August 11th
Last night I met up with Alan Cowderoy. The BBC have made a documentary about Stiff records. There was an invited screening at the plush surroundings of a small film theatre in Wardour Street in London’s west end.
As we arrived and descended into the bar area I saw a sea of familiar faces. Some people I hadn’t seen in years and years. Fred Row, who is now in his 70’s, looked tanned, healthy and 20 years younger than his actually age. Fred was, amongst other things, Ian Drury’s minder back in the heady days of Stiff’s glory years. Indeed the opening shot of the movie that we had come to see, featured Fred and Ian walking down a Camden street. Fred also used to be partly in control of the poster cartel back in the 80’s.
This was illegal, of course. It didn’t stop record companies paying vast sums to have large bill posters of their featured artist’s plastered all over London. The operations were run by very colourful individuals. North of the river was the domain of the wonderfully named ‘Terry the Pill’. South of the river belonged to Fred. Woe betide anyone who tried to muscle in on their patch. To say that Fred was something of a character would be supreme understatement.
Various ex employees and the odd Stiff artist were also in attendance. A blockhead or two and Jonah Lewie. I last saw Jonah a couple of years back at the Festival Hall where he was in the company of Sir Paul MaCartney and his soon to be ex wife. Much to my amazement we had all gone to see Magma!! Maybe being forced to listen to all that intense, operatic, French, prog epic’s was the last straw for Heather and when their relationship began to break down.
Alison, who had been Dave Robinson’s secretary and assistant, just could not believe that I had married Amanda. In her words ‘The very sexy Mandi. Who all the girls envied and all the men fancied’ She then paraded me around to all former Stiff employees’ as ‘the man who got Mandi !’ Not a single mention of any musical achievement I may have accomplished in those intervening years you understand, but as the winner of the top totty competition.
We all settled down to watch. There was a murmur of excitement as the producer, Mark Cooper, gave an introductory speech. Then introduced the director, who thanked a number of people. Eventually the lights dimmed and the image of a needle being placed onto vinyl cross fades into the aforementioned shot of Fred and Ian. It became apparent, however, that there was no sound. So they stopped the film and started it again. Still no sound. The lights came up. The director apologised with visible embarrassment. A minute or two later most people were standing up and a lot were moving out. I joined them at the bar. We exchanged anecdotes and I was called upon to reprise my famed Dave Robinson impression. It became all to clear that this wasn’t going to work and people started to drift off. I heard the reason for the failure was that the projectionist was out of his head and slumped over the console in the projection box. It seemed somehow appropriate for a Stiff event.
Eventually six of us left to go for a curry. At the table were drummer and journalist Will Birch, Alan, John Wyton, Paul Conroy (who until a year or so ago was MD of Virgin) and to my left Nigel Dick. Nigel used to work in the press office and moved into Video in the very early days of that art form. 20 Years ago he moved to L.A and has become on of the biggest promo directors in the world. He has directed over 280 videos for the biggest acts in the world. ‘Hit Me Baby One More Time’ being one his most notorious.
We chatted, laughed and drowned in an anecdote filled sea of nostalgia. But that’s what old blokes do sometimes. I enjoyed it enormously.
Today is Amanda’s birthday. I get up early and get Django to write and sign his card and wrap her present. We went out to buy this last weekend. As we arrived back from our trip Django announced
‘Mum we’ve just bought you some shoes’
To which I quickly said
‘No, it’s a secret Django’
He thought for a second and replied
‘Sorry Dad’
Then, in his quietest whisper, he said
‘Psst… Mum we just bought you some shoes’
Dropped the kids off and went to buy a dozen roses. Tonight I’m taking her to the Oxo Tower restaurant on the southbank that over looks a stretch of the Thames from Parliament to St Paul’s.
There are moments when life is good and need to be recognised and savoured. Today is such a day.
Last night I met up with Alan Cowderoy. The BBC have made a documentary about Stiff records. There was an invited screening at the plush surroundings of a small film theatre in Wardour Street in London’s west end.
