Don's rant at the news followed by....
I have been watching a programme called "when showbiz good horribly wrong"
which demonstrated how easy it is to NOT make money........to actually make money
in the music business you have to think things out or you will get ripped off by
managers and publishers who have no musical talent.....the way I did it was to look
for the gaps in the market....in the 60s all the groups were playing rock and roll and
pop music....only 7 or 8 piece dance bands were playing strict tempo....so in the mid
60s my band perfected quicksteps,slow foxes, waltzes etc and as we could also play
pop and rock we covered all bases and when the group scene ground to a halt in the
70s we played on as a function band....and during the 70s I started writing songs and
sending them out top publishers with little success but it was when I sent one to the
Opportunity Knocks Songwriters Contest and appeared on the show that I knew I
was on the right track so I set up my own record and publishing company and
released my own stuff which took off....as the only opinion that mattered about my
songs was mine......
I built a small recording studio in my attic and created a demo service (another gap
in the market) whereby songwriters would send me their rough songs and I would put
them into a state which they could present to publishers etc,,,,I ended up doing 200
of these demos which paid for my studio.....I joined the Songwriters Guild and
advertised in their magazine which is where I got all my customers....and again there
was very little competition.......to me it has always been business...I was not remotely
interested in feeding my ego or being "famous" .....fame can cost as history has
proved...........the demo service was fascinating and I received some very strange
stuff from people singing in the bath to songs which had lyrics which neither scanned
or rhymed.....however one of my demos was sent by the composer, to the
International Religious Song Festival in Rome....I was asked to go and sing the song
but was too busy at the time so I sent my good pal Paul Damian to go and sing it
which he did and met the Pope....and another lady sent me her song about
Italy...which I put together and told her to send it to the Italian Tourist Board and take
whatever they offered...the Board liked the song and offered her £450.....she was
also a member of The Songwriters Guild and asked me if she should ask their
advice...I told her to just take the money but she contacts The Guild who go over the
top with contracts etc and she got nothing....she should have listened to Don.
What were the worst two winters in the 60s?.....Mike and Bernie........which brings me
to my "One of the worst records ever" spot......again this is an example of
comedians....if you could call them that....sticking to what they do best and leaving
making records to singers.....this one is called "I Like It" and must NOT be confused
with Gerry Marsden's classic number one hit in the 60s.......it is basically an
instrumental with short breaks where the title was shouted out....they are the ONLY
lyrics.....now I don't know if Mike Winters was actually playing his clarinet in the band (
who are very good)......but Bernie definitely should have been forcibly removed from
the recording studio......so here it is.....Mike and Bernie Winters "singing" "I Like It"
