Entertainment For Lively Minds
Why acts should love their label more than ever - record business past, present and future with Tony Wadsworth
Tony Wadsworth was once in a group called Black Cat Bone. Realising he was unlikely to make it as a rock star he entered the record business, eventually rising to be the the CEO of EMI Recorded Music and then the Chairman of the BPI. He's also a Word reader and avid podcast listener.
In this podcast he goes back over his career at EMI, from the days when older employees still recalled visits from "Mr Lennon" through the reformation of the Parlophone label and the high noon of Britpop to 360° deals with Robbie Williams up to the uncertain future faced by traditional record labels today. Along with Eamonn Forde he's written a report for a think tank on what record labels need to do to justify themselves in the 21st century. If you think the music business is run by anonymous "suits" who don't like music and don't give any serious thought to the future, you need to hear this.
The podcast is available to podcast app users now (if you've allowed push notifications, you'll have received a message already) and will be available via this website, through iTunes and other channels tomorrow.
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The Young Bucks
Have only managed to listen to part of the podcast but it sent me on a mission. I have therefore just returned from the back left corner of a very dusty loft clutching a copy of Get Your Feet Back on the Ground b/w Cold Cold Morning by The Young Bucks on the Blueport label (black vinyl and fetching picture sleeve). I've given it a spin and enjoyed as much as I did when I first bought it in the olden days. Great to be reminded of it!
'Damn!
Just when we've found the ironing board there's no sign of Ellen's crumpled blue shirt.'
"Well
there goes the Thames Barrier, Won't be long before we're hanging 10 with the rest of young Islington, duuuuuuuudddees!"
For most of the podcast
I was labouring under the misapprehension that Tony was in the blues band Black Cat Bones (with an "s") and looking forward to hearing tales of life on the road with Paul Kossoff and Simon Kirke.
Then I realised he's clearly much too young and handsome to have made an LP in 1969.
Thanks. Fantastic podcast.
Tony was a great interviewee. Could have listened to a couple more hours of that no bother. I thought a french-sounding bloke was in charge of EMI during the 90s so I got a shock hearing Tony's brogue.
One of the best yet
How great a guest was TW? Sure, the anecdotes were fascinating and amusing - but he also spoke about the business with such authority and enthusiasm... and never giving an 'obvious' answer or opinion.
I can't remember a recent podcast where Mark and David were this quiet. And I mean that as an enormous compliment to all concerned.
Actually, the Danny Baker
Actually, the Danny Baker 'cast would probably run it close on that count!
Excellent stuff again.
I love these...
I always enjoy 'business' articles in the magazine, because few magazines ever bother to do them from the POV of, well, an anorak! Where you have lads like Mark and David who know the business, but have a sense of fun about it, and a guest like Tony it makes for something informative and entertaining in equal measure.
Great!
What a great guest, particularly due to the fact that he was at Parlophone at one of their golden times, largely it must be said, due to himself. Another nominee for a return guest methinks. Interesting.
That podcast confirmed something...
I've long thought; that a record company run by people who genuinely care about music and their artists will always be a good thing. And it can only benefit a musician having to hear the word "no" every so often. We still need record labels but we need more people with the knowledge and enthusiasm of Tony Wadsworth to run them.
There's seems to be a widespread assumption
That people in the industry who "care about music" are few and far between, which is something I've never really understood. The people I meet who work in the industry tend to be absolute music fiends. It's why they do what they do.
And let's be honest: if you didn't care about music, it's the last place you'd choose to work. Other industries tend to pay better, for a start. And the hours are lousy.
I wasn't implying...
that there aren't lots of "music fiends" working for record labels, rather I was just paying a compliment to Tony Wadsworth and suggesting that the more people like him there are in the music industry the better.
Oh, I realise that
I was adding to your point, not disagreeing with it. But it is true that record companies "run by people who genuinely care about music and their artists" aren't unusual. Most, if not all of them are like that. In the end, it's usually the business end of things where things go wrong, and at such times passion doesn't necessarily count for much.
I've never worked worked in the music industry
But I have worked with a few people there. Genuinely yes, most of them are music fiends. The problem is quite a few of the ones I've dealt with were bloody incompetent. Or if they have been fine then quite often its the performers themselves who sabotage things.
Interesting podcast but...
... I couldn't help getting the feeling Tony was taking credit for things that were completely circumstantial, or am I being harsh?
Consulting my old diaries...
I saw Black Cat Bone three times in 1974. My mates used to film the Moss Bank Park Festival on 8mm film cameras, where they appeared in June 1974, so footage exists somewhere or other.
I wonder when he first met Iron Maiden at EMI if he regaled them with tales of the original Iron Maiden in Bolton who always headlined the festival. The latter released some long lost recordings for a cancer charity a couple of years back and got permission and excellent publicity from the BYDTTSH on condition it was labelled as being by The Bolton Iron Maiden.
Now where is that film footage of young rocker Tony...
Monty Python - Blackmail