Nice piece on a rally good front man. The early Bad Company renascence days were difficult. At one point they came to me at a rehearsal and told me Brian did not want to sing any of the prior Bad Company songs as their focus had to be on the new album. I told them it was daft, but all four of them had that mindset. I picked up a phone and in front of them made a "pretend" phone call to Barbara Skydel and cancelled the planned US first tour. That got their attention, and I got their grudging agreement to do three original BC songs. In spite of low traction on the first album, we got away with it and were able to move on to Terry Thomas and some great co-writes with Brian.
Terry was 100% Bud Prager's idea.
Best,
Phil Carson
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Re: Brian Howe
1983: Producer Ashley Howe, Richard Steinberg and I accidentally "discovered" Brian Howe....while we were sitting in Richard's office at Atlantic Records sorting through a hundred "song" demos looking for a few new outside songs for the upcoming Ted Nugent LP.....Penetrator. Richard popped in probably song #87.....and 20 seconds later he was about to hit eject when the vocal came in. The song was immediately forgettable.......but the voice woke us all up an we all looked at each with the same question....WHO was the singer?. We got the songwriter on the phone in the UK and he told us the singer was just a football mate of his in Portsmouth and they had recorded the song in a DJ booth at the local radio station. We got Brian on the phone, and we offered to fly him over to try out laying down some vocals for Ted's new album. We had Ted working in a rehearsal room in NYC at the time with the Billy Squire band as back up.
Brian landed at the airport.....we had a car meet him to bring him straight to rehearsals, and when he got in the car, he made the driver take him straight to Bud Prager's office instead because what he really wanted to do was join Foreigner replacing Lou Gramm! That meeting with Bud did not go well. Brian ended up joining us and laid down great vocals for us, so much so we ended up taking him on tour with us as well that next summer.
Then when Bud and Phil needed a new vocalist for Bad Co......Brian, in the right place at the right time, fit the bill. He was as opinionated as he was talented and vice versa. But as you said...he COULD SING.
RIP Brian
_________________________________________
From: BILLY CHAPIN
Subject: Re: Brian Howe
Stan Lynch and I had the pleasure of writing with Brian. He was a rough, witty, opinionated Brit and a big presence. when ever you get a couple of old rockers in a room, it's always a funfest. I remember when he started singing, Stan and I were looking at each other going holy shit. What a voice. RIP.
B Chapin
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From: Dennis Pelowski
Subject: Re: Mailbag
"From: Richard Griffiths
Subject: Re: Happy Song Playlist
I worked with Ozzy as his publisher for years and then when I went to run Epic I had him as a recording artist. I had just hired Michael Goldstone as head of ANR and he was the one who made the No More Tears album. Brilliant. Sharon is probably the best manager ever!"
That would actually be close to true; REM was well off with Bertis and when you add it up, REM owns all their rights, quit while way ahead, made ZERO bad deals in their career, and kept everything up and up for everyone including the office hands (ask Jefferson Holt if it paid to try any shit against any one on team REM), plus they were truly built from scratch with Bertis brought on early); Sharon did akszing work but fact is, Ozzy was a superstar in need of a career rehab and the timing was perfect for that; Landau has a claim, for it was his work that unwound Bruce's mess with Appel.
Peter Grant set the bar but his lack of couth and his drug addiction cost Zeppelin millions in the long run - he lacked vision when it mattered a lot on publishing.
Sharon? She was bright, charismatic, extremejy perceptive, and ubiquitous- I was a 17 year old journalist who came from a town of 40,000. In April 1981, Sharon got ahold of me, through Randy Levy of Shon Productions, and treated me like I was a top editor at Rolling Stone. On Memorial Day, '81, as Crazy Train was starting to get traction, she invited me to breakfast and the interview was hers, not mine. She grilled me about the radio stations i listened to, the stores I cared for, the merch I saw people buying, and so on and so forth. She was a data machine - never pausing long between questions, all pointing to where she could make a difference in the Minnesota marketplace and how good was the regional Epuc office and were they doing their job. Later that day, Ozzy played around 330 p and in front of .38 Special. Sharon gave me two passes and I spent the afternoon hanging with Randy Rhodes and Tommy Aldridge, and it is still the most memorable time I have ever had at a gig.
