The first rung on the ladder of success is a record deal. We talk to four recently signed bands about stimulating interest, meeting the A&R men and signing on the dotted line.

Have you ever sat watching some abysmal band on Top of the Pops or The Tube, a band who appear to be able neither to sing, play or write good songs, and begun to suspect that there is some kind of conspiracy afoot which puts them on one side of the cathode ray tube, and keeps you on the other? You have? Well don't worry, you're not paranoid. Thousands of other musicians ask the same question every day. Mind you, that's not to say that there is no conspiracy, so with this in mind I approached four bands who have been signed to major labels within the last six months to find out just how bands are going about getting deals these days, and to ask the question, "How many roads must a band walk down?"

Spelt Like This: "A&R guys love to feel that they're involved in the act and are taking you from one level to another"

Spelt Like This

New on the EMI label are Spelt Like This, a trio of sophisticated musicians hailing from London. Their elegantly produced music, if you've not already heard it, is a combination of the strident and the romantic, a polished blend of Funk, Rock and Pop.

With an average age of around 24 the members of the band, Russell D McKenzie (bass and keyboards,) Al Karner (vocals,) and Lee Rawlings (guitar,) are no newcomers to the music business. Russell, the band's principal songwriter, spent some seven years doing sessions and playing bass in bands like The Fixx, Nine Below Zero and The Truth, as well as working as a sound engineer at The Embassy Club in Mayfair. After slogging out his dues playing other people's music, Russell decided the time had come to start his own band, and set to work writing songs with Al and Lee. They demoed the material to the best of their abilities on a portastudio, and it was these selfsame recordings that led to record companies offering to sign the band. Quite heart warming when you think about it; after all, many bands these days are spending thousands of pounds on demoing. This, Russell informs me, actually works against a band:

"If you present them with a demo which is obviously a good song, obviously well performed, but recorded on the restrictions of a four track, they will think, 'Hey, imagine what this would sound like on a 24 track.' A&R guys love to feel that they're involved in the act and are taking you from one level to another. You have to play on that, flatter their egos."

The band place all their faith in the quality of their songs, but having said that they did their best to ensure that what they produced attracted the attention of the A&R people. With the help of their manager Tom Watkins, they fed titbits of press to as many well connected people in the music business as possible, thereby creating a buzz so that an A&R person would hear about the band from more than one source. The result in the end was that people in the A&R depts began to get the idea that they ought to hear the band, and ended up actually contacting them.

The band then found themselves in the enviable position of having record companies bidding against each other for their services. However, the deal they eventually took (with EMI) which was for seven albums over five years, actually involved a smaller advance than any of the others offered. The money, they felt, was less important than the attitude of the company, which in the case of EMI seemed more in sympathy with their own creative needs than that of other companies. The band weren't given a fixed budget for the album, and at the time of writing (within three weeks of the album's completion date) the company had still not heard a single track.

A big factor in the smooth running of the band's achievements so far has been having good management. Breaking a new band involves a major organisational commitment, such that when Tom Watkins went on holiday at Christmas to LA, 10 of his 14 days holiday were spent working on the band. A musician choosing to manage himself would find his musical output badly inhibited by such a commitment.

Russell: "I think the most important thing for any band is finding a manager who believes in you. The biggest mistake Denis Greaves made with The Truth and Nine Below Zero was trying to manage himself. How the hell can you be a creative musician and spend all day with businessmen?"

As far as publishing goes, the band had already signed a worldwide publishing deal with Warner Brothers some four months before the EMI signing. In actual fact, they admit it's better to wait until you have a recording deal before signing a publishing deal because then you have better bargaining power. Their decision to go for a single worldwide publishing deal was made in the light of bad experiences they have had in the past involving publishing deals which, at the time, seemed more lucrative and tempting.

Lee: "I did a slightly shady songwriting deal which, through inexperience, I thought was great at the time. I had loads of free demo time and made lots of demos. After a time nothing happened so I got myself out of the deal."

