Maybe we thought we were better than we actually were, some got ahead of themselves and with too many playing roles, but working in the music industry, especially in the early 2000s, at least for me, was about absorbing as much as possible and knowing the importance of having one’s own hits in order to move forward and be Django unchained.
Of course, not everyone thought like this.
There were those in positions to only look after numero uno and retire after using whatever job you were hired to do provided access to work “underground” and retire as a financial heavyweight with a big enough portfolio of hits to continue being an important name and saleable brand.
I fell into the music industry by first working with PolyGram and looking after its fast failing fifty percent interest in MTV Asia and creating a show on the channel for its parent company - Philips.
Maybe, this was also for pumping up Norman’s tyres- Asia’s Chairman of PolyGram Norman Cheng- when writing for Billboard?
PolyGram was then acquired by Seagrams and became Universal Music with Norman running this entity after triumphing over his only competition for the top spot, until around a decade later, when a couple of us received offers to join the regional office of EMI Music and help prop up its image of being old fashioned in the region.
I didn’t really want to join EMI. But knowing that my political ally and friend Norman Cheng, was leaving Universal Music for various reasons, including supposedly retiring, meant not having anyone on my side.
With this region constituting for less than four percent of worldwide sales for any of the major music companies, why even bother having a business in this part of the world?
It helped the global image of the company with China, something extremely important to the business interests of the parent company.
For Seagrams, who had Martell and Chivas Regal, these two different business streams were helluva important to them for the competitive China market.
Having their alcohol brands associated with something cool like music made sense.
It was a very good marriage of two very different industries, each one giving the other more clout.
I became very good friends with the Seagrams marketing people in Asia. They knew that I came from advertising, understood marketing and could steer them in the right direction on how else to use music other than the lame sponsorship of various shows and concerts.
I never saw or bought into that type of music promotional advertising and marketing.
One night while meeting up at the upmarket karaoke and escort club in Kowloon called BBoss and casually talking about the Martell advertising theme line- “When You Know”- I managed to sell the Seagrams executives on a “When You Know” music series that covered every genre of music.
Seagrams ordered 867,000 units from our pre cleared back catalogue list and which they bought at full price and sold as a premium offer at all Duty Free shops.
Without knowing it, I had closed the biggest deal Universal Music had made with any sponsor and helped the region meet its EBITA- Earnings Before Interest, Taxes and Amortisation.
To cement the deal that night, we celebrated by singing the three hits of Bonnie Tyler, who was a particular favourite with the stunning Eastern European girls seated with us.
They were fun and financially savvy who had done their maths and enjoyed our company instead of being with the local fat cat business men entertaining their associates from overseas and who treated these girls like slabs of meat
Some of these girls became live-in girlfriends after their contracts as dancers were up and enjoyed a very privileged lifestyle in Hong Kong in return for being a fabulous looking handbag.
Working in the music industry wasn’t always being part of the world’s longest cocktail party, but it was whatever you wanted it to be.
One just had to be aware of the inter-office politics and not to trust anyone- even those you thought you could trust.
Loose lips always sink ships, and, sometimes, the Love Boat became the tugboat or the Titanic.
There was always something going on and it was one big whirl of travelling first class to worldwide music marketing conferences, meeting after often useless meeting with enough time to sneak off to the nearest William Hills to make a wager, return in time so that no one missed you and see what and who was happening for dinner.
It was where one made themselves irreplaceable and built up one’s own brand for the future.
These were almost always “ribald” evenings like something outta the film “Tom Jones” with “wenches” from the various offices and others with the various travelling parties eating, drinking, smoking and snorting and getting lost in the thrill of it all and keeping tabs on those around you.
Those from Asia were more reserved and always seemed to form their own Joy Luck Club and went in search of a Chinese restaurant no matter where in the world they were and ended up in a sauna that gave “happy endings”.
Did we do any work?
What was there to do?
There would be a new release by a global priority act that would be promoted on some music channels, and, if lucky, a promotional tour for us in the region.
The rest of the time would be spent by those in sales and marketing obtaining good shelf space at record stores to gain the attention of record buyers.
Others would find ways to make their numbers by selling inferior product manufactured in Malaysia and China straight into Europe and screwing up sales figures.
When we couldn’t stem the tide and the flow of counterfeit product, we simply hired the Mr Big and put him in charge of a market.
A key reason for enjoying being with Universal Music was my tremendous respect for Max Hole, at the time, COO of UMG International, and the teams he built around him in London and around Europe.
Here was a real music guy who knew that I could deliver.
It was Max who created ERA, a specialised division which was to re-work established artists who had fallen through the cracks, an idea borne out by the successful comeback of Cher with the dance hit “Believe”.
Though ERA might have failed in trying to bring Sheena Easton back into the limelight as a dance diva, BoyzIIMen inadvertently gave us a huge hit by turning down an idea given to them to revive interest in the group.
