- Place – United Kingdom
- Time – 1970s though to 1990s
- Record Label – Onest Records
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Note:
Signing to a record label is great news, but signing to the wrong one is a disaster.
ONEST RECORDS
Started in the early 70’s. On the surface the Onest label was much the same as any other record company except for one major difference; its whole being was based on avoiding having a hit record.
Buck Holder the MD
Buck Holder was a small man with a well-established waistline, a sort of Billy Bunter look alike.
The way his head sat on his shoulders gave the appearance that he had no neck. He wore huge black-rimmed glasses, which he always removed when reading, his beard covered his flawed face.
He never wore socks due to him not being able to reach down and put them on.
He would speak in a loud authoritative voice on any and every subject, which gave him a facade of always being right.
He considered himself irresistible to women, another characteristic of his Walter Mitty existence.
The music industry is full of people indulging themselves in fantastic daydreams and fantasies of their personal triumphs. Buck Holder was truly a premier member of this club.
His claims to having been involved in the success of every major music event from the Beatles onwards were legendary.
Whatever would be mentioned in any conversation, regarding whatever subject, he had a major influence in its origin or outcome.
The Birth of Onest Records
This came about whilst Buck was attending Midem the international music networking marketplace, which takes place in January each year in Cannes.
Having recently been fired from his job with a record company for fiddling the petty cash, he set off to the south of France looking for new opportunities.
Before too long he encountered a very small successful record company based in a small part of Europe.
Buck with his inimitable technique persuaded them how prestigious it would be for their record label to have a UK office, and an outlet for their product.
This indeed impressed this wealthy organisation.
Let the Circus Begin
Amazingly they agreed and almost at once an office was set up in London and staff were hired.
Buck had requested only a small salary giving the impression of his total commitment to the new company, this delighted the investors.
Then, without delay, he set about topping up his income by way of indulging in extra expenses from the company-funding budget, which was assigned for offices, staff, and product.
He then set about obtaining licensing deals direct from the UK with other record companies across Europe.
In those days a record company based in London had more status than anywhere else in the world, apart from the USA.
Territories such as Germany and France would pay a substantial advance for a three-year deal for product from the UK, in the hope that a hit would occur during the licensing period.
Smaller countries like Italy and Holland would only pay a small advance, but several small advances would soon add up.
Once the Onest label had secured these deals the same approach could be repeated with publishing companies around Europe, raising even more money for the kitty.
With all the funding in place the pretence of a real record company was now fully underway.
The next task was to bolster Holder’s salary even further.
This was quite easy to do, with the head office based in mainland Europe, the invoices for manufacturing were easy to fabricate.
Although only a minimum amount of records were being pressed and kept in the office basement, the invoices showed large quantities being manufactured and distributed, add to this a very lucrative budget for promotion, which was even easier to manipulate, Bucks personal income was growing fast and now secured.
With a steady stream of product arriving from head office, Buck had to pretend to go through the motions of a full release.
A small mail-out would be made to regional commercial radio stations, which allowed Buck to report back with exaggerated claims of interest, in some obscure location in the UK that head office had no way of verifying.
Every decision was made by Holder, no one had any say or influence within the UK Company; this was truly a one-man operation.
No one suspected anything; Buck had manipulated this whole organisation to run purely for his own benefit.
The One Loophole
It was plain and simple, should a hit occur in the UK it would almost certainly be successful in many other territories around the world.
There would of course be enough money to pay the artists their royalties from the sales in the UK, but the licensees had already paid Onest in advances, which would be deducted in any payments due from them, to the UK label, therefore with these deductions, there would be no way of paying the artists their full royalties from overseas earnings.
With Failure There Would Be Great Success.
There were exceptions to his plan, which would also work in his favour; for example, if head office had their own hit around Europe, then sent it onto Onest records in the UK for release and the record entered the charts, Onest only had to pass on the UK revenue.
This did happen on occasion and the European company was thrilled to have a chart entry in the UK.
This also confirmed their belief in Holder was justified, and for Holder this success enhanced the label’s profile immensely.
My First Encounter
In the early 1970s I licensed Onest, a record I had just produced.
Although I only received a tiny advance and was totally unaware of the situation, I was just very happy to obtain a release.
Buck had recently employed a very young attractive blonde girl called Honey to plug their records at the radio stations.
Although she was very inexperienced in record-plugging this was of great advantage to the label.
Honey adored the record I had just placed with Onest, and assured me she would work very hard to get it on the radio.
Within two weeks she called me to tell me that she had managed to get the record play-listed on several radio stations.
Every day I heard the record being played on the radio. In next to no time we were number one on several radio playlists across the UK.
I was convinced we would soon enter the charts.
I visited numerous record stores around London to try and buy a copy of my record, only to be told they didn’t have it in stock.
I phoned several friends who lived in different parts of the UK, to ask them to call into their local record store and try and buy a copy, not one of the stores had the single in stock.
