Artist Management company established in 2003
I was privileged to be asked to return and do a second podcast with Roy Sharples from Unknown Origins. Roy asked me questions about the future of music but I seemed more intent to reminisce about my time working in a record shop for three years – the best time of my life. Many thanks to Roy for allowing me to do this.
Unknown Origins Website: https://www.unknownorigins.com/
Manifesto for Artist Management: https://www.unknownorigins.com/post/manifesto-for-artist-management
I have always tried to think of a way to write a blog about running and the way that it has helped me in a lot of different ways over the years but have never managed to get round to it. Running has been an important part of my life for the past 20+ years and has always had a positive effect on my wellbeing and mental health. It has helped me to keep fit, physically and mentally, and really helped with keeping me in check with my weight and my life in general.
I have been lucky enough to run marathons, ultra-marathons, and plenty of competitive races over the years but I always put pressure on myself to take it too seriously which resulted in me not enjoying the experience on some occasions. This isn’t a technical approach to running but just a breakdown of all the positives that I have taken from it.
Decision making – I have made all the important decisions in my life, personal and career-based, whilst out on a run. Without any distractions and plenty of time to think things through I have always relied on my decision-making process when running.
Mental health – Like a lot of people, life can be a real rollercoaster and the situations that I have been in, especially during the various lockdowns, have been a real challenge to me and my wellbeing. Without any doubt, a run has ALWAYS helped me in this situation. I write this today after a tough week where I haven’t been able to run for four consecutive days and have had some big issues to deal with. The run this morning immediately lifted my spirits and helped me with a couple of big decisions.
Weight loss – I benefit from being a vegan and teetotal which has again helped me for my overall fitness. A regular running regime has helped me to keep my weight to a constant over the years as well as having a healthy heart rate.
Music – this is the main opportunity to listen and learn mainly through the BBC Sounds app for Marc Riley’s show on 6 Music. 90% of any new music is introduced to me by this show.
Socializing – since I moved to Marlow we went almost into the first lockdown so I didn’t really get to know anybody in the area. Recently, I have joined the local running club, Marlow Striders, which has over 250 members. Even though the club has held a limited number of group runs recently due to the lockdown it has been a good opportunity to start to get to know people.
Sightseeing – when I was on the road with various bands I tried to get out for runs with the artists and crew as much as possible. I have been lucky enough to run in some staggering surroundings over the years including; Santiago, New York, Sydney, Buenos Aires, Tokyo, Melbourne, San Francisco, Auckland, and Los Angeles. Doing these runs has helped to keep me in shape, again physically and mentally, when on tour but it has also ensured that we get to see the sights of the cities where the shows have taken place. In addition to this, it has helped me to see the local areas of the town that I have lived in where I benefit from being close to both the countryside and the River Thames.
This obviously isn’t a running blog but I just need to stress how important it is to my life and my general wellbeing. You don’t have to be an athlete to be a runner, you don’t have to do long distances or do super-fast times. Getting out in the open air can be exhilarating and has the ability to set your day up in a positive way.
Recommended Reading:
Chris McDougal ‘Born To Run’ : https://www.chrismcdougall.com/born-to-run/
Stu Mittleman ‘Slow Burn’ : https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/216195.Slow_Burn
Recommended Viewing:
In a bizarre year where I have, like many other people, not attended many live shows there has been one artist who has pulled me through and who I was lucky enough to see before the lockdown. Julian ‘Godlike Genius’ Cope released his ‘Self Civil War’ album in January and managed to play some live shows before cancellations for personal health reasons and then due to the lockdown.
13 tracks across four phases make up the album and, which is for me, one of his strongest records since ‘World Shut Your Mouth’ and ‘Fried’ both graced our presence in 1984. I’m not a music journalist in any way, and I don’t have the ability to break each song down and paint a picture of it in words but there are some incredible songs on here. The opener ‘That Ain’t The Way To Make A Million’, which I am certain is about a recent court case that took place between Julian and a ‘local villager’, is the best track on the album and highlights Julian’s distinctive voice alongside his omnipresent Mellotron. Key lyrics from this song.