Sometime later, whilst listening to a local radio station, Lee heard one of those songs, re-arranged, re-recorded and sung by another artist. He checked up on the record and found it was the same company he had been involved with, but by this time there was nothing he could do about it.

"That was down to me. I'd done it and it had just disappeared through their catalogue."

The prospective success of Spelt Like This will undoubtedly be enhanced by their visual appeal; they are all good looking lads. Image was not, however, a prime concern at the time of the signing, although at the time of writing they were having it honed by XL Design, the company responsible for the Frankie refit.

Lee: "It's accepted that you have to have something that is visually saleable in the video age. Having said that, our image is very natural to us, we just enhance it with the help of design companies."

Russell: "If a record company likes your tape then they will want to see the band. If they like the photographs then they will want you in the office to see how you move and how you hold yourself, because whereas it used to be, 'Are they photogenic?' now the expression is 'Are they videogenic?'"

Whatever next? Screentesting for musicians?

The process of getting signed was begun way back in January 1984 which may seem like a long time, but in fact the band have been fortunate. Ultimately the band see good songwriting as the principal factor in getting a good deal from a record company, and for the time being are happy with the opportunities offered by having a record deal.

Russell: "We make the music, they market it. That's the situation every band should aim for. Listen to your management and your record company because they don't want you to make pricks of yourselves, and if they don't like a track then listen to the reasons why. But in the final analysis, if you believe in it remember that they could be handling lots of bands, but you've only got one career."

The Big Dish: "It's just getting a middleman that's difficult"

The Big Dish

From the other end of the land, and the musical spectrum, come The Big Dish, a quintet of down to earth Scots who have for the last few years been based in Glasgow. With an average age of 23 years, the band are focused around the talents of their singer and songwriter Steven Lindsay, the other members being John Harper (keyboards), Mark Reyce (guitar), John Hendry (drums), and Paul Albertis (bass). The moniker, 'jangly Scottish Pop' which has been applied to them really doesn't do the band justice, because although there is a twang to their music I would place them closer in spirit to the misty gold dreams of The Simple Minds.

Prior to their signing to Virgin, the band had played about 20 gigs in local clubs and at places like Night Moves and Maestros in Glasgow. In addition, they had also contributed two tracks to a compilation album made by a new Scottish label called Shift, released through Phonogram. The biggest problem facing Scottish bands is making a viable contact with the record companies in London.

Steven: "It's probably easier now than it has been in the past, but it's just getting a middleman that's difficult. I think the more bands that get signed up in Scotland, the more contracts there will be. There'll be an easier route to London. It used to be bands had to go to London to get signed, but now the A&R guys go up to Glasgow."

Playing live these days is generally a loss making operation, so a balance had to be struck between investing in demos and doing gigs. In the end the band's planning paid off, since although Virgin's offer was made primarily on the strength of the demo material, they nevertheless sent people up to check out the band in a live situation.

The actual demo which initiated record company interest consisted of five songs, four of which were recorded on 16 track in Glasgow, with an average of six hours spent on each song. The fifth song was one of the ones paid for by Phonogram and recorded on 24 track at Palladium in Edinburgh.

The demos, some of which I listened to, are by no means high production, and were aimed simply at getting the songs across reasonably well. Again, The Big Dish place all their faith in good songwriting. A&R at Virgin, in fact, received the band's demos from two sources, one through a personal contact of someone in the department, the other through Virgin publishing, who had received the tape from a couple of guys trying to get a publishing scene started in Glasgow.

Right up until after the signing the band had no manager, although they realised they would have to get one in the end.

John Harper: "After we got the offer we got all sorts of chancers asking to manage us, people trying to get percentages, which put us off a bit."

The deal, which incidentally was the first major deal they were offered, was therefore worked out quite informally, with the band taking advice from a music business lawyer.

Steven: "The lawyer did question whether it was really the right deal for us, although he didn't actually say it wasn't. But then maybe you think, if I don't take this I might not get another deal, I might not get another chance."

