You see in England they still believe.\u00c2\u00a0 In the power of rock and roll.\u00c2\u00a0 In
the artistic statement.\u00c2\u00a0 In the music industry.<\/p>\n
It’s very different in the States.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody’s jaded.\u00c2\u00a0 It all comes down to
the bucks.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s totally o.k. to go for them, and he who collects the most
wins.<\/p>\n
Maybe it’s that Englishmen have a long history of not winning.\u00c2\u00a0 Against
institutionalized classism.\u00c2\u00a0 Across the pond we’ve got the American dream.\u00c2\u00a0 Work
hard enough and not only can you be rich, you can possess power too.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas no matter how hard you work in the U.K. you’re still the punter, the poor chap
from the midlands.\u00c2\u00a0 On the cover of the NME on one day, back at work in the
shop almost the next.\u00c2\u00a0 So, in your limited time in the spotlight you want to make
a statement.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re not so worried about endorsements, if you get any,
they’re not going to last.\u00c2\u00a0 The system is against you, so you might as well rail
against it.<\/p>\n
The system is beyond rigged in the U.S.\u00c2\u00a0 Radio spins very few records and MTV
plays almost no music.\u00c2\u00a0 And on some level the major labels, in control, like
this.\u00c2\u00a0 For it keeps the indies out.\u00c2\u00a0 What did Tommy Silverman say?\u00c2\u00a0 The indies
have 27% of sales and less than half of that in airplay?<\/p>\n
Whereas they tell me John Kennedy, as head of the BPI, got rid of
chart-rigging.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s a sense that there’s a level playing field, and anybody can
compete.\u00c2\u00a0 In the U.S. we know better.<\/p>\n
Will the U.K. follow the U.S?\u00c2\u00a0 Unclear.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe they’re just that different.<\/p>\n
One of the big points of discussion here is why U.K. hip-hop can’t connect in
the U.S.\u00c2\u00a0 I tell everybody they’re under the illusion it’s about MUSIC,
whereas in the U.S. hip-hop is about culture.\u00c2\u00a0 They don’t want some middle class
limey invading their territory.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not that different from a battle between
the Bloods and the Crips.\u00c2\u00a0 Only, in this case, it’s more like the Bloods and
the Suburbanites.<\/p>\n
You see in the U.S., the major system is dying, it’s shrinking.\u00c2\u00a0 That indie
airplay statistic?\u00c2\u00a0 That’s for terrestrial radio only.\u00c2\u00a0 Indie records match
their sales in airplay on satellite.<\/p>\n
You see, America is indie heaven.\u00c2\u00a0 The indies are about to take over.\u00c2\u00a0
Whereas the indies in the U.K., the land of the traditional renegade, are bitching
and whining that the majors are fucking them.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas the true indies of the
U.S. are taking matters in their own hands.\u00c2\u00a0 Doing what the majors don’t.\u00c2\u00a0
Developing career bands.\u00c2\u00a0 Marketing them on the Internet.\u00c2\u00a0 Using fan clubs to fill
venues.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s all about the music in indieland.\u00c2\u00a0 And that’s exciting.<\/p>\n
Then again, in the U.K., music never lost its exalted position.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not a
second-class citizen.\u00c2\u00a0 People still follow the acts, and go to see them.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell,
I even heard a rock song in a fast food joint today.\u00c2\u00a0 Startled me.\u00c2\u00a0 That it’s
not only hip-hop on the Top Forty.<\/p>\n
The day started off with Seymour Stein being interviewed by Tony about his
top ten records.<\/p>\n
All these years later it was stunning to see Seymour’s track record.\u00c2\u00a0 And
Seymour told the story of how he signed these acts.\u00c2\u00a0 But that was a different
era.\u00c2\u00a0 One wherein you had to fly to a different country to experience a band.\u00c2\u00a0 A
day before e-mail and webcasts.\u00c2\u00a0 You can’t be early anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody knows
everything almost instantly.\u00c2\u00a0 And the majors only want hits.\u00c2\u00a0 And a hit is no
longer gold, but double platinum.\u00c2\u00a0 Still, to see the introductory videos…\u00c2\u00a0
Seeing David Byrne floating on the water in "Once In A Lifetime".\u00c2\u00a0 Madonna in
"Borderline".\u00c2\u00a0 It reminded one of those days.\u00c2\u00a0 When we still believed in the