The idea was to record some of Motown’s biggest hits and with cameos by the label’s most popular artists. It was my A&R idea and something I believed in.
When BoyzIIMen were more interested in recording their own songs and left us for Sony Music, I recommended to Max how this project would be the perfect vehicle for the great Michael McDonald who was languishing on one of Universal’s many labels singing songs that didn’t do him justice.
Max made the MMM project happen.
“Michael McDonald Sings Motown” sold over 15 million units and resurrected the artist’s career.
Unfortunately, I had decided to leave for EMI, and whenever meeting Max when he was in Hong Kong, he happily reminded me that leaving for EMI had meant me losing out on points worth a few hundred thousand dollars.
An interesting footnote to this story was BoyzIIMen returning to the Motown imprint and recording the album idea presented to them many years earlier. It flopped.
Walking into EMI was as dark as finding one’s self alone in Gotham City.
Despite having a great back catalogue including that of the Beatles, exciting new artists were few and far between- Blue, Atomic Kitten, Robbie Williams, who was still to have a breakout hit, and a Danish group with the unlikely name of Michael Learns To Rock.
We often suffered from penis envy, especially looking at the very long and thick artists list belonging to Universal, especially when it came to hip new Black artists on exciting labels like Def Jam.
Compared to UMG, EMI was just so WHITE and uncool.
Norman Cheng was busy making staff cuts and bringing in his own regional team and trying to improve the company’s four percent market share plus looking after Toshiba-EMI in Japan.
My first hit for the company was persuading the very bland Michael Learns To Rock to record an English version of a massive hit in Mandarin for leading Chinese artist Jacky Cheung and call it “Take Me To Your Heart”.
It became the massive hit I knew it would be, especially in karaoke, and sold over six million downloads and paved the way for a successful regional tour by the group.
Elsewhere, our international repertoire improved dramatically with the signings and debut releases by Norah Jones, Coldplay, Robbie breaking through with “Angels” and the always interesting and adventurous Gorillaz.
And then there was Maksim.
Signed to EMI Classics, here was an unknown Croatian and extremely tall classically trained pianist who dressed like a goth rock star and banged away on the piano like a man possessed.
Not too many at the showcase event in Barcelona where he performed showed interest in getting behind him.
There was something so weird about him that I thought he would have a certain freak appeal in Hong Kong and China. And he did.
After selling almost 400,000 CDs in Hong Kong alone and him touring almost every other month, Maksimania took over China where he continues to be a massive drawcard.
The final days of EMI Music as I knew it was a blur.
One day, our Chairman and Co Chairman were Alain Levy and David Munns, and the next day, they were locked out of their offices.
The legendary music company was suddenly in the hands of the private equity company Terra Firma run by Guy Hands which ended up giving plenty of headaches to a man known for refurbishing toilets on the autobahn and enjoyed karaoke.
It was an old fashioned corporate coup d’etat apparently instigated by Executive Chairman Eric Nicoli and some of his loyalists and corporate survivalists.
Suddenly, there was bedlam with everyone looking for new gigs- very probably including Guy Hands
Norman used his time wisely and had quickly cobbled together his own entertainment company- Gold Typhoon- which he packaged and sold to the Pong Man who ached to be in the entertainment industry, who then sold it for a huge profit to Warner.
Hmmmmm.
For someone like myself who was interested enough to look, listen and know the difference between the drumming of Hal Blaine, Steve Gadd, Harvey Mason and Jimmy Keltner, and which songs were written by Lennon and which belonged to McCartney, being in the music industry wasn’t a job- it was about being a fan, having respect for game changers like Quincy Jones, the Ertegun brothers, Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, and the Motown brand and everything they and others have given us.
It was about living and loving the music and meeting many of my heroes and having the opportunity to work with musicians who mean something to me, have my songs recorded by some of the biggest Chinese artists and having remixes produced that even impressed Mr Bowie.
Thankfully, I had made a decision before Guy Hands himself left himself to bring music to horse racing and create what became the Happy Wednesday brand for the Hong Kong Jockey Club.
Happy Wednesday was a challenge that worked well for that time and paid handsomely.
What’s next for me is to bring value back to a devalued art form that cannot continue being all about streaming and run by many asleep at the wheel and walking around with name cards that hide the truth.
There’s also something definitely not working in certain markets about the music recording side and the music publishing side working separately.
It’s where those who haven’t done their homework are continuing to sign Rights away only to be very badly screwed by not owning their own music.
The tail starts wagging the dog.
I speak from experience and had to get my legal team involved against a certain major music publishing company having infringed at least three basic laws of music copyright.
As for those working in many major music companies in this region, gawd help us all including those running this region, if anyone thinks these people are creating an even playing field no matter what’s reported or said.
They are INEPT, bring nada to the table and whoever brought them in should be let go.
Watch this space for what happens next and its importance in at least giving Hong Kong its groove back- and just maybe giving music the respect it deserves.
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