I’m a believer.

Does your heart palpitate when you’re in the same room as a rock star?

God, I read every line of the rock press, so to be hanging with these people
makes me tingle.  Makes me feel like asking a girl on a date.  Back when I was
in high school and if I got rejected I thought I was going to DIE!

I bought Chris Blackwell’s first hit, Millie Small’s "My Boy Lollipop".  All
these years later, to be confronted with the human being who released this
record…  You see it’s not just music to me, it’s not just a record, it’s LIFE
ITSELF!

And that’s what it is to Chris.  He’s just living it.  That’s what true stars
possess.  It’s not a put-on, they have an innate charisma.  They live their
life in this style without trying.  While the rest of us try to cope with our
awkwardness.  There are people who feel they’re BORN to be in this business. 
That they’re entitled to hang with these icons.  I am not one of them.  Because
deep down inside I’m a fan.  I’m down in the pit, looking up.  I’m in my
bedroom fantasizing that if I just have access my life will work.

Oh, the panel was good.  Chris said the main criterion for being an
independent was to be UNEMPLOYABLE!

Richard Russell spoke of how the business was completely different.  Because
of the Internet.  It was no longer hard to FIND talent, the question was just
whether to SIGN IT!

Alan McGee talked about staffing up Creation to almost unmanageable
proportions when Oasis hit.

And Tony…  He’s Mr. Anecdote anyway.  But he told one story I hadn’t heard
before.  How the initial Factory records were financed by his inheritance. 
He’d received 12,000 pounds after his mother died.  He left it untouched for
three years, and then he invested 5,000 in two tracks, and then, when that money
came back, he invested the whole 12,000.  That’s an independent.

An independent doesn’t do it for the money, but the music.

The moderator, Webbo, who was a long term employee at Virgin, told of Richard
Branson courting Elvis Costello.  After being wined and dined Elvis asked
Richard to name one track off his previous album.  When Sir Richard couldn’t,
Elvis stood up and stormed out.

Richard Branson knew how to grow a business, but he didn’t know shit about
music.

The people who know something about music are starting to rule again.

Chris talked about not being a multinational.  About investing for years with
no guarantee of return.  Creating enough records so that the act could get
its own divider card in the bin.

Alan spoke of financing his first records with his salary from British Rail.

These were not people with MBAs plotting return on investment.  They just
BELIEVED!  That what they had was SO good that if they could just get it out
there other people would think so too.

They’re operating with a different paradigm.  After the panel I asked Chris
what he thought of endorsements and fashion spreads and movie placements.  He
responded that he thought they were terrible.  That they removed all the
MYSTERY!

These guys know the truth.

Whatever truth the guys at the majors might have known they’ve forgotten. 
They believe their system is a sound one, as it’s eroding beneath them.

And then, standing in the lobby.  Conversing with Richard and Chris, I ran
out of words.  After all, they were the ones who were DOING IT!

So I decided to do the one thing I can do.  To race upstairs and talk to you.