Melody Maker, April 29, 1978: Difference between revisions
(+mailbag text box) |
(+text part 2) |
||
Line 67: | Line 67: | ||
"For example, we have spent in excess of £250,000 on Cafe Jacques, while their album has not sold anywhere near that amount, but we think the band has genuine talent and a future. | "For example, we have spent in excess of £250,000 on Cafe Jacques, while their album has not sold anywhere near that amount, but we think the band has genuine talent and a future. | ||
"The Clash album has sold 100,000 records, but that is not successful financially. We all lost money over that because of the money that went into it they toured up and down the country, and lost money with every gig. The members of the band are still on £50 or £70 a week — and that is terrible. But we have no reason to doubt that their next album will not sell three times as much as the first. | "The Clash album has sold 100,000 records, but that is not successful financially. We all lost money over that because of the money that went into it — they toured up and down the country, and lost money with every gig. The members of the band are still on £50 or £70 a week — and that is terrible. But we have no reason to doubt that their next album will not sell three times as much as the first. | ||
"When I think of the Clash, I look at the early Pink Floyd. Could you tell me how far down the road that band would have gone in ten years time? No. | "When I think of the Clash, I look at the early Pink Floyd. Could you tell me how far down the road that band would have gone in ten years time? No. | ||
Line 81: | Line 81: | ||
"If you look at the charts for the last two Christmasses you find that a good 50 percent of the records that made it were either specifically made for TV promotion or were heavily advertised for that medium. | "If you look at the charts for the last two Christmasses you find that a good 50 percent of the records that made it were either specifically made for TV promotion or were heavily advertised for that medium. | ||
"That inevitably means the market has moved towards the middle-of-the-road with retrospectives of the Supremes or Buddy | "That inevitably means the market has moved towards the middle-of-the-road with retrospectives of the Supremes or Buddy Holly, the 20 Greatest Hit-type compilations being the big sellers. The market has moved directly towards where the money is being spent, and not particularly with the music. | ||
"A situation like the Stranglers selling 150,000 albums and a Nat King Cole retrospective selling 500,000 plus indicates that the market has not moved with the new talent. In terms of the overall market I would say that we have not broken any new ground with the new wave." | |||
Reflecting John Fruin's assessment of the importance of foreign markets to the British music business, with particular emphasis on America, Oberstein was adamant. "If we had to live off the UK artists and sales, we would go broke. | |||
"What we have to look at is the people who are going to sell outside the UK. An act like Tina Charles will not sell spectacularly in Britain, but she has sold five million records outside the UK. We have to look at the potential of an act for the rest of the world." | |||
While that appears to be a prophecy of a continuing curve towards middle-of-the-road accessibility a-la-ABBA, Oberstein is still strong in his commitment to the long-term potential of talent. | |||
"The new wave gave musicians the opportunity to express themselves. I remember seeing Tom Robinson playing in pubs a long time before he became a new wave hero, and I suppose his potential was there then. At one point CBS had Robert Plant and David Bowie with them, and if we had been able to look into the future we would have seen their talent then. | |||
"What the press did accomplish was to make a market for the new wave musicians, both by making people aware of them and by indicating to people that there was money to be made by opening up pubs and other venues for it. | |||
"Because of the atmosphere at the time and the great competition that suddenly started up, the deals for punk bands were unreasonably expensive, and I am glad we held back — I see nothing wrong in following the pack, after all, there was not just one definitive new wave band, but more where the first came from. I can only feel slightly sorry for my rivals who are signing up third and fourth-rate pogo bands." | |||
Simon Draper will be celebrating with the rest of Virgin the fifth birthday of their company next month. Those five years have seen the growth of a business that started as a discount mail-order record chain that thumbed its nose at the rest of the music business and has developed into an influential record company that recently locked horns with WEA, one of America's biggest businesses, in battle over Devo. | |||
Virgin's image has changed from a woolly-hat "peace, man" outfit to a company headed by powerful business motives and prepared to work with a dogged ruthlessness. | |||
