Q Prime

So I’m sitting in Cliff’s office and he starts waxing RHAPSODIC about the
Kaiser Chiefs song.

Talk to anybody at a label these days.  They all say the same thing, it’s no
FUN!  Instead of camaraderie and good times there’s an atmosphere of fear and
nary a week goes by without another lifelong friend disappearing.  It’s
depressing.  But in the management world…

Not the Sanctuary Management world.  That’s a public company.  The managers
are insulated from the vagaries of the business, they’re paid a salary, they’re
not rock and roll RENEGADES!  But Q Prime operates like a seventies
powerhouse.  It all depends on the ACTS, whether they’re hitting, whether they’re
HAPPENING!

We’re having a conclave in Marc’s office.  Tony’s showing me the
Leppard/Bryan Adams ticket counts.  And a priceless e-mail from the rock critic from the "Oregonian".  When asked if he wants to do an interview with Bryan, Marty Hughley said, "Personally, I’d rather chug Drano."  Now I actually like Bryan, I
like hanging with him AND his music, but you’ve got to appreciate Marty’s style,
that old rock and roll spirit, burning bridges with IMPUNITY!

And then Marc’s pulling up the downloads SoundScan.  God, there are tracks
doing north of 500,000 files.  And to think that they wouldn’t have sold even a
FRACTION of this number of physical, antiquated discs.

And Gayle pops in for a reading.  Exactly WHO are they referring to on
hitsdailydouble who A&R’ed the Green Day album.  Do they even HAVE an A&R person?  Is Rob Cavallo paying them, or is he angling for a new job?

THIS is the heart of the music business.  People who still CARE!  And know
that the laughs come with the TERRITORY!

After lunch, I got into it with Cliff.  Now I know that Cliff goes home every
day at 5:30 to be with his family, but I didn’t know that he still BELIEVES! 
He’s addicted to Ethel.  He loves hearing the new bands.  He LIVES for Arcade
Fire.  He turned his KIDS on to the act.

Concomitantly we discussed the distant arcane.  I got a whole make on Art
Fein, whom I ran into at Harold Bronson’s house when we watched that documentary on the Z Channel.  Seemingly every person I mentioned, mainstream or peripheral, Cliff had communicated with recently, he was a repository of the only thing that matters in this business, INFORMATION!

And while he was on the phone, I picked up the calls for him of people I
knew.  Which is always hilarious.  I mean sitting in Cliff’s office and picking up
the phone and giving a head spin to Lee Abrams.

Oh, this is a personal trip.  A rendezvous for my little sister’s fiftieth
birthday.  To all who e-mailed, I’m sorry I can’t get together with you.  I was
planning on staying into next week, but my shrink has got prostate cancer and
I want to go back and get in the final sessions before he disappears and goes
under the knife.  And I told Hugh Surratt if I was still awake I would stop by
RCA and hear the new David Gray album.  But I never made it.  I got hung up,
I spent the whole day at Q Prime.  You would have too.  There was a pulse. 
Not a heavy pulse, rather a WHAT THE FUCK pulse.  We’re doing it our way, who
gives a fuck what the system tells us to do, we’re executing, we’re having fun,
and it’s WORKING FOR US!  There’s no corporation, no policy, just individuals
running their own fiefs in support of making bands the biggest in the world.

And after loading up on swag to give to my sister, a pink Shania Twain hat to
wear in her new convertible, a Metallica tanktop, other assorted chazerai, I
took to the street.

By this time it was no longer raining.  It was too cool for May, but walking
the street, it was undeniable.  Something was happening.  LIFE!  Both the rich
and the poor, dwarfed by the Morgan Stanley electronic ticker-tape, the
endless stream of food and electronics emporiums.  It was a Vegas buffet, but the
food had nutritional value, and, as much as you ate, you could never get full. 
And as I walked the streets back to my hotel, what I noticed most was the
headphones,  The white headphones.  Attached to dangling white cords.

Nobody walks in L.A.  It’s hard to really FEEL iPod culture.

And it’s not like everybody in New York has an Apple player, but of those
attached to electronic devices, I’d put the Apple market share at ninety percent.
 But it’s more than that, there was a way the white-corded people walked, a
way they held themselves, like they were hip, like they were COOL!  It’s kind
of like having a new BMW 3-series, any new, up-to-the-minute product, only this
one is relatively cheap, this one is COOL!

