’s what motivates us all, we are seeing it all start to take shape.

Interpersonal skills are what got me this far, I think. And if they didn’t then I’m fucked because I’ll have no one to talk to. I even want to teach people about people now. How to work with those you admire and how to tolerate those you don’t. Music schools teach students to be adept at pro tools but that’s no good if you don’t know how to interact with a human being. Who’s going to want to work with anyone who’s a plank?

It’s a bit early so I’m all over the place. I’m currently writing to do lists  but it’s a bit early for that too. I can’t read some of them and I can’t find the others.

And now the sun’s coming up.

Later.

Filed under: About The Engine Room, About Tony Michaelides, Uncategorized, Interpersonal skills, U2

All this according to me

I’m done with apologizing, I’m guilty. I’ve been lax, lame and utterly absent from here for no other reason than ……I’ve been busy. What with writing and finishing the book I had to put it on the back burner, something I can be thankful to from the blogs. It sort of started on here and I’m really glad I decided to continue the writing. I think I felt I needed to focus on one and not the other. Don’t worry I have my reasons, if I had been blogging and returning to book writing then neither would have made sense but now with my litertary ducks in their formal rows I will return to doing  both. More books but gradually,damn I need to get this one out first!

The Insights Collection for which Insights from the Engine Room, lessons learned from rock and roll is the first should be hitting wherever it hits in a matter of a couple of weeks.It’s been fun, even without the tools of the trade…..a laptop that works and not a desktop formerly used by Zeus’ eldest lad.

I am now the proud borrower of a Mac, and after I’d already finished the book. I love it and a big shout out to Peter for the loan, currently freezing in my old homey country of UK (and further north than I was.)

I also had even more excuses,I had family visiting which naturally took up some quality time, after all a guy’s gotta walk his little girl on the beach now hasn’t he? Just in case I thought I might have a spare minute  I decided it was time to move too. All in all a whole new beginning and right now I’m happy with where I’m at..

Oh what I wasn’t happy with was the drains backing up on the hottest day of the year AND with the family still here……….. the shit really did hit the fan!

Nuff said I’m here and I’m staying, so they’ll be two or three blogs a week and an update on the development from my side of the world. Go get the book when it’s out and I can be kept doing what I like, talking and writing!

Anyway how have you  been?

Filed under: Uncategorized

Man on a mission

Just thought I’d drop in with a little update. Plan is the book gets released on May 15th. The title(today) is Insights from the Engine Room but we have a focus group planned for 30th so things may change. I’ve had some great help from Dave directing me and avoiding me going in places named ‘all over the.’ Also meeting my old pal Colin over from Edinburgh and lovely missus Avril plus new Minister says pal Jake invigorates me even more.

Lots more to say but as they say in showbiz…I have a deadline. I have to get all my relevant press pack and some more together.

I won’t be able to avoid ranting on about it because the truth is that as a novice I have thoroughly enjoyed myself, so much in fact that I’m not stopping here. I’ll probably get wrapped up in Twitter and uptweet current info as it seems all the craze.

What’s it about? Well it’s about me, what did you expect it to be about! Here’s an excerpt from the intro that I condensed down from War and Peace length. I needed a long intro because I’ve got wear a lot of T shirts and I have a lot to say. I’ve mapped out the internet cafes along the beach and…….’I’ve started so I’ll finish.’

Here’s a sneak preview, sneak away

It still wasn’t enough, I want to write a book that I’d read. I want it to include some stories, be entertaining, have humour but I want there to be something people could learn from the stories. I wanted them to benefit and to learn as I had learned from the people I had worked with.

I wanted them to see the mistakes these people had made, the opportunities that came their way and the pivotal moments that had both motivated and inspired me. I wanted them to see that no matter who you are……shit happens!

No shit

We all shit and I wanted to share my shit with their shit and see how it can help you with your shit. I started to make some notes, relive some of those experiences. Result…wow I really want to do this, I want to pass this on.

Difficult but challenging, I definitely was on a mission now. How long should it be, what should I cover, what will I call it? I was starting to feel invincible now, I’d made the decision…I’m writing a book! I started to think about the cover…what should it be?

That’s it! …it’ll have me on the cover in a Super hero costume….maybe ‘Shitman.’

I scribbled some more notes and identified the things I wanted to cover, one page, two pages…..there was too much, time to prioritize.

There may be more, let’s see how we do with this first. It has to begin………at the beginning. It has to introduce me from my childhood to my adulthood but we need to cover my in between hood because my in between hood…… was good.

Filed under: Uncategorized

I wanna make you a star

We need stars, we don’t have them any more and the ones that we do call stars are different, they’re train wrecks, they’re misfits, they’re tortured ‘artists’…. but Lindsay, Britney, Madonna even, aren’t tortured like Janis was, Jimi Hendrix or Brian Jones were they are just people craving attention. It doesn’t matter if it’s they who crave it, their manager, their agent, their publicist or their record company…… they all crave it and they’ll do whatever it takes.

People used to love to pin up posters on their walls idolizing their heroes, they loved what they did and they could never get enough. They looked forward to what they were going to do next, they were loyal. It what being a fan was, supporting their favorite pop stars careers and always being interested in what they were up to.

The music business loved stars too and not just for the money they made from them either. They knew how to create stars , knew how to deal with them and most importantly they knew how to get the best out of them. They understood what was needed to be a great act and they were prepared to persevere. The music industry and the artist grew up side by side, you couldn’t have one without the other……..now most artists are left to grow in spite of the industry! If success comes then it’ll be more down to their work ehthic and doing it for themselves.

They have more patience and they have greater belief in themselves and are in it for the long haul. Record companies are the shorter than short haul, they want it now……..and if it doesn’t come they don’t want to know.

Filed under: Journey Through The Past, record companies, Uncategorized, View from the room, artist development, music fans, music industry