So yeah, Sharon rules. Or did. When it most mattered
_________________________________________
Subject: Re: Mailbag
I work for a loudspeaker manufacturer and my entire team and I got sick at NAMM. For most of us, we were sick for about 3 weeks, starting with a fever, cough and we all felt like crap for the duration. It also came in two waves — you felt better after a week and then had a relapse. Two of my colleagues just had antibody tests and one of them came back as positive. My guess is the other one experienced a false negative.
I know of at least 6 other people who got as sick as we did as the show. I'm waiting for a reliable test to become available so I can be tested.
Lee Stein
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Subject: Re: Music Industry Snapshot
Hey Bob,
How about concert (and live event in general) technical production? Our part of the business cannot afford to be forgotten – please!
My company, TMB, provides specialized products and services to the rental companies – sound, lighting, video, rigging, staging, etc. – that provide the equipment and personnel to the tours and festivals (or we did, until recently). We've been doing this for almost 40 years and, while only a small part of the live event pie, even we now have over 100 folks on furlough around the world, with our revenues running around 5% of plan.
The pie we're part of – companies and personnel (roadies, techs, programmers, designers, manufacturers, etc.) – may itself not be that large ($5 – 10 billions?) but we are an integral part of the business and it concerns me we didn't get a mention.. We know this part of the economy will be amongst the last to recover, it will help if our position is recognized..
Thanks for listening.
Colin Waters
_________________________________________
From: Jon Tiven
Dear Bob,
OK, here goes, I have tested positive for COVID.
A week and a half ago my next door neighbor mentioned that they were offering free COVID testing to Musicians here in Nashville, and I figured better to know. I have been in deep quarantine since Mar 5, only going out to walk my dog (often) and shop for groceries (once a week, with mask and gloves). I have been the most adamant social distancer on my walks, and the only person I've been in close contact with is my wife. I wash my hands every time I go out, come in, or pretty much every time I pass a sink. And I am 100% unsymptomatic, feeling not only fine but above par. They were doing not only the nose swab (for current infection) but blood as well (for antibodies), and I opted for both.
So I figured unlikely to test positive, but if I did, at least I'd know and would be able to take further precautions to not infect my neighbors (I now wear a mask and bandana on my dog walks). Last Tuesday they called me to know that I was positive for the swab and negative for antibodies, which means that it was a fresh infection. And my wife, who has been in quarantine with me, negative for both.
I am not looking for well-wishes or sympathy, I'm fine, but I would like to offer the following:
1) Anyone can have this, whether they are symptomatic or not. So if you think you're safe hanging with your neighbor who doesn't sneeze or cough, think again. All the precautions in the world may not fully protect you, but I'm sure it helps plenty.
2) As far as my Asymptomatic Status, I have a healthy immune system I'm sure. I do 40 minutes on the recumbent bike every morning and take a whole lot of vitamins including Calcium Magnesium Zinc. Is this helpful? Donno, but I'm sure it doesn't hurt.
3) Since I started quarantine, I've been gargling with ST37 several times daily. It is an antiseptic mouthwash that I've put my trust in for years and it has rewarded me with no colds. When I feel the slightest twinge in the throat, a few swishes and it's off to the races. Tastes like ass, but it's worth it.
So that's what I have to offer. If this helps anybody, great. And if you can get tested, do it.
_________________________________________
From: Andrew Hurwitz
Subject: Love from Philly --- a good story for you bob.
Bob -
Feel good story from Philly. I think you'll find it interesting.
I'm the director of 30amp Circuit, a non-profit created specifically to promote health and wellness for musicians and those that work for them. We did not invent this model. The road to helping artists was well paved by the likes of our heroes from The New Orleans Musicians Clinic, The Health Alliance for Austin Musicians, SMASH Seattle, Sweet Relief, MusicCares and many more.
In fact, there's an organization of these wonderful non-profits called The Music Health Alliance and we had just me in DC this March when the Corona first hit. We all knew that this storm was going to devastate our community of musicains so we began working on a "plan B" - just in case things got "Katrina Bad" these folks like to say.