Make no mistake, the iPod is the best portable music player.  It’s killing
the competition.  Just look at Creative stock for illustration.  But as
intuitive as the interface is, as seamless as the iTunes software is, it’s really
about those white headphones, being a member of the CLUB!  Yup, for as low as a
hundred bucks, you can join the elite.  And, like a Benz, an iPod never loses
its cachet.  It’s just too perfect, it’s an Eames chair, not an Aeron, it’s
TIMELESS!  Everybody wants one.  And everybody’s gonna get one.  Don’t worry,
Nokia and Samsung are gonna make no inroads into the market with their mobile
devices.  They don’t have the signature headphones!  God, if the Motorola iTunes
phone comes with white headphones, it’s going to dominate.  Still, people don’t
want to listen to music on their mobile phones, not in the present
iterations.  They want iPods.  Just walk the streets of Manhattan, it will all come
clear.

4 Responses to Q Prime »»


Comments

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  1. Comment by Vinny Vero | 2005/05/23 at 22:45:15

    Thanks for reminding me how passionate Cliff and Q Prime are. I was a product manager at EMI from 90-95. One of my bands (note I didn’t say the corporate knee jerk term "responsibilities") was Queensryche. Cliff and Peter revved me up every time I came in contact with them in person or on the phone. They dug the fact I was had the passion, too. And they didn’t mind that I liked (and still do) Duran Duran and Depeche Mode! But I certainly got my fair share of razzing for it. I’m sure I would get an earful about The Killers! They respected my resolute passion. Of course, it didn’t help that EMI was the antithesis of a cool label….or a profitable one. The company lived up to the adopted name their acronym stood for – Every Mistake Imaginable. EMI signed David Gray before the "hit". I just wasn’t meant to happen there. I couldn’t happen there. The passion had been sucked out of the place right after the merger (read "hostile take over") by SBK and Charlie’s crew. After six years my number finally came up. Why? The passion. I was magenta in beige world. Since then, I’ve kept the passion. I’ve concentrated on my songwriting, had some hits and worked in magazine publishing for a while. But I always come back to the music on some level. Even now, when I’m producing compilations and box sets, which I understand will go the way of the rotary dial phone, I bite into each project with passion. It oozes from every pore. Nothing can stop it. My brain is a massive hard drive of song titles, artists, release dates, selection numbers, chart positions…anything to do with popular music, from the obvious to the obscure. It comes in handy…except when I’m trying to license a song from Def Leppard for a DRTV advertised box set about rock. You see, no amount of information can replace the power of a manager. A manager like Cliff protects his artists from the uncool. There’s no persuading him to the contrary. So I can’t license Def Leppard even if my life depended on it. And I respect that!

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  3. Comment by Toby Mamis | 2005/05/23 at 22:45:36

    a) alice has been raving about the kaiser chiefs for awhile now, even in his interviews. he mentioned them so many times when we were in london, i got sick of hearing it. and then roger daltrey asked him if he’d heard them yet… b) been there, done that at Q Prime. One time i stopped by to visit and pick up Mensch’s Mets tickets (Goldstone and I were going), and I ended up staying there for hours, talking music and baseball, and in the middle of it Courtney called from the "Larry Flynt" set, all wound up about her battle with Geffen, seeming to need so much re-assurance and confidence-building, and I offered to excuse myself, and Cliff & Peter were like, "no, stay, it’s an every day occurrence."

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  5. Comment by Marty Hughley | 2005/05/25 at 14:32:56

    In my defense, I was answering forthrightly about my personal interest in the
    act _ which, with a publicist of any skill and perspective, would be taken as
    useful input not personal affront and result in no bridge combustion
    whatsoever. The better publicists I’ve dealt with actually want to know what writers
    like and don’t like, lest they waste lots of everyone’s time pitching hopeless
    causes.

    In addition, the Drano comment was followed immediately by a pledge to
    present that matter to my editors, who sometimes feel the tug of populism more
    keenly than I do, since it ultimately would be their decision to allocate the space
    for such a story and either pay for a freelancer or suggest to me that Drano
    actually makes a nice spritzy summer cocktail when mixed with _ oh, since it’s
    Bryan Adams, let’s say Canadian Club.
    As it happened my bosses didn’t find the subject anymore newsworthy or
    aesthetically compelling than I did, and so our answer was "no, thank you."
    At no point in the communication was any rudeness intended, nor, I believe,
    conveyed.
    Rather than rock and roll spirit, the comment arose from, if anything, weary
    drollery employed as paltry defense against unrelenting hyperbole.

