In Music Commercial Success is a Fickle Mistress

As a singer-songwriter with three solo albums to my name, so far fame and fortune have eluded me. Having said that, it was never about the money anyway. Like lots of artists, I do what I do for the love of it. That being said, it would have been nice to at least recover the costs of making all of those albums. Due to keeping to a very tight budget on production costs for the first two albums (Nobodies Pet and Live and Unsigned') I have thankfully more than recovered the costs for those. The one that I am still in the hole for is the third, 'Lost and Found.'

'Lost and Found' and 'Nobodies Pet' (Under the name of William Peter O'Neill) are both available on Bandcamp but have sold less than a handful. Up until the outbreak of Covid I was doing ok with 'Lost and Found' sales at live concerts. Sadly Covid put paid to all of that. Such is life.

I am mindful of the fact that things can get better, even years later. An old friend of mine was in a very good band (The Klubs) back in the sixties but they missed the bus. Some thirty years later some music magazine was trawling through the past to see if anything had been missed and lo and behold they discovered The Klubs. From there things took a turn for the better and new pressings had to be done to meet the demand for what became something of a collector's item.

I am also aware of yet another group, Pinnacle, who released an album called Assassin. Again, they never went big. However, that album, of which I have a mint copy, now sells for about five hundred dollars.

The reason I know about these two misses, that should have been hits is that I was a co-owner of a record label, Stag Music. One of my co-owning colleagues, and still a very close friend all these years later, Trevor Griffiths, was the lead guitarist for the Klubs. To this day the Klubs still have a healthy following due to all the hard work of its members, like the redoubtable and highly talented bass guitarist Noz Easterbrook, who as it happens, used to design the album sleeves for Stag Music. There is still a market for decent music by musicians who can not only compose but also play and perform to the highest professional standards. For this reason, the highly collectable 'Assassin' one of a great many albums released on the Stag Music label, is also still in demand.

Stag Music mostly produced comedy records for people like Tom O'Connor. However, they also produced albums for a variety of bands who were financing their own releases. One band in particular who did make it big was a group of young lads who came to us as New Attraction. The involvement of two producers, Ronnie Scott and Steve Wolfe, plus a name change to Buster, was enough to get the boys a deal with the Warner label, which was all they needed for them to hit the charts and tour the world with great success.

I guess success is something of a fickle mistress and that it's true enough that whilst many are called few are chosen. And maybe some get chosen a lot further down the line, or maybe they never chosen at all. But that doesn't put people like me off, because commercial success is not everything.

What we do, we do for love and for the art of it all. Bear in mind, Vincent Van Gogh died unappreciated and in abject poverty. How ironic that just one of his paintings can now command millions of dollars. I'm not saying that that is what will happen with my own humble offerings, but you never know, I can but live in hope.

It has been observed that Lost and Found is a little like Leonard Cohen, which is a compliment I can live with all day long. My aim was in fact to pay a tribute to none other than The Beatles. In reality, the album covers a wide variety of styles, so if you don't like the first track, dont give up on listening to the rest of it.

I am quite proud to have not only composed and performed all of the songs on the album, but also to have played all of the instruments, with a little help from one or two friends, not least of all ex Bon Jovi producer Lance Quinn.

I also produced the album myself, again with some assistance from one or two others. And I must give a special mention to Rachel Swan who did ask amazing job on the female vocals. Also a special mention for Rachel's father Keith on percussion and some assistant production.