Talk β90s to me
Cash, cocaine and chaos β The mad, bad β90s music biz with author John Niven
You don't know what's going to hit.
Talk β90s to me
Cash, cocaine and chaos β The mad, bad β90s music biz with author John Niven
You might get really enthused about a band that nobody else likes.
Talk β90s to me
Cash, cocaine and chaos β The mad, bad β90s music biz with author John Niven
You can't always get it right.
Talk β90s to me
Cash, cocaine and chaos β The mad, bad β90s music biz with author John Niven
And actually with A&R, you know, at a certain point you lay out the stats and it's like one in 10,000 is going to make it, you know.
Talk β90s to me
Cash, cocaine and chaos β The mad, bad β90s music biz with author John Niven
When were you writing it?
Talk β90s to me
Cash, cocaine and chaos β The mad, bad β90s music biz with author John Niven
On the comedown?
Talk β90s to me
Cash, cocaine and chaos β The mad, bad β90s music biz with author John Niven
Yeah, you don't want to do it now.
Talk β90s to me
Cash, cocaine and chaos β The mad, bad β90s music biz with author John Niven
But I mean, you will work... So London Records, when you were working there, obviously they did like Bananarama, East 17th, All Saints, Finding Uncannable, you know, like, you know, really kind of amazing pop hits.
Talk β90s to me
Cash, cocaine and chaos β The mad, bad β90s music biz with author John Niven
But the reason...
Talk β90s to me
Cash, cocaine and chaos β The mad, bad β90s music biz with author John Niven
why you kind of like got your break at A&R was actually you signed a really big pop hit, which was Mike Flowers Pop.
Talk β90s to me
Cash, cocaine and chaos β The mad, bad β90s music biz with author John Niven
So what happened?
Talk β90s to me
Cash, cocaine and chaos β The mad, bad β90s music biz with author John Niven
But you had signed it, and they were decent enough to say, yep, we're going with you.
Talk β90s to me
Cash, cocaine and chaos β The mad, bad β90s music biz with author John Niven
Because sometimes like in the book, you know, like you could say to Mike Flowers Pops or whoever, would you like to sign with me?
Talk β90s to me
Cash, cocaine and chaos β The mad, bad β90s music biz with author John Niven
And they go, yes, cheers.
Talk β90s to me
Cash, cocaine and chaos β The mad, bad β90s music biz with author John Niven
You shake hands.
Talk β90s to me
Cash, cocaine and chaos β The mad, bad β90s music biz with author John Niven
And then somebody else comes in with more money and they go, actually, I'm really sorry.
Talk β90s to me
Cash, cocaine and chaos β The mad, bad β90s music biz with author John Niven
You seem like a nice guy, but I'm going somewhere else.
Talk β90s to me
Cash, cocaine and chaos β The mad, bad β90s music biz with author John Niven
It's amazing.
Talk β90s to me
Cash, cocaine and chaos β The mad, bad β90s music biz with author John Niven
Have you not got a gold record?
Talk β90s to me
Cash, cocaine and chaos β The mad, bad β90s music biz with author John Niven
Okay, so that means that you, so you signed Mike Flowers Pops and you genuinely, you know, you signed it, you were quick off the mark, you signed them, you spotted it was going to be a hit.