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Bowie General > Images Vol. 07

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homebrewPosted at 2024-12-28 14:46:36(3 wks ago) (Bowie General / Images Vol. 07)


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In the Usenet group alt.fan.david-bowie you would have run into a user named Jamie Soule aka aladInsaNE. Jamie wrote a series of articles that he called "Images" about our hero, David Bowie. I found them fascinating, sometimes infuriating, occasionally confusing and ultimately interesting enough to have saved them all (at least all that I could track down). I have made no attempt to alter the formatting, spelling, grammar or edit in any way.

Images: Part 7


The press was invited as guests of MainMan to the show at the O'Keefe
Centre in Toronto on June 16, two days after the opening show in
Montreal. This time it was different and the show went without a flaw.
Defries must have been elated, he pulled off another one with the odds
stacked against him. If the reviews penned by the critics could
determine he fate of an artist then there would be nothing to ever fear
again. What came out the next morning in the papers and in the next
issues of the influential music periodicals and trade publications was
what everyone had hoped for. The critics were impressed, to say the
least, and they were enthusiastic about the concept of fusing modern
music and theatre.  Unfortunately there was a problem, and this problem
could not be cured by a thousand good reviews. Like most MainMan
ventures the tour costs were more than could be made from the revenue
generated from ticket sales.

When it came to matters of business all of the decisions were made at
MainMan, with usually little in the way discussion.  Not everyone was
informed either,
once these decisions were made. This was one rather innovative method
Defries had of maintaining control. The only ones informed about
anything of importance were those people who had to be informed.
Defries said no more than he absolutely had to and this applied to Bowie
as well. It was simple really. The less people knew then the more they
relied on Defries to look after things, and the more things he looked
after the more control he had. In Bowie's case he relied on Defries for
everything from food to a roof over his head. It can therefore be
attributed to Defries style that the band were not informed of the
upcoming live recording of the shows at the Tower in Philadelphia which
would become David Live. The news of the recording somehow reached the
band and Visconti confirmed what was already evident as new equipment
had made an appearance and was being set up.  The  musician's union pay
scale for each band member was one hundred and fifty dollars. The band,
through their new spokesman, bass player Herbie Flowers, demanded five
thousand each. The worst part was Defries was nowhere to be found. The
meeting ended up in Bowie's dressing room with the band refusing to play
without the cash. Bowie relented after he threw a chair at Flowers and
Defries was furious with Bowie for giving in and David apparently was in
tears.

For what it is worth a personal note. I could kill Bowie for paying the
band. If he didn't maybe they would not have performed and then David
Live would not even exist. Saxophones and cowbells do not belong in
Moonage Daydream. Neither does that lame attempt at a guitar solo at the
end. The unenergetic plunking of a string to make noises that do not fit
the song being played makes me appreciate Ronson so much more and I
dwell in respect for him. Comparing Moonage Daydream on Santa Monica to
this "rendition" never fails to make me see visions of little green
garbage bags. The notes Bowie sustains on Stay from the 76 Nassau boot
or the end of Ziggy from any boot recorded in 78 or Absolute beginners
in 87 or Space Oddity in 72 or on a zillion other live boots are nothing
short of drop jaw amazing. Then there is the end of Sweet Thing off of
Diamond Dogs, as good as the end of Lady Grinning Soul or Right.
Listening to the lounge lizard croon on David Live makes me think of the
Holy Bible. In the Gospel Of Bittan chapter 26 verse 16 it says, "If you
aren't going to perform it with any energy, effort, conviction or desire
then don't fucking sing it."  I believe in the Bible. If you really must
Knock On Wood then it is best if done on your own time in private.
Electricity should be withheld from those who desecrate Width Of A
Circle and Earl Slick should have been given a prison sentence. David
Sandborn must have  been playing at gun point or they had something on
him that was pretty serious in order to make him co operate. If Bowie
had any morals he could have demonstrated some basic human compassion
and given him a bag for his head so that he would not be recognized.
Those which supplied the vinyl that allowed this to be made should be
brought up on charges of criminal negligence with intent to cause injury
or death. I won't be picky on this subject. The song arrangements are
disgusting and I dislike every bootleg as well, save two or three half
decent tracks, of this tour along with what should have been properly
titled as, "David Dead." To call this horrid irritating noise David Live
is false and misleading advertising as far as I am concerned.

The tour progressed leaving behind a trail of good reviews and financial
losses. Defries was determined that those losses would be erased on the
European leg of the tour.  Defries and  audacity are synonymous,
actually Defries is the definition of audacity. Defries would ask for
just about anything because in his mind he thought that if he had the
fortitude to ask someone might be crazy enough to give it to him.  What
he asked for when he was negotiating for Bowie  to perform for nine days
at Wembley presents a wonderful example of just how far Defries was
willing go. This man had no fear.  Now, in order to put this in some
sort of perspective I paid $8.50 Canadian to see the Station To Station
tour in Montreal in 1976. That is roughly $5.50 in US dollars at the
exchange rate today. Remember we are talking 1974 here. Wembley pool has
a seating capacity of 7,927. Defries wanted the seat prices scaled with
the best seats costing $16.80 US. If the shows sold out there would be
just under one million dollars from ticket revenues. Pay attention
because this is Defries at his best. Defries demanded 90% of the gross
from ticket sales up to $432,000.00 On top of that he demanded 100%,
that's right, he wanted every cent, on anything above the $432,000.00
Defries estimated that the promoter would have expenses of around
$125,000.00 Defries wanted the promoter to ADVANCE $125,000.00 to HIM
which would be deducted from Defries' fee later. If this deal went
through Defries stood to make somewhat in the neighbourhood of
$750,000.00 and the promoter would pocket $43.000. That isn't all
however, this gets even better. In order to secure the deal Defries
wanted a  NON REFUNDABLE security deposit of $500,000.00 paid to him
nine months BEFORE the concerts. If that isn't enough he also wanted 50%
of all of the money from the concessions such as cigarettes, drinks and
food. Although it is not mentioned where I obtained these figures I
imagine there would be souvenirs as well sold exclusively by MainMan.
The deal for the Wembley concerts fell through. The tour ended in
America as it turned out because it was losing so much money. They could
not afford to continue on to Europe. The final act has begun and not
just for the tour. The whole theater is closing.

If you are going to keep a person insulated by creating a false
existence then it is important that you keep them content. If they are
content they will have no motivation to want to change their
surroundings. However, if they are unhappy they will seek to find better
circumstances.  This is where Defries made a big mistake. Defries should
have taken better care of Bowie. If you look at what Defries
accomplished you can see at times that he was quite brilliant. He got
what he wanted by using a combination of street smarts, salesmanship,
negotiating skills and and a very aggressive attitude that could be
extremely intimidating. Defries had a burning desire to succeed and by
all appearances he wasn't going to stop until he had his empire and got
the recognition he believed was owed to him. It is my opinion here, but
I believe that ego, others believe it to be mostly greed,  that had a
tremendous amount to do with his desire to make it to the pinnacle of
success by building a world wide entertainment conglomerate. When he
once said that he would one day purchase RCA Records And Tapes I firmly
believe he was serious. It is because of his drive that I find it so
difficult to understand his behaviour towards Bowie. It makes absolutely
no sense anyway I look at it. You see, the one thing that really puzzles
me about Defries is why he did not look after Bowie. The only reason I
can come up with is that his ego got so big that he thought he was the
one who was responsible for making it this far. I think that he was
right in believing that as it was his ingenuity which built the company,
but what he forgot was it was Bowie's income that allowed him to build.

It is arguable to whether Defries was a good businessman. I believe he
was if you look at