I called Buck to tell him about the situation, he immediately leapt into a fantastic monologue, about how the shops order from the distributor, and that deliveries were made throughout the UK but only on certain days, plus it would be impossible be to get records into every single shop in the country, blah blah blah…
After a few weeks the radio stopped playing the record and it became what was known as just a radio hit.
It did seem strange to me that other record companies managed to supply all the stores when their records were backed by consistent radio play.
Again, not being aware of the operational master plan of Onest at the time, I succumbed to Holder’s explanation.
I had several more releases with Onest, only to find the same problem with the records not reaching the stores. I began to think something was not right, but had no idea what that could be.
Honey was also frustrated that the records she was managing to get on the radio were failing to chart.
The Only Hope Leaves
After two years she was offered another job with a new small independent label, this coincided with her husband wanting to punch the life out of Holder, for spreading rumours that Honey was more than just an employee with the company.
Holder told Honey that he had inside information on the company she was about to go and work for; he had heard that they would be bankrupt in the next few months.
This fearful suggestion didn’t deter Honey at all and this new small label soon became one of the most successful labels around the world, with Honey becoming one of the most successful record pluggers in the country.
In 1982 Honey went freelance and remained at the top of her profession until she retired.
The Curtain Closes
Holder loved to travel and spent much of his time visiting various licensees around the world.
As well as travelling his other interests were fine food, fine wine, women, and proudly telling everyone about his delusional achievements in life.
He would religiously phone into the UK office several times every day making sure he kept a tight rein on his empire.
He would often take a member of staff with him on his travels, although only males would accept his invitations.
Ted the office product manager, was invited to spend a week in Holland with Buck.
Holder insisted they visit De Wallen district, the largest red-light area in Amsterdam.
After perusing the girls in the windows for some time, Holder was getting quite hot under the collar over one particular young lady.
He suggested to Ted that they should meet back at the hotel later.
Ted pretended to leave for the hotel, but after parting company hid to see if Buck really did go in and pay a visit to the girl.
Buck plucked up the courage and walked towards the window, just as he came close to the window the young lady looked at him, stood up and closed her curtains.
Holder embarrassingly sidled away.
Contrition Was Not in His Vocabulary.
Most people could not sleep at night if they had wronged another person; this was the opposite with Buck, he could only sleep well if he had screwed someone over that day.
There were no limits to his greed.
When the Christmas bonuses arrived from the head office for the staff, he would pass on only a fraction of the amount, after all how would they know what head office had sent?
Holder was on a waiting list for three years to buy a new black Range Rover with matching interior.
When it finally arrived, he sold it within the first week for a higher price than the company had paid for it.
With such a long waiting list he knew it would sell immediately for an inflated price without any problem.
On the same day he then repurchased the same make of car from the local dealer without the matching interior; the residue of five thousand pounds squeezed nicely into Holder’s wallet.
During a boozy lunch Holder was trying to impress a young girl he really thought he had a chance with. Inebriated he offered to buy her a new car.
Not for a Million Pounds and a Ton of the Devils Dandruff
The next day he realised he needed to come up with a scam to buy it for her.
Ted was due to renew his company car in August as he did every year.
Ted was told to meet the young lady at the car showrooms.
He was to trade in his car at a value of £9,000. The young lady’s car was also to be traded in, but this was only worth £500.
Ted purchased a new car for £11,000 and a second car for £12,000 for the girl.
The total cost came to £23,000, minus the deposit from the trade in, which left Ted handing over a company cheque for £13,500, which on the books for the head office seemed quite reasonable for a new company car.
The young Lady was thrilled beyond belief and immediately drove out of Buck’s life forever.
She told me privately, “Not for a million pounds and a ton of the Devils dandruff, would she ever give Holder what he was after”.
Fidel Castro
Ted was never a big fan of Holder’s but he needed his job badly.
On one occasion at a Christmas office lunch, everyone was making speeches and getting merry.
A few members of the staff wanting to retain their jobs for the company next year, stood up to toast Buck, saying things like how wonderful it was to work for him, and without whom none of them would have their jobs there, plus what a great leader he was.
Ted was quietly drinking a little too much, when another member of staff stood up and made a speech comparing Holder to the long reigning Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
The staff member ended his speech with,
“So, let’s all raise our glasses to Fidel,”
when from the end of the table Ted shouted out
“I agree, let’s hope we can all share in the fiddle one day”.
Buck left the lunch slightly earlier than most of the staff and Ted, who by now was totally smashed, stood up and said
“I would also like to make a toast to Buck Holder, without whom none of this would have been necessary”.
Competition Time
Holder convinced the head office that to motivate the representatives from the sales and distribution company they employed, Onest should hold a competition, with the prize being a holiday for two in the Caribbean.
Head office agreed this was a great idea, and the competition was put into motion.
The winner was never announced but, who would have thought it, Holder and a companion had a wonderful paid holiday for two in Barbados.
