Are you Serious?

The first band I joined (in 1973) was a Rock 4-piece by the name of Renegade Jones.  I was the "baby" of the band, being a mere 18 years old.  The rest of the guys were around 25, which (for me at the time) was OLD!  It's all relative, of course!

Adrian Pearce was the lead singer, guitarist, Neil Beshuri on lead guitar & vocals,  and Paul Dunne on bass/vocals. We had a manager: Laurie Jay (ex-drummer of 60's group, The Echos and replaced in that group by a certain Ringo Starr!).  He really fit well into that stereotypical manager image: larger-than-life, effusive, cigar-smoking impresario-type.  A loveable rogue.  But he was also a networker.

One of the first "gigs" he got for us was a residency at Hatchett's, a West-End night club owned by a friend of his (of course).  We played there 6 nights a week for several months - from 9pm until 2am. I can tell you it was an eye-opener for me!

Just an interesting side note: about a block away from Hatchett's was the only place you could get a bite to eat late at night.  It was an American-Style diner - and there was a 1950's cadillac sticking out of the front of the building!  The name of this place?  The Hard Rock Cafe.  Yes,  this was the original Hard Rock. The one that started it all. It was ideally located to serve hungry people on their way from all the theatres & clubs in the West End of London.  What a piece of genius: judge the market and exploit it!

SO, there I was, barely 18 and playing a night club with a rock band.  I must say, I was pretty happy with things.  of course the pay was derisory, but that didn't worry me in the slightest. I was a professional musician!

I must admit, though, the novelty soon wore off (for us all). Hatchett's was one of the many "pick-up" joints in London.  The crowd were not exactly interested in us.  Playing for hours on end to a motley group of people, drinking, talking and ignoring us wasn't what we had in mind when we turned Pro.  We were wallpaper, background, decoration. After a few weeks we got a little lackadaisical about our playing: jaded, tired, slapdash (no more so than the Beatles did at the Star Club in Hamburg, by the way.  If you've heard any of the recordings of their time there, they weren't exactly being serious about their craft, either).

One night, Laurie paid us a visit (for the first time since he'd installed us there).  He sat at the bar & watched a set.  When we got back to the minute dressing room for a break, he burst in, face purple with anger: "Are you serious?" he said.  We laughed, embarrassed and unsure.  We didn't really know how to interpret what he was saying.  He repeated: "Are you SERIOUS?"   "About what?" said one of us.  "About this crappy place?"  Laurie's face turned an even darker shade of purple: "No, you idiots, about being professional musicians! You look like a bunch of jokers out there.  You're not entertaining anyone."  "But they're not interested in us." we said.   Well I thought Laurie was going to burst a blood vessel! "No, you fools! Of course they aren't!  But if YOU are serious about being entertainers, then that's what you must do:  ENTERTAIN!  It's up to them if they listen or not, but at least you could give them something to LISTEN TO!"

At that moment, I got it!  I think we all did.  The next set was a considerable step UP on what we had been doing before.  I watched Laurie at the bar - he gave us the thumbs-up, as if to say "That's what I meant!" We played as if we were at Wembley Arena, performing to packed house of dedicated fans, all there to see us, and only us!

Later that year, we got a tour of American bases in Germany.  In fact we spent Christmas & New Year of 1973/74 in West Germany, playing 6 nights a week, 5 hours a night to American soldiers.  Apart from the van breaking down on the way to the first gig - on the German autobahn in a freezing blizzard (and having to airfreight parts out to fix it), and the roach-infested hotels we were put in, we had an amazing time.  First, the GI's listened.  They "dug" us, they befriended us, and they wined & dined us. We learned a huge number of extra songs they requested, specifically because they'd buy us drinks & burgers to say "thanks" when we did.  They would accompany us to the PX store, where we could buy heavily discounted goods (US military subsidised). Wed been seriously ripped off by the agency that booked us, and our pay wasn't exactly enough to get by on,  so this was really welcome. In fact we would not have made it through those months if it hadn't been for the soldiers' generosity.  And every show we played was fully-committed entertainment.

So... "Are you serious?"  -That stuck with me forever.

Laurie went on to manage a number of artists, including Billy Ocean & Shirley Bassey.
Renegade Jones ended up splitting due to "Musical Differences" (actually more like not being able to make ends meet). We were driven (literally) off the road by mounting gas prices eroding our weekly wage until it was no longer viable for us to tour. But it was an amazing grounding for what was to come - for me anyway. 