Sure enough, it's now Katrina worse on every possible level and I'm sure you've heard of the many great things all of these organizations have been doing locally and nationally in the name of helping our musicians and artists. Here at 30Amp our lifeblood is the summer touring season where we bring our Backstage Clinic program (30amp.org/backstage-clinic) to festivals near and far. We all saw the fall of SXSW as the canary in the coal mine and when festivals began to drop one by one thereafter we began to focus our attention and funding on the local music community in our home town of Philadelphia.
We started giving out "Micro-Grants" to musicians in need. The grants are approved through a very simple and instant process that allows us to give out quick zaps of money, cost-of-living grants, through PayPal without much red tape. But as soon as we dipped or toes in the water we realized how deep it really is. The need is vast and endless.
In an effort to raise more money and awareness we put tougher last weekends' Love From Philly virtual music festival a live 3-day event which included an eclectic mix of over 100 musicians plus appearances by local politicians, philly-famous celebrities, and hosted by our local news fox and nbc news anchors broadcasting live from their homes. It was all free, it was all on youtube and it was all broadcast in real time. There was a big tip jar for contributions.
We gave each artist a 15 minute slot which they were free to curate any way they wanted - some went with one song (John Oates' tearjerking cover of the Sounds of Philadelphia) some used the full set (Low Cut Connie stripping down to his underwear and going over his 15 minute allotment) some artists went absolutely live (Schooly D and DJ Cash Money destroying it in their basement) and some went with pre-recorded clips (see Bahamadia in her closet). Some artists went super low-fi (Kurt Vile live from his basement) and some went super high tech (War on Drugs' mesmerizing performance that somehow had all members synched in from their homes).
No matter how you cut it the results were fascinating but i'll cite my top 3 for the sake of brevity:
(1). There was no involvement at all from Live Nation, AEG or any other promoters, talent buyers, or agents. There was no advertising and as all artists donated their tie, no fees. It was created and executed basically through GoogleHangouts and directed by a team of young people from their bedrooms. It's not that we didn't want help from the big dogs — here in Philly we all stick together. Geoff Gordon from Live Nation was our first call to get involved and he was so completely supportive, it's just that most business owners big and small spent the last month cleaning up this mess and still trying to find their footing in this wacky new world.
(2) The event raised close to $100,000 of pure profit and brought people together in the most unique ways. Some of the best parts about festivals - sharing new music, meeting new friends, discovering new bands, etc. took place in the most profound ways even though…it was virtual. We had 500K impressions from 50+ countries and the chat-rooms were blowing up all day. In the end we will give away 300 micro-grants, 300 zaps to 300 people that need it bad. Not enough to change their lives, but enough to buy some food and pay some bills.
(3) Most important was the true joy it brought to our music community. I don't think anyone realized how badly they needed it, how badly they all needed to come together - as virtual as it is. The musicians big and small were there in the chat-rooms "hooting and hollering" for each other - connecting in a way that artists and musicians need. It was a real hang! And people connected and re-connected in a profound way. We all missed eachother so much. Funny how the hang is as vital as the music somehow when it comes to the artists. And you know what? In paying these grants and dealing with these artists you realize that they are all just appreciative that people care. The money is almost secondary, just to know that they have value, and purpose, still, is a super big win.
So if you get a chance - check out some of the fest - some of it got shut down by Youtube and we're getting it back up - lessons learned when broadcasting live. Watch how these musicians are presenting their art in the most intimate raw and beautiful ways from their homes, from their previously off-limits to the public spaces, and how they are stripped down to their core which leaves their performances all together unique, pure and beautiful.
Even our sponsor AAA (based in the suburb of Philly called Delaware) was amazing - the Vice President spoke from his driveway next to his beat up old VW van that he shared used to go to many festivals back in the day, name dropping his favorite bands, and coming across as so genuine and real. (They kicked in 20K by the way).
Anyway — the virtual festival. i belive there is potential. It as the most fun I've had all pandemic. And the future of music just might be the same as the past — local by nature.
Love from Philly where we take care of our own.
Andy
lovefromphilly.live
30amp.org
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