they say, rockânâroll is here to pay, and where big money is involved amateur management is about as much use as shoes are to a mermaid.
People say I came between Jack and Sasson. They say I was the greedy bitch who intercepted Jack on his way to stardom; that I attached myself to him, rendered him fuck-struck and pushed him towards fame and the highlife. They say that I was so impatient for Jack to become a gourmet meal ticket that I separated him from his old friends, corrupted him and introduced him to the professional sharks of the music biz. Oh what power I had.
It simply isnât true. Well, true and simple arenât words which sit comfortably side by side, but apart from that â it didnât happen that way.
None the less, some things get said so often that even the participants in a story come to believe them. You wouldnât think that either Jack or Sasson would accept alien versions of their own story, would you? But it was convenient to both of them for Jack to forget about his ambition and for Sasson to forget his incompetence. If they wanted to forget those critical facts they had toreplace them with fiction. And why go to all the bother of inventing a fiction when fans and critics had already done the job for them?
Well, who cares how it happened? The important thing was that I hadnât spoken to Sasson in years. And now I am going to meet him for lunch at that Hyde Park Corner hotel which used to be a hospital. Not my choice of venue.
As a matter of policy, I am always late for an important meeting, but judging just how late to be is a fine art. Itâs easy with people like Barry because what you are demonstrating is indifference and contempt. With others, itâs a question of reminding them that youâre worth waiting for. Sometimes you do it to demonstrate how important and busy you are.
What I wanted to show Sasson was not indifference for
him,
but indifference for time itself. I wanted to show him my arty side. He knows it exists because, at several steps removed, he pays me for it. He has recently become Managing Director of Dog Records. And, whatever he thinks of me personally, he also thinks that Iâm capable of giving some of his baby bands, and their baby songs, a bit of spin and polish.
To give him credit, when he was frozen out of Jackâs charmed circle, Sasson mustâve admitted to his own shortcoming. Because after wasting a few months ranting about ingratitude and betrayal he got a job with Wild Management and later became part of a consortium which set up an independent label. In other words, he learnt the business and understood that there was more to it than the blind luck of being at school with a major talent.
He came to understand that the music business is business, not music. True, he made quite a nice chunk of change for a few musicians, but he made a fortune for himself. He became a serious player in a dirty game. How serious and how dirty? Iâm beginning to find out, thanks to a small South London security firm with a good computer and an extensive network of contacts.
Now that I can research Sasson Freel Iâve come to admire and despise him in equal measure. What Iâve found out makes me a little afraid of him.
Working for a security firm would be a truly unprofitable use ofmy time if I didnât have an agenda of my own. But I always do have an agenda of my own, and I donât work for peanuts unless my employers can supply me with the facilities I need to make a bigger score. Cole-Adler provides me with research facilities. The score is information.
There is a problem though: if you want, successfully, to pose as a good employee, a reliable office manager, a loyal wage-slave, you have to think like one. And after a while you begin to feel like one. Feeling like a good employee is death to the entrepreneurial soul. The fox, posing as a rabbit, feels like a rabbit. And, believe me, itâs dangerous to go to
People say I came between Jack and Sasson. They say I was the greedy bitch who intercepted Jack on his way to stardom; that I attached myself to him, rendered him fuck-struck and pushed him towards fame and the highlife. They say that I was so impatient for Jack to become a gourmet meal ticket that I separated him from his old friends, corrupted him and introduced him to the professional sharks of the music biz. Oh what power I had.
It simply isnât true. Well, true and simple arenât words which sit comfortably side by side, but apart from that â it didnât happen that way.
None the less, some things get said so often that even the participants in a story come to believe them. You wouldnât think that either Jack or Sasson would accept alien versions of their own story, would you? But it was convenient to both of them for Jack to forget about his ambition and for Sasson to forget his incompetence. If they wanted to forget those critical facts they had toreplace them with fiction. And why go to all the bother of inventing a fiction when fans and critics had already done the job for them?
Well, who cares how it happened? The important thing was that I hadnât spoken to Sasson in years. And now I am going to meet him for lunch at that Hyde Park Corner hotel which used to be a hospital. Not my choice of venue.
As a matter of policy, I am always late for an important meeting, but judging just how late to be is a fine art. Itâs easy with people like Barry because what you are demonstrating is indifference and contempt. With others, itâs a question of reminding them that youâre worth waiting for. Sometimes you do it to demonstrate how important and busy you are.
What I wanted to show Sasson was not indifference for
him,
but indifference for time itself. I wanted to show him my arty side. He knows it exists because, at several steps removed, he pays me for it. He has recently become Managing Director of Dog Records. And, whatever he thinks of me personally, he also thinks that Iâm capable of giving some of his baby bands, and their baby songs, a bit of spin and polish.
To give him credit, when he was frozen out of Jackâs charmed circle, Sasson mustâve admitted to his own shortcoming. Because after wasting a few months ranting about ingratitude and betrayal he got a job with Wild Management and later became part of a consortium which set up an independent label. In other words, he learnt the business and understood that there was more to it than the blind luck of being at school with a major talent.
He came to understand that the music business is business, not music. True, he made quite a nice chunk of change for a few musicians, but he made a fortune for himself. He became a serious player in a dirty game. How serious and how dirty? Iâm beginning to find out, thanks to a small South London security firm with a good computer and an extensive network of contacts.
Now that I can research Sasson Freel Iâve come to admire and despise him in equal measure. What Iâve found out makes me a little afraid of him.
Working for a security firm would be a truly unprofitable use ofmy time if I didnât have an agenda of my own. But I always do have an agenda of my own, and I donât work for peanuts unless my employers can supply me with the facilities I need to make a bigger score. Cole-Adler provides me with research facilities. The score is information.
There is a problem though: if you want, successfully, to pose as a good employee, a reliable office manager, a loyal wage-slave, you have to think like one. And after a while you begin to feel like one. Feeling like a good employee is death to the entrepreneurial soul. The fox, posing as a rabbit, feels like a rabbit. And, believe me, itâs dangerous to go to
Similar Books
