Heroes

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

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

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

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

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

Slumbering but awakened.

Utter disgrace, that’s what I am. I pontificate about a love for writing and what do, I don’t write. Right? Well I am about to right my wrong, big time. The truth is there is an excuse,’cept I don’t like excuses so go ahead, berate me for all I’m worth.

Ok I will tell you if you must ask, better still I’ll let John Lennon tell you because you’re more likely to listen to him. ‘Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.’ I don’t think I’m alone either. What happened to the world? It was a lot cooler to me growing up, so many people around me doing well and us all inspiring one another. Fire in the blood and  a passion in the soul, although it does help when you get rewarded for your talents. Today  so many people are working for next to nothing, budgets are decreasing daily and they are torn between passing on a project because it doesn’t pay against the risk someone might not come back to them when they have the money to spend. It positively sucks because all the time your overhead stays the same, you have to eat and you have to pay the electric bill.

For me I needed to take stock, to stop, look around and re evaluate everything. I went back to the evaluation committee (me) and made a conscious decision, it wasn’t working so time for a change. I had no one to blame, only myself so cure was more the likely. Getting older I might be but lack of energy and enthusiasm, forget it! I’m as fired up as I ever was. I’m a great believer in everything for a reason, people come in to your life at a time and it’s always more than pure chance. In fact it’s pure bliss and delightful to work with like minded people who all share the same belief. There’s a passion and a commitment and even more than that a determination to make it work. The older you get the more you have to look back on and the easier it is, or should be to work out what it is that you have. What you’re good at and what you have learned along the way. I learned a lot, damn it I wrote a book about what I learned. Maybe I should have read it before I told others! It’s amazing , I’m writing about the mistakes U2 made, the opportunities that came Simon Cowell’s way, David Bowie and Innovation and I’ve become every character in the book. Who needs case studies, lessons learned from Rock and Roll indeed.

And so cometh the time, cometh the man. I bring you the real me, older , wiser and a damn sight more ready to rip. Enjoy the ride, I most certainly will.

Filed under: About Tony Michaelides, Business Lessons, mistakes, View from the room, Journey Through The Past, tony michaelides

Moments to mentor

I have been absent for a while, just one of those things. Life gets in the way and we run around getting on with it but as normality returns my fellow brethren so will I and once more take keypad to screen which I suppose is the tech way of saying pen to paper but much more stupidly. Apologies for the long sentence, I didn’t see the need to fully stop.

This week started most pleasantly with a talk for some very nice people at Stetson University in DeLand, I was made to feel very welcome. A very good attentive crowd and a pleasing turn out from faculty completed the occasion. It’s so nice at this time of life to be able to get out and share some of what I learned in all my years working in the music industry and help those looking for their step in to the great unknown. That’s what it is really but then again that is also what makes it all the more exciting. The anticipation, the whole not knowing of what could or could not happen. I used to wake up every day and if I still had a job in the music industry I considered it a bonus. Nothing lasts foreever I thought but this was getting close. Like footballers you can trip and sprain something, in the music indsustry there is so much going on you can sprain your head at any moment! Somehow you pick yourself up, discard your brain and move on with a new determination.

I can’t imagine now having a job that doesn’t challenge you. I love what I’m doing, secretly you hope people will respond positively but you never know. It’s what keeps you focused and alert, you don’t want to slip up. And if you do then you don’t make the same mistakes again.

I love the Q and A sections in a talk and finding out what people want to know. You’ve stood there for an hour and all of a sudden you don’t have the say, the audience do. A good talk will always lead to interaction with an audience. They feel they’ve got to know you and have the confidence to ask anything. A quiet and non responsive Q and A and you have to wonder if you communicated as well as you could have. Speaking is great but engaging your audience is everything. Some speakers I have seen stand there and you can tell it’s clearly about them. Well wrong, far from it, it’s for the others to get something out of it.  It isn’t  a platform for you to wallow in self adoration and project an air of supremacy like the stage is yours. Humility and an understanding of what you audience wants is the sign of a good speaker. Oh and someone who has a message to communicate and not just someone who has learned how to speak publicly.

 

Filed under: About Tony Michaelides, View from the room, communication, public speaking

Idol goes where Idol knows.

When will people ever learn? Someone told me Steven Tyler was confirmed for American Idol, great. Remember  when he fell over and had to cancel  his own Aerosmith tour ? Nothing like having a team you can rely on, eh. And now apparently Idol bosses are close to confirming the arrival of…..Jennifer Lopez. WHAT!!! Who the hell cares and why are they throwing millions away negotiating with someone who’s had her day when they could have ME!! Start the campaign, ‘Yo Toe No J Lo.’

