26 MusicWeek 06.07.12
PROFILE FLYINGMUSIC FLY WITH ME...
DEBRA FRANKS - dfo international music agency My late husband Derek and I worked very closely with Flying Music from the outset and they have been very supportive and encouraging in my decision to carry on the business, ‘flying solo’. It’s hard to believe it’s their 30th anniversary, but, as they say, time flies when you’re having fun! Derek Nicol and Paul Walden have worked tirelessly and deserve the success they have achieved. Long may it continue.
NEILWARNOCK - the agency group I think the most important thing about them is that they have always been entrepreneurs. They discovered a niche in the market that hadn’t been exploited by other people. The Solid Silver 60s tours and the whole of that genre that hit a chord with people who have still got disposable income and enjoy being entertained by a cleverly put together collections of 50s, 60s or 70s artists. They also take the shows to where people live rather
than make people travel 40 or 50 miles to Manchester or Birmingham. So they make it affordable. Obviously Thriller is a benchmark that’s not only
running here but all over the world, which is absolutely fantastic. As I go up Shaftesbury Avenue I see Derek and Paul’s name up there and I’m really proud for them. They look after their trademarks and deliver value for money. You can’t beat that.
John Taylor - John taylor management When we did Joe Brown’s 50th Anniversary Show at The Royal Albert Hall in 2008 there was no question who would promote it. We began touring with Flying Music in 1994 and are still working with them today regardless of how the market has changed or evolved. The reason for this longevity is simple - I believe they are good for Joe. It’s the basics which matter. Whatever I agree in
terms of the marketing, promotion or national advertising with Derek, I don’t ever have to think about it again (I will but I don’t have to!). Whatever was agreed whether verbal or contractual will be delivered exactly regardless of external factors. If things get tough they will push more rather than
cutting back. It’s refreshing in today’s market and unfortunately the exception rather than the rule.
KevinWilson - Kevin wilson public relations If you visit FM HQ you can’t help but be impressed by the posters for some of the tours the guys presented with music greats of the past - Stevie Wonder, Van Morrison, Ray Charles, Dionne Warwick, Born To Rock ‘n’ Roll with Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Fats Domino as well as reuniting the four original Monkees for the first time in 30 years. Derek and Paul are great showmen with an eye
and ear for what will entertain the great British public. We look forward to working with them on their next two thrilling productions – Top of the Pops LIVE – and Green Day’s acclaimed punk Broadway musical, American Idiot.
JAMES DANN - dld lighting Flying Music have been promoting and producing live musical shows for three decades and it has been my pleasure to provide lighting design and equipment rental services to them for most of that time. The long-term success of shows like Rat Pack, Dancing In The Streets and Thriller, which are Flying Music creations, exemplify their ability to take an idea and make it into a brilliant and enjoyable show. Long may it last.
RIGHT Time travel: Flying Music’s first nationwide concert and theatre hall tour The Solid Silver 60s Show still runs today
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concert platform again, playing to huge sold out audiences. They felt great about it. “Their craft was always performing live, so the
guys felt comfortable from the moment they stepped back on stage for the first show. It wasn’t a case of having to get into it and I think the audience felt that as well.” Thanks to their combined experience in
promotion and artist management during the Seventies, as well as stints in recording and publishing, the duo saw potential in the acts they were working with and the sell out shows they could still achieve under the right conditions. “A lot of the acts that we started to work with
didn’t have record deals,” says Walden. “We realised there was an opportunity there, so, with some of the artists we actually put what’re now known as ‘360 degree’ deals together and started working with them, not just in terms of live performances but recording deals and video for some of them as well. “The first one we did was with Neil Sedaka. Neil
show for Southern Sound Radio in Brighton, promoting none other than the legendary Stevie Wonder. It was perhaps a suggestion of what was to come as the company put on its first nationwide concert and theatre hall tour the following year. “It was a brand that we still work with today called The Solid Silver 60s Show,” says Walden, “and the very first one was with Gerry And The Pacemakers, The Searchers and Peter Sarstedt.” It was an all-star nostalgia line-up for any
Merseybeat mums and dads on the surface, but something much more significant sat at the core of the show: Flying Music had discovered a way to breathe new life into acts that were otherwise resigned to winding down, their glory days well behind them. “We were taking acts who, at the time, had
actually stopped performing concert dates,” explains Walden. “They were all, pretty much, doing cabaret shows, corporate events or whatever they could pick up.” “Their recording career had gone a long time ago
but they made their living by live performance,” Nicol adds. “So we took the concept into a more comfortable environment for the audience: we put them in a nice seated concert hall rather than a smokey, dingy club.” Whether it was a dream pairing or a bumper
blast from the past, Flying Music subsequently put on similar shows over the next 15 years with the likes of Glenn Campbell, Frankie Valli, Neil Sedaka, Smokey Robinson, The Supremes and The Four Tops. Walden and Nicol had hit upon a niche that would prove incredibly popular with the public and, in fact, the artists themselves. “They were completely reinvigorated by the
whole experience,” says Nicol. “They would do packages back in the early Sixties when they were doing the Odeon circuit playing to thousands of people. And now there they were, back on the
hadn’t released any product to speak of for quite some years. We put together a deal with him that involved not only touring but also a greatest hits album where he actually re-recorded some of his originals and licensed others. “We established a deal with Polygram to do a
TV-advertised album package alongside the tour and a BBC One TV special, which was also going to be available for video. So that was a truly 360 degree deal, if you like, and going from selling very few records in the five or six years previously, that album came out and went platinum for Neil.” The Sedaka tour sold out, the album hit 400,000
units in the UK alone and the TV special went out in a prime time slot. It was a level of success that no-one would have dared predict for the singer at that stage in his career. For record labels and publishers with semi-
retired stars on their books, the implications of the Flying Music concept went far beyond a reminiscing audience and aging icons happy to be back on the boards. Nicol and Walden had hit upon a formula that
tapped into the greater potential of catalogues otherwise forgotten about. But companies had to be clued into what Flying was doing. “The repertoire record labels had was sitting on
the shelf,” says Nicol. “You might have been able to get it in certain shops, but there was no marketing, promotion or anything like that. If you wanted to find it you really had to search for it. “So when we went to them with the overall
campaign we had planned, and got them to TV market it, they already had a lot of the material on license anyway so they were able to make a compilation album to go alongside. It benefited all of us: it worked for the record company, it worked for the artist and it worked for Flying Music as well. It was a complete cross-marketing effort.” And there’s still reams of untapped potential in
labels’ back rooms today, says Nicol: “It’s just a case of convincing the record companies, because most
“A lot of the acts that we started to work with didn’t have record deals. We realised there was an opportunity there, so, with some of the artists we actually put what’s now known as ‘360 degree’ deals together and started working with them, not just in terms of live performances but recording deals and video for some of them as well” PAUL WALDEN, FLYING MUSIC
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