‘Deep in the lost luggage of your mind
Time for a rummage sale, make time
Time to slay your golden calf
If he’s benign, be nine and a half’
Throughout the album the consistency of the songs make this such a memorable experience for fans of the Drood. From the acoustic based ‘You Will Be Mist’ (‘When you die, you will be mist’) to the simple pop song that is ‘Billy’ and arguably three minutes too short. It also includes, what can only be assumed as, a love song to Dorian with the lyrics to the chorus:
I will take every pill in your hand
I will snort every powder in your handbag
I will score all the pot in the land
Just to show you that I am your man
It took me three or four plays to totally get the album but it has consistently been played across 2020 and is second only to Wesley Gonzalez’s ‘Appalling Human’ for my album of the year. For a lot of people Julian is now off of their radar but for the fans, and there are still many of them, this album continues to justify his ‘national treasure’ status.
In the true spirit of independence this album is not available to stream on ANY of the platforms and can only be purchased as a CD or a download. Do the man a favour and buy a copy of it and listen to it while re-reading ‘Head On’ for the umpteenth time.
BUY/DOWNLOAD THE ALBUM HERE: https://www.headheritage.co.uk/self-civil-war/
Follow Dorian Cope on twitter for amazing footage: https://twitter.com/OnThisDeity
Lyrics published by WARNER/CHAPPELL MUSIC 2019
DIY indie punk turned pop sophisticate, Wesley Gonzalez has shared a new Christmas single ‘Red Man Is Back Again (With A Lonely Dose of Pain)’.
This comes after his second album ‘Appalling Human’ was released earlier this year via Moshi Moshi.
Of the single and its accompanying video, Wesley said: “When approaching the video for ‘Red Man Is Back Again (With A Lonely Dose Of Pain)’, it seemed obvious to visually represent an actual Red Man but what kind? Santa Claus seemed obvious, The Devil too, so we decided to go for a pissed up Freddy Kruger character, he’s your bastard uncle.
Danny the director and I discussed how we would approach the visuals and decided to try and go for an ambient yuletide, with little obvious references apart from referencing Christmas horror films and The Krampus, the central European Goat Demon who punishes children.”
The track features on a Moshi Moshi Xmas 2020 EP alongside the likes of Callum Easter, Moderate Rebels, Summer Camp, Aldous RH, Bath Days & Vanity Fairy which is out now.
Wesley Gonzalez Linktr.ee: https://linktr.ee/wesleygonzalez
In my first blog post on this site, I covered the story of how ‘The Days of Wine & Roses’ by The Dream Syndicate was the album that literally gave me the opportunity to work in the music industry. Part 2 of this series has a loose connection and is in my Top 5 albums of all time. This album is ‘The Velvet Underground & Nico’.
Arguably the greatest debut album of all time and often compared to Television’s debut album within the same conversations The Velvet Underground & Nico edges it for me for the main reason that it was released 10 years before ‘Marquee Moon’, March 1967, and still sounds ageless and relevant to this day.
No introduction is required for the band or their connection to Andy Warhol but one just needs to listen to the album in its entirety to understand how influential it was to every rock & roll album that followed it. From the emerging US garage, punk, and psych scene through to Roxy Music, David Bowie, and the UK punk and new wave movement, this album was the nucleus for them all.
I, once again, was introduced to the album whilst I worked at Virgin Records in Portsmouth. It was always played on a regular basis and ‘Heroin’ was cranked up that little bit louder on a Saturday afternoon during peak time! It was also a record that was played a hell of a lot when I dated a girl called Maggie in our flat in Albert Road in Southsea. Maggie also introduced me to Magazine (‘Correct Use of Soap’), Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry (‘History, Mystery & Prophecy’) and the Psychedelic Furs (‘Forever Now’) and opened my eyes and ears up to a lot of music that I was just not aware of. It’s been a constant record in my lifetime and is still played on a regular basis.
