| "No
more Virgin records, hoo-fucking-raa" sung John Lydon at the
end of PiL's version of 'EMI' during the 1992 'That What Is Not' tour.
And for once I totally agreed with PiL doing a Pistols cover. EMI had
just bought Virgin and PiL found themselves without a record company
(by mutual consent according to Lydon) right in the middle of a world
tour. This meant PiL had to play what was left of the tour (UK, South
America and The Reading Festival) off their own back and forced the
cancellation of the single 'Covered'. But PiL had left Virgin, good
ridance!
In 1993 John signed to Atlantic/East
West records as a solo artist and used the proceeds of the deal to build
his own home studio (Rotten Studios). Brilliant I thought, a new record
company. Hopefully one that would support him and see him make a return
to the spotlight. BUT NO! After a year or so, apparently unhappy with
the Atlantic deal John bought himself out the contract. And in 1995
after a chance meeting with EMI chief Ken Berry, John resigned to Virgin
America. Arghh! WHY John? Virgin!
You would have thought that
with the treatment PiL got in 1992 and their past record of bad promotion
with PiL product, Virgin would be the last label he'd sign to. I can
only presume that the forthcoming 'Filthy Lucre tour' had something
to do with it. And you can't even say Virgin made a particularly good
job of that. They release an album that's already been put out live
on Radio 1 and expect it to sell! They hardly pushed the boat out with
promotion either, did they? One 'TOTP' performance is nothing for a
band of the Pistols stature. Well, anyway that's been and gone. So has
'Psycho's Path' and unless you read F&F you probably wouldn't have
noticed. Virgin's lack of promotion hit an all time low (and that's
saying something) and therefor so did record sales. I know 'PP' was
never going to be number one, but Virgin could have pushed it further
than a couple of low key ad's in the music press and some air-play on
the 'Evening Session' (who would probably have played it anyway). Don't
tell me that with some decent air-play 'Sun' wouldn't have been a hit;
that's what record company pluggers are for.
John didn't even do the usual
barrage of press and TV interviews; that's what record company press
are for. They didn't even know what to promote it as. A Virgin spokesman
was quoted as saying the album was "Very techno-y" that shows
you how much they knew about it. Right up until May this year every
time I phoned Virgin they didn't even know John was on the label (and
you need to remember he re-signed in 1995). Every time I phoned it was
always the same, "Can you give me a release date for John Lydon's
solo album", "He's not on our label, it was only for the Pistols",
"Yes he is..." They didn't have a fucking clue.
Prior to the release of the
album there was no advertising and absolutely no info in the music press.
If I hadn't phoned Virgin in June even I wouldn't have known it was
due for release in July until I saw it (badly) reviewed in the 'NME'.
It's a disgrace. I still don't think the album went top 75, but you
can't tell me John's that unpopular. When you look at the money Virgin
must be chucking away on utter shite like the Spunk Girls and the Boring
Stones, you can't say they can't afford to promote him. As I said before
I didn't expect the album to be number one, but the top forty has to
be a realistic target for someone like John Lydon. I suppose it's easy
to blame Virgin for everything but his management (and John himself)
have to take some of the blame for not getting him a better deal and
a higher public image. I think that applies to all the Sex Pistols,
not just John...
As far as I know, John's deal with Virgin was only for one album, lets
hope so. John, do us all a favour and go somewhere where they'll support
you. How about Creation? You could do a lot worse. |