Read Online Baby You're a Star by Kathy Foley - Free Book Online Page B

2 market in Britain. You listen to it and you never buy it.”
    Another major problem was the divergent views held by Logan and Louis on what direction the singer’s career should take. Louis wanted Logan to target the middle of the road market. Logan, however, sought musical credibility and saw himself as more of a rock star.
    “I would have liked him to be middle of the road,” says Louis. “All these young guys, they want to be hip and trendy. They don’t want to be safe. They don’t want to be middle of the road. If you’re middle of the road, you’ll never get knocked down. I just thought he was famous, he did well, but he could have been global. But who was to know? He didn’t know. I didn’t know. Nobody knew around that time.
    “We can all look back and say, ‘If only we had done this’. He has still done very well. I just think he could have been great, because I do think he had the talent and the looks, and he worked very hard. I think he had too many chiefs and not enough Indians. That’s being really honest.
    “If I was managing him now, I’d get him American producers. I wouldn’t go with the producers we were using at the time.”
    The rock journalist George Byrne, who knew all parties involved, says Logan should have listened more to Louis.
    “Logan’s idea of a rock star wouldn’t be anyone else’s idea of a rock star. Louis saw what was going on. He was right. He tried to pitch him as a Cliff Richard type with longevity, doing middle of the road stuff and working forever. Logan wanted to be more like Sting or Robert Palmer. It was an essential clash and it was never going to happen.”
    While Logan must shoulder some of the blame for his career falling apart, so must Louis. The two parted on good terms and remain friends. But if Louis been a truly effective and professional manager in 1987, he could possibly have tried harder to persuade Logan away from his rock leanings for a while. After all, in later years he talked his acts into doing whatever was necessary to keep the hits rolling in.
    While Logan never cracked the UK market, he has enjoyed success in Scandinavia, and like the BayWatch actor, David Hasselhoff, he made it big in Germany. He is signed to Sony in Denmark and his last album even went gold there. Sales like these mean that Logan can tour, earning himself a comfortable living. Had Louis been as powerful or experienced in 1987 as he is now, there is little doubt that Johnny Logan would still be signed to Sony in London, rather than Sony in Copenhagen.
    The collapse of Logan’s career in Ireland hit Louis hard. It had been his one chance to escape the grind of life as just another agent back in Dublin. That chance vanished overnight and Louis’ confidence was badly dented.
    Although Logan’s career floundered, both he and Louis had the consolation of knowing that he was one of the Eurovision greats. “If anyone starts to think of Eurovision stars,” explains Geoff Harrison, “they think generally of ABBA, and then Johnny Logan. And then, if they get desperate, they remember that Celine Dion won it once, and if somebody asks me, I’ll say Julio Eglesias was in it once, but he tries to forget it. But Johnny Logan really is up there. Nobody did what Johnny Logan did. He’s Mr. Eurovision. There’s a few that have entered more than once but nobody’s ever won more than one. That’s what makes him special. He’s a classic.”

5
    WHY ME?
    In December 1989, Carol Hanna decided to leave Hayden’s company. It was not an acrimonious split. Hanna just wanted to have her own business. She set up Carol and Associates at 90 Lower Baggot Street and became an agent for various acts with whom she already worked closely. Although she broke from Tommy Hayden Enterprises on friendly terms, setting up on her own was daunting. She had worked alongside Louis and Hayden for 20 years.
    “I had been with Tommy for twenty-odd years at that stage,” says Hanna. “I had been with him a