  6. comment_type != "trackback" && $comment->comment_type != "pingback" && !ereg("", $comment->comment_content) && !ereg("", $comment->comment_content)) { ?>
  7. Comment by Jim Rondinelli | 2005/05/25 at 14:33:13

    I have always thought of Adams as the Gershwin of the 80’s, save the ballads,
    which were, um, financially prosperous if soft….


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  1. Comment by Vinny Vero | 2005/05/23 at 22:45:15

    Thanks for reminding me how passionate Cliff and Q Prime are. I was a product manager at EMI from 90-95. One of my bands (note I didn’t say the corporate knee jerk term "responsibilities") was Queensryche. Cliff and Peter revved me up every time I came in contact with them in person or on the phone. They dug the fact I was had the passion, too. And they didn’t mind that I liked (and still do) Duran Duran and Depeche Mode! But I certainly got my fair share of razzing for it. I’m sure I would get an earful about The Killers! They respected my resolute passion. Of course, it didn’t help that EMI was the antithesis of a cool label….or a profitable one. The company lived up to the adopted name their acronym stood for – Every Mistake Imaginable. EMI signed David Gray before the "hit". I just wasn’t meant to happen there. I couldn’t happen there. The passion had been sucked out of the place right after the merger (read "hostile take over") by SBK and Charlie’s crew. After six years my number finally came up. Why? The passion. I was magenta in beige world. Since then, I’ve kept the passion. I’ve concentrated on my songwriting, had some hits and worked in magazine publishing for a while. But I always come back to the music on some level. Even now, when I’m producing compilations and box sets, which I understand will go the way of the rotary dial phone, I bite into each project with passion. It oozes from every pore. Nothing can stop it. My brain is a massive hard drive of song titles, artists, release dates, selection numbers, chart positions…anything to do with popular music, from the obvious to the obscure. It comes in handy…except when I’m trying to license a song from Def Leppard for a DRTV advertised box set about rock. You see, no amount of information can replace the power of a manager. A manager like Cliff protects his artists from the uncool. There’s no persuading him to the contrary. So I can’t license Def Leppard even if my life depended on it. And I respect that!

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    1. Comment by Toby Mamis | 2005/05/23 at 22:45:36

      a) alice has been raving about the kaiser chiefs for awhile now, even in his interviews. he mentioned them so many times when we were in london, i got sick of hearing it. and then roger daltrey asked him if he’d heard them yet… b) been there, done that at Q Prime. One time i stopped by to visit and pick up Mensch’s Mets tickets (Goldstone and I were going), and I ended up staying there for hours, talking music and baseball, and in the middle of it Courtney called from the "Larry Flynt" set, all wound up about her battle with Geffen, seeming to need so much re-assurance and confidence-building, and I offered to excuse myself, and Cliff & Peter were like, "no, stay, it’s an every day occurrence."

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      1. Comment by Marty Hughley | 2005/05/25 at 14:32:56

        In my defense, I was answering forthrightly about my personal interest in the
        act _ which, with a publicist of any skill and perspective, would be taken as
        useful input not personal affront and result in no bridge combustion
        whatsoever. The better publicists I’ve dealt with actually want to know what writers
        like and don’t like, lest they waste lots of everyone’s time pitching hopeless
        causes.

        In addition, the Drano comment was followed immediately by a pledge to
        present that matter to my editors, who sometimes feel the tug of populism more
        keenly than I do, since it ultimately would be their decision to allocate the space
        for such a story and either pay for a freelancer or suggest to me that Drano
        actually makes a nice spritzy summer cocktail when mixed with _ oh, since it’s
        Bryan Adams, let’s say Canadian Club.
        As it happened my bosses didn’t find the subject anymore newsworthy or
        aesthetically compelling than I did, and so our answer was "no, thank you."
        At no point in the communication was any rudeness intended, nor, I believe,
        conveyed.
        Rather than rock and roll spirit, the comment arose from, if anything, weary
        drollery employed as paltry defense against unrelenting hyperbole.

      2. comment_type == "trackback" || $comment->comment_type == "pingback" || ereg("", $comment->comment_content) || ereg("", $comment->comment_content)) { ?>

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        1. Comment by Jim Rondinelli | 2005/05/25 at 14:33:13

          I have always thought of Adams as the Gershwin of the 80’s, save the ballads,
          which were, um, financially prosperous if soft….

        This is a read-only blog. E-mail comments directly to Bob.