Master Plan Part 2: Border Issues in the USA
- Place – New York, London, Germany
- Time – 1970
- Deal Maker – Dave Meyers
- Producer – Kenny Denton
First Refusal.
Having signed the deal with PolyGram we set off to secure a record deal in USA.
As Arista were, albeit unknowingly, so influential in obtaining our deal, we thought it only fair to give them the first refusal.
We managed to arrange a meeting with the real Clive Davis in New York who, of course, had never heard of us or the album.
After a few minutes it became clear he had no interest either.
He was very polite and called his secretary to take us to meet his assistant who was even less interested.
We decided Arista had missed their opportunity and was not the label for us so we left.
Next Stop CBS
Egos intact, we managed to get a meeting with Dick Asher who was the president of CBS records.
We arrived at their reception at 9:45am for our 10am meeting.
We signed in at reception and pinned on our badges before being directed to a private lift, this lift went directly up to Asher’s office on the top floor of the CBS building.
The lift door opened into a reasonably small office, where we were greeted by one of the two secretaries. She explained that Mr. Asher was going to be late.
She organized some coffee for us and we sat waiting for about an hour.
Dick Asher finally arrived.
After the secretary had run through his messages with him, she told him that we had been waiting, since 10am, to play him an album we were looking to place with CBS.
He apologised for keeping us waiting, telling us it was due to a trip to the dentist where he just had a tooth removed.
I suggested we should make another appointment as I thought the last thing he would want to do, at that time, was to listen to our music.
He took very kindly to this gesture and invited us into his office for coffee.
Believing we would probably never get another chance to meet with him we accepted his invitation.
Palatial
His office was palatial, sitting down behind a huge desk he went on to tell us all about CBS and what a great company it was and how artists like Johnny Mathis, Barbra Streisand, Andy Williams and Johnny Cash had all been with CBS for twenty years or more.
He then asked how we were enjoying our trip to New York, followed by more idle chitchat eventually enquiring about our artist and the music.
We gave him a short scenario about the artist and the deal with PolyGram.
He said, “Ok, Let me hear something.”
Dave and I both continued the script that we didn’t want him to sit through tracks from the album after his painful morning.
“What’s the deal with PolyGram?” He asked.
We told him that PolyGram had signed the album for the World excluding USA; we also exaggerated a little on how Arista was very interested in the product.
In between taking several phone calls, he repeatedly asked to hear our tape, which we kept declining, although we felt comfortable in the surroundings, there was now a slight feeling of intimidation brought on by this mogul of the music industry.
The more we refused to let him hear the tape the more insistent he became on listening to it.
Eventually we gave in and gave him the cassette. and he played about forty-five seconds of a couple of tracks.
Good News Bad News
Dick said,
“Ok I like the product, but are you telling me that PolyGram own it for Canada?”
“Yes” Dave replied.
He said, “Well we can’t sign it. We would spend a fortune breaking this act in the US and PolyGram would just import the albums from Canada making all the profit, how many years is your deal with them for?”
I answered
“Five years, but if you sign the artist then you would still have at least fifteen years left.”
He roared with laughter.
Shortly after we shook hands and thanked him for his time.
We left, having learnt an important lesson about the Canadian and USA border situation in the music industry.
Back in Germany.
At Polygram Germany Hans Muller, the head of A&R, had been appointed by Odo to liaise with us on the release of the album.
Week after week, Hans would contact us requiring various changes to almost everything we supplied PolyGram, even the artwork.
He suggested we add strings to most of the album and remix the album in the USA.
He’s reasoning for the American mixes was that it would look good on the album credits.
We spent a fortune adding the strings, with wonderful arrangements by ELO’s Louis Clark.
We then travelled to my favourite studio in Nashville to mix the album.
Finally
After almost a year we had the finished product.
We booked a launch party at Legends, a swanky London nightclub, for all the dignitaries from PolyGram.
Within a few months, Odo had left the company followed shortly by Hans.
Although Polygram had paid the full advance, which we had spent on all the changes, the replacement executives had no interest in an artist they hadn’t signed personally, so the album was shelved throughout all territories.
We asked if we could take it to another company and pay them an override.
This request was denied.
After all the heartache, time and money the album was never released.
Just goes to show – there ain’t no rules in rock ‘n’ roll!
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