Latest / The Bob Lefsetz Podcast / Richard Griffiths

Transcript

Richard Griffiths · The Bob Lefsetz Podcast

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bottom Left Sets podcasting.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: My guest today is Richard Griffiths. He and his partner
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Harry McGee make up Modest Management, and they are receiving
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: the Music Industry Award. Richard, what is that a war?
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: But it's a great honor that is persperoed once a
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: year from within the industry to artists. Paul McConney got it.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Roger Roger Adultery got it, John Barry, the great composer
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: got it. Uh, Rob string On, Lucien Grange. Okay, you
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: know in today's world, are you impressed that you got it?
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Does it mean something to you? Um, it's very flattering.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: I think it's Uh in a way, I feel it's
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: an acknowledgement that management is now somebody something that needs
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: more respect than maybe it has been given in the
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: past by the industry. Because we are the first managers
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: ever to receive the award. Um so i I although
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: it's been given to Harry and me, um, as far
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: as we're concerned, we're collecting it on behalf of managers. Okay, Now,
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: you used to be an executive. What's the difference between
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: working at the label or in publishing and being on
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: the management side. As a manager, we are involved in
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: every aspect of the artist's career um. And that means
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: obviously in helping them get a record deal, getting the
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: right air and our person helping to make sure the
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: right record is being made, then making sure it's being
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: marketed properly, uh, and then getting the right agent to
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: book the right tours and the right gigs for them
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: to take their music out live. Um, the right publicists,
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: the right publisher. So we as managers are in the
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: epicenter of everything that goes on with an artist. Whereas
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: a record company guy may only be involved in a
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: and R ng the record, he may only be involved
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: in a and R ing in in marketing that record,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: maybe only in a certain territory. Um. And the manager
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: is the one person who is involved in in every aspect,
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: including um, the health and welfare of the artist, which
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: is obviously an incredibly important part of our job. Now
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: we can really put the demarcation his napster the turn
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: of the century. Now what a manager used to be,
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: in what a label used to be have flipped right? Yes,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: well in in uh, you know, I was lucky to
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: be you know, running a major American record label in
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: the glorious nineties where you know, quite frankly, if you farted,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: you went gold, you know. Um, And so all the
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: all the money and all the influence really did come
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: from the record companies. There were still great managers around,
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: you know. I mean I had to deal with Sharon
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Osborne on a regular basis, who I love dearly and
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: who I learned an incredible amount from, uh, Roger Davis
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: who does pink Um and many other great artists. Bill Kurbishly,
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: you know, behind the who I mean when I when
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: I when I said Virgin and did a couple of
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: records with Roger Adultery. Um, I came across Bill Kurbishly
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: and I and I learned there was definitely a different
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: way of doing things. Well, give me an example. Um.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: It was just the great thing I found working with
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: those managers was that they believed that they knew better
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: of what was the right thing for their artists, and
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: I believed in them sufficiently to go along with that. Um,
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: there were managers that I would deal with whom I
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: didn't think were necessarily on top of it, and so
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: we would we would take much more control in those days. Uh,
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: but I think that, as I said, the role of
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: manager has just continued to grow and become more and
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: more important. Okay, how hard is it to break a
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: record today as a posed to years past? Um, it's
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: it's it's different. Um, it's it's a longer process. And UM,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: I think we are certainly seeing sitting from a from
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: a British point of view, where for a long time
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: British artists would be successful in the UK and then
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: that would travel around the world quite easily. Uh, if
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: you have the right people in the right place. Um. Obviously,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: now with the streaming and the predominance in America particularly
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: you know of hip hop and rapp and everything that,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: that doesn't that that makes it harder for newer British
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: artists to break in Having said that, you know, Lewis
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: Capaldi is going to be the biggest new artist of
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: the year and that's in the UK. Do you think
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: it's going to happen in the US? I'm absolute it
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: because it hasn't happened yet. It will happen here, I
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: have no doubt about that. Well, I think that he
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: he's an incredible artist and he the songs are absolutely brilliant.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: I'll declare a vested interest here. My son in law
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: did co write the Absolute smash? Well, you don't have
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: to worry about stopping your daughter money. Well there you go. Um.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: But and he's an incredible character and I think that
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: plays out and you know in the way that that
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: ed Sharon and Nadele. You know, these incredible characters that
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: that have have reached beyond just their music, you know.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: But you know you're still going to have British artists breaking,
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: there's no doubt about that. It's just a longer, longer process,
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: and it's a longer process for everybody, and particularly on
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: a worldwide basis. On the one hand, you have it
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: great that you put your music out on a Friday
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: and then it is available to anybody in the world
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: to hear it, so that is one of the great advantages.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: On the other hand, you have to get out there
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: and make sure that they're getting the opportunity to hear it,
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: you know, Okay, other than Louis Capaldi. Even though we're
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: recording this while you're in Los Angeles a couple of
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: months before, people will hear it contemporaneous with when you
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: were reserving this receiving this award. Um, anybody else we
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: should be looking out for. Um okay, okay, let's uh,
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: let's switch it up then. Okay, so presently on your roster,
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: who do we have? Uh? Well, nal Horren, who's a
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: member of One Day and you were the manager of
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: One Direction? Yes, yeah, um, and they may have alms.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: How kameoly Morris hasn't broken in America? Um I um,
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure that he was right for America. Maybe
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: it's a bit too bit too British but to English.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: Um uh. And I think that um yeah, Little Mix
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: we also have and they have never really done it here,
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: and that I actually do I put pretty firmly on
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: the table of the labels promotion department because that band
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: deserves to be bigger here. You know, we we supported
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: Ariana Grande with Little Mix a couple of years ago,
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: and you know there were fifteen thousand people in the
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: in the Arenas and and twelve thousand of them were
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: singing the words to every single Little Mix song. And
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: I would turn to various Colombia folk present and you know,
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: give them an exasperated um. But you know, because a
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: Little Mix are are you know, absolutely massive in the
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: UK and very very successful in other parts of the world. UM.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: Five seconds of Summer who obviously have done incredibly well
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: here um and and do very well around the world.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: You know, we have a we have a very broad
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: UM roster. You know, we still look after Alison Moyer,
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: who most people in American from YEAZ but she's been
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: incredibly successful in the UK and in Europe and Australia
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: and as a solo artist for thirty years now and
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: we've representative for for the past fifteen years. UM. We
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: still represent Paul Potts in fact, who was the original
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: winner of Britain's Got Talent and people forget that that
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: James Cordon played Paul Potts in the movie of his Life.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: James tries to forget anyway, we still represent him and
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: he does like eight gigs and on the world every year,
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: you know. UM. So you know, we like we're proud
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: of the fact that we have a broad rostrum. We're
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: proud of the fact that we have worked with a
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: lot of these artists for a long time. And how
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: many people worked from artists uh worldwide it's about uh
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: forty four and where are those people? You say, world
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: one well, mainly in London, but we were in New
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: York we have a couple, and in l A we
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: have like four. We're just adding more of fact, we're
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: for going to be six soon here and then we
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: have one in Sydney and Australia. Okay, let's go back
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: to the beginning. How did you get into music as
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: a little pup um? Well, because the great thing in
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: in England was that there was radio radio stations that
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: that everybody was listening to, and they were very broad stations. Um,
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: and I just used to listen to the radio a lot,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: and I just became a okay, well just for those
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: of the Americans were listening. We really don't know that much.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: So how many BBC radio channels were there? Well, well,
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: and in those days they were probably three or four,
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: you know, and now and then then and but the
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: other great thing that we had in England was pirate radio.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: When did pirate radio hit The pirate radio really hit
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: the scene in about sixty five sixty six, I think,
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: And that was just when I was starting to get
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: into music, and and and I was living with my
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: my mother and my parents are divorced, and I would
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: listen and live with my mother and she would go
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: out to work, and so I would I and in
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: the holidays I would just listen to the radio stations
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: under the pillow and until two in the morning when
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: they turned off Radio London and Radio Caroline. And then
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: and then there was this other station called Radio Luxembourg
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: fabulous two oh eight um, and that that was just
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: where you got to hear every kind of music you
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: could you could think of. And then when Radio one
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: came along for um for the BBC, when they got
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: rid of the pirate stations. Radio one has always been
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: incredibly broad so you would you would you would hear
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: Jimmy Hendrix, the Four Tops and Dusty Springfield one after
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: the other, um on on Radio one in in and
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: so you you you found that Brits generally have a
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: far broader um sense of sense of different music. I think. Okay,
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: so you started buying records, So I started buying records. Yeah.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: The first single I Have a ort I was reached
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: out I'll be there by the Four Tops. Well, I
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: know you're a big fan of the fourte Levi's stubs
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: is the greatest, uh. And then the first two albums
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: I bought were was Sergeant Pepper. Uh, and the first
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: Vanilla Fudge album. You know, first one was great with
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: of course they hit you get You, keep Me hanging
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: On and take Me for a little while. I bought
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: the second album because I love the first one so much.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: It was terrible. The Beagle's Hard Yeah that actually if
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: funny enough. Something made me think of Vanilla eventually the
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: other day. So one of the great things about Spotify.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: I went on Spotify and I listened to This is
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: Vanilla Fudge for about two hours. You know, I don't
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: need to go back, probably for a few more years.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: But um, you know, I that just sort of all
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: of that just made me a fan. You know, And
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: I've never I've never been a musician. I've never There's
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: not an ounce of frustrated musician in me. Um. I
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: just I just love love music and being lucky that
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: I've been able to to work with it. Okay, so
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: you're in high school. Tell us about your experience there. Well, ah, there,
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: So I did pretty terribly at school. Um. And what
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: had happened was, um, in the fifth year, which which
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: I can remember what year that would be, So that
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: would that would so when I was fifteen, Uh, you
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: you took a set of exams called O levels and
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: and then and then the next year you sort of
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: there were no exams and that was scored the lower
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: six years, So that was sort of the year where
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: everybody us doss around doing nothing. And then in the
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: upper six year is when you took your A levels
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: to go onto university. So at the end of the
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: fifth year I got made the secretary of the jazz club.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: I was a school in a place called Abingdon, near
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: near Oxford, and in those days used to go up
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: to Ronnie Scott's once a term to see people play.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: And so I decided, well we're not going to go
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: to Ronnie Scott's. I'm going to bring the artists down
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: to to play at the school. This is a boarding school,
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: boarding school, well actually it was. It was one third
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: boarding school, two thirds day boys and yourself. You was
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: a boarding school. And this is how far from London?
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: It's an hour? Yeah, um, we'll just stopped for a second.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: The jazz club, were they really into jazz, Well that
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: was that was sort of what they how they got
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: away with going up to London once a term to
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: see jazz. Yeah, I mean we mean somebody rich. And
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: we saw um Dick Hextel Smith. I can't remember no
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: other really great people. But anyway, I brought I brought,
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: I brought in cars Nucleus down to the to the
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: local town, into the local well a little bit slower.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: You're going on a boarding school. How do you even
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: make that happen? Who do you call? What happens? Okay?
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: Well I had I had started going to a place
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: called the eighteen thirty two Club in Windsor, which was,
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: you know, ten minutes from where I lived. And I
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: got friendly with a guy called Andrew Kilderry who booked
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: the two club. And uh, so I have this idea
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: that I want to start bringing concerts on and so
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: I ring Andrew and and he and he books the
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: band you know, for I think it was forty quid
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: or something in those days. And and I managed to
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: get the school to agree to pay everything up front,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: and and that the tickets would then go on on
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: the accounts of the boys, so that would then be
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: paid for by the parents. That's how I anyway, I
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: managed to get away with that, and so I so
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: the first one with Nucleus worked quite well, so that
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: that was in the school time. So then I thought, okay,
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: well look at in the holidays coming up, why don't
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: I put on a couple of concerts and the holidays.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: So at that time I was really getting into Prague
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: and Egg. I don't know if you've ever heard of
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: I remember they've never really made anything you ever made
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: it anywhere? Really, But anyway, I was a huge Egg fan.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: So I decided to put on Egg in the in
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: the local town hall, and which I did, and uh
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: made eight pounds, um, so that was reasonable. So I
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: then so if you're making a pound, how many people
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: are coming at what price? About three or four hundred people?
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: That's pretty good. At god, it was seven and six,
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: which which is about thirty fifty cents really um. Anyway,
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: so I then put on another one with if who
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: are on island, and I had to pay them more.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: I can remember what I had to pay them, and
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: it was it was it was selling badly, and luckily
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: I I got a call from from Andrew Kilderry's saying
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: that the band couldn't do the gig, so and he
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: had Bloodwind Pig sorry the Mick Abrams band. It was
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: Cabron's band before he became Bloodwind Pig so and they
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: were about a third of the price of of of
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: if and so actually I got away with it, so
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: but that was I then decided that was enough. So
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: I then started doing them with Andrew in Oxford town Hall,
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: which is like a capacity With the first one we
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: put how far is that from your school? It's about
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: twenty minutes by past. So, Um, what did he need
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: you for? Because he he was booking various places, various
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: town halls, right and and so so we um uh
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: were I was sort of acting as an agent for
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: him as a you know, as a local promoter, right,
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: and we put on Genesis at at Oxford town Hall.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: Now how much a Genesis cost I can't remember, but
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: I can tell you who's money. That was Andrew's. Andrew's money. Um,
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: I'm taking ten percent. How big is ours return? It's
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: about anyway. Um, we've sold about three hundred tickets, so
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: we're losing our shirt, right, but the but the hall
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: is completely rammed full. And Tony Smith, who you know
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: is the managers still is the manager. You know. It
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: came down because we're crying off saying we haven't got
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: money to pay him, and he said, yeah, but the
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: fucking alls full, you know, what do you mean? What
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: do you mean? And of course because we didn't have
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: any cash, I hadn't hired any securities, so all these
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: people had just come in through the through the doors.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: So there were twelve people there, but only three hundred
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: of them had paid. So that was the end of
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: that one. That My other big mistake was I was
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: putting on Arthur Brown's Kingdom come in in Newbury Town
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: Hall and I go around with the mate plastering posters
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: all around Newbury, you know, for Arthur Brown's king didn't
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: come coming to play. And after I put on the
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: last one, some old geezers stops me and he says,
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: so you know, what's this? What's this gig? And I said,
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: it's Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come and they're coming, They're coming
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: to play. And he says, yes, but when are they
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: coming to play? And I looked at the post of
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: and we've forgotten to put the date on. So I
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: guess I worked out quite early on. I wasn't wasn't
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: cut out to be a promoter. Okay, two things, how
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: did that gig? Do? We canceled it? Yeah? And why
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: where did this entrepreneurial spirit come from. Um, that's a
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: very good question. I don't really know the answer to
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: that because my father was in the army, um, and
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: my my mom just you know, would do jobs whatever
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: you had to do to make to make a living.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: But so anyway, I'm at school, you know. So was
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: there enough money to do and buy what you wanted
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: to do before you became a promoter? Um? No, we
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: were never There was never much money around. I mean
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: I got a I got a grant to go to
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: the to the school, you know, but it was it
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: was the combat. But it was a combination of things,
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: you know, how things happen. So I would I'd learned
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: a bit about promoting concerts. So I was doing that.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: I'm playing a lot of cricket. Who are you a
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: good cricket player at that time? I was, yeah, thinking
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: of going professional or just enjoy just enjoying it. So,
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: I mean we watched the cricket matches go on for
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: like days. So you say you play a lot of cricket.
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: I mean, as kids, we would walk down to the park.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: What is playing a lot of cricket look like? Well,
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: try explaining to an American that a cricket match and
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: last for five days ending a draw, and yet be
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: a great game of cricket. They cannot understand that at all,
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: in the same way as baseball can sometimes be something
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: that goes on forever until somebody HiT's the final. But
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: but you've had a good time going to a baseball match,
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: you know. Anyway, a combination of those things and sort
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: of being madly in love with the head girl at
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: the local girls school. Um My, my A level results
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: were well, let's put it this way. So the night
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: before I'm supposed to take my Economics A level, I
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: go and see my economics teacher and I say, whose
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: nickname is Doze? Doze Milton? I say, Mr Milton, you
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: and I know I'm not going to pass this exam.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: I don't want to fail it. I just don't want
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: to take it. So he says, Okay, go in and
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: then after half an hour leave and then I'll just
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: roll your paper so it will be that you you
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: never took the exam. So that's great. Anyway. Four weeks
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: later I take English and History A level, and four
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: weeks later my A level of Arts come in and
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: I've got two d's. Okay, this is a disaster. But
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: I rang a guy called Tony Bowman who I shared
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: a study with, and I said, Tony, can you believe it,
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: I've got two d's. I'm going to get them to
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: remark my English a level. And he said, but Richard,
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: you didn't read any of the books, which was effectually
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: correct statement. So there I was, you know, with two d's.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: You know, everybody's piste off. All my family are all
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: piste off of me because I haven't done any work.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: But actually my my mom is married again by then,
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: and so I do a deal with my mom my
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: stepdad that um, I want to try again into the
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: music business and if it doesn't work after a year,
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: I'll go back to Polytechnic and retake my exams and
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: go and become a you know, a bookkeeper or something,
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: you know. So I when i'd been promoting these concerts
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: through with Andrew Killderry, but I had I'd come across
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: other agents, so I just wrote, because this is in
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: days of writing letters, I wrote to the number of
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: agents that I've done some business with them. One of
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: them called me up and he said, can you come
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: up and have an interview? A guy called Dave Winslet,
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: and he was at an agency called the Terry King Associates,
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: and he said that just so happens that one of
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: our guys is leaving, why didn't you come up and
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: you know, let's do a month's trial and see how
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: it is. I go up and I start doing that,
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: and I'm booking caravan, and I'm booking Southern Comfort, and
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: I'm booking in all Desmond Decker and all that. And
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: because in those days, every student union in and every
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: college had had gigs going on. I mean, there were
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: just hundreds of gigs going on every week. And so
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: they handed me the student union handbook and they said, okay,
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: just cool. Started a at aberrast with university and work
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: your way through it and so our X. So my
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: first day, I I started aberrast with university and I
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: get as far as St. Andrew's University when I finally
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: sell them Southern Comfort, not with Ian Matthews, by the way,
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: so I slightly condom there, but anyway, but so I
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: I sold them for you know, fifty quid or whatever.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: And anyway, one thing led to another and I and
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: I started and then the office that I was in
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: was in ward Or Street and the Marquee Club was
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: in Wardoor Streets. So every night I would go down
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: to the Marquee Club and I would watch all the bands.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: And that's when I that's when I first started to
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: realize that I had an ear for picking bands. And
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: I signed My first act as an agent was Eddie
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: and the Hot Rods, who were on this the sort
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: of pre punk thing that there was going on at
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: that time. And and so an Eddie and Hot Rods, Uh,
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: you know, we're hot, you know. UM and I then
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: I'd met a guy UM who managed um John Martin
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: and a number of other Island acts, and so he
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: asked me to to represent h John Martin UM and
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: here and I fall formed a company called Headline Artists
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: and UM. I then started looking at doing lots of
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: other things with with Ireland and and what happened was
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: that that I then got offered this job at Ireland
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: Records to sort of be an artist liaison guy, to
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: to work with managers and agents and the artists. Now,
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: before we get much further, tell the story when you
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: were an agent and the backstreet Crawler story, etcetera. Okay, so,
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: uh so um John managed Paul Kossof and Backstreet Crawler,
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: and uh so I was, I was there agent so
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: and obviously Paul Kossof had been a major star out
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: of Free. So we're booked this arena tour with Backstreet
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: Crawler and I'm looking for a support act and this
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: Australian guy comes in to see me and he he
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: plays me this band of his from Australia called A
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: C d C. And I just flip out, and you know,
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: I just think they're incredible. So I get John to
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: let me put them on the Backstreet Crawler tour. And um,
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: then a few months later, UM, the band A C
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: d C Are flying in from from Adelaide to to
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: start the Backstreet Crawler tour. And of course in those days,
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: it took thirty six hours to fly from Adelaide to London,
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: and during that time that the band were in the air,
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: Paul tragically died of a heart attack, also on an aircraft.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: So I go down to Heathrow to meet Michael Browning
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: and I say, Michael, a terrible, awful news. Poor Kassa
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: has just died. So you know, there's no tour, and
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: he said, for fox sake, don't don't say anything to
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: the band. You've got to get them a gig. So
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: I managed to get them a gig two days later
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: at a at a place called the Red Cow and Hammersmith,
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: and I get them doing two forty five minutes sets
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: for pounds. I still have this contract frame somewhere. And
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: because no one there's no publicity for this, they're just
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: they just I've just managed to get him on the
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: gig somebody else that obviously pulled out. Anyway, I go down.