Gone are the days when obscure and less than successful bands were able to drop anchor in Virgin's peaceful backwater in order to concentrate on getting their music together — acts such as Henry Cow, Wigwam, Can and Ivor Cutler have been dropped "regrettably" by managing director Draper in order to keep the company running with the Seventies. | |||
"In 1976 we realised that we had 25 people signed to us as long-term deals who were not selling many records — they were in effect totally non-productive. We did say when we started that we weren't going to become a hire'em and fire'em company, but we found we had to do it. The only one we really kept out of that batch was Kevin Coyne, and that was because everyone in the company loved him and believed in him." | |||
Now, with a staff numbering about 35 including its salesmen, Virgin Records (the label, not the shops), concentrates on about 15 long-term signings on Virgin and ten on the recently-created Front Line reggae label. Those signings include the Sex Pistols as individuals, Devo (the Warner Bros case permitting), Magazine, XTC and the Motors, plus a wealth of Jamaican reggae talent. All of which looks like a considerable foothold in the music of the Eighties. | |||
Draper agrees. "Although Devo can be seen as being well ahead of their time, I think that it is clear that the traditional pop values will continue to hold good, and I am sure that visual spectacle will have a very big effect — much more than at the moment. | |||
"The way Devo have presented themselves is important, I think, from the way they dress to the way they package themselves and the promotional film they made themselves. The whole impact of the band is important. | |||
"Even the Pistols found that. They were very forceful in their condemnation of the big established acts and the staging they used, but as soon as the Pistols played larger venues they found exactly the same problems as the bands they were knocking. The Pistols were great as themselves in a small packed club, but to get the same impact in a big hall you need the better equipment, lighting and so on that they scorned in others)* | |||
Alongside Virgin's sleeker, more aggressive policy as a record company has come a further main change — its attitude to singles. | |||
"We have had to come to terms with the boom in the singles market. We now have a 21 per cent share of the singles market, and that is as a company that started off completely with albums. I am sure that the importance of singles in breaking an artist will continue. | |||
"People are looking more and more towards singles, largely as a result of the small independent companies selling records by artists who never got any airplay, which was something of a revolution in itself. | |||
"Also, the state of the overall records market has had a lot to do with the rise of the single — as the market has contracted slightly people were more prepared to risk their money on a single rather than an album, both from the recording point of view as well as the buyer." | |||
Along with Draper's adamant views on the importance <!-- of single --> of the single, he also insists on a far greater degree of involvement by the company in an artist's work. | |||
"In the old Robert Wyatt days the involvement of Virgin itself was minimal — the acts made the recordings and we manufactured and sold them. Now we have a lot more involvement, from my demands for singles to my insisting that they work with an appropriate producer, especially the new bands who need advice from someone who can tell them about music. | |||
Draper's view of the importance of the single is mirrored by WEA's John Fruin, who says that like Virgin, his company was album-dominated three years ago. Over the last 18 months we have made very conscious efforts to get into the singles market, and that at a time when the singles business was re-emerging. | |||
"One of the real reasons for the growth of singles is radio play — if you produce an album, a costly item, you can expect maybe a week of airplay unless it is the new Eagles or something. After that, it goes to the radio station library. But you get a single into the playlists, and you are getting exposure for a month or so." | |||
Back at Virgin, Simon Draper has his eyes on far more than the 'British singles market. He is sure the importance of reggae will continue to develop, and will bring with it an interest in other countries' music. | |||
"We decided at the end of 1976 to have another go at reggae, which led to the Front Line label, and we have found considerable success in new markets like Nigeria, where there is a huge potential for British record companies. We are currently looking at Africa and South America." | |||
Whatever music Virgin does put out in the next few years, Draper has one concern — that the company does not expand faster than it can adjust to its success. | |||
{{cx}} | {{cx}} | ||
{{rttc}} | {{rttc}} | ||
Revision as of 23:00, 8 September 2023
|