Of Bananas and a Bible

TALES FROM THE FRONT LINE IN LONDON

The incident has been referenced in at least one Marvin Gaye biography. Nonetheless, imagine the distress – if not panic – at the moment when two members of Motown’s international team in London realised that the singer was on course to disrespect a member of the British royal family. In earlier times, it might have led to an execution!

James Fisher and Peter Prince were outside Gaye’s room in a central London hotel one evening in July 1980, waiting to transport him to perform at a prestigious charity show attended by Princess Margaret, the younger sister of Queen Elizabeth II. “Marvin wouldn’t let either of us in,” said Fisher. “He had even rung Berry and said, ‘These guys are trying to kidnap me.’ This went on and on, as the clock ticked down. Eventually, he did come out and we got him to the gig at something like midnight. Princess Margaret had gone. He played a full set to whoever was left, the cleaners and the bar staff, and a few late nighters. It was just terrible. And he was out of his head, of course.”

Is this serious? Jermaine Jackson with James Fisher

Such woes weren’t entirely unexpected. Recently, Fisher recalled for me that he had stopped by Gaye’s hotel suite earlier that same summer’s day in 1980 to make sure everything was on track. “He said, ‘Come in.’ He was in the bathroom and I’d never seen so many bottles of pills in my life. God knows what was in them.” It hinted at the trouble to come that night.

Months later, when Gaye was living in London at an apartment found for him by Fisher, there was another awkward moment. “I got a panic call: ‘You’ve got to come over, we’ve blocked up all of the toilets’ – or whatever he called them – ‘and we can’t use any of them.’ I went up there, and somebody had put an entire bunch of bananas down the loo, and tried to squash them to get rid of them. Heaven only knows why. I had to get him out of that place, they wanted him gone.”

Fisher also remembered when Gaye was at London’s Odyssey Recording, working on the album which became In Our Lifetime? “That was a nightmare: over budget, over time, over everything. I was in the mixing room, Marvin came in late, and I said, ‘You’re late, we’ve got to get on with this.’ He had a Bible with him, and just threw it at me. Fortunately, he missed.”

This all comes to mind as Motown 60 draws to a close, because Fisher was among the firm’s former employees involved with an earlier anniversary. No, not the 10th, which was marked in, er, 1970. Nor the 25th, which was touted in 1983 by the hugely popular Motown 25 television special. (Showbiz mathematics have a logic of their own.) It was the 20th anniversary, promoted at home and abroad in 1980 with vigorous marketing for select new releases and catalogue titles, and advertising supplements in trade papers such as Record World and Music Week.

A ‘PIANO’ OVER THE RAILWAY STATION

In Britain, an abundance of Motown artists visited for promotion and/or live appearances, including Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross and Jermaine Jackson. That summer, “Upside Down,” the first 45 from Ross’ Chic-created album Diana, was a major hit on both sides of the Atlantic. Then Motown’s U.K. licensee, EMI Records, was given the freedom to choose “My Old Piano” for the follow-up and, it, too, reached the Top 5. “I remember the video shoot in that funny hotel by Charing Cross railway station,” said Fisher. “It was a very odd, 1930s room – she loved it.” He earned Ross’ approval, too. “I think she liked me because I wasn’t a pushy American. She kept telling me I was a gentleman, and muttered something like, ‘I wish you were managing me.’ ”

With Marvin and Smokey: Peter Prince and James Fisher

Fisher had ample entertainment industry experience. He had worked in television in his native Australia, then in commercial TV and at the BBC after moving to the United Kingdom. A subsequent music start-up in the ’70s lit few fires, but was acquired by RCA Records, where Fisher joined the international team. “I toured David Bowie around, David Cassidy, the Sweet – a variety of artists.” In early 1977, he joined Jobete Music in London; in November, he took on additional responsibilities as general manager of Motown Records Limited, promoted by the parent company’s international vice president, Ken East.

“I went around Europe with all kinds of people – Stevie, for a start – to make sure the licensees were paying attention. He was so clever. We’d sit him down with all the important marketing people, and he’d suddenly say, ‘I’m going to have a party, what would you bring?’ Someone would say, for example, ‘My name is John Smith and I’ll bring a bottle of beer.’ Stevie went around everyone, and by the end, he’d memorised everybody’s voice, and knew who was talking. It was brilliant.” And an incentive for all those marketing mavens to do their very best for Wonder.

