Golly - A Rock and Roll Lifestyle
And featuring how he made “Bat out of Hell” by Meatloaf a worldwide smash hit
An Interview with Golly - by Alan Lawrie
I ended up in Luxembourg working at the BLOW UP, massive club, really fantastic, had bands on - all the British bands you could think of like Thin Lizzy, the whole lot.
The Luxembourg DJs came into the club every night and then Kid Jensen came up to me one night and said, “What are you playing?’ I said the B side of the Move record. It’s called “Do Ya”. He said, “That’s a fucking amazing track!” He said I really like that one I will play that on my show. And, then it clicked - That was Kid Jensen! I wasn’t really in tune with what was going on.
In those days could Radio Luxembourg DJs choose the tracks they wanted to play as opposed to being scheduled?”
Put it this way, all the DJs had to play what was scripted except for Kid Jensen.
Really? Why did he have special status?
Because he was on the outskirts of Rock. Well, if you listen to Jensen’s show right back then, and I’ve got tapes of them, and you listen to his voice which is incredibly brilliant. Slow drawn-out American drawl. You see he is Canadian from Vancouver, British Columbia.
That’s why when Queen turned up, and I’m in a club working and Freddy Mercury walks in and I became quite friendly with Roger, their drummer. Then you get Phil Lynott coming in and then Phil stayed at the flat one night and I was getting breakfast ready in the morning because I used to share a flat with Kid and…
How long did you share a flat with Kid for?
About four years.
You got on really well with him…?
Oh yeah, he was a true good friend. We just clicked. Music wise and everything else. And Phil stayed the night and I said where’s Phil. Kid said he’s upstairs on the roof. I shouted to Phil “Breakfast!”
He replied, “I’ve got breakfast” and there he was with a spliff about a foot long - with his feet up, shirt off just lying there in the sun. And, I thought, well this is just rock, and roll isn’t it.
And he’s another person who became a really good friend. And it all tunes in with all the stars, the promotion men that were coming over and they bring over sausages and bacon because you couldn’t buy it locally. So that was the Payola side of things.
So, what are we talking about late 60s, early 70’s?
Early 70’s, it was incredible with things like that just happening. There were so many things to talk about that Luxembourg was about. The guys that were there when I was there just clicked.
Paul Burnett - fantastic guy, great DJ, one of the funniest guys you could meet at a party. He’d tell you stories, you’d cry laughing. Jensen great. Mark Wesley- fabulous guy. there are other DJs that I’ve met, Barry Alldis, lovely guy, Stuart Henry amazing.
I used to phone Stuart Henry up and he had multiple sclerosis, he was lying in his bed. He couldn’t even move and the only thing he could move was his mouth with a tube that turned over the pages of his book, that was it. And I would phone him up (They’d put the phone next to his head) and say, “Hey man how are you” and he would say “ Hi my friend Golly, I feel fantastic.” There was never a dull moment with Stuart Henry. I’ve never met anybody like him. He was incredible. People like that.
Then there was Chris Carey who got into trouble making SKY VIEWING cards to watch TV and all the films. He made millions…
A lot of English DJs had Sky Viewing cards, you just needed an English address and…
Yes, that’s right. And, Chris, he made millions, millions until they collared him and stuck him in prison. And, then he came out and started to do a radio station. He was always Radio minded he was putting up aerials in his house and then one day he phoned me up and said I’m going to Spain, and I said what are you going to do there? He said I’m going to start a radio station and I want you to come with me. I said what for? He said you can be the breakfast DJ. I said I can’t take a chance with you Chris. You are hot and cold. I said one day you are with me the next you fucking fire me. I’ve now got a disability and I will lose everything if I leave the country. So, he went out there and within 4 or 5 weeks he was dead. Heart Attack. It’s quite stressful when you are doing things like that, but he had a brilliant, brilliant mind.
Talking about radio you’ve got some kit here. Are you going to do radio from home?
Because Tony Prince had United DJs and Tony Prince is a great believer in people. And if you listen radio at the moment, you can hear a guy who was on United DJ’s and now on Sunshine Radio at the moment, and his name is Tilly Rutherford. And Tilly’s a great guy worked for Magna Records and for Stock, Aitkin and Waterman, and he took over from me when I was working there. Tony said you could make a good DJ and stuck him on UNITED DJs and recorded the shows and did them. Tony had the same thing with me
I’ve got one chapter in the new book called This is where you can hear them today and quite a few of the lads who worked with me in the past are still doing radio wherever they are in the world, and you can listen to them…so if you are doing radio I’d like to know where people can hear you.
Oh, I’ll let you know if it comes off. At the moment, it is a project .It’s fading slightly because as you know I’ve gone into a new business where I am out of plugging because the music industry has changed so much and it’s more difficult now to get your records played on the radio. It’s not like the days of Radio One when I was there in the 70’s and you took the DJs out to lunch wining and dining them...
