We’ve all heard stories about Irish rock band managers. Some are complimentary, most are not. But what does it actually take to be one? Tony Clayton-Lea talks to a manager, an ex-manager, and a band member about their Irish experiences.
Managers of Irish rock and pop bands? They are either the stuff of legend or of ridicule. But, hey, they all have mothers, and they all have to start somewhere, don’t they? This simple fact — that there was once a time when individual managers knew everything about nothing — is conveniently overlooked when speculating on the species. Then again, there are people who think managers know nothing about everything all the time.
Aidan Cosgrave, Irish-based manager of Junkster (signed to RCA America, and currently recording their second album in Los Angeles), remembers a time when he didn’t even know the meaning of the word “copyright,” other than in the general sense.
“I didn’t even understand the terminology for the first few meetings I had with record companies and music publishers,” he says. “After sitting down a few times with each label, ploughing through the stuff, you get to know that it’s not rocket science. You very quickly get to grips with what it is you need. Likewise with publishing contracts. You begin to find out, and you keep going until they tell you we’ll give you this and no more.”
Let’s not jump the gun here — the practicalities of managing bands begins long before sitting down negotiating with record companies for that tasty little advance. Conor O’Mahony (former manager of Irish rock band Something Happens, and now A&R Co-ordinator, RCA U.K.), had no previous experience when he went into management 15 years ago. He wrote occasionally for the Irish music magazine, Hot Press, and regularly promoted gigs, but that was all the music business knowledge he had.
“I’d completed Business Degrees at college, which obviously helped,” he recalls, “but there were no formal training courses. It was a simple case of trying to learn the basic things that I could bring to Something Happens. I knew people who had venues, and the first thing any band needs is somewhere to play. They needed mentions in the press — I knew people in that area, too. But it was really no further than that. As regards an infrastructure, there were only two music business lawyers in Dublin, and one music business accountant, so the business in Ireland as we know it today was in quite an infantile stage.”
It is, of course, completely different now. The goal posts have changed in relation to the needs of a band at certain phases in its life. According to Tom Dunne (lead singer with Something Happens, and currently co-presenter of Network Two’s Popscene) bands don’t need managers during their very early stages.
“As you start to get involved with the actual business — dealing with record companies and becoming more serious about the whole thing — then a manager, the right manager, is essential,” he says. “It needs to be someone who has done it before, knows how the whole thing works, who can guide you, and who can bring out the absolute best in a band.”
All of whom I spoke to agreed that there were two types of managers — those who manage for the reasons of pure love of the music, and those who know of a band who are close to getting a record deal and manage for that reason alone. Similarly, all agreed that a manager is there to oversee two specific areas: artistic and business.
“They have to make sure problems don’t arise that will knock the wheels off the wagon,” stresses Tom Dunne, “that people get on with each other, that they work properly. It’s essential that people know there is one person who is in charge.”
As for business matters, all agree that there is no substitute for experience.
“If you have some experience,” offers Aidan Cosgrave, “the first and most obvious thing you do is to draw up a contract with the band, and become their exclusive manager by which you get them a recording contract, a publishing deal, and so forth. Through the contacts I had in Ireland I was able to establish who to contact in the U.K. It went from there.”
Aidan then sent out tapes of his then charges (An Emotional Fish). Suddenly, he says, it was the best demo tape in Dublin.
“From the position of trying to find one record company to sign the band, now I was fending off a number of record companies, because they all wanted to sign them.”
As the figures of money grew, Aidan began to feel out of his depth. Because it was his first time in such a situation, he decided to hired a Business Manager — Dublin-based O.J. Kilkenny, one of the best in the world. From that point on, when he started negotiating contracts with record companies he had his business manager by his side.
But Aidan Cosgrave was lucky and clever — a winning combination. He knew there was only so much he could do on his own. What lies beyond that?
“There are managers in Ireland who are good at a certain level,” states Tom Dunne, “people who can bring a band to a stage where your album is professionally recorded and produced, where it can get radio play, where there is financial back-up for videos, where there is support to tour and promote the record, and where the band get to be seen by as many people as possible. Which is fine, but should you get to that level, and try to get beyond it, you run into a total dearth of people in Ireland.
“There aren’t people here who really know how to play the big game,” Tom continues. “Of getting into America or keeping you in America, meeting up with the right people who can get a song of yours onto a movie soundtrack. Things that can be really instrumental in putting you onto a much bigger level. Ireland doesn’t have those people at all. Paul McGuinness is a shining light in those terms. He’s an exception.”
So where does that leave us? Back to square one? Consider this most important fact about the music industry — if your band is a band that no one wants, all the above might not even apply. Do not pass “Go.” Do not collect your advance!
“You can manage as many bands as you like, but if they’re all crap you’re never going to get further,” says Conor O’Mahony succinctly. “If the band is good, promoters will want to put you on, record companies will want to sign you, publishing companies will want to publish your music, and TV people will want to have you on their programmes. Managers have to know what’s bad and what’s good.
“Every manager should believe that their band is the biggest thing that is ever going to happen, musically speaking. If you accept that you’re starting at ground level, then you have a huge learning process. You should have a basic instinct of understanding what the band is about, and a hunger and a need to understand what’s going on. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out which record companies are good at doing certain things, and which companies are not. If you go with the attitude of being right all the time and that no one else knows anything, you’re going to come a cropper at some stage. You have to have a sponge-like mentality to take on board lots of different information — even if it isn’t relevant to you at the time. Be open to learning everything.”
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