As we arrived and descended into the bar area I saw a sea of familiar faces. Some people I hadn’t seen in years and years. Fred Row, who is now in his 70’s, looked tanned, healthy and 20 years younger than his actually age. Fred was, amongst other things, Ian Drury’s minder back in the heady days of Stiff’s glory years. Indeed the opening shot of the movie that we had come to see, featured Fred and Ian walking down a Camden street. Fred also used to be partly in control of the poster cartel back in the 80’s.
This was illegal, of course. It didn’t stop record companies paying vast sums to have large bill posters of their featured artist’s plastered all over London. The operations were run by very colourful individuals. North of the river was the domain of the wonderfully named ‘Terry the Pill’. South of the river belonged to Fred. Woe betide anyone who tried to muscle in on their patch. To say that Fred was something of a character would be supreme understatement.
Various ex employees and the odd Stiff artist were also in attendance. A blockhead or two and Jonah Lewie. I last saw Jonah a couple of years back at the Festival Hall where he was in the company of Sir Paul MaCartney and his soon to be ex wife. Much to my amazement we had all gone to see Magma!! Maybe being forced to listen to all that intense, operatic, French, prog epic’s was the last straw for Heather and when their relationship began to break down.
Alison, who had been Dave Robinson’s secretary and assistant, just could not believe that I had married Amanda. In her words ‘The very sexy Mandi. Who all the girls envied and all the men fancied’ She then paraded me around to all former Stiff employees’ as ‘the man who got Mandi !’ Not a single mention of any musical achievement I may have accomplished in those intervening years you understand, but as the winner of the top totty competition.
We all settled down to watch. There was a murmur of excitement as the producer, Mark Cooper, gave an introductory speech. Then introduced the director, who thanked a number of people. Eventually the lights dimmed and the image of a needle being placed onto vinyl cross fades into the aforementioned shot of Fred and Ian. It became apparent, however, that there was no sound. So they stopped the film and started it again. Still no sound. The lights came up. The director apologised with visible embarrassment. A minute or two later most people were standing up and a lot were moving out. I joined them at the bar. We exchanged anecdotes and I was called upon to reprise my famed Dave Robinson impression. It became all to clear that this wasn’t going to work and people started to drift off. I heard the reason for the failure was that the projectionist was out of his head and slumped over the console in the projection box. It seemed somehow appropriate for a Stiff event.
Eventually six of us left to go for a curry. At the table were drummer and journalist Will Birch, Alan, John Wyton, Paul Conroy (who until a year or so ago was MD of Virgin) and to my left Nigel Dick. Nigel used to work in the press office and moved into Video in the very early days of that art form. 20 Years ago he moved to L.A and has become on of the biggest promo directors in the world. He has directed over 280 videos for the biggest acts in the world. ‘Hit Me Baby One More Time’ being one his most notorious.
We chatted, laughed and drowned in an anecdote filled sea of nostalgia. But that’s what old blokes do sometimes. I enjoyed it enormously.
Today is Amanda’s birthday. I get up early and get Django to write and sign his card and wrap her present. We went out to buy this last weekend. As we arrived back from our trip Django announced
‘Mum we’ve just bought you some shoes’
To which I quickly said
‘No, it’s a secret Django’
He thought for a second and replied
‘Sorry Dad’
Then, in his quietest whisper, he said
‘Psst… Mum we just bought you some shoes’
Dropped the kids off and went to buy a dozen roses. Tonight I’m taking her to the Oxo Tower restaurant on the southbank that over looks a stretch of the Thames from Parliament to St Paul’s.
There are moments when life is good and need to be recognised and savoured. Today is such a day.
posted by Jakko's blog at 3:43 AM
1 Comments:
There are moments when life is good and need to be recognised and savoured.
Wise words indeed...
Anyway, long time lurker, first time poster - looking forward to the album.
Jon
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