Wednesday, 3 September 2014

What Makes A great A&R ? …Part 3

January 11th 1981…my 25th birthday…I join Virgin Records as the first A&R man employed to specifically sign British Black Music…….I had no idea what I was supposed to do……my office was a converted broom-cupboard ( literally ) on the first-floor off Jon Webster's sales floor…I'd been working in City Sounds for 3 years and was a Soul Mafia DJ…DJ-ing regularly with Pete Tong at my club,Papillon,in Brighton and Pete's club,The Hill Top , in Kent….as well as the first 4 Caister Weekenders where me and Pete were bottom of the bill below Chris Hill,Robbie Vincent etc…..
 At City Sounds I never had a lunch - hour so at 1 pm when everyone left the office on my first day  I didn't know what to do so I had lunch on my own at Mick's Fish & Chip Bar in Portobello Rd…….

I had a telephone book ….but no numbers in it
The second afternoon Gemma's ( now Mrs Don Was thanks to me …I'll tell that story later ) dog came on pissed on the carpet
The third afternoon it rained heavily and the roof caved in……True ( ALL my anecdotes are true )

Simon Draper was MD and without the GREATEST A&R I've ever met…he taught me everything I know about A&R …….I didn't have a clue what I was supposed to do..everyone just seemed to assume I did

A&R Meeting were every Friday morning at 9.30 am in Simon's office …those present :

Simon Draper
Richard Griffiths ( now MD Modest Management..stupidOne Direction's Manager )
Danny Goodwin
Rob Collins
Steve Lewis
Jumbo Vanrennen
Jeremy Lascelles

Keith Bourton would pop in every week with some gem " Enter fool " we would say…..

I LOVED these meetings….after a few nervous months I started to give as good as I got….and I got PLENTY ! !

After a few weeks I started to get demos and take them to Simon….he was brilliant because although he didn't agree with me he never made me feel bad….
Eventually after a few weeks of this he taught me possibly the most important lesson I ever learnt :

Simon : Why do you want to sign this ?
Me : because it's a great record
Simon : It's not enough to just have a great record…the artist has to be special….

I never forgot that ….I signed

Loose Ends
I-Level
Maxi Priest
Soul II Soul
Mantronix
Inner City
Floy Joy
Working week

I was taught by the greatest…I like to think I did well too

Next Week…signing my first band,Loose Ends,and changing the face of British Black Music

The Soul Guru


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