But hey, roll back the tape. What made American Idol a household name in the first place? It succeeded because the brain that is Simon Fuller thought a guy he knew, from his dealings with BMG called Simon Cowell  would work. He ( Fuller) stuck him on Pop Idol, it’s UK mummy and when Cowell didn’t want to do the US version  Simon Fuller convinced him he shoud. Even Cowell didn’t think America would like him. Well I hope Simon ( Cowell) bought Simon ( Fuller) a couple of mansions and some yachts by way of a thank you. Simon did what Simon said. You’ve done better than any artist you signed previous to your massive success and many congratulations , sir. You made it your own.

And so to the point. American Idol is huge because of him. He was a nobody no one had heard of on a show that no one wanted. Every network turned it down.  Someone presenting an idea of a talent show?  Now there’s a great idea, I wonder why no one had thought of that in the past.

Am I dreaming here but have they not seen first hand with Ellen de Generic that famous people don’t work so why rally round and think that getting judges who people have heard of is going to save it’s ass. Let’s get The Pope, everyone knows him don’t they? It’s obviously all about massaging the sponsors as per usual, I mean they couldn’t announce someone no one heard of now could they? Well I beg to differ. Even if you’re shit and unknown you can be popular today so if you’re unknown and on a show people have heard of then you could be Simon Cowell. Curiosity will tempt people in to watch the first few episodes but then once they’ve  seen fading pop stars trying to entertain they’ll do what they did last time, go. Only this time they’ll be off in in their droves. Push out Idol, people will respect you more whatever happens if you are trying to break out of the old boring and tired presenter  format.  And anyway I’m not shit and Randy and me would get on. Let me loose on them, I’d shake it up. I’m funnier than Cowell and with a much better record collection.

Let’s find some real talent, some stuff that might stand the test of time, something that not only can be successful but that can remain successful. Let’s make some noise and let’s make some noise people can take home and enjoy. With the power of a television show of that magnitude, boy could we help the music industry. As long as you have some faith and want to help the business rather than yourself that is. That’s the acid test after all… so no it won’t happen. It’s a money magnet, more and more of it for a select few. Can you imagine if some of that money was pumped in to new artists that might take a little longer to develop. Wow would we have an innovative ground breaking show then. Fancy having the power to change the music industry through the power of television.

American Idol needs some new blood. I wish they cared enough so we all could benefit from a show that made a difference.

Filed under: TV, TV hosts, View from the room, american idol, J-Lo, Simon Cowell, simon fuller, Steven Tyler

X Factor and Mr Cowell.

It seems that while American Idol is touting every name under the sun as their new judge  Mr Cowells’ new baby , X  Factor is gathering up some unfavorable press in it’s homeland, the UK . Maybe the backlash is imminent and Britain is doing as Britain does,  builds ’em up to knock ’em down. As X Factor preps for it’s US debut it is now several seasons old in the UK and although he would never admit it there must be some nerves over the anticipated launch. Let’s face it Simon has set himself up where he has to live up to his own previous achievements. Mind you I’d suffer the stress for it’s rewards, I suppose.

So will the media be poised with knives at the ready to carve in to the chosen one? Nah I’m just speculating now with the rest. You see the thing is that Simon plays the game like a master, he knows exactly how to have the media love him. He has seen it from both sides and he’s smart enough to know that without them he has no job and subsequently no lifestyle. He would never let that happen after stumbling a few times on the way. When you wait that long to get something as big as this you’re smarter than the rest of the pack. It would be very hard for Simon Cowell to slip let alone fall.

When you look at the PR machine in play I bet Tiger Woods wished he had Cowell doing his image protection. I still look at that whole fiasco as the worse PR job I have ever seen. The boy with everything just allowed his people to sit back and do nothing. I blame all of them, why one didn’t step up to the table and confront the other and politely ask, ‘er should we be not getting a little busier round here? ‘ is beyond me. We live in  the age of image and if the public perceives you as something then you better make sure you live up to what they expect of you.  And family men do not play around with families other than their own, I wouldn’t have thought that anyone need tell him that. But of course Tiger is invincible so he thinks he can do as he wishes. Go away now, we’ve had enough of you. Tiger could so Tiger would.? Not anymore as he desperately clings on to his declining fortune. I wonder if he remembers life before his millions?

agree with. That should piss them of and giver them nothing to write about. Remember media and how to handle it? Tiger Woods, disaster, David Lettereman the opposite. When Letterman was accused of having affairs with female he came out and admitted it. When Tiger was over Tigering himself he thought he was invincible and his world came crumbling along with any ounce of credibility. Now he’s 50% less of whatever iron it is golfers pull out on this part of the course.