John Harper: "We were quite naive when we went into this, it was just Steven and myself. They said just add up how much you need to live on for a year and what you need to make the album, and that was our advance. We're paying ourselves £40 a week, and Paul, who's married gets £70."

For the present the band seem contented with what Virgin is doing for them, and are working on two tracks with Paul Hardiman (see Lloyd Cole) at Martin Rushent's Genetic studios. The choice of producer was the band's, although they have no intention of taking a feather out of Lloyd Cole's cap; the first thing Paul Hardiman said to the band was, 'I wouldn't be doing this if it was another Lloyd Cole.'

Of the bands I spoke to, The Big Dish seem to be the one least concerned with the politics of the music biz. They managed to get a deal on the strength of their first demo, whose total cost was only about £200. They were also wary of doing things like releasing their own singles.

Mark: "A lot of people have done that up in Scotland, but it just ends up with several thousand singles lying under their beds!"

Although other bands who have to follow more tortuous routes towards a record deal may well pick up a lot of hard bitten experience which can help them in later dealings with record companies, Steven and the rest of the band are very lucky to have arrived at the point of being able to make records with much of their naivety intact!

Two People: "If you've got a day job in Liverpool, I would say your chances of getting a deal are quite slim"

Two People

Signed last July by Polydor, Two People's first single was released back in February to quite considerable acclaim from various sections of the music press. They are Mark Stevenson and Noel Ram, and the music they make has been associated with that of other bands hailing from their home town Liverpool, such as The Lotus Eaters and China Crisis. For want of abstract terms to describe their music, I would call it a cross between Neil Diamond and Echo and the Bunnymen.

Noel and Mark have both been playing in bands around Liverpool since they were about 15. However, after they began working together they decided to move to London, as that would increase their chances of getting a record deal, since their method of making contact with the record companies was by actually taking the demos in themselves.

Mark: "We were making the trek from Liverpool so often it was beginning to wear us away."

The decision to actually come down and stay in hotels etc was quite a bold one, and the pair got steadily deeper into debt. They nevertheless found it necessary since the task of getting into the record companies proved to be a full time job.

Mark: "If you've got a day job in Liverpool, I would say your chances of getting a deal are quite slim."

They approached the record companies by ringing up the A&R departments and trying to get appointments to play someone their tapes. Many times they got no further than the receptionist, or otherwise the person they got to meet turned out to be the telephonist! However they were persistent and found that once they'd got their foot in the door they could normally get someone to listen. Usually if an A&R person agreed to listen to one track, he would then go on and listen to several.

The whole process was quite soul destroying, with a lot of people saying the right things to the band, but never actually going any further.

Mark: "The word 'interested' is one that is used again and again."

After having little success with their earlier demo tapes, Mark and Noel decided to rethink their approach. They stopped going to record companies and decided to concentrate on getting their songwriting right. Finally when they were happy with what they were writing, they put together a three song, 16 track demo, which they spent three days recording and two mixing. This time their strategy was repaid with considerable record company interest, resulting in the band signing to Polydor. The whole process had taken some 18 months.

The band actually refused a couple of bigger companies because they were afraid they would get lost; there didn't seem to be enough personal contact.

Mark: "To get a deal is okay, but it's only a start, and with some of the companies we just didn't think we would get the priority. The deal with Polydor was only a two singles deal to begin with, but we liked the people there and they convinced us that they could break us."

It wasn't until they actually began to negotiate the terms of the deal that the band got a manager. Up until that point they had been managing themselves, which did have its problems.

"We were wearing two hats which was a bit difficult at times; we were occasionally forgetting that we were musicians."

One of the encouraging factors which kept Two People going through all the hard times was the considerable interest they had from publishers. Surprisingly, the band have still not signed a publishing deal; they want to hold onto their publishing until they have had a couple of hits, by which time they will have the muscle to get a better deal. In the meantime they get their publishing returns through PRS which they are both members of.

Because it was just the two of them and they could not afford to pay a band for the purposes of playing live, Two People had not actually played live prior to the signing. This, they say, was a problem as far as stimulating record company interest was concerned.

