YouSaid · the spoken record

Miles Copeland

lines on the record: 82
first: 2022-12-26
most recent: 2022-12-26
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Well, actually, what happened was my brother was impatient. He had a burning desire to succeed. He had formed the police, he wanted to be a punk group, and nothing was good enough, you know. And I had come across a studio just outside of London where the doctor, the MD by day, was hoping to become a record producer, engineer. And he said, look, I've got this studio I've built in the back of my medical practice. And I'll give you a month in the studio for a thousand pounds. So I said to Stuart, how about let's make a police album? So I became effectively the record company. So the police went in to this studio in Leatherhead for a month and put down the album.”
2022-12-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · I.R.S. Records: Miles Copeland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Henry Potavani, who later became a great player. So basically, I didn't realize that there was something special there in the beginning. I mean, it was my brother. I threw gigs his way when I could. Dang it didn't really like punk rock. I mean, I remember him walking on a stage once saying, well, we call ourselves a punk group, which means we sing banal lyrics and we're full of crap or something to that effect. And I was thinking cringing to myself thinking staying for Christ's sake. Don't say that, you know.”
2022-12-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · I.R.S. Records: Miles Copeland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was his idea. He came up with the name and he said, well, the minimum I can get away with is three people. So he got in Henry, who looked right. He looked like a pumpkin.”
2022-12-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · I.R.S. Records: Miles Copeland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, he was a professor. But he didn't know what he was going to do with life. And Stewart had talked him into this punk group and he'd read the newspapers too. So he figured, well, what the hell? You know, Stewart didn't co-found the group. He founded the bleak.”
2022-12-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · I.R.S. Records: Miles Copeland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was again another situation where you're going with a flow, basically, you know. Stuart was not a punk. Sting hated the whole punk rock scene. You know, I mean, he was a jazz player”
2022-12-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · I.R.S. Records: Miles Copeland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, my brother Stuart had also become enamored with this whole idea of the punk world where it's minimalist, very few people he had formed a group called the police. So I'd call up Stuart and say, Look, I got this gig for Generation X, but they can't make it to Birmingham. Can you get to Birmingham? And he said, sure. So the police ended up being a fill-in act for a lot of the punk groups.”
2022-12-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · I.R.S. Records: Miles Copeland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So all of a sudden, Billy idled the whole lot. They all were at my door saying, will you book my group? And that's really how I got into the punk world because I was the only person who actually would call up some of these places and book the groups. And these groups, the whole rationale of the punk world was you don't need a lot of equipment, you don't need a lot of roadies, you don't need, you know, it was really minimalist. The problem was a lot of the groups were so disorganized they couldn't get to themselves to shows. So I would book Generation X, let's say, in Birmingham. I'd get a phone call that afternoon. Oh, Ma, sorry, we can't make the show because can't find a van.”
2022-12-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · I.R.S. Records: Miles Copeland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I'd go back downstairs and I call the clubs and say, Well, look, those dates don't work. And I go back up to Malcolm and say, look, can you do these? And he started yelling at me. Don't you understand? I get more press saying the bad cat get a gig, you're screwing up my whole rabbit. Get out of my office And I said, well, by the way, I know you're going to scream at me, but I did book one show in Holland. And he says, oh, Holland. Oh, we can do Holland. So I went with the sex pistols to Holland. So I became the first promoter to do a European date with the Sex Pistols. Well, that gave me huge credibility among the punk world.”
2022-12-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · I.R.S. Records: Miles Copeland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The manager of the sex business. He was on the floor above me. So I was reading in the newspapers about all these bands that the music business literally had written off and said, well, they can't play their instruments. It's a fad. So I read that, you know, the sex pistols couldn't get a gig. Well, I said, well, let me call up some of the people I know. So I'd call up one of the clubs and I say, well, you booked the sex pistols. And a lot of people said, well, okay, if the price was right, I'll do it. So I'd go back to Malcolm and say, well, I've been reading. I just booked three shows for you. And he would look at me and go, oh, what dates are they? And then he would tell me, no, we can't do them.”
2022-12-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · I.R.S. Records: Miles Copeland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, as it happened, my old time partner who I first started into business with, had an office in a place called Dryden Chambers off Oxford Street in London. So when I basically had fallen into hard times and given up my fancy offices and all of that, I called him up and said, look, do you have room? Can you give me a desk and a phone? And he said, well, okay. So it just so happened that it in that same building that was Malcolm McLaren and the sex pistols.”
2022-12-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · I.R.S. Records: Miles Copeland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And that was the punk rock marketplace. The fact that you didn't have any money meant nothing to Billy Idol, you know, the Generation X or to Suzanne Abanshees or to any of these bands. What they wanted was somebody who could call up the various clubs and knew the music business and could help them get a foot in the door. I had no money, but I had the experience.”