We’ve been Tigerless on this blog for months but I have to say everything I predicted  (although predicting was hardly difficult) on here jumped up to bite his Tiger bottom. And it’s been around to haunt him for over 8 months. And it will forever be there becasue of how he behaved. I don’t understand golf but you need to stick the ball in the hole and win your games, I know that much. Seems he wasn’t the golfer he was so now without that going for you how long will it ( you) last. If you’re not winning then you’re a loser.

Filed under: mistakes, TV, TV hosts, View from the room, american idol, Simon Cowell, Tiger Woods, X Factor

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

Idol idle idle I

And here we go, more speculation about America Idol. Well not speculation at all really but more than enough for me to speculate , pontificate and no doubt regurgitate. Like it or not it’s coming back. We have the new producer, same as the old producer because it is in fact the old producer. He said he’d get rid of the panel, Ellen jumped before she was pushed., Karen got totaled and put out to pasture and tell me why they ever thought a fourth judge would work when for 8 years they agreed it didn’t. And then they got her? Why on earth did they ever think she would have made an impact, I mean we are not talking Lady Ga Ga here we are plain ga ga. I’m a sucker for  a pouting femme fatale but she never moved my sorry ass. In fact I’m annoyed, I’d be a better judge and I pout a whole lot better too. And anyway I’d have more than enough to say. Lame ass, spineless mob. Come and get me.

I predicted the demise of American Idol in my blog last Fall and also that Simon would be leaving. Come on it wasn’t rocket science now was it? But unfortunately the powers that greed have decided on a resurrection, by Easter it’ll be dead. They can’t accept that it has past it’s sell by date, if it was on a shelf in a grocery store they would be forced to remove it and yet we are now having to watch the mold before our very eyes. American Idol has made Fox a fortune so why aren’t they happy?

Last years finale was a complete non event, a forgettable fellow with a plastic smile and a girl called Baldybollocks or something who squeezed a dental appointment in just prior to judgement day. The final, or should I say the ‘Bye bye Simon Cowell show, oh before you go do you like either of these two?’ Sadly it was a total non event and quite frankly they should be ashamed to expect half of America to stay in and watch the circus. Simon Cowell looked even more bored than I was.

I had to laugh at the roll call of ‘potential’ new judges. First we had Howard Stern, I said it before and I’ll say it again……er why are you going to ask a man who has millions of dollars and porn stars to line up alongside something that has neither. However many millions they might offer him he has more. Although Ellen and Howard could have jockeyed a little for pole position and ended up on Comedy Central. Howard takes no prisoners but let’s get real here, it was NEVER going to happen. They might have well have thrown in Bill Clinton, Nelson Mandela and the South Korean goalkeeper called Phuk, they all would have garnished up the publicity and still not of them would have signed up.

So Nigel Lythgoe thinks he can dance up the panel. Not sure big guy, don’t think you’ll pull it off. I know he won’t, everything that passes it’s sell by date doesn’t bounce back. We’re not talking Led Zeppelin getting back together here, Idol doesn’t matter. We no longer care, are we seriously still going to use that word Idol? Are we further going to blaspheme the great names of Marilyn, Elvis and James Dean. Is he who won ( still no idea of his name. Does he have one or do we call him season 10 winner?) going to be the subject of books, films or conspiracy theories in years to come?

And what will they be doing to get the press on their side? Apart from a press release announcing a new judging panel which media would carry  more through obligation than desire. They loved Simon but now that their bastard love child has defected where will their affections lie. Are they really this slutty? And of course there is the major new announcement, wait for it Jennifer Lopez? Who the hell came up with that idea, was it because of her bum when she appeared at The Charleys or whatever awards she slithered around in.  Sorry for being cruel but what the hell has Jennifer Lopez got to do with anything? George Lopez, now we’re talking.

OK I might have appeared flustered but you made me do this. You woke me from blog slumber, you made me jump up and down. I was cleaning the fridge, this is worse! I now have to watch if only to know that I have more idea about what works than they do. Castle is better and Beckett is hot! Hotter than J-Lo and STEVEN TYLER. Oh yes we forgot that they had managed to get Tyler, that will at least get the Comedy channel interested in the repeats. Why would our winner want to be Tyler? Liv yes, Steven NOOOOOO. We are now creating Trainwreck Idol. Let’s get Lindsay on the panel , in fact the whole of the lowly Lohans and lets have something as truly ludicrous as we can make it. Let’s have a laugh at our own expense before you force yours on us.

I have more to say but for now I need to find a shirt to iron. I hope your day gets better than this.

Filed under: TV, View from the room, american idol, comedy central, Howard Stern, jennifer lopez, Simon Cowell

Being Simon

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sid and Malc

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

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

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

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

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

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