Book Description

Clive Selwood is the man who invented "chart hyping," the man who started the first "hippie" record label, and who pioneered the concept of radio "session" recordings with one of the most successful independent record labels ever. Replacing Des O'Connor as a Butlin Redcoat, falling foul of London gangsters, taking a major record company to the top of the league, getting fired and taking sweet revenge by making its main rival the No.1 singles company—Clive Selwood has had his fingerprints all over the secret machinations of both the UK and international music industries for over four decades. A director of such international record companies as Elektra, UK Records, CBS, and Pye, and creator, with John Peel, of the Dandelion independent label and Strange Fruit Records, Clive Selwood worked with such legendary names as Jim Morrison, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, Barry White, Rod Stewart, Abba, Elton John, and hundreds more. Illustrated with photographs from the author's private collection, this memoir covers every facet of the music business—lawyers, chart fixing, marketing, record production, music festivals, record executives and personalities, artist management, sex, bribery, and the creation of both successful and unsuccessful record companies. Having helped to shape and guide the careers of some of the world's leading recording artists, Clive Selwood chooses to dedicate this fascinating memoir to the millions of "air guitarists" with all the classic moves of their heroes—from Slowhand to Slipknot—but none of their licks, and the countless souls trapped in mundane jobs who dream of the danger and the excitement that the music business would appear to offer.