2022-12-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · I.R.S. Records: Miles Copeland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I couldn't really think about it because the reality is, what am I going to do now I knew the music business, which was an asset. I just didn't have any money”
2022-12-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · I.R.S. Records: Miles Copeland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“On the verge of bankruptcy, and I went to all the people I owed money to and I said, look, if you bankrupt me, you know what's going to happen. You know, it'll go to the courts and you'll end up with one penny for every pound that you owed. If that. But if you give me a couple of years, I'll give you 50% of what I owe you. And luckily for me, everybody agreed. So I did not actually go bankrupt, but I was on the verge. I should have gone bankrupt.”
2022-12-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · I.R.S. Records: Miles Copeland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I lost not only a lot of money, I lost everything. I lost every penny I had plus money I didn't have, and I could not pay Wishbone Ash and some of the bands that I was working with. And I had to say, look, I'm sorry, but this whole thing has become a complete disaster, and I don't have the money to pay you. But I feel so bad about it, I will resign. So I resigned as the Wishbone Ash's manager.”
2022-12-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · I.R.S. Records: Miles Copeland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Realize at that point that now I was really in trouble. Lou Reed was not going to show up in Spain, which of course meant that the promoter then took advantage of me and said, well, you know, your headliner hasn't showed up, so therefore I'm going to pay you half the money. And that wasn't enough to cover all our costs. And it went downhill from there. So it ended up as a financial disaster.”
2022-12-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · I.R.S. Records: Miles Copeland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“He changed unbeknownst to me. I had booked him. I had made his contracts with the agency. Little did I know that he had left the agency. And I was getting kind of worried at one point because I was waiting, say, well, you know, we need to know when Lurid is showing up in Spain because we had a meeting with the airport and all that, you know. So I contacted the agency in America and, of course, no response and something's wrong here. And then I finally found Lou Reed in New Zealand.”
2022-12-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · I.R.S. Records: Miles Copeland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I had different groups I had in different countries. Like Lou Reed was very big in Spain. So I made sure that he was booked for the Spanish show. Headliners would fluctuate based on who was big in that marketplace. But my acts were always there. Unfortunately, Lou Reed never showed up.”
2022-12-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · I.R.S. Records: Miles Copeland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, the idea of the chore was if you could associate your up-and-coming artists with bigger names, then people would assume your artists were bigger than they really were. So, my idea was to say, well, if I could have John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra and I can have Lou Reed and I can have these big names and then have my acts on the same bill with them, my acts will appear to be bigger. And I got the bands together and off we went. We did the tour. Well,”
2022-12-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · I.R.S. Records: Miles Copeland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So basically, the magazine started off with a couple of mimigraph pages and it had reviews of my artist plus others, of course. But I would have great reviews of Wishbone Ash in it, you know, of course. And actually, the magazine kind of took off because unbeknownst to me there was literally nothing like it. So a lot of the agents and everybody began to take advantage of it because now they could advertise for, you know, fifty-two cents and reach who they wanted to reach. Whereas the act and the record companies were busy spending fortunes in the big magazine. So it was definitely one of the ways in the beginning that I used to let people know the act existed.”
2022-12-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · I.R.S. Records: Miles Copeland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I learned very quickly, you know, okay, one of the major jobs is to let the world know that your artist exists. Well, the reality is when you're started off with an artist in England, you literally had to only reach the people that booked the acts, which was probably two to three hundred people maximum. So I said, well, if I have a magazine, all I have to do is send out 200 copies to 200 people. And if they have booked the act, then I've done my job of marketing. It doesn't need to be fancy and flashy, but it's got to have credibility. So I found one of the university kids at University College London who actually books groups and said to him, hey, how'd you like to be the editor of a magazine? And he thought, well, cool. So I now had the credit.”
2022-12-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · I.R.S. Records: Miles Copeland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I booked the shows. I was the publicist. I even help them carry their equipment. I was forced to learn every aspect of the business. And I think one of the advantages that I had was I had an American accent. So when I'd call up a club, it'd be, hi, my name is Miles Copeland. I've got this new band to book, you know. They would not be quite so sure as to who this guy was. Well, maybe he's somebody important. Whereas if I was some British person, you know, hello, I'm Alice Coplin, I got his group. They'd think, oh, yeah, yeah, this guy's from Birmingham. Yeah, he's a schmuck click, hang up the phone. But they assumed maybe I did know something. So they would listen, you know, and then I would basically sell them a group.”