As a five-piece, the blend of Lou Reed, Nico, John Cale, Sterling Morrison, and Moe Tucker shouldn’t have worked on paper but as a record, the album is flawless from start to finish.
Watch the video, listen to the album, and read the book: https://www.piccadillyrecords.com/counter/product.php?pid=119520
Footnote:
Jason & The Scorchers were always a hugely popular band in our shop at Virgin Records in Portsmouth when I joined in 1984. Our assistant manager Paul Hensman played me the ‘Fervor’ mini-album at first and then in 1985 we were offered ‘Lost & Found’ which was eleven tracks of pure ‘cowpunk’ that we all fell in love with. At this point in time, most of the shop staff were into the Americana bands that were invading the UK shores including REM, The Dream Syndicate, The Bangles, Rain Parade and The Long Ryders amongst many others but the big difference with Jason & The Scorchers was the energy of their live shows and the way they blended country music and punk rock. The first time I saw them live was on 14th May 1985 at the Electric Ballroom in Camden supporting Los Lobos with Beltane Fire opening the bill. Elvis Costello also guested with Los Lobos that night and he gave the Pompey massive (three of us) a nod and a wave from our key position of front stage left. There were no safety barriers in 1985!
The next show I saw was at The Richmond in Brighton on 3rd July 1985. Mark ‘The Cat’ Steadman and myself decided to go, so we set off for Brighton in Mark’s mini with the soundtrack being provided by The Fuzztones ‘Lysergic Emanations’ album. After arriving in Brighton we teamed up with our friend Paul Windsor (now photographer for the Evening News in Portsmouth) and headed to the venue. We arrived at The Richmond and had a few drinks in the downstairs bar joining ‘Boring’ Bob Grover from The Piranhas who was drinking in his local. We then ventured upstairs to the first floor for the show and, once again, nudged and elbowed our way to the front of the stage to get the best view. The venue was at full capacity and extremely hot. As soon as the band came onto the stage they exploded into the set and the place erupted. However, halfway through the performance, we noticed that something was wrong as the floor around our feet started to disappear and a big hole appeared in its place where we could see right through to the downstairs bar. Despite our pleas for the band to continue to play it was regretfully decided to save a few lives and cancel the rest of the show due to the lack of floor! We decided to cut our losses and made our way home and regaled our stories to our colleagues the next day.
Little did I realise but I only had to wait a few hours to see the band again. While we were at work, Alan Robinson the Student Union booker at Portsmouth Polytechnic had negotiated a free show for the band that evening to celebrate American independence day. I was overjoyed but the rest of the staff were a little bit dismayed as they were setting off to London once the shop had shut to watch Bruce Springsteen play a dull show somewhere (probably Wembley – not a fan). I definitely had the best option for the evening in my opinion. Once I made my way down the front and, once again, it was an incredible live performance. We had a perfect view of Jason Ringenberg jumping off the drum risers alongside the balls of energy that were Warner Hodges (guitar), Jeff Johnson(bass) and Perry Baggs (drums). Ironically, the only other band I have seen that matched them for energy and showmanship has to be At The Drive-In.
I don’t recall seeing many, or any, performances after these three shows and the band’s profile never reached the heights that we thought could have been achieved but to witness the band during this era was unforgettable. I did manage to literally walk into a bar in Malmo in the late 90’s and caught a Jason Ringenberg solo show which brought back a lot of memories. I also ended up selling merch for him that night too. If you are into fast, energetic punk, country and rock music then you need to check them out. This video of them performing ‘White Lies’ at Farm Aid 2 in 1986 is the closest that sums up what the band were about.
Memories of the band from Mark Steadman:
“For the Scorchers as I can’t really remember the shows, but the Scorchers provided the soundtrack to many trips up to London to see bands. I remember The Prisoners at the 100 Club in particular. Red tinny tape recorder at full volume with ‘Lost and Found’. I think we made up an adjective to describe the experience ’Scorched’ says it all..
Punk – via The Clash and Joe Ely – got me interested in Country; The Scorchers returned the favour by taking country to punk, with ZZ Top’s engineer (Terry Manning) ensuring it was neither country or punk – just mighty fine rock n’ roll..“
Being 18 years old, watching 3-4 live shows a week, and working in a cool record shop was, for me, some of the happiest days of my life.
There’s also a great podcast called The Rock Block that currently has four interviews with the three surviving members of the band (Perry Baggs died of diabetes aged 50 in 2012) which are also worth a listen: https://www.spreaker.com/show/the-rock-block
Thanks:
Contrary to my loyalty and allegiance to Rough Trade Records my favourite record label has to be Stiff Records. From their formation in 1976 via an often disputed loan from Lee Brilleaux (Dr Feelgood), Dave Robinson and Jake Riviera started an independent record label that followed the structure of the U.S. independent labels whilst Riviera was on tour management duties over there. With the help of an in-house production team (Nick Lowe), art department (Barney Bubbles, Jules Balme) and PR (Kosmo Vinyl) the label release their debut 7″ single on 14th August 1976.
My first Stiff Records purchase was Ian Dury’s ‘What A Waste’ (BUY27) which is another song that changed my life. My Mum was so shocked by Ian’s vocal delivery when I bought the single that she threatened to send me to elocution lessons in case I turned into a cockney. Luckily we managed to preserve my original Pompey accent which magically reappears whenever I return to the city that I love!
Stiff had so many milestones including the release of the first UK punk single and album (both by The Damned), number one singles (Ian Dury and Madness) and they got heavily involved in multi formats to push record sales and chart positions. They also took their repertoire of artists to the masses via their package tours by coach and train. Their marketing slogans were legendary and are now part of rock culture.
Three of their bands made a massive impact on my life: The Damned, Ian Dury and Madness. All three of them broke the barriers within their individual music genres blended with the spirit of independence and a big two-fingers up at the major record labels. I can remember coming home from school to discover that Madness had made Number 1 with ‘House of Fun’ and I celebrated for both weeks while it stayed there. The Damned were always my punk band and I still listen to their music on a regular basis. Ian Dury was just the guvnor who introduced us to an incredible array of musicians and a regular output of classic pop songs.
The Damned’s debut album ‘Damned Damned Damned’ was released on the 18th February 1977 and made the Top 40. One of the many marketing campaigns they created started with this album where they ‘accidentally’ misprinted the first run of the album sleeve with a picture of Eddie + the Hot Rods on the back (currently worth £1000 with the shrinkwrapping in place)
Before they ran out of steam towards the end of the 80’s they were truly an inspiring and innovative label that made the rules and then broke them without realising it. I am a Stiff Records nerd so if anybody has any old rarities then please just contact me.
Footnote:
In tribute to Doves celebrating their third UK number one album, this blog evidences the background to my minuscule involvement with them in the 1990s and how they became to be one of my favourite bands. In 1997 I was working for a distributor handling international licensing and distribution deals on behalf of their independent labels. During one of my meetings, one of the label managers put forward the new Sub Sub single recorded with Bernard Sumner (New Order) called ‘This Time I’m Not Wrong’. I played the track and immediately loved it. I hadn’t really been too aware of what Sub Sub had been up to since their 1993 hit ‘Ain’t No Love (Ain’t No Use)’. I started to work with the label manager and the band’s manager Dave Rofe to see if there was any interest in any licencing deals outside of the UK. We had a couple of bites from labels in Portugal and Australia and I worked with Dave and the band to put a compilation album together around the single called ‘Delta Tapes’. I didn’t realise it at the time, and with the power of hindsight, this compilation would be a really important document of the transition of Sub Sub into Doves. The ‘Delta Tapes’ was a perfect compilation that highlighted how the band’s sound had developed and was continuing to evolve into what Doves were all about. I remember having conversations with Dave about how the band were struggling to find a vocalist for the new setup but eventually settled on Jimi taking up most of the vocal duties alongside Jez and Andy.