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: I go down to the gig. I've never seen them
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: play live, and they come out and that there are
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: like two men and a dog in the in the room, right,
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: I mean, there's just nobody. But they come out and
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: they do the all a C d C show and
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: Angus is on Bond Scott's shoulders and then Angus Duck
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: walks down the bar. It's the most incredible thing I
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: have ever seen in my life. And they finished the
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: forty five minutes set and that the two men and
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: a dog leave, and I'm thinking, we've just seen the
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: second Coming of Christ here, you know what's going on? Anyway,
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: half an hour later, the place is just rammed. Now
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: there's no mobile phones, no internet, no nothing, right, God
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: knows what had happened. Anyway, it's rammed. Now. I've told
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: the story a hundred times, and you know, you as
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: you tell stories, I'm sure we all do this, you
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: embellish them in et cetera. But I was at my
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: niece's wedding a couple of years ago and my brother
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: in law said to me, God, Richard, do you do
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: you remember that a C d C gig? And I said, David,
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: you tell me exactly what you remember. And he told
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: the story exactly as I've just told you. And Harry
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: he had come down with me to the gig. So
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: that was that. That was an extraordinary, you know, once
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: in a lifetime experience, you know. But I you know,
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: I didn't have the experience for to to to carry
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: on working with a C d C. Is I get
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: I get fired as their agent. I didn't know anything
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: about Europe or anything like that. So but Michael and
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: I the manager, and I remained good friends, and that
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: had a they had a knock on effect in my
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: career later on. But yes, so anyway, so I'm then, yes,
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: I'm doing I'm now an island record. You're the liaison
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: and and I started doing a bit of A and R.
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: And the first band I signed as a bank called
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: the jags Um who had one hit called I've Got
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: your Number written on the back of my hand and
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: I am determined one day to get someone to cover
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: it and make sure it's a proper hit. But anyway,
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: I did that, and I'm I'm I'm working with John
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: Martin and and then a band called the Buggles comes
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: along and they had this track called video called Killed
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: the Radio Star, and that you know, it goes on
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: to be the first number one record that I was
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: ever involved with. And I've got I've got quite close
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: to Chris Blackwell, and so Chris and offers me this
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: gig working pretty much really as this sort of p are,
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: you know, just sort of traveling around the world with him,
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: helping him do stuff, you know, And there was an
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: incredible experience, you know. And you know, I've got to
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: go to Bob Marley sessions and I've been in negotiations
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: without armored Rrigan and all this, and and Chris says
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: to me, you know what I want. I want you
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: to run Island Records, but you're too young. And David
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: Betteridge and Tim Clark, they're never going to accept. You know,
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: I'm twenty five at this stage, never going to accept
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: a young guy coming in. So what we're gonna do is,
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: we're gonna we're gonna start a company together and you
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: can run Basing Street studios and you'll sign artists and
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: we'll we'll make this a success, and then I'll be
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: able to bring you in to run Island. Great. Wow, fantastic,
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: he puts. He puts in some money, and he says,
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: it's gonna it's a fifty fifty joint venture and it's
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: called Peninsula Music as part of Ireland Records. Peninsula Music.
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: You know, what have I done to deserve this? And
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: so soon afterwards I go out to lunch with Brian Carr,
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: who is the lawyer for the clash and the sex Pistols,
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: and and of course in those days you used to
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: drink at lunchtime and and and he says, Richard, what
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: do you mean it's fifty fifty. It shouldn't be fifty fifty.
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: You're doing all the work. I mean twenty tho pounds
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: he's putting in. What's that? That's nothing to Chris Blackwell,
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: you know it should be it should be ninety ten
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: to you. You know, it's crazy. You could go and
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: tell him, go and change it, you know. So I
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: go back to the office and Chris happens to be
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: on the phone talking to one of the guys who
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: worked for me, Danny Goodwin. So I get Chris on
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: the phone. I say, Chris, Chris, you know, I mean
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: thinking about this, I'm not sure there should be fifty
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: fifty really, you know, I think it should be you know,
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: do you don't you think that's fair? And he says,
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: you know what, Richard, You're right, it shouldn't be fifty,
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: it should be a hundred zero. So I said, what
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: do you what do you mean, Chris it should be
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: a hundred zero? And he says, well, if you think
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: it should be today, then one day you're going to
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: think it should be a hundred zero. So let's just
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: cut straight to a hundred zero. The Lowyers are being
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: touch goodbye. Plank puts the phone down and all I
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: can all I can see before rushing before me, you know,
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: David and Tim laughing, and finally we got rid of
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: that fucker, and you know, blah blah blah. They're still
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: great friends with my mother. Way Um, so I get
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: on a plane and I fly to the Bahamas where
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: he wasn't and Compass Point, which I've been too many times.
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: And I get to the Apple. I get to the
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: airport and Compass Point and I ring Chris Compass Point Studios.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: I said, Chris, it's Richard. He said, where are you?
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: I said, I'm just down at by the airport at
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: the Pelican Beach or whatever it was called. So why
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: are you there? And I said, because I've come to
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: talk to you said, we've got nothing to talk about.
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: I said, Chris, come on, We've we've got to talk about.
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: I've flown all the way out now. So um, he
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: takes me out on a boat and he basically tries
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: to scare the living daylights out of me with the
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: driving over the pebble the rocks, and you know, he succeeds.
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: I'm scared shitless, you know. Anyway, and he stops and
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: he says, you know what, you've got to learn to
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: be a much better negotiator, and uh, you know, we
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: can be friends, but we're not going to be in business,
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: right So UM, I go to the airport. I have
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: my Peninsula Music credit card, so I upgrade to first
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: class for the first time ever, and and and fly home.
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: And that was the end of Peninsula Music. So what
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: do you do now you're out of a job. Well,
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: I'm out of a job. I'm managing the Jags and
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: a few other things. And and that's and I this
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: this uh young agent from from America called Bobby Brooks
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: and Rob Light ring me up and tell me, tell
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: me that they think the Jags are going to be
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: the biggest thing since Ize Bread and and Chris is
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: Chris has got me to meet Frank Barcelona and Barbara Skydell,
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: and I just didn't really relate to them. I related
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: to Bobby and to Rob. So I signed to Bobby
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: and Rob with the Jags. And then Barbara Skuydell sends
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: me a a TELEX saying, we understand that you made
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: this decision to go with Bobby Brooks and robbed Light.
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: That's entirely, entirely you're right to make that decision, but
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: it is our right to decide who we do business with.
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: And please don't ever think of doing any more business
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: with Frank and myself. Here at what was Premiere Premier talent,
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: you know, and here's the most powerful agent in the
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: world basically telling me to funk off, you know. But anyway,
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: there's a comeback on that story later, um and uh,
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: I know obviously, I mean Rob Light, who has been
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: one of my best friends and closest working associates ever since.
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: You know. Anyway, things that shared. I go down my
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: friend Michael Browning, who had met the ch C d
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: C sends sends some your notes and come down to
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: Australia and I'm gonna I'm starting this label. Come and
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: work with me. Here, I had. I've been in Greece
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: on holiday. I've met this girl who I've fell madly
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: in love with at first sight, Olivia. I find out
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: that she is going down to Australia, so I decided
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: to go down to Australia. And uh and Olivia comes
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: down to Australia and and our pass cross and and
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: here we we've been together the best part of four
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: years since. Um I had also been managing a guy
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: called John Fox who had been the lead singer and
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: writer of Ultravox, and when the band broke up, um
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: I made what would normally be the right decision of
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: going with the the lead singer and the writer. Obviously,
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: Ultravox and went on to sell millions and millions of
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: records without me. But anyway, that got me working with
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: with Simon Draper at Virgin and and I'd been a
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: Virgin in the agency world for a for a very
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: short time. And uh, they ring me up and ask
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: if I want to come and and run publishing company.
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: So this is like one um so, so I leave
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: Olivia in Australia and and and I and I go
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: to to to a Virgin, you know, and of course Virgin.
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: That was just an incredibly exciting time. And you know,
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: the Virgin was was just taking taking off really and
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: the publishing company had already been very successful, um and
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: and we just went on this incredible run of of
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: signing you know, ABC and the Pet Shop Boys and
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: Tears for Fears. I mean, we just had an incredible
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: run of of success, um and and and Virgin Records
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: was also having this incredible run of success. And Virgin
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: was just becoming this amazing place to be. And you
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: had Richard Branson who had all these crazy ideas, you know,
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: I mean, you know, let's let's start our own record
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: company in in Germany, you know, and when nobody else
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: was even thinking of doing it. And then Ken Berry,
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: who was brilliant at making this stuff work, would make
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: it work. And then Simon Draper would find these incredible
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: artists and and and one thing, you know, we we
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: just there was a moment really through the eighties where
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: we're just you know, everything we touched turned to gold.
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: It was the most amazing time to to be with
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: an incredible group of people. And it was just amazing excitement,
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: you know. Okay, and then you moved to a mirror
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: with Virgin So then so then uh, uh we start
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: a record company in America and they want someone to
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: go and run the publishing company in America, and uh,
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: Richard and ken and Simon persuade me to to go
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: out to l A to to start the publishing company.
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: And um we then and that's the So the two
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: guys who have been working with me at a Virgin
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: Music was a guy called Danny Goodwin and has its
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: on a Mere and we we all moved to to
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: l A. And of course the publishing business in England
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: was a very uh cutthroat, you know, very aggressive business.
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: Um and when we moved to l A, we couldn't
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: it was just it was just like you know, everyone
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: one was half asleep, you know, it was you know,
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: so people would be our for these deals and we
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: just think that they were they were nothing. So we
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: just signed, signed, signed, and and and in our first
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: year in America, we were the number one on Billboard.
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: We were the number one charger company in the first year. Yeah,
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: we signed all the writers who did that if you remember,
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: Paula Abdel had that huge number of seven number ones
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: or whatever. And and of course things like tears, so
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: fears were massively there, and the Patriot Boys were messive there,
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: and Ozzy Osborne I had signed and anyway, we just
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: went on this incredible run. And um, what also happened
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: then was we've all been young guys growing up together.
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: You know, we've all been you know, nobody had really
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: made any money. We were just you know, we'd all
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: gone holiday together. That was. But then then we're getting
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: to the age where you know, we're getting married, we're
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: signed a families and so a slightly different perspective came
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: along and and Virgin went public, um and uh, and
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: that wasn't very successful. So so that the options and
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: everything that we've been given to to you know, be
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: able to cash out, you know when it when the
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: share price went on, that didn't really turn into anything
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: because the public just couldn't you know, deal with with
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: Virgin at the time, you know, so as as the
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: as the publishing company was being so successful, and I'm
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: then getting offered all sorts of jobs, right uh, you know,
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: to go to to m C A and to get
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: chrysalists and to anyway, in the end, I get approached
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: by Tommy Montola to to go to to to CBS
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: as it was then. And then after a long thought,
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: you know, I I turned it down and I stay
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: redo my deal with Virgin and I stay with Virgin
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: and then and then so that was that was like
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: in November, and then the deal the deal just never
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: got done. My deal never got done. And then I
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: then in the new year, i'm I'm I'm at the
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: A M A S and I um, I bump into
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: Tommy and he says, so you're happy with your decision,
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: And I said, actually no, Tommy, I'm not. I think
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: it was the wrong decision. So he said, okay, come
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: and see me tomorrow and we're going to work out
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: a deal and and we'll make it work. So I
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: went to see him and we worked out a deal.
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: And at that time I didn't think I wanted to
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: move to New York. So the job he gave me
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: was to be the head of the West Coast Um.
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: But then he was genius what he did has He said, Okay,
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: so that'll be your job. But what I want you
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: to do is I want you to come to New
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: York and and learn how the company works, understand how
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: the company works. And I'll rent your house in Greenwich,
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: Connecticut for six months. I'll give you a car and driver, uh,
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: and I'll give you X number of flights back and
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: forth from l A. And you know, I mean just ridiculous. Really,
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: you know, this was crazy times for the business. But
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: because he knew what would happen, he would He knew
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: that as soon as I went to live in New
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: York and experience New York and experience CBS and New York,
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: that that would be it. So I go, and then
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: he then he gives me to start with it, gives
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: me the job president of Associated where I worked with
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: Tony Martell and I had you know, the door not
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: the doors I had Ozzy Osborne, and I had lots
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: of different things there and and anyway, and I and
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: and I started signing acts. In the first first band
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: I I signed UM was UM to Spin Doctors, right Um.
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: And of course in those days, you know, you have
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: one hit and you sell eight million records, right right right,
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: So we did that, and then I had Hard Michael Goldstone.
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: And the next thing we sign is Pearl Jam. And
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: then and then we signed Rage against the Machine. And
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: so this is all going crazy. So they then make
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: me um president of Epic, and they make Dave Glue
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: the chairman of Epic, you know, just the the the
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: secretary to the the The Barbara's Skydell story is that Um,
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: the manager of of Regen of Pearl Jam, comes to
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: see me and he says, look, you know, I've got
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: two people who are really keen on on being the
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: agent for the band. One of them is William Morris
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: and one of them is Barbara Skydell. And I said, look,
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I can't get involved in this because I'm
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: not allowed to do any business with the premier talent
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: and Barbara Skydell. So he ended up signing to William
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: Morris and and then Michelle Anthony rings me and says,
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: what the fun is going on? Why why are you
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: telling and not designed to Barbara s Crater And I said, well,
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: look because Barbara sky Dell was the one who told
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: me that I couldn't do any business with us. So
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: you know, I was a young guy and and she
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: scared the ship out of me. And and I'm just
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: following on what I was told. You know, you would
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: be careful what you say. And did you ever make
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: up with Barbara sky Yes? Yes, yes, okay, so you
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: have this run and then on it was all going
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: incredibly well, and then um we get to sort of
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: where are we about nineties seven I suppose, and we'd
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: started a second label. Uh good, so Columbia had started
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: another work work, that's right, and we had started five
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: fifty Music with Polly Anthony running five Music. And uh,
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: it's funny how things work out. You know. Over the years,
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: I've been let down by people and disappointed by people,
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: but actually I've only ever been betrayed by one person
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: and that was that was Dave Glue because he took
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: me out. He took me out for lunch and just
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: to say, um, you know, Richard, I want you to
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: know I think you're doing an incredible job and it's
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: just amazing what you're doing. Blah blah blah blah. The
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: next day, I have a meeting with Tommy Matola and
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: Michelle Anthony and and they basically say, look, we love you,
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: but we're going to merge five fifty and epic. Um so,
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: but we want you to stay. Will you? Um, would
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: you like to run the publishing company that we started.
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: Would you like to come in and be the number
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: two in the international division working for Bob Bolan, Or
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: would you like to go back to London and run
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: CBS in or Sony as it was in in in London.
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: And I said, oh, well, you know there's a lot
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: of a lot for me to take in. Um, what
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: about the other option? Will you pay out my contract? Right?
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: And because he's in the days of non mitigation contracts
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: and I just literally just signed a new four year
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: deal and uh, but I said, let's leave it with me,
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: let me think about it. And uh. I went and
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: saw Paul Schindler, who was my lawyer at the time,
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: and I talked it through with him, and he said,
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: let me make a few calls, let's see and and
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: what happened quite quickly. I found out that there were
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: there there were going to be other other gigs available,
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: and Olivia and I had been thinking that about going
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: back to England. Uh. You know, originally we only went
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: out to the States for three years, but um, we've
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: been there for for ten and UM, so I go
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: back to Tommy and I said, you know, well, I'd
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: like i'd come back, I'd go back to England and
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: I'd run I'd run the Sony in UK. Anyway, Paul Burger,
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: who ran Sony in the UK, didn't want to didn't
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: want to leave um London, so it was all too complicated.
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: So and then and then Clive Davis approached me to
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: go and run Aristair in New York. And then when
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: so when the BMG people heard about that, then the
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: BMG people, Rudy Gassner, who ran BMG then UM, approached
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: me about going to run the European side of things
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: for for for BMG. So long story short, I'm sorry
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: if I'm rambling here. The the we end up I
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: end up getting my check and going to London to
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: to work for Rudy and run the UK and Central
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: Europe of of BMG UM, which sort of indirectly is
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: is why you know why we're here today, you know,
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: indirectly meaning what well, because what Hammen was tragically Rudy
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: died six months later, and I loved Rudy. I thought
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: he was an incredible man. And um, anyway, this guy
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: rol Schmidholtz comes in and um just here and I
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: just from day one just did not see eye to eye,
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: you know. Ah. And you know, I accept that I
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: probably behaved rather badly, you know, to him, calling him
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: a fucking idiot in board meetings and things which I
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: probably shouldn't have done. But he was a fucking idiot,
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: and not surprisingly I I get fired. Well, you told
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: the story about putting your feet on the desk. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: I don't want to tell that. Yeah, So at the
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: board meetings, I would I would sit there, uh, and
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: I would just put my feet on the on the desk.
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: It's just been something that I've always done, is put
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: my feet on the desk. And Rof would get really
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: piste off about it, and he would one day he
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: he went and he went and got a cloth from somewhere,
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: and he picked up my feet and put the cloth
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: down on the table and then plumped my feet, you know.
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: It was it was doomed from from from day one.
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: But um, but actually, of course what had happened was
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: that I had hired Harry McGee to come and run
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: our c A in the UK and here, and I
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: became very close, very quickly. Um. And so when Ralph
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: firs me, um, he fires Harry as well. And they
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: so that I'd been at the Spanish International meeting and
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: they summoned me to New York. So I get someone
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: to New York. I know what's going to happen here.
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: So I go to New York. I have a ten
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: minute meeting where they farm me and then then I
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: get back on the plane and I fly back to London.
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: And on the way back, after a couple of martinis,
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: I've been through every job that might possibly be and
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: I realized that that there isn't one for me, you know,
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: and frankly I'd had enough of it all by then anyway,
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: And then they fire Harry, and then uh, two days
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: later it was the BMG Golf Day and Harry and
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: I think funk that, you know, we put the bloody
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: golf Day together. We're going to go to the golf day.
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: You know. So we go to the golf day and
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: on the way to the golf day, we start talking
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: about what what are you going to do? He says,
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: I'm thinking I'm going into management. I said, well, I'm
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: going to go into management. Why don't we go into
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: management together? Yeah, great idea. So we go to the
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: BMG golf day and and and we come back managers,
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: but not no artists or whatever. But then Jeff Quantits
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: gets in touch with me, and I'd signed Corn when
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: I was an epic and I had a very close
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: relationship with Jeff Quantz and Jeff Jeff flies me out
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: and he says, look, you know, I want to start
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: an international division of the firm. Is a huge man
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: Ashman company. Then hundred acts and you know, two hundred people.
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: It was. It was just massive. So we start so
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: that we've been through this cold period for a few
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: months where no one's calling us and no one's talking
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: to us. And then then we opened up one day
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: as the firm and we have twenty three platinum martyrs
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: from America, so suddenly everybody is calling us, etcetera. And
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: we we really started managing. You know, Lana Ritchie and Enrico, I,
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: Gleasias and Lincoln Park, you know, we and and working
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: with those managers, we learned a huge amount um and
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: it was going. There was a real feeling that it
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: could that the firm could have gone on to be
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: something massive. But then Jeff then got into the film world.