2022-12-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · I.R.S. Records: Miles Copeland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I kind of went with the flow. And I think a lot of people do that. I think, you know, to sit back and say, well, I'm going to do this, this, and maybe some people plot out their lives, but do they really know what they're going to do? I had a group called Wishbone Ash. I then picked up the Climax Blues Band and Renaissance and Curved Air and Caravan. And, you know, Al Stewart. And, you know, did I know when I had signed Wishbone Ash in the beginning that I was going to end up managing five acts? You know, no, I didn't really know. And one thing led to another, led to another, led to another.”
2022-12-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · I.R.S. Records: Miles Copeland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I learned a lot from them, and they learned a lot from me. Basically, it was a learning experience because I knew nothing about the music business. But I did learn about touring America. You know, I brought them to America. That was a big deal for British artists, really, because the whole idea of, you know, oh, wow, we're going to play America. That's the big game. The fact that I was an American kind of opened the doors, I think. And a lot of the groups that I started to work with were thinking, well, I can take them to America, which was their big dream.”
2022-12-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · I.R.S. Records: Miles Copeland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I would say they were moderately successful. They weren't as big as, let's say, Jethro Tuller 10 years after some of these big bands, but they were successful enough that people know who they were.”
2022-12-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · I.R.S. Records: Miles Copeland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, Rupert's people had had a single that went top 30, you know, but at the time that I was seeing them, they all had jobs. They were not a professional band. A lot of them didn't even have equipment. So it was, you know, they said they wanted to be able to manage them. And I said, well, I don't know anything. And they said, well, we'll show you. Well, the first gig they took me to was to a club near my parents' house, and I happened to meet a group who later became wishbone ash, who really became my first management artist. Rupert's people sort of faded into the background because they really weren't a professional group yet. They were hoping that I was some sort of rich American who might finance them. And I think that's why they asked me to manage them.”
2022-12-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · I.R.S. Records: Miles Copeland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The next thing I knew, I was helping him with his show. You know, he sort of sold them as from London, you know. Rupert's people”
2022-12-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · I.R.S. Records: Miles Copeland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I went to help organize this sort of show. They had this idea that, well, we want to have the kind of a psychedelic happening. We've been reading about this thing that's going on in San Francisco. So, you know, we need somebody to help us do it. And I had no clue. We did create happening. Of course, it had nothing to do with what was going on in San Francisco. I mean, there were no drugs, for instance. But it was a big success. The kids went crazy. So then the group came to me and said, Well, you've got to come and help us on all the other shows we're doing. Well, there weren't very many, but the words had got out that I was helping. And then I was approached by a promoter who was importing groups from England.”
2022-12-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · I.R.S. Records: Miles Copeland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That chasm sort of disappeared. And as it happened later on, the group comes to see me and says, look, would you help us? We've got a gig at the university. So I said, well, what the hell? It was literally that. Wow. It was one of these moments where as you just say, I got nothing better to do, so okay. Sure, I'll do it.”
2022-12-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · I.R.S. Records: Miles Copeland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, it actually was a series of accidents that had really no plan involved. My little brother Stewart had decided he wanted to be a drummer and he had got himself a drum kit. And as it happens, there was a local group at the high school, you know, called the Wichita Vortex Sutra. And they lost their drummer who went back to America for Christmas. And so they went to Stuart and said, well, we've lost our drummer. Will you sit in and drum with us? So obviously Stuart invited me to the show and he was some silly little club, you know, and I went with a friend of mine. You know, Stuart was up there drumming. And I thought, there's my brother who's actually in a band. So all of a sudden the music business, the distance between me thinking that there is a chasm between me, the kid listening to music, and the music business itself.”
2022-12-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · I.R.S. Records: Miles Copeland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Jerry Lee Lewis, great balls of fire. You know, little Richard, the big bopper. Elvis Presley had been a big deal when I had just left America, but later on it would be what was going on in San Francisco and the doors. Jefferson Airplane and all those sort of bands, you know.”
2022-12-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · I.R.S. Records: Miles Copeland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I would listen to the BBC. I would listen to the Voice of America. Every time my father went back to the United States, I would say to him, you know, walk into a record store and buy the top records.”
2022-12-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · I.R.S. Records: Miles Copeland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I went to AM. I knew that I wouldn't be seen by the top guy, but I went to the guy that signs the artists. So I went in and I said, Look, I have nothing to recommend this group. I've got no press. I've got no tour. They've got no fans. I've got nothing except I've got a great record. And here's the deal I'm going to make with you. It's free. Just pay me the highest royalty A&M pays if it sells. If it doesn't sell, no skin off your nose, no skin off my nose. The record's yours. Now, let me play the record.”
2022-12-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · I.R.S. Records: Miles Copeland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT