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"Connections"
- Thread starter newtonbassist
- Start date
Orion? No. Mustang Sally? A few times.
Then there was that Robin Trower concert. The one where his latest toy was a Binson Echorec…that he soloed forever with on… every … single… bloody… song.
I'm on friendly terms with Michael Buble's father as we were both involved in the fishing industry on Canada's West Coast.
A friend is an excellent songwriter so I asked the dad if I could give him a cassette of original songs for Michael to consider.
He said that was absolutely out of the question as for legal reasons Michael wanted to avoid any suggestions of plagarism if he ever recorded a song even remotely similar to any he had been given from anyone.
The only option was to send material to his managment. Seeing as his manager was kind of the evil illegitimate son of Albert Grossman and Peter Grant, I didn't pursue the matter.
A friend is an excellent songwriter so I asked the dad if I could give him a cassette of original songs for Michael to consider.
He said that was absolutely out of the question as for legal reasons Michael wanted to avoid any suggestions of plagarism if he ever recorded a song even remotely similar to any he had been given from anyone.
The only option was to send material to his managment. Seeing as his manager was kind of the evil illegitimate son of Albert Grossman and Peter Grant, I didn't pursue the matter.
I was briefly in a band where the guitarist/singer's claim to fame was that he'd been an "Ant", as in "Adam and the....". This was actually a half decent brag once upon a time, but 30 years later it hadn't aged well. A little digging revealed that being an Ant basically involved standing at the back, trying to look cool, and I'm pretty sure every guy in London who owned eyeliner had been hired on for at least one "live" performance.
Also my wife went to the same school as one of the members of Steps. I'm not 100% sure which one - "Houghton Regis Upper School" maybe?
Also my wife went to the same school as one of the members of Steps. I'm not 100% sure which one - "Houghton Regis Upper School" maybe?
From Wikipedia:
During its heyday, the Rat hosted such acts as the Cars, the Pixies, Metallica, Powerman 5000, Dead Kennedys, the Ramones, Talking Heads, R.E.M., the Motels, Dinosaur Jr., Sonic Youth, the Police, and Soundgarden.
(Cars/Pixies/PM5K/Dino jr. = "duh")
Elsewhere on the interwebs it sez the Police did a 4-night stand there in October '78:
Yeah. That was heading into the heyday of Punk. Good times! I saw the Ramones and a bunch of other punkers in Boston at the time. Dummies was another popular venue for the will-bes and rising stars. There was also the Tea Party, Bunratty’s, 33 Dunster Street, and a half dozen others I can’t recall off the top of my head.
Good days. Glad they were a part of my own.
Played my first Boston gig at Bunrattys!Yeah. That was heading into the heyday of Punk. Good times! I saw the Ramones and a bunch of other punkers in Boston at the time. Dummies was another popular venue for the will-bes and rising stars. There was also the Tea Party, Bunratty’s, 33 Dunster Street, and a half dozen others I can’t recall off the top of my head.
Good days. Glad they were a part of my own.
Wow. That seems a remarkably short-sighted policy, especially for a guy with a career based on covering other people's songs...
You get “short-sighted” when you’re forced by predators to hire lawyers to defend yourself from them.
Back when I was a lad in England I had a school music teacher for a year or so who was a nice old fellow, white goatee, accomplished classical violinist. His name was Cyril Perfect and he had a daughter called Christine
One thing reading biography's of music stars should teach us is that you never know where the next connection will come from. Seems like the lesson is to take everything with a grain of salt, but if it doesn't cost you money or much time, there's no reason not to listen carefully too -and maybe even follow up on- whatever hare-brained connection someone claims to have.
At worst you end up with some fodder for a thread like this.
At worst you end up with some fodder for a thread like this.
The other side is people that gloss over their connections. There’s a guy that plays with a top country artist and he makes it seem like oh two weeks after I moved to Nashville I just happened to bump into said artist and yada yada here we are 20 years later. He leaves out the part where his uncle was an exec at Warner-Chappel and they were grooming said artist. Not exactly a chance meeting…
I know many people who know other people in 'the business', but not directly. Most of my 'connections' with the stars are like the time me and Hugh Masekela tried to go opposite directions through a doorway. I don't think stepping on people's feet gets you many gigs.