U.S.\u00c2\u00a0 When MTV was more exciting than network television.\u00c2\u00a0 When acts were all
about creativity, stretching out, testing the limits, not being in fashion
spreads.<\/p>\n
But those days are gone.\u00c2\u00a0 The videos on MTV today don’t resemble these quaint
clips of yore.\u00c2\u00a0 Today’s videos are slick mini-movies.\u00c2\u00a0 They don’t have the
heart of rock and roll.\u00c2\u00a0 And without the heart you’ve got no soul.\u00c2\u00a0 And the
American business has got no soul.<\/p>\n
Oh, Seymour told some great stories.\u00c2\u00a0 Reading in the NME about a band playing
that night in the U.K., picking up his credit card and driving to Kennedy to
take the Concorde for the very first time, barely making it to the gig.\u00c2\u00a0
Insisting Madonna come to the hospital so he could sign her, for fear she’d be
picked up by somebody else.\u00c2\u00a0 Getting a shave and haircut and sending out for a new bathrobe but the soon to be Material Girl not caring, being just so thrilled
to be signed.\u00c2\u00a0 To a deal for ONE SINGLE!\u00c2\u00a0 With an option for a SECOND single.\u00c2\u00a0
And then a THIRD single.\u00c2\u00a0 And THEN an album!<\/p>\n
Running out of money in his A&R budget and getting the head of Warner
publishing to start a new label and then pay for him to sign Echo & the Bunnymen, who he’d seen the night before.\u00c2\u00a0 And, really, they were called the Bunnymen, and
Echo represented the drum machine for this drummerless band.<\/p>\n
And towards the end, Jimmy Pursey of Sham 69 walked by the stage and said
that Seymour owed him forty quid.\u00c2\u00a0 For a cab ride long ago.<\/p>\n
And then Seymour departed for the train station, for London.\u00c2\u00a0 And I went on.\u00c2\u00a0
And then the aforementioned Jimmy.<\/p>\n
Turns out that Tony Blair used one of the old punk’s compositions as the
underpinning of a new campaign.\u00c2\u00a0 Jimmy was just sitting at home, contemplating how broke he was, and a friend called him and told him to turn on the tube, that
Tony Blair was using HIS SONG!<\/p>\n
Usually these old musicians are broken men.<\/p>\n
And although Jimmy seemed to have broken teeth, he was eloquent, and what he
said rang true.\u00c2\u00a0 That punk was not about talent, but having the balls to get
up on stage and be yourself and get people to LISTEN TO YOU!<\/p>\n
Actually, that was similar to Seymour’s single point of advice.\u00c2\u00a0 Have the
courage of your convictions.\u00c2\u00a0 Believe in yourself.\u00c2\u00a0 His biggest regrets are when
he listened to other people and passed on bands, did what he didn’t believe in.<\/p>\n
And Jimmy went on to speak of how he thought punk was the biggest musical
movement EVER in England.\u00c2\u00a0 Which sounded ridiculous until he started talking
about everybody and their spiky hairdos, their leather boots, their attitude.\u00c2\u00a0
But, what he couldn’t understand was the people running around in the FCUK
t-shirts.\u00c2\u00a0 All it represented to him was they were half-DANGEROUS!<\/p>\n
And then a group of us went to Piccolino for dinner.<\/p>\n
At the end of the table was the photographer Mick Rock.<\/p>\n
Who Tony said went to Cambridge.<\/p>\n
My jaw dropped.\u00c2\u00a0 I didn’t believe it.\u00c2\u00a0 So Mr. Wilson shouted down to the end
of the table to this scruffy rock photographer and over the table in this
Italian restaurant they reminisced about the old days, the individual colleges,
the automatic M.A. degrees.<\/p>\n
And, as I’m sitting there, listening to Tony talk about how the Oxbridge
system worked, how you had one exam at the end of the year, how you had to write essays every week but they didn’t count, how you were expected to participate in extracurricular activities and if you starred you immediately flew up to the pros, like Monty Python, I knew England was different.<\/p>\n
And then we stepped outside into the rain.<\/p>\n
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You see in England they still believe.\u00c2\u00a0 In the power of rock and roll.\u00c2\u00a0 In the artistic statement.\u00c2\u00a0 In the music industry. It’s very different in the States.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody’s jaded.\u00c2\u00a0 It all comes down to the bucks.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s totally o.k. to go for them, and he who collects the most wins. Maybe it’s that Englishmen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-2R","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}