chaplin

Thursday, March 22, 2007

How to get ahead in show business

Spoke to Neil Finn and Nick Seymour this afternoon. They talked about how difficult it is if you don't have a strong image. Apparently David Byrne's advice to musicians who want to become famous is wear the same thing every day. Interesting idea and there's plenty of cases of it working: The Ramones, Suzi Quatro, Status Quo, ZZ Top...
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7 comments:

  1. Simon8:35 pm

    Makes sense and you can probably think of more people who have stuck to their image successfully than those who have changed theirs at every turn successfully (Bowie and...)
    Reading Byrne's blog he is clearly very into the visual arts and writes much more about exhibitions and artists than he does about music. So quite interesting that he advocates not changing your image in world of music.

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  2. broken horse8:49 am

    He's not a musician but it seems to working out just fine for Rusell Brand.

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  3. Andy Leslie3:00 pm

    A strong image is useless if you don't have strong music. Look at Prince, when he first arrived here he was just image and sank without trace.

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  4. Nealt237:29 pm

    Hold on a minute. Only image? Prince wrote, produced and played every instrument on his first few albums. He still remains one of the pre-eminent producers of music around - granted he doesn't really do production for anyone else but christ. Have a listen to The Work pt1 - recorded with a full live band, one take and no overdubs. Other musicians would take months to get that down. And what's this about sinking without a trace? He blew everyone away at the Hall of Fame induction with an incredible guitar solo and has had hugely successful tours in the states over the past five years, on of which was the highest grossing tour of the year and made more money than the Purple Rain tour. If I could sink without a trace with that amount of success I think I'd be happy.

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  5. Nealt237:54 pm

    And anyway, what about The Village People?

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  6. Clair11:01 pm

    I find the problem with so many of today's popular beat combos is that they lack both style and personality. Who are the Jarvises and Morrissey's de nos jours?

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  7. Anonymous3:42 pm

    i think ch should go back to the painted suits ;)

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