Music to my ears
Sweet Music to my ears and as a massive fan of Spandau Ballet, you can only imagine how excited my older brother was. For the first time in my life he ceased being the older sibling, the cold, uninterested bloke who I'd spent 20 years trying to impress, he was suddenly giddy with ideas and excitement for me. Put it this way we really enjoyed that night, stories were created in our head of what the next few months would bring. I was going to be famous and there was no stopping me!
Now Toby is somewhat of a rare find. He has performed, written, coached and produced some of the greats.
Cher, Spandau Ballet, Tom Jones, Girl’s Aloud and Gary Barlow to name a few. A true professional. He is to music what Pinocchio's dad was to wood work. A true master of his craft and a bloody nice bloke. How could I fail? I was going to be a famous rock star. With his talent and my (ahem) good looks it was nailed on!
Now, as you are reading this article rather than camped outside my pile in the Cotswold’s or the BBC waiting for me to appear on Radio 1 you know this didn't happen. Toby was true to his word and when he came off tour we banged out 7, what I think are really great songs even if I do say so myself. I sent them out to every name under the sun and waited for the knock at the door. Then I waited some more, and a little while longer.
WTF!!!!!! Why isn’t there a procession of A&R men beating a path to get to me as I walk to my car. Where did my music end up? Has someone stolen it? Will Noel Gallagher’s new song be ‘Life in The City’ (one of my tracks)? As Stelfox suggests, they were likely to be on the floor in some store room being tripped over (metaphorically of course).
To suggest I was disappointed is an understatement, think Stuart Pearce after Italia 90!
The Point
My point is this. Kill your friends took place in the mid naughties. This was before even Pop Stars had come on to our to screens. It was well before Britain's Got Talent and X-factor, before the massive explosion of the internet and smart phones.
Stelfox paints a picture of his era being harder than winning the lottery. How does that compare in today's 'fame today, gone tomorrow' world of Entertainment? At the tender age of 40 I realise there is absolutely no point in pursuing this dream, despite how good I think the music actually is. Unless I decide to enter this year’s X-factor and roll that dice, the chances of my music being heard by an audience greater than my immediate family and friends is nonexistent.
Unfortunately, if John Niven had written Kill Your Friend's about today's music industry there would have been more murders for Stelfox to commit to get to the very top! Stelfox bemoans his industry with gusto throughout passages of the book but, with great artists like Oasis, Ocean Colour Scene, Weller and Blur all in the throes of a Brit Pop revolution, without the annoyance of Simon Cowell and his TV wet dreams, he really never had it so good!
