My glam life in the music industry - Part 6
My boss and I worked for six months solid deciding who should receive a prestigious BMI music award, only problem was the event date was the day after 9/11....2001
Click below for 3 min video soundbite of the long form radio show with Daniel and Mariella
Part 6 of our 3 min YouTube video, Peaceful Cacophony channel
I like to think that landing my job with a rich American music royalties company was an act of manifestation. I was an aspiring singer-songwriter and I was looking for an admin role in London, twenty-five years ago. There I was searching for work that would bring me closer to my music dreams. I’d signed up with any media recruitment agency that would have me, but was having no luck. It seemed everyone else had the same idea!
One day whilst on the train home, my sister saw a little Ad in the free paper for a “PA in the music industry.” Excitedly, I jumped on it and landed myself an interview. Thanking my lucky stars, I walked up the stately stairs of the impressive sandstone building and it began to sink in just what a catch this job would be. Me? Nervous? No…not at all.
Whilst scribing this blog, out of interest I took a peek at the history of the gorgeous architecture and the first synchronicity is see is connected to my year of birth 1961 but a century earlier, in 1861. I tend to use these ‘clues’ when I sleuth the right information for myself and clients as The Past Life Detective, so I’m used to spotting number patterns and decoding them.
“Built to house Irish Catholics working as servants for rich families, designed by Edward Boehmer (1861-1940) and Percy Christian Gibbs (1864-1904) and completed in 1904. The seven-storey mansion block exists and is now an upmarket block of flats.”
I landed the role and to my delight I had my own office, with a dark mahogany desk and epic ensuite shower room. It was the height of luxury, I couldn’t believe my luck! My boss was an affable American, originally from the New York office and one of the best guys I’ve worked for. We poured over reams of music royalty statistics to find the lucky winners. Broadcast Music Inc aka BMI, is host to some huge stars such as Elton John and I had access to the database (so I learnt a lot about how much people earn on their music).
We encouraged stars to come in to our satellite office (there were only five of us) and complete their US tax forms. Sometimes we would hook them up with other artists for a co-write in the luxurious boardroom. That’s were I learnt about collaborating with other musicians and how the nuts and bolts work in the music industry. As BMI representatives we would attend all the most prestigious music events and put on showcases for unknown artists too. It was so much fun! Of course, half of the year was spent getting ready for the biggest show in town, the BMI music awards at The Dorchester Hotel darling!
The day before the event, all the senior staff including the lady president from the New York office had arrived and were settled in the office talking through last minute details. All the letters to the stars had been sent out and accepted and we were just tweaking the menu and flowers at the hotel, when one of the most shocking attacks in modern American history happened. My boss had his TV on check the news and suddenly, up flashed The Twin Towers with horrific images of a plane ploughing into the side of the building! Yes, the date was 9/11 or 11th September 2001 if you’re English! The sheer horror of our American guests will be etched into my mind forever, they were shouting and pointing at the screen and one even said his flat was right opposite the infamous skyscrapers. Once the initial turmoil was under control, my boss took over and level-headedly assigned each of us a chunk of the guest list to contact. We had to cancel the event and there was no time to lose! We were gutted.
That was a massive disappointment for me of course as I had been excited to meet and greet the celebrities in such opulent surroundings, but the most important thing was standing everything down, comforting the executives as they had no radio contact with their friends and families in America and looking after them for the rest of the week, until they could finally book a flight home. That went out with a bang, literally!
Finally, when the dust had settled we slowly regrouped and I’m glad to say I was able to attend the next event in 2002, which was amazing. I met Dido, who I love, and guided her to her press junket and then down to dinner, which was lovely as she is so down to earth. If I remember she was wear jeans! Sonique the DJ had an award for her amazing hit song in 1998 “It Feels So Good” She was a barrel of fun and very chatty! In fact she even posed for a photo op between my sister and I and nearly missed her call to stage!
Yesterday, I was telling my friend Dan, a professional musician who lives out of town in Kent about this blog and what had happened on that darkest of historical days. I initially met Dan when he came to view a room I was renting out in Sevenoaks in the late 90s. It hadn’t been big enough for all his musical kit, but we had a couple of jam sessions and then lost touch for many years. I messaged him yesterday and told him about this blog and he said “Oh I was driving up past Marylebone that very day to record in the studio and couldn’t figure out why everything was closed!” What are the chances? We had only met once or twice in Kent, a couple of years before I was even working there, so that was what I would call a synchronicity. He was in Marylebone at the same time as me and we were yet to become good friends. How quantum!
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Happy Sunday Funday everybody! xxx
