Working in the Music Business
(and how it influenced my novels)
By Louise Voss
(and how it influenced my novels)
By Louise Voss
I worked in the music business in the 90s, and it was such a profound experience that it has since featured in both my first and last novels. The main characters in both To Be Someone and The Last Stage, Helena and Meredith respectively, were female popstars from successful 80s bands who subsequently had to come to terms with some of the less pleasant aspects of fame.
I was originally planning to make the latter a sort of sequel to the former, a sort of ‘twenty years later’ story, since that’s almost the amount of time between publication dates, but as The Last Stage evolved, it became clear to me that the two women were very different, in both personality and appearance as well as their respective music tastes, so I made Meredith into a brand-new character instead. But the band threads remain in both novels, albeit very differing stories – The Last Stage is a crime novel, whereas To Be Someone was contemporary fiction. Unlike both Helena and Meredith, however, I was never a performer – perish the thought – but working with bands both big and small for years gave me a real insight into the joys and pitfalls of success, and how an act can go from being a bunch of kids messing around with guitars to selling out Wembley Stadium.
It was 1992, I was in my early 20s and a music nut, going to as many gigs as I could while working in a London school of architecture as an administrator during the day. It had literally never occurred to me that I could make a career doing what I loved; not until someone told me about an employment agency specialising in jobs in music, so - in those pre-internet days - I rang them up. They told me to write in. The only problem was, the agency was (and still is) called Handle Recruitment, and I addressed my letter to Handel, after the composer. Talk about overthinking!
Fortunately they didn’t write me off as illiterate. I got my first industry job, PA to the International MD of Virgin Records, joining right after Richard Branson sold out to EMI for a billion dollars. Whilst I was disappointed that I’d missed out on his legendary parties, I was also relieved to escape the potential fate of many female employees: being lifted up round the waist by him and chucked into a nearby swimming pool…
There were many other parties though, and the job immediately lived up to expectation. Record launches, leaving dos, album playbacks, aftershow bashes, awards ceremonies… The record business in the 90s was in my memory a strange mix of big business and quirky debauchery. Hospitality budgets were eye-wateringly huge. I remember the Christmas presents bought for some of the bigger artists – thousand-pound silk dressing-gowns from Harrods, expensive sound systems. Like they needed them! I used to think.
People were mostly lovely, although with a few notable egos. One female exec had risen up through the ranks (helped in no small part by marrying her boss). Part of my job was organising the annual conference abroad for international executives, and once I dared query something she’d suggested. She shouted at me: ‘How DARE you question me! I’ve been running this company for twenty years!’ Not only did she not run the company, but she was 34 at the time….
A different boss I had at another record company famously got banned from British Airways for saying something so offensive to a stewardess that I still can’t repeat it without blushing. This was the company where the in-house drug dealer did regular Friday afternoon rounds of the office…so I won’t name that one!
I loved working at Virgin. Not only did I make lots of friends I’m still in touch with, but I met my first husband there. Later in the 90s we relocated to New York to work for a Virgin subsidiary called Caroline Records. It was so interesting, going from working with huge bands at the top of their game, to brand-new starry-eyed acts whose first albums had just been signed. We promoted Ben Folds Five and the Chemical Brothers at the start of their careers, I also marketed Frank Sinatra’s grand-daughter’s band, and an act called The Del-Rubio Triplets, identical octogenarians in short skirts and cowboy hats…never a dull moment.
I took it all for granted, the business flights and freebies, seeing bands every night, the backstage passes for all the Virgin and EMI acts who came to town. I went to Bowie’s 50th birthday concert at Madison Square Gardens, Peter Gabriel’s flat in New York, had my photo taken with Blur, dinner with the Smashing Pumpkins and a hug from Lenny Kravitz.
After we moved back to the UK, I became a director of Sandie Shaw’s company, which was another brilliant job – Sandie was great fun to work with.
It’s only really now I look back that I think how extraordinary it all was, what an amazing experience to have. I’m not surprised it’s cropped up more than once in my books, and more than likely will again in some guise or another.
About Louise Voss
Over her eighteen-year writing career, Louise Voss has had eleven novels published – five solo and six co-written with Mark Edwards: a combination of psychological thrillers, police procedurals and contemporary fiction – and sold over 350,000 books. Her most recent book, The Old You, was a number one bestseller in eBook. Louise has an MA (Dist) in Creative Writing and also works as a literary consultant and mentor for writers at www.thewritingcoach.co.uk. She lives in South-West London and is a proud member of two female crime-writing collectives, The Slice Girls and Killer Women.
Find Louise Voss on her website and on Twitter - @LouiseVoss1
About The LAST STAGE
The Last Stage
By Louise Voss
Published by Orenda Books (11 July 2019)
A violent and horrific incident forces a young woman to go into hiding, at the peak of her career as lead singer of an indie pop band. Years later, strange things start to happen and it becomes clear that some know who she is…
At the peak of her career as lead singer of a legendary 1980s indie band, Meredith Vincent was driven off the international stage by a horrific incident. Now living a quiet existence in a cottage on the grounds of an old stately home, she has put her past behind her and come to terms with her new life.
When a body is found in the manicured gardens of her home, and a series of inexplicable and unsettling events begins to occur, it becomes clear that someone is watching, someone who knows who she is … Someone who wants vengeance.
And this is only the beginning…
Read a snippet of my review: 'The Last Stage contains a murder mystery to solve and secrets to reveal. There's even some history in there too. It's funny, smart and highly entertaining!'
Read my full review here.
Read my full review here.
Thanks for the blog tour support Vicki x
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