Buck Never Failed to Amaze With his Rhetoric.
He once played me a dreadful record he was about to release that head office had licensed from Brazil.
He asked me what I thought, I remarked that the singer was singing out of tune, he abruptly replied,
”KD don’t you know anything? She is singing in the Brazilian scale,”
I pointed out
“It was a shame the musicians weren’t playing in the same scale.”
The Next Adventure
In the late 70s at the Onest office I would often run into a young producer named Larry.
He had a small record label that he ran from his home and wanted Buck to place the product through Onest’s European licensees.
Each time Larry released a new record he would play it to Holder trying to convince him to get a release for it in Europe.
At first Buck had no real interest due to Larry having his own set up in the UK, plus he had no understanding of the contemporary electronic music Larry was making.
But as the music papers started to enthuse about Larry’s product, Holder saw an opportunity.
He convinced Larry it would be better to set up a new situation, outside of the Onest European licensing deals.
Buck knew he couldn’t use his outlets through Europe, but if Larry could make any impression on the charts with his label, Holder could negotiate a completely new deal with the same companies and obtain yet even bigger advances.
This became the start of a real golden age for Holder.
Larry had no idea how Europe worked and was completely in the hands of Buck.
The dedication Larry put into his artists soon paid off.
Holder had the green light and major control of the overseas record and publishing deals.
Larry’s artists and productions became huge hits all around the world, along with the publishing rights, the worldwide royalties being earned were colossal.
During the next ten years millions of pounds was under Holder’s control.
When royalties are being paid quarterly into various accounts in different territories, it is very easy to remove thousands and thousands of pounds without anyone noticing.
In those early days it was so easy to conceal money from small territories like Portugal.
The artists would see royalties arriving from Spain and believe that Portugal was under the umbrella of the Spanish income.
As Holder added property and businesses in Portugal to his personal portfolio, Buck’s personal wealth was becoming more and more noticeable.
The Head office in Europe began to wonder where all this money was coming from, so Holder quickly invented a very rich Aunt who had just died and left him a fortune in her will.
Holder camouflaged the overseas business side from Larry for many years, but as time went by Larry grew more knowledgeable about the industry.
Towards the end of the 80s he confronted Holder about various anomalies in the accounting.
This led to Buck handing everything over to Larry including a large repayment of money.
It would be impossible to say how much money went through Holders personal accounts.
I witnessed him negotiate $50,000 in one phone call with an American film company, who required the usage of one of Larry’s records for a movie.
When the call was finished Buck offered me a proposal.
“This film usage comes up all the time and he was in a position to divert the funds to my company account and at the end of each year we would divide the money between us.”
Having somewhat different ethics to Holder’s I declined the offer. I am aware that he did find someone else whose morals would allow them to share in this improper reassignment of funds.
With Larry gone and the head office selling out to a major label, things were looking dark for Buck, but the gravy train hadn’t pulled in to the station just yet.
His claims to being wholly responsible for Larry’s success impressed a major German record company so much; they offered him his own label deal through their organisation, with funding of £5,000,000 over a five-year period.
Holder was back into action immediately setting up the new label.
It would be a conflict of interest if you managed an artist who was signed to your own label as this would make it much too easy to take advantage of the artist.
Holder got around this problem by employing an American friend to set up a management company to look after any artists he would be signing.
Holder swayed the artists by exaggerating the advantages this manager would be for them, especially in America, he also made it clear if they didn’t sign with this management company there was no deal with the new label.
The artists were completely unaware Holder owned the management company.
Over the years it had become apparent that Bucks talent was making money for himself, incredibly he didn’t have a clue about music.
The acts he chose for the new label were the ones he could manipulate the easiest, or girls as he put it “He could get his leg over.”
One particular young lady he signed had a voice that resembled the sound of someone ironing a cat.
The first twelve months went by as quick as Buck could spend a million.
Three or four artists had been signed and several albums were heading for completion.
With the first year over and the first advance spent, Buck invoiced Germany for the payments of the second £1,000,000 advance.
Unfortunately, he had missed a major clause in the contract, which stated his label had to deliver and release six singles and four albums to complete his obligation in the first term, before any of the second payment would be released.
With less than £50,000 left in the bank it would be difficult to pay the overheads, never mind the cost of finishing and delivering the recording commitment.
The new label finished as quickly as it started.
Having run out of money and people that would be taken in by his wild imaginings, he took a job three days a week working for one of the biggest lawbreakers in the industry, a label that made fortunes out of pirating CDs all around the world.
After ten months Holder was fired, with the owner of the company saying “Holder was the biggest crook he had ever come across.”
It was rumoured that Buck Holder could even get a fiddle going in a brass band.
There were many people who had a sneaky admiration for the way he could dream up the most amazing scams and succeed with them.
What he took from the industry was everything he could, what he gave in return was his unrelenting art of embezzlement.
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