| "UNDER THEIR THUMB" MEETS UNDERGROUND GARAGE |
| Written by Bill German |
| Thursday, 14 May 2009 00:00 |
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A lot of people have been asking me what stories I left out of "Under Their Thumb." The final version of the book is about half the size of my original draft. But take heart, Stones fans: The stories I cut had little or nothing to do with the Stones themselves -- including the one about Andrew Loog Oldham. Considering that Andrew was the guy who "discovered" the Stones and served as their first real manager and producer, it seems ironic that my Andrew story wouldn't be relevant to my Stones-related book, but such is the case. I first met Andrew when I was 16 years old at a New York City nightclub called Trax. It was June 1979, and it was the first time I'd ever gone to a "grownup club." (The drinking age was 18, but they didn't card me.) I went to see a singer named Neon Leon, who was a black punk rocker -- a friend and neighbor of Sid Vicious's -- and who was rumored to be the next act on Rolling Stones Records. I heard that Andrew was going to be at the show, so I geekily brought my Andrew Loog Oldham Orchestra LP for him to sign. He did so graciously, as you can see from the photos below. The next time I made contact with Andrew was in 1982, when I was 19. I was doing free publicity work for an unsigned band from Brooklyn, called L.A. Trash. They were friends of mine, so I was sort of their manager-until-they-got-a-manager. They had a gig at a nightclub on the Bowery and were determined to lure as many industry people as possible. We scoured issues of Billboard and came up with 80 bigwigs to invite. I wrote up a press release and, along with the guitarist, hand-delivered it to all 80 offices. We knew someone whose dad owned a messenger service, so we were able to dress up in official-looking caps and use official-looking delivery labels. We hit places like Atlantic Records and told the receptionist, "Please see that Mr. Ertegun receives this." To make a long story short -- it'd take me a dozen pages to tell it all -- we delivered a press release to Andrew's residence on 57th Street. The guitarist, pretending to be a messenger, got Andrew to sign for it. Of the 80 industry people we invited to the show, Andrew was the only one who turned up. Even after his success with the Stones -- and a 1970s period where he describes himself as being "out to lunch" -- he was still musically curious and adventurous. (Very rare traits in the music biz.) He enjoyed the band's set that night and, when he recognized the guitarist as the messenger from the day before, he knew he'd found a diamond in the rough. He told me how he loved the band's pretentiousness and determination. He signed them to a management deal and took them into the recording studio, where he produced their cover of "The Last Time." (It was my idea for them to do that song.) I worked with Andrew for almost a year, between 1982 and '83. This, of course, was at the same time I was developing my relationship with Keith, who was living at the Plaza Hotel. (See chapters 5 and 6 of "Under Their Thumb.") I was 20 years old and I was the only person in the world who'd speak to Andrew Loog Oldham and Keith Richards on the same day. And of course, I didn't tell one about the other. (At the time, Andrew was still semi-employed by the Stones' arch enemy, Allen Klein.) In the end, nothing came of L.A. Trash's relationship with Andrew. He moved to Bogota and Vancouver , and I didn't see him for almost 25 years. But we reconnected recently, and he invited me to his radio show. I'll be on with him this Saturday, May 16, over Sirius-XM's "Underground Garage" station, beginning at 4 p.m. Eastern. (That's channel 25 if you've got the Sirius unit, and channel 59 if you've got XM. Oh, and the show will be repeated on Sunday the 17th, at noon Eastern.) We'll discuss our "previous life" together and maybe spin some interesting records -- like my Neon Leon 45 (a cover of "Heart of Stone" featuring Mick Jagger on back vocals) and L.A. Trash's "The Last Time" (produced by the inimitable Andrew Loog Oldham). By the way, I'd recommend Andrew's show whether I was set to appear on it or not. He's worth the price of a Sirius-XM subscription alone.   |