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: He bought Mike Covids as company, and it just became
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: a little distracted. So we decided, Harry and I then
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: decided that we would leave the firm and we would
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: start start start our own thing. And we'd already picked
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: up our first uh sort of a few acts, and
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: that we've been appointed to There was a TV show,
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: talent show called the Fame Academy, and we've been appointed
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: to be the managers of the Fame Academy. And so
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: we we, uh we start that and and I remember
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: we didn't have a name. And then Jed Doherty, who
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: was who had taken over from me actually as the
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: chairman of BMGs to this day a very great friend
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: of mine, rings up and he says, um, so what
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: are you doing? I explained. He says, oh my god,
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: So what are you going to call the company? And
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: I said, I've got no idea what we're going to
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: call the company. And he says, why don't you call
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: it modest, laughing, And I said, that's a great idea,
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: but we'll put an exclamation mark at the end of
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: it so people know that it's ironic. And then, you know,
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: just one thing sort of led to another. Really, um,
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: and you know we had from that show, we had
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: some great success and did our first arena tour and
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: that was Lamar Lamar. And how come he didn't break
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: in America? Uh? I just don't think it was right
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: for him. You know, Um, where is he today? What
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: he makes a good living? Still still working and still
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: see him every so often and he yeah, he's he's
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: doing okay. But we then had then we started then
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: we started working because Simon Simon cow had worked for
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: me and and he he had started The X Factor
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: and nothing really was happening with that for the first
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: couple of years. And he brings me up and he says, look,
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: this is driving me mad because each each of the
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: judges had had a manager looking after their acts and
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: and he said, it's just chaos backstage. I've got I've
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: got four judges, I've got four managers, and I wanted
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: you to come in and you and Harry and when
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: you to manage all of the artists from the beginning
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: through to whoever it is ends up winning. And so
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: we started doing that. And it was at that time
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: when even the act that came twelveth in the show
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: could go out and make a reasonable amount of money
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: um doing you know, we do three clubs a night.
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: You know, there was the the X factor was so
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: huge that the knock on effect on all those artists
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: was massive. Um. And then the first year that we
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: did it, uh, Leona Lewis won it, and of course
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: Leona is an incredible talent. UM, and we sold you know,
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: I don't know ten twenty million hours. I suppose more
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: than that probably, UM. So that you know that. Then
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: jere Less came along and they were they were they
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: were huge and um. And then then then One Direction
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: told the story of One Direction. One Direction. There's lots
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: of people who claimed to have put that together, but
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: I think it really it was all down to Simon's vision. Um.
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: The what's your name Scherzinger was you know, was on
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: the panel, and a couple of the boys, none of
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: the none of the boys were getting through right, um,
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: and Nicole said Luis should put a band together, and
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: I wasn't involved with this at all, um, and Simon
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: just thought that was a great idea and chose the boys.
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: And you know, it's it's it's been done a hundred
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: times and a thousand times, and it's just you can't
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: explain what it is that no pun intended X factor
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: that is there when it when it works. But you
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: had five, you know, very likable guys, all with different characters,
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: all doing their own thing within the band. Um, and
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: it just it was just the perfect storm really and um,
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: although funny enough people forget, I mean so Sunny Taker,
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: who was running Psycho Records at the time, had got
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: hold of That's what makes You Beautiful, which is, you know,
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: just an incredible song, you know and southern. You know,
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: I wrote it as an incredible writer and um, so
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: that was a smash in the UK, not not really
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: anywhere else at the time. And then Simon insisted on
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: a track called Got to Be You as the second single,
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: and nobody wanted that to be the second single. Nobody
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: the band hated it anyway that you know, Simon was
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: the king and that's what happened, and that that was
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: a flop, you know, and people forget you know, it
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: came in at six rightever it was, you know, it
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: was a flop. And then and then the next most
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: important person in in the history of of One Direction
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: is is Amy Barnett. And Amy Barnett is Steve Barnett's
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: niece and she was living in in Um in the
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: UK at the time and she told Stephen all about
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: One Direction and we were doing some shows and she
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: she got him to come and see the band to
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: play at Hammersmith Apollo, and you know that the light
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: bulb went on and Barnett was a huge champion for it.
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: And then Rob was a huge champion from Stringer, Rob
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: Stringer and they put One Direction on on the tour
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: with a Big Time Rush and which was already sold
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: out that tour. And you know, as I was saying
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: about gigs and moments that that you just never forget,
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: you know, the A C. D C moment, well, the
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: Chicago One Direction supporting Big Time Rush moment was this
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: was a sold out to before the band where ever
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: put on One Direction, come out and perform not very
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: well six songs, but you cannot hear a thing because
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: of the screaming that is going on. And then when
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: they go off stage, they go UM that half the
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: crowd leaves the auditorium to go to the merch stand
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: and we sell out of every piece of merch that
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: we had for the entire American tour in one night
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: and one night and Steve Barnett comes down to the
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: dressing room, and this is in February and he says
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: to the band, you will be playing Madison Square Gardens
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: by the end of this year. And at the end
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: of the year we played Madison Square Gardens and then
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: ultimately you played stadiums all over the world. What do
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: you think ultimately drove it? I think that it was
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: the unique chemistry and character of the boys Um, because
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: they were they each had they each had their own thing. Um.
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: You know, obviously it was it was Harry and his looks.
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: H and Zane you know, you know, had an incredible voice,
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: Liam had an amazing voice. Nile was just this incredible
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: charmer UM and funny enough, Louis he doesn't get nearly
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: enough at it. You know, he was the one, he
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: was the one who was really the driver behind the band.
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: UM and it was just it was just that magical
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: combination of all of them, and they were great mates.
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: You know. Obviously, as as bands go on, then things
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: changed in the chemistry. As you get older, that that
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: changes as well, and that obviously came to a head
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: when when Zane left. But for the longest time they
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: remained great mates and had great fun and and the
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: fans recognized that. And the fans can recognize when it's
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: not real, and it was real with them. Plus they
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: had some incredible songs, you know, and you know, you
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: you need to give Simon and Sunny Taker, you know,
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: and sarden uh credit for for that, you know. Um, Okay,
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: So to what degree is one D one D equivalent
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: to keep up? Or what do you think of ke pop? Well? Uh,
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: I can't to this day, I can't understand how and
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: what has happened though, other than it has happened, and
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: I see the huge success, um and I freely admit
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: that it's something that I don't understand, you know. But
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: what what what hasn't changed, And what you do see
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: is that from the days of Elvis Presley, through the
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: Beatles and the b Gs and then you know, all
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: the other great pop bands. Twelve to sixteen year old
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 1: girls have always loved falling in love with good looking boys,
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: and that is never going to chang change. Just putting
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: up you know, it's four or six good looking boys
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: isn't good enough. It has to be something that is
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: tangible for those fans to relate to. And that is
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: the bit which everybody is always trying to do. And
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: you look at the number of times that that has
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: has been tried. But you know, you look at Backstreet,
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: Backstreet boys, you look at um, you know, and everything.
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: You know, there's always you know, in England we had
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: a Bank of Westlife which never made it outside, but
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: you know, there's You're never going to stop those young
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: girls wanting to fall in love with good looking young men.
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: And why did Robbie Williams never make it in the US? Well, ah,
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: I don't really know. I think that they, um, I
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: don't know too much about that. I think maybe they
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: went wrong. They should have gone straight with angels rather
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: than try to be They maybe went a bit cool
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: to start with um. And then he called his American
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: album the Ego is Landed. You know America. That doesn't
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: translate well in uh in American you know. Um, I
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: mean it's extraordinary really considering what a huge story is
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: everywhere else in the world and now here he is
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: doing weeks at a time in Vegas, you know. And
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: why did you start working with ka Um? That was
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: really Simon's decision, you know, he just decided that we've
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: had some problems with Little Mix, um when when Sunny
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: left the dynamic with the label change. And of course,
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: when you've when you've had artists on on a TV
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: show and you've sort of dictated how that all went,
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: and you've and you've given them the break, and then
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: they've gone on to be very successful, you do have
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: to realize that there's a moment when you have to
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: give the artists their head and allow them to grow up.
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: As they are growing up there, they're no longer sixteen
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: year olds or eighteen year olds there, They're they've grown up.
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: And Little Mix had really reached that stage and they
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: were being asked to record some tracks which they just
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: didn't like. And uh, you know, Simon felt that that
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: that that wasn't right and he felt that we we
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: weren't supporting him enough in getting getting that done. But
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: the simple fact of life is that We work for
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: the artists, we don't work for the record company. Um
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: so you know, we're there to support the artist and
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: actually we felt the artist was absolutely right at that time.
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: So um, as far as we're concerned, that was Simon
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: fell out with us. We we don't feel anything but
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: but good feelings towards Simon. But also since you start
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: working with his TV shows, none of those acts of
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: hit well, uh yeah that that yes, that could be true. Yes,
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: but it's true. Does he ever regret it or he's
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: just you know, keeping his distance? Well, I hope that.
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: You know. The funny thing is we've had far bigger
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: arguments about things, you know, far far bigger arguments about things,
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: you know. Um, So it was you know, there was
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: there was just a lot of change going on there
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: at the time. And you know, I hope that one
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: day we'll find something to work on together again, you know. Um,
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: but that's we'll just have to see how that plays out,
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: you know. Okay, So where's the business going. Well, I
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 1: think it's a very exciting time, you know, um I
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: I I I judge success now from with our artists
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: with by ticket count and per heads and merchandising and
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: I know there's a lot of talk about live work,
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: you know, business being down, and that may well be
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: the case, but I suspect that in certain areas it
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: probably over expanded. So that's sort of contraction, is just
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: like a leveling out from what I see from where
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: we are, it's it's just growing and growing. And I
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: think that the what what's exciting about the way the
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: DSPs work is that the whole international thing, when you
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: get that right, that does mean that that although you
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: do still have to go and visit territories and put
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: the artists in front of people, an awful lot of
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: that work is being done for you up front, you know,
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 1: through through Spotify, through Apple, etcetera. You know. So I
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: know you're a big Prague fan. Is there any hope
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: for rockers? Rock dead? God? I hope, So, I tell you,
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: you know, I think I think I've got two remaining
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: ambitions in life. One one one is to win the
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: Eurovision Song Contest one day, because I grew up listening
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: to the Eurovision Song Contest, watching it with my mother
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: and my sister, you know. And I actually did represent
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: the English entrance in six but we we only came six,
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: you know, but one one day, even if it's not
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: the English entrant, I hope I have the entrant that
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: that wins it. And then the other would be to
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: be going to see a great probe band or a
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: great rock band. You know. I I was so lucky
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: working with Rage Against the Machine and Pearl Jam and
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 1: Corn and Aussie you know, I I loved working with
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 1: those artists and and I I'm in the same way
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: as there are always going to be uh, you know,
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: twelve to sixteen year old girls looking to fall in
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: love with, you know, good looking guys. I believe that
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: there are young guys who are going to be looking
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 1: to want to have an idol of a guitarist or
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 1: a singer and to be up there doing that. You know,
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: well that I agree that there's a business. But right
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: now in America the radio and Spotify is dominated by
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: hip hop, not live. So is there a chance that
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: rock can you know, break up that hegemony? Well? Uh,
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 1: you know you should ask Peter Mention that question. Uh.
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: You know, he's far closer to it than than I am.
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: But I do believe that there will be, you know,
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: a band that will come through that will start a
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: movement again. It may not be on the on the
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: scale that we've seen, but I just hope. Maybe it
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 1: is only hope, but I do also believe that there
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 1: will be a movement again that will happen. And since you're,
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: you know, living in England, but you've lived in the
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 1: US and you were we said these worldwide acts, what
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: do you see as the difference between those two major markets.
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: When I was managing the Jags, and when we arrived
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: in New York, we were going to be the next
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: big thing. We were on the back page of Billboard magazine.
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: We were on you know the ad they used to
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: take there, and on cash Box on the front page,
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: and we were going to be the next big thing.
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: And then we toured our way across America doing radio shows,
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: and then we get to l A six weeks later
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: and suddenly no longer are we going to be the
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: next big thing. So the tour support gets pulled. I
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: have to get rid of the tour manager, and I
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: end up driving the band back across America, gigging in
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: a in a Winnebago, gigging across America, getting down to Miami,
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 1: where we're gonna then get on on boat and go
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 1: over to a compass point to make the second album,
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: and what I learned from that was just how fucking
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 1: huge America is. And I think the point that I
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 1: think a lot of British acts over the years have
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 1: not appreciated that America is not New York, m l A.
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 1: It's everywhere in between, and you do have to go
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: out and you do have to go and play there
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: and see it and make that connection. I think that's
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: uh that that's that's something that you can come to
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 1: London and to England and play London and essentially you're
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: taken care of of the UK. But in America you've
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: got to get out there and you've got to you've
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 1: got to doodle. You know, you've been listening to Richard
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 1: Griffith's here on the Bob Left Sets podcasts. We're doing
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 1: this in honor of modest Management getting the Music Industry Award. Richard.
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: You're a great rock and tour and you've dropped a
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 1: lot of wisdom. Thanks so much for being Thanks very much,
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 1: lovely Glea