July 31st – That popular phrase;
It’s not what you know
but who you know…and who you are.
is a rich seam in the music industry that’s mined to
exhaustion. There was a time when (Oh, Christ…here he goes again; ‘In my day…’
“I’m not interested, Peter…”) there was a time when, to get anywhere in the
business you had to do the rounds, cut your chops but, even with all that
experience you still needed someone to show you the door marked famous…and if you also had someone who
could switch on the desk lamp so’s you could actually read the contract you
were signing, then all the better. It’s a measure of what makes the rock
business function today to say that it used to be on talent and money…now it’s
just the money. Now, instead of being paid to play, as support act you, the
band, have to pay…it may be in the form of supplying the sound system,
the back line kit or the catering (all to the headline act’s specification, of
course) but pay you will or you don’t get on it.
Of course, if you had money and influence behind the band
then favours could be called in, loans made, pay-back favours promised between
friends in the biz, and this sort of back-scratching seeped into all sorts of
situations where a deal needed to be done. I’ve lost count of the legions of
stories that have filtered back to even a person such as me, a person on the
very, very, very edge of the business. Where the agent or manager of an
established star has called on friends in high places in order to quash a drug
story, sex scandal, marriage violation, violent interlude or some such other
misdemeanour, so you can imagine what those in the inner-circle get to hear
about. The major political storms over sex, drugs, inappropriate fondling and
inappropriate money manipulation have only surfaced because of one party
(that’s as in involved person not political movement) because of one party
or another’s feeling hard done by and, instead of deciding to talk it over and
come to some agreement has decided to run to the press with a scoop, that or a
dogged reporter finding the scoop for him or herself and in spite of pleadings
and bribery has deciding to publish and be damned.
Do you remember The Mamas & The Papas? All but one dead
and gone now. They had a huge hit in the 60’s with Monday, Monday. One of their number, Cass Elliot, (Mama Cass, I
believe she was called) was renowned for her…her…difficulty with controlling
her weight, so-much-so that she died at the tender age of thirty-five through a
massive heart attack; no age is the right age to die, if you get my drift, but
35? No justice there. There were also, it has to be said, rumours around the
band (considered to be a decidedly MOR collection of both songs and band
members that you’d happily send your maiden aunt out on a date with) rumours of
substance abuse, so that may have contributed to Ms. Elliot’s demise. It
certainly contributed to the arrest of ‘Papa’ John Phillips on this day in 1980.
Arraigned before the court for possession of cocaine sufficient to distribute
and of running a useful line in false prescriptions with a local chemist’s
shop, he was given a sentence commensurate with the seriousness of the crime: 8
years.
Strange then that before setting foot in the local pen, his
sentence was reduced to 30 days and a bit of community service…
Like I said; It’s not
what you know but who you know…and who you are. Mind you, they could have also
done him over for incest and that would have warranted at least, oh, I don’t
know…three days of picking litter? (Bet you’re interested now, aren’t y’!?)
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