To coincide with this I changed jobs and started working for Grand Royal and the Beastie Boys and carried forward my fascination with the band. This involved a few trips up to Manchester to meet the band, management and Rob Gretton (Rob’s Records) who were the interim record label. After these meetings, I put a strategy and marketing proposal together to licence Dove’s singles and debut album in conjunction with the Grand Royal family (this was our pet name for ourselves). This proposal was sent to both the band/management and Grand Royal, specifically to Mike D, and my immediate boss Mark Kates who had just joined the company after leaving DGC/Geffen Records (A&R for Nirvana). There was a lot of interest and I was pushing it as much as I could, but at the last minute, Mike decided to pull out as he wasn’t feeling it. I respected his decision through gritted teeth as it was his label BUT I continued to remind him on a regular basis every time the band got an NME front cover or a number one album (or both).
This mild involvement then turned into pure fandom and since then Doves have been one of my favourite bands. I’ve seen the band play many times (The Falcon, Camden being the first) and I adore all their albums. Last year the band played Victorious Festival and I was delighted to be able to introduce two of my daughters to Dave and Jimi.
I seem to be in the minority but I strongly believe that ‘Kingdom of Rust’ is, by far, their strongest album and the one that I go back to play the most. The goodwill that I’ve witnessed over these past few weeks, mainly on social media, celebrating the band’s new album ‘The Universal Want’ and its success in becoming their third UK number one album has been fully justified. As the final chart position rolled in last week I congratulated Dave on their success. I also reached out to Mark Kates, who is now their US manager (you’re welcome) to also congratulate him and to remind him that my A&R skills from 1999 had a legacy that remains to this day. This was dutifully acknowledged by Mark.
Mark also sent me a link to a recent The Line of Best Fit interview where the band stated that there was interest from Grand Royal which has a really nice touch because it’s never been printed before.
On a musical basis, Doves are the band that really do it for me. From the atmospherics to the way that the music is driven these are albums that just haven’t aged. I honestly don’t think there are any other bands who deserve this current success after their 10-year hiatus. Long live Doves.
Footnote:
Thanks to: Dave ‘Rofey’ Rofe for always responding to my texts and Mark Kates for just being a wonderful and musically driven human being.
When the inevitable announcement of my death is posted out on a late-night tweet from my personal account by whoever can work out the pin number to my phone (CLUE: it’s Boris Johnson’s date of birth followed by a 7th digit of how many children he has brought into the world), I want it out there in the public domain what my funeral record actually is so that nobody messes up my final encore and that I shuffle off this mortal coil with a little bit of dignity. It’s not ‘Fire’ by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown and it’s definitely not ‘Light My Fire’ by The (overrated) Doors. It is actually ‘Kolly Kibber’s Birthday’ by the godlike genius that is Julian Cope.
My obsession (yes that word again) with Julian Cope coincided with the release of his debut single ‘Sunshine Playroom’ in 1983. I went to Guildford Civic Hall in 1984 to see the woefully attended first solo tour and have been a huge fan of his since. I saw him at SUB89 in Reading earlier this year before the lockdown and he was just as good and charismatic as he was in 1984. ‘World Shut Your Mouth’ and ‘Fried’, both released in 1984, are in my Top 5 albums of all time and are still played on a regular basis. I am playing ‘World Shut Your Mouth’ as I write this for inspiration. My obsession peaked at Portsmouth Guildhall in 1987 when I climbed on stage during the encore and asked Julian to marry me in front of my then-fiancée. The show was stopped after this incident which I still get blamed for but anyone in the know KNEW that ‘Reynard The Fox’ was ALWAYS the last song of the set at that time (right?).
So there you have it, during the official two days of mourning and before the state funeral could somebody please contact any person with authority (Barney, Ivy or Jane) and insist on ‘Kolly Bibber’s Birthday’. It’s not on Spotify but I have both the vinyl and CD in my collection filed under ‘C’.
***Disclaimer*** it is not my intention to die soon so this is not a plea for help!
Footnote:
Thanks to: Roy Sharples for continued inspiration & Nikki ‘Nin’ Cronen for tolerance!
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