Scouse Pop - Paul Skillen
Some Aspects of the Music Industry in Liverpool
Scouse Pop - Paul Skillen
Paul Skillen [+]
University of Chester
Description
This chapter deals with how the diverse ideas produced by the musical auteurs of Liverpool became the successful singles and albums of the eighties. The effect of the music industry through record labels and tour promoters as well as the support from the DJs in both local and national radio stations in promoting Liverpool’s new crop of bands reveals how the music became the soundtrack to the eighties. The journey taken by the bands to achieve the success is revealed in a mixture of hard work, stubborn personalities, genuine talent along with a sprinkling of good luck, opportunism and timing. The bands arrived at their success through a variety of routes. With A Flock of Seagulls, Ali Score describes how their tour management were pivotal to their worldwide success and how this made huge demands on the band. The biggest thing was that we worked hard. We played every night. We played 120 shows in a row in the States, night after night. We were determined that they were going to like us whether they wanted to or not. It was sheer hard work and bloody mindedness. The chapter will also examine how other bands such as China Crisis, OMD and The Christians were not prolific performers in their early days and used the record companies to promote their early tracks to become the classics of the eighties. Henry Priest man explains When we signed to Island Records, it was just me playing guitar, backing tracks on a porta studio and the lads singing in my flat in Liverpool. Gary kept forgetting some of the words so we wrote them in the dust on the mirror in the bedroom where we auditioned. Still in the suburban bedrooms of Merseyside, China Crisis recollect how initially they used the power of the radio stations rather than a live band to achieve their success. Even before some bands had a live act they were able to record, sign record deals and receive widespread radio play. Eddie Lundon remembers how DJ Janice Long made suggestions on selecting a single from the album which resulted in their first hit. “Janice Long at the time was always saying that Christian has got to be the single. It did us the world of good. The single and then the album went massive.”