To publicise or not to publicise...

Having been in this business for over 38 years now, I have become accustomed to a system that pretty-well relies on referrals for work.

I've had a manager: he did nothing but price me out of the market and annoy my existing clients (much of which I only found out later).  So I gave up that idea.

When I first moved to Nashville, I hired a publicist.  She did a lot of great work, introducing me to all kinds of people - none of whom ever booked me for anything!  In fact most of the time they crossed their arms and said: "I don't care who you are, it's going to take you 5 years to establish yourself in THIS town!" As a side note, I actually got the Trisha Yearwood 2000 tour by auditioning for the gig.  even then, I wasn't originally chosen (it went to a "younger person"). When things didn't work out with that person, I rushed in to fill the gap at 3 days' notice. I suppose it was some small testimony to my abilities at the time that I was able to walk into a gig like that with no rehearsal: simply 3 days of "woodshedding" the tunes, followed by a long sound check on the first show!

I have had an agent (I have one now, but mainly for photographic/acting jobs, which is another kettle of fish altogether).  My "agent" failed to get anyone interested in me in the slightest.

Looking back over nearly four decades of life as a professional musician, I can honestly say that just about 100% of my work has been through first-hand referrals.  In other words, the ultimate viral-marketing exercise.

I remember something one of my early benefactors (Muff Winwood, manager of Island Studios at the time) once said to me: "Never turn ANYTHING down!  You never know where it might lead."  And I took him at his word.  I did pub gigs, club dates, small demo sessions, cabaret backing gigs, anything I was offered.  Sure enough, within the space of 5 years my reputation had grown exponentially.  I was starting to get some high-end recording sessions, people were contacting me for tours.  In short, the word had spread.  By 1978 I was recording master sessions.  In 1979 I was offered a position in the the Tom Robinson Band: a time I will always cherish. We toured Europe, then the USA, and I gained an incredible insight into the workings of the Biz! Even though the band was tearing itself apart, I had the time of my life.

SO, by the late 70's I was experiencing life at the top end of the industry: major gigs, top sessions etc. I was on the books of several session "fixers" (as they are known in the UK - Union approved bookers who set up sessions for clients). By 1981, I had recorded sessions for Kate Bush, Judie Tzuke, the Tom Robinson Band, all of which had seen chart success.  All of these referrals were by word-of-mouth.

By 1983 I was one of the busiest session drummers in the UK.  I could work non-stop, if I chose.  Clients were "fitting me in" based on availability.  I was probably in the studio an average of 80 hours a week.

When I met Elton in early 1985 it was mainly because he had heard my work on Nik Kershaw's multi-million-selling "Human racing" album. Nik appeared as a guest on his "Ice on Fire" album, and during the session Elton asked Nik about me.  Nik gave me a glowing reference, and the rest was history.  I ended up recording 3 tracks for Elton in April of 1985. During those sessions, he asked if I would consider being in his band for a "little charity event I'm playing at Wembley."  That turned out to be Live Aid!  Later that year we went into rehearsals, and toured the world with that lineup for the next 18 months!

Basically speaking, all these referrals were almost exclusively by word-of-mouth. Of course, they were also "performance-based" - I couldn't get the work if I didn't have some ability to achieve what my client had in mind.

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Scrolling on..... to now(-ish).

The one thing I've never really been good at through all this is SELF-publicity.  Because the vast majority of what I did was based on third-party referrals, MY part was to simply do my job to the best of my ability.  The rest just slotted into place. My resumé simply spoke for itself.

But that is not enough in the modern-day chaos of Internet publicity, social media and viral-marketing.  So this old dog is learning a few tricks.  For me to tap the truly enormous market out there, I have to be pro-active about it.  This goes against the grain for we Brits!

I have a web site, two actually.  My "fan" site is www.manicdrums.com.  My work-related site is www.manicdrumsproductions.com. I also have FaceBook pages, both personal and a "Band" page, but I haven't really done much with either.  I'm also on Google+, MySpace (who goes there anymore?), LinkedIn, Plaxo (whatever that's worth) and Manta.  You'd think I would be flooded with referrals, but apparently it is not enough to simply HAVE these sites.  You have to work them - intelligently.  Which is why I am now learning all about how to drive people TO these places, and how to coordinate them to do the job for which they were intended.

This is one of the steepest learning curves I have encountered in almost 4 decades!
Back to work!!!