Place – London & Europe
Time – 1978-1979
Deal Maker – Dave Meyers
Producer – Kenny Denton
Finding an A&R Person.
Finding an A&R person in any record company, who believes in your product as much as you do, is a rare commodity to say the least.
I have never heard of any artist being signed to a label on their first approach to a label.
George Martin and EMI, like every other label at that time, had previously turned down The Beatles.
When Brian Epstein approached Martin again, he convinced him that if he signed the band, with his record shop connections, he could guarantee he could fix a chart entry.
Although “Love Me Do” only reached number seventeen in the UK chart, Epstein had kept his word.
Finding Someone Who Believes.
Between the years 1978 and 1979, I had spent around £15000 of my own money, recording an album with an artist whom I truly believed in.
I tried various record companies, but sadly I could not find anyone who shared my enthusiasm for the product. That was until I ran into my old friend and once manager, Dave Meyers.
Meyers listened to the album and loved it; he was surprised that I was unable to create any record company interest.
I told him so far everyone had turned it down.
He told me,
“You must be going about it the wrong way; give me six weeks and I’ll get you a deal and get your money back.”
Even though I knew Dave was a bit of a bullshitter, he had a charm that was irresistible, a real-life Svengali.
Anyone that had ever been involved with him, would tell you the same.
I must admit that the thought of any reimbursement of my investment and a release for the product sounded very attractive.
Now, the Split.
Meyers set about explaining how he would go about getting the deal.
His immediate investment would be in the region of three to four thousand pounds.
Once we had received an advance from a record company, he wanted his money back first, my investment would be repaid second and then the artist would receive his payment.
All other profits after that from sales would be split; half to the artist, the remainder being split equally between Dave and me, in perpetuity.
How the Deal Would be Achieved.
Dave would arrange meetings with all the A&R departments heads every PolyGram Record company throughout Europe.
He would start in France, then on to Belgium, Holland, Spain until all had been visited.
The journey would end with a meeting with the MD, Mr. Odo von Stein, the head Of Deutsche Grammophon and PolyGram in Germany.
At each of the previous meetings along the way, he played one or two tracks from the album, then left a cassette copy of the entire album for them to listen to at their leisure.
Crucially he would tell them that Odo, in Germany, loved the album and he would be contacting them soon for their reaction.
Clinching the deal.
Dave set off on his journey, visiting each country, playing the A&R heads the songs and finally arriving in Germany for his meeting with Odo von Stein.
He played the tunes to Odo then cleverly told him that every European PolyGram Company wanted to sign this artist and on that basis that he was looking for a very substantial deal.
Meyers urged Odo to listen to the whole album then telex (the old fasioned email) all of the European offices and ask for their reaction to this product.
Meyers then arranged a second meeting in a few week’s time, giving Odo time to contact the various PolyGram territories.
Odo did as Meyers suggested and contacted his A&R departements throughout Europe
As they had already been told that Odo loved the album they were desperate not to offend the head of their organization.
Every A&R department, without exception, telexed Odo back with an in-depth review, saying they thought the album was sensational and that they wanted to release it as soon as possible.
Finalising the deal.
Dave returned to Germany for his second meeting with Odo to negotiate the deal.
Meyers had asked me to call him whilst his meeting with Odo was taking place.
I was to pretend to be Clive Davis the President of Arista Records in New York. I was to beg him not to sign the album to PolyGram as Arista would offer him a much better deal.
It was a petrifying concept, but plucked up the courage to ring Odo’s office.
With an awful fake American accent, I demanded the secretary interrupt the meeting and let me speak to Dave immediately.
To my total surprise the next voice I heard on the phone was Meyers.
He did all the talking sounding like he was in a conversation with Clive Davis, ending with,
“I am sorry Clive, PolyGram adore this artist but should we not conclude a deal with PolyGram today, I will get back to you right away.”
When the call was over, Meyers told Odo how desperate Arista were to have the album.
He explained that Clive had phoned his London office to talk about a deal and was informed that negotiations were already taking place in Germany, hence the call.
Odo, now desperate not to miss out and lose the album to the ficticious Clive Davis, offered $150,000 for a world-wide deal.
Meyers managed to negotiate up the advance up to $200,000 and managed to keep the rights for the USA.
An audacious plan that he played to perfection.
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