Two People claim not to have an image, they want the music to come first. Initially this caused a communication problem between them and the company.

"A lot of record companies would like to put you in the army issue popstar trousers, but we didn't want that. We really don't have an image. But once they'd learned who we were and what we wanted to be they decided to stop asking us to do these things."

Beltane Fire: "Getting the gigs was harder than getting the record deal if you want the honest truth"

Beltane Fire

The last band I talked to have just got to be the most unusual signing of the year. Beltane Fire are a four-piece heavy Rock band weighing in at something like 60 stone. Signed back in August by CBS, the band have already completed two singles (one was to be released in early May) and are in the process of mixing their album. The band have gone into enthusiastic collaboration with producer Alan Shacklock (The Alarm and others) and the result is a tumult of arthurian cacophony resembling Adam Ant being backed by the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

In the best traditions of Raack and Roll, the members of the band, Clint (vocals and guitar) Carlo (lead guitar) Steph (drums) and Mitch (bass) all left school at 16 to go 'on the road,' playing all manner of clubs and dives throughout Europe. The band as it is now was formed about five years ago, and up until about 14 months ago they would regularly push off from Dover in their transit van, playing whatever gigs they could hustle up over the phone as they went. Together they toured France, Italy, Germany and Scandinavia several times over.

Carlo: "We'd get a phone call from Finland saying 'Can you play here in July?' and we'd just arrive there without a contract hoping that someone would meet us at the dock. In Scandinavia they were crying out for bands and anything from England was good."

The nett result of all this is that the band haven't the slightest qualms about playing live, or doing big tours, and as it happened it was purely their impact as a live band which landed them a record deal. It happened like this.

The band had already tried making demos and sending them out, and like many other bands had received the usual rejections. 14 months ago they decided that their approach was not working and so they came back to England, got day jobs and started to rehearse and practise a whole new set of material for a year. At the end of a year they started trying to get gigs in London which turned out to be much harder than they had anticipated. After going round all the venues they ended up with one gig at the Rock Garden.

Clint: "Getting the gigs was harder than getting the record deal if you want the honest truth."

The next thing that happened was that they stood in for a band which had pulled out of a slot at Dingwalls at the last minute. The response they got from the staff and management at Dingwalls was so good that they were booked to play there again within a week. And lo, when they came to do the second Dingwalls gig the place was swarming with A&R people, so many in fact that they were being 'turned away at the door.'

Stranger than fiction? Yes readers, here is a band so pessimistic about the prospect of getting a deal that they had ceased bothering with demo tapes, and decided to concentrate on what they saw as their one big asset, the fact that they could play the pants off most other bands on stage. They ended up with several good offers and decided to go with CBS, because Jack Stevens who signed them talked not about money, but about guitars and what the band were going to do on stage.

Clint: "He saw us as what we wanted to be, which is a longevity band. We want to be around for 15 years."

Carlo: "We weren't interested in the money side of the deal, all we are interested in is playing."

Another undoubted factor which stimulated record company interest was the band's image, which though seemingly contrived, actually came about quite by chance:

When the band stopped touring, the transit van was put into business as a clearance firm, whilst Clint and Steph went to work on a building site. During this time Clint and Steph began wearing leather labouring overalls and WWII army gaiters around the building site. When the band did their gig at the Rock Garden they all had to turn up from work, and so they arrived in these work clothes all covered in dirt, with all their gear piled on top of three tons of rubble. And so in the middle of upmarket Covent Garden there they were, humping gear out of a van spewing wheelbarrows and brickdust, and people were standing around saying, 'Yeah, what a great image!'

The band also think the record companies were attracted by their size.

Carlo: "We're all over 13 stone apart from Mitch. He's been put on a fatten up — CBS have sent him to a get fat farm! There's not a big boy image around at the moment."

Clint: "But image wasn't a thing we concentrated on. All we did was concentrate on the music. I mean it's alright to 'ave a good image, but you can't polish a turd can you?"

Can't say I've ever tried. Anyway, it's obvious that what Beltane Fire were offering was exactly what A&R people were looking out for at the time, and with a deal involving eight albums over five years, the band are reaping the benefits.

So there you are, four bands, four different stories. I don't know what conclusions you might have drawn from all this, but certainly it seems clear that there is no set way of going about getting a record deal. In each case, it strikes me that the bands concentrated on what were their best assets and were lucky enough to get it right. The approach seemed to vary according to what those assets were. The one common feature of all the bands is perseverance.

Ultimately, because of job commitments or geographical circumstance, some acts will have little opportunity of making contact with the record companies other than by sending in demos. So to find out what happens to these tapes (known as unsolicited demos) I had a poke around in the A&R depts at Virgin and Phonogram.

At Phonogram they receive about 20 demos a day. There is an A&R staff of about six although not all of them listen to demo tapes, and in any case they are all involved in the various other aspects of A&R, that is to say the management of the recording careers of the artists already on the label. You can draw your own conclusions about how well tapes are listened to, but Ashley Goodall of Phonogram does assure me that all tapes are listened to and receive a reply of some sort.

Furthermore, Ashley told me that he endeavours to reply personally to any tapes that an act have taken the trouble to address to him personally. Also, he will give an appointment to virtually anyone involved in the music business who comes bearing demo tapes, or in fact to anyone who doesn't actually sound like a time waster over the phone.

It is very rare, however, for an act to be signed purely as a result of a demo being sent in. At Virgin I was told that most signings come about only when there has been some kind of personal contact between the two sides, whether it be through managers, publishers or friends who happen to know someone in A&R, or through someone like the tea lady at a record company!

Ashley likes to actually go out to search for new acts, because by the time tapes have been sent in to the company other companies are hearing about them as well. He hears about new acts through the grapevine of managers, promoters, publishers, recording personnel etc. What he looks for in an act is good vocals, good songwriting, a certain amount of character and a tangible image. That is not to say some kind of contrivance involving theatrical costume etc, but simply some kind of visual impression which confirms the musical impression and vice versa. If a band are actually playing live that makes things a lot easier, although not all his recent signings have done live work.

From my own experience I can actually tell you this; assuming your demos are any cop you can actually get A&R people to come to hear you play live simply by sending them in. It's by no means the best approach, but if you have no other option I can tell you for a fact that it can be done. Also, even if you don't want management or publishing, send tapes to any conceivably interested party so that word begins to get round.

For the rest, I'd say that there are some clear points to be learned from all this:

1) Build up your contacts; any contact in the music biz is good, from managers to journalists to doormen at the record company.

2) Get off your arse; do more than just send demos. Try to get a buzz from the press by playing live, or by devising some sort of scam. Again, any press is good, from local press to The Face. One good way of getting press interest is to go through all the live columns of the music papers and see which reviewers are being favourable to acts you either like or bear some similarity towards. Then contact those journalists over the phone or by sending them a demo, and try to get them to come to your gig. If necessary offer to pay their fare since many freelancers are virtual paupers!

3) If you are intending to approach the record company yourself try to do a bit of research beforehand. Find out the names of the people in A&R and keep your eyes peeled for people that are new and are themselves looking for ways to further their own careers within the record company. If you are trying to get your foot in the door, don't be pushy or brash; record companies may often be portrayed as harsh conglomerates, but really the people who work in them are quite normal and respond to the same things as the rest of us. So use a bit of character and let them see what lovely people I trust you all are.

That's it then. Go for it. I'd just like to finish with a quote which really sums it all up for anyone trying to get a major record deal. It was made by either Mike Stock or Matt Aitken, the producers of Spelt Like This and, incidentally, Dead or Alive's number one single You Spin Me Round. I'm not sure which one actually said it, so let's just call it a Stock Aitken quote: "It all comes down to wheelbarrows dunnit? You're either taking the money to the bank with one, or you're back on the building site with one!"