Let’s go back to the plugging. From Luxembourg you were…
I was DJ’ing in the BLOW UP and the guys were coming over from England, also the promotion guys from different record companies and there was one guy who came over and knew the DJs really well and is name was Alan James. He worked for ABC Anchor and came over to say he was looking for somebody to do the north of England promotion wise plugging the local radio stations because at the time it was all commercial radio stations like in Clyde, in Scotland, and in the north BRMB - all these radio stations were opening up so he needed somebody to go to all these radio stations to wine and dine those radio directors and DJs and get your product played on all the shows they play listed. Then you look after these guys, you know, you give them tour jackets, you give them T shirts, take them to lunch, you go out boozing with them, hanging out with them, you know. Was a great life! Fun, I loved it. But the guy who got me the job was Frank Rogers who was the head of DECCA. He signed Thin Lizzy, Savoy Brown
Are you the man behind any hit? Has your work led to one of two or more?
MEATLOAF Bat out of hell.
Really? How did you do that?
Nobody would play the record. It was on a 7” because it was too ROCKY! You are talking about the 70’s and Radio One at that time was sort of very cheesy. Very poppy, it was that sort of music on there and they had around 7 people who sat and chose the playlist and they were not young people either. that was the situation, and they didn’t groove to it.
How did you manage to break it…
I took it up to Radio and put it in their boxes and saw one or two producers and they put it on, and they cried “Oh GOD, I can’t put that on during the day. Bat out of Hell! You’re joking.
I went home and I was watching tomorrow’s world when I saw that guy I can’t remember his name - he was a big, tall guy and he was talking about a suitcase that you could actually put a Super 8 camera in. Or projector. You could close it up and walk down the road and you could go into any bar, and you could open it up, plug it in, put up a white sheet and you could play, whatever you wanted to play on Super 8 so I thought what a fantastic idea I wonder if CBS would let me do something. Next day I went in there - Head of Promotions -and said “listen, I asked if I could do it and transfer the video onto Super 8. They said it would be expensive and I said do you want it played on the radio or not? They said yes, do it. So I transferred it over and I marched up to Radio One and I had meetings with certain producers of daytime and afternoon. And what was on that Super 8 track? Bat out of Hell. The single it was like a six-minute track. So, I went into their office and they said where is the record? I said give us a second would you . I put up this white cloth I get this projector out and put it plug it in, push the button and they all went “Fucking Hell this is incredible, what a great video”. And, of course, watching the video and hearing the music it sort of locks in...
This is before promotional videos were around?
Yes, CBS were upfront in most things in the 70’s. They had a brilliant team in that place. And, within a week I got it on the A list. And so Meatloaf was coming in. Now I had already been to the convention in America in New Orleans, and I met Meatloaf over there with all the other superstars that were around. The gig was huge, we took over New Orleans, so I said when you come over, we will do something special. So, when he came over, I knew the date and knew the time of the flights coming in, so I went down to the local motorbike place, Hell’s Angels Cafe in London on the north Circular. And I walked in there, and I am about “seventeen years old” and quite “Modified” (Mod as opposed to Rocker) and they were looking at me like that little squirt that was coming in here, really like very nervous... so I just sat down, and this guy came up to me with long hair and he sneered “What are you doing in here?” I said actually I work for a record company and I told them the story about Meatloaf and the story about Bat out of Hell and all that and I need six of you to escort the limo from the airport and I will give you £40 each and they all yelled “Yeah, we’ll have it”, So I arranged a time and a place and everything, and I had cardboard cutouts of a bat, or bats with bat out of hell which went on the front of their motorbikes escorting Meatloaf from the airport, four in front four behind and they came along the road from the airport all the way into London the Westway and Meatloaf was hanging out the window with his cine camera - how I would love to have seen that footage and then we got back to Chelsea and that was fantastic.
CBS paid you for that?
Oh yes, I was working for them. I was employed 100% by CBS. It was such good fun and that was the start. And it brought attention to the people and the music and then the Old Grey Whistle Test, Mike Appleton heard it and soon after he got Meatloaf on there.
Tell me a story about another band you broke.
There was a couple actually. I did Bonnie Tyler, “Total Eclipse of the Heart” Bonnie is an amazing lady, love her to bits, she is one of those people who will still say hello to you. A lot of the Industry just ignores you. Another band called the Vibrators a punk band they were as good as the CLASH because we had the CLASH as well and we all dressed up as punks and you want to see the picture, it’s unreal.
But when you try and break a new band you don’t succeed every time?
Getting music onto Radio Stations, it disheartens you sometimes, there’s music I’ve got on my shelves here, a band called the VIPS fantastic band from the north real punky sort of New Wave every track you hear you think wow that’s really good, but they never made it.
5 singles and never made it. CBS’s turnover was quite big though.
I know the story you told me last time. About Laurence Jones? You were going places.
Well, that was about ten year ago when I managed Laurence Jones and it turned sour in the end.
You played me his single. You said to me what do I think, I said that’s a number one. I said why isn’t it number one? You said you can’t get it played on radio. Now why couldn’t you break that band?
It’s the mentality of people on radio, he was known as a blues act, so when it goes to the playlist meeting and they hear it, and if they actually get around to hearing it. And remember there are a lot of big names with singles out and albums out and that’s all they are interested in. Big names before they listen to the small names. It’s really, really difficult. So, it’s a closed circle.
Radio was changing, Radio Two was emerging. And would stand more of a chance on that. Radio One for me then was for kids around 13 years old , now 12 - 13-year-old listen to Radio One. We don’t at our age. We possibly listen to Radio two, radio 6, maybe a hit station, but it just didn’t break through.
Going back to Bonnie Tyler “Total Eclipse of the Heart “How did you get involved with that?
Well Jim Steinman wrote and produced it who also produced Meatloaf’s album.
He wrote the Meatloaf tracks, didn’t he?
Yes, he produced and wrote all of Meatloaf’s tracks...
You got to know Jim Steinman pretty well?
Yeah, and CBS did a deal to do the Bonnie Tyler album. That track was originally intended for Meatloaf, but Jim and Meat didn’t always get on, so Bonnie did it. Yeah, always friction between Jim and Meat because Jim wanted equal status with Meat. Strong… strong personality Meatloaf. He was likeable.
But I read that Jim felt equal to Meatloaf and record albums on his own, good voice, good looking but simply didn’t have the charisma.
The gay boy never made it
I did Paul Young with “No Parlez”. You know, Paul Young was at my wedding. I just spoke to Paul Young last week. These people they stick with you because you’ve done them good, number one single or “Wherever I lay my hat” was sung at my wedding.
Were you involved with plugging that one?
Yes, it was mine. Number one when I was in America.
So, what were the rounds you had to do, - you didn’t take everyone out to dinner?
Well you do over a period of time because you build it up and then when you have a new single you package it all up and you go for Radio One, where the DJs have their own boxes, Producer/DJ two copies, then when you phone them up and you say “Any meetings going?” you say “11.30” and you get there at 11.30 ish…and they listen and say “Oh yeah, quite like that one and put it to one side”
I had people the hardest of all was Ron Millshaw to get on well with at Radio One, but he took my records from me once and threw them in the bin and said, “OK off you go out the door”. And, I went back to my office and said to my boss I don’t want to do this job anymore.
He asked why I said Ron Millshaw he took my records and threw them in the bin and told me to get out of his office. Oh, that’s Ron Millshaw he’s just an arrogant little fucker.
You have to live with it and learn by it.
Promotion work - it’s all about credibility and not wasting people time?
The DJs - you gave them value so they would listen to you in the future...
…yes and you’ve got to be likeable, and you have to get on with these people...
Rosko once said to me I’ve got a gig, do you want to come with me to this gig. I want you to grab some vinyl and some CDs to give away at the gigs. Because they do a show and all that. So, I said yeah, no problem at all so I got a box of albums and 45’s to throw out to the crowds and all that, and I said where is it? He said Bridgend, I said where’s that? Towards Wales. So, I said I will get a limo and take you down there. CBS paid for it, and I had a chauffeur driven limousine taking me and Rosko to the gig waiting all that time and driving all the way back, and CBS said that must cost a fortune and all he did was play 3 tracks from a new album, on a Saturday morning…and they said ‘OK’
What would you say was the pinnacle, or your greatest achievement?
The greatest buzz?
A number One single that got onto the playlist of Radio One, by Julio Iglesias “Beguine the Beguine” that was the biggest buzz I ever got because nobody believed that Radio One would ever play such a horrible record.
It wasn’t a horrible record! It was a great song - a classic track. by a famous singer.
But he wasn’t a famous singer at that time. He was known but not hugely known…you know what I mean…?
Was there anything you regret or wish you had done, or could have done better?
I don’t like regretting anything, I… because in the end I got around it I got on with it, it was fun.
Going back to the plugging and promotional side, you said there’s no future for you in it.?
It’s like the DJs in the clubs, there are no personality DJs. There is no entertainment in clubs, you’ve got one guy. ..
It’s very sad, isn’t it?
You’ve got one guy out there, who’s pretending to….well, sometimes they are not even mixing, just playing a tape (or playing back a record file) because they can’t do that sort of mixing in clubs.
Some of them do mix, I’ve seen them on Tony Prince’s DMC, well I’ve heard stories about people don’t mix.
Tell us more about your career, Golly
I was involved with so many things, I worked on ‘War of the Worlds’ with Jeff Wayne.
Golly with Greg Edwards, Obie (Maurice Oberstein Head of CBS Records, London), Jeff Gilbert.
Doing what?
The promotion with Louis Rodgers who is Clodagh Rodgers brother who worked at CBS and was head of promotions. We went to the Planetarium and as we walked in we realised that that machine in the middle looked like one of the monsters in War of the Worlds. Even looked exactly like one of them so we thought shit we could put dry ice under that! We could play War of the Worlds all night and open up the ceiling and have the lasers going. So, that’s where we shot it and everybody in the music industry turned up. Incredible, and that broke War of the Worlds.
Wow that sounds like a great one.
Well, I think we’ve got some great material so we will stop there.