GOODBYE (NOT HELLO) FROM LIONEL

“The other standout act for me was the Commodores, who were the nicest people in the world to work with. I got on like a house on fire with manager Benny Ashburn, and remained friends – probably to this day – with Lionel Richie.” Fisher left Motown in 1982, advancing to posts at performing rights body ASCAP and the International Managers Forum. When he retired from the latter, Richie performed at the farewell party.

David Hughes is another with fond memories of the Commodores. A Motown contemporary of Fisher’s, he was appointed as general manager of the label at EMI Records in July ’78. Previously, he had been a press officer at Polydor Records – where publicising the Osmonds was among his chores – and a well-regarded music journalist at Disc and Music Echo. “When I joined EMI, Motown was dead in the water in the U.K. That said, I arrived on the Monday and on the Friday, over 900,000 copies of ‘Three Times A Lady’ shipped!” The single spent five weeks at No. 1, their Natural High album went Top 10, and the Commodores secured another two Top 5 singles the following year.

At Abbey Road: David Hughes, Stevie, Les Spaine

During Hughes’ Motown tenure, a key member of his team was promotion maestro Les Spaine, not least for the results obtained with “My Old Piano” and the “illegal” video from the Charing Cross Hotel (its taping contravened local musicians’ union regulations). “I’m certain we had relatively more success than America with the Diana album,” he said. It sold one million copies in Britain, and Ross’ total singles sales in ’80 also scaled that peak.

Before that, Hughes, Spaine and Fisher handled the challenge of Stevie Wonder’s Journey Through The Secret Life of Plants soundtrack project. “I remember taking Stevie to [music industry trade show] MIDEM in Cannes,” said Fisher, “and I hired a yacht club to launch the album. It was very surreal, the whole thing, and nobody quite understood how he could score a film.” Even so, the result was Wonder’s fourth consecutive U.K. Top 10 album.

Not everything involved superstars. “We all loved Tata Vega,” said Hughes, recalling her visit to London in 1979. “I don’t think she meant anything in America, and she didn’t sell anything here either, but she was truly lovely – and very grateful for whatever we did for her.”

SPOILED AND STUBBORN?

Hughes kept a diary while at EMI, laced with candour not usually seen in trade-paper supplements. “Jermaine Jackson cancels Top Of The Pops,” reads one entry in May 1980, “and the world recoils in amazement! Why do we beat our heads so incessantly against the wall for a company that specialises in spoiled, stubborn artists?” Jackson was in the U.K. for promotion, including the highly-rated BBC-TV chart show Top Of The Pops, but evidently giving grief to those around him.

Truly lovely: Tata Vega with David Hughes

Fortunately, matters improved, as per Hughes’ subsequent diary notes: “May 15: Jermaine does his PA [personal appearance] at Virgin Megastore and attends his reception. May 16: Jermaine now showing some contrition and working his schedule properly, though his wife must deserve a chapter in our history of Motown.”

The contrition paid off. Jackson’s “Let’s Get Serious” became a Top 10 success and its accompanying album reached the Top 30. By contrast, U.K. promotional tours by Rick James and Bonnie Pointer that year were cancelled with no advance notice. It was to the credit of EMI’s Motown staff, wrote Hughes, that “press, radio and, more importantly, TV relations with our office remain as friendly as they do.”

Naturally, the trade press revealed none of this. “Motown has always selected the best licensees in every territory and provided artists to visit and perform,” declared international VP Peter Prince in Music Week. “When they do come to this country, the artists are great ambassadors for the company. They are professionals, and there are no problems.”

Such cosmetic comments aside, Motown gained good results in Britain from the 20th anniversary. These were juiced that autumn by Stevie Wonder’s six-night concert run at London’s Wembley Arena. Also, by an exclusive media playback for his new album, Hotter Than July, at EMI’s Abbey Road studios, where the superstar was present. The album then spent more than a year on the U.K. charts, including 16 weeks inside the Top 10.

Wonder came back to Britain during Motown 60, playing a summertime show in London’s Hyde Park. And the opening act? None other than Lionel Richie. “I’ve been in the business some 250 years,” Richie told the thousands gathered on the grass, “and it’s amazing that every time I play these songs, the crowd gets even louder.”

It augurs well for Motown’s 250th anniversary, with 3D holograms of Lionel, Stevie, Diana, Smokey and many more. On that occasion, perhaps even a virtual Marvin will be on schedule.

Music notes: the artists and recordings mentioned above are all available via digital music services, including the original Chic mixes of the Diana album, before it was recalibrated and released in May 1980. And here’s that video from the Charing Cross Hotel.