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Re: Leinhos, Peter is out of the office.




Great rant, Mark!

I am fortunate to have never been in the music business that way. I watched it from my position as a magazine writer in the 70s and '80s, and I saw lots and lots of great music fall between the cracks. Your life's work comes out the same week as a Madonna release? Tough luck, kid; the sales department has its priorities.

I have been earning my living producing a radio show since 1987 or so. I am having a great year playing music, and I've made a few thousand selling CDs and music online, too. Most importantly, I have complete control over what I do and I have enough gigs (and growth) to feel good about my career. I am too old and too weird to ever be a pop star, and that is just fine with me.


On Nov 16, 2010, at 11:41 AM, mark francombe wrote:

I loved being a professional musician, touring was fabulous, all that sex and drugs, studio was cool, became a genius at Sonic the Hedgehog, Shooting videos was fun, cos that was my job, photoshoots.. cool as fuck... all those make-up girls and screaming queen assistants running about fetching me Lattés (before I knew what a latté was... ) But then the meetings... MEETINGS?? I hear you ask, yes... hours and hours of wingeing moaning band meetings, days and days of endless management/record company meetings... pushin, slowly pushing, in that very annoying kind of... "we love and stand by your thing its great" way for a hit.. or at least a track you could dance to... of hum along too would be just great guys... in the end theres none of your original band there... its just meetings and meetings, and getting up late and going to bed late... and pissing off your girlfriend cos you cant cook anymore, refusing to walk if you can get a taxi... 
so then I was out... phew... breath of fresh air.. foreign fresh air infact... working.. in a job... it was GREAT!!!... playing at a few cellar bars and art galleries, where a few people still knew me, but I could well.. I could loop!!! In those days using 5 different delay pedals with hold functions, no synch.. oh and a vortex... Its was so easy, so simple... do a job for money... and play what the fucking hell you like!!! Again... after 13 years it was like a revelation!!!
After another 13 years.. well Im sick of working... should have gone for SOMETHING within music, as it is I built up a successful e-learning film company, but now I want out... HATE IT! HATE HATE HATE it... I tell my MD that people arn't turning up on time and are leaving early, then I realize that it mainly me... shit...

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