Oh this is so familiar! I had these ghastly so-called A&R meetings for about 5 years in the early to mid '80s. Then I got wise and left the 'Music Biz' for the equally masturbatory world of acting. Oh dear! Well written Simon. I remember that Tik & Tok (I was Tik) came to the launch of 'You Don't Have To Say You Love Me' in '82. I think it was held in what used to be the Scotch Of St. James club.
That was some party - open air, lovely summer's night, full of celeb's, and ended up with a naked couple dancing on the tables. I finally went off to dinner at Langans where I ended up having to pay the bill for a neighbouring table of aristocrats who had no money - including Margaret of Argyle and Roddy Llewelyn (Pricess Margaret's gardener).
Do you think The Who wouldn't be the biggest band who never had a Number One if they had different management? You've written a lot about the need to play the game in those days, particularly around plugging and promotion.
Horrible times.
Oh this is so familiar! I had these ghastly so-called A&R meetings for about 5 years in the early to mid '80s. Then I got wise and left the 'Music Biz' for the equally masturbatory world of acting. Oh dear! Well written Simon. I remember that Tik & Tok (I was Tik) came to the launch of 'You Don't Have To Say You Love Me' in '82. I think it was held in what used to be the Scotch Of St. James club.
That was some party - open air, lovely summer's night, full of celeb's, and ended up with a naked couple dancing on the tables. I finally went off to dinner at Langans where I ended up having to pay the bill for a neighbouring table of aristocrats who had no money - including Margaret of Argyle and Roddy Llewelyn (Pricess Margaret's gardener).
You don't get to see anyone these days Simon ... not until you have 750k followers and a couple of viral posts. Great read ... sad, but true 👏
How true. Met quite a few. Exceptions were notable. And were definitely exceptions. I met some good people at Island.
There were always exceptions - many good people. But so many more were not.
So true!
Do you think The Who wouldn't be the biggest band who never had a Number One if they had different management? You've written a lot about the need to play the game in those days, particularly around plugging and promotion.
Yes - without Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp managing them The Who would probably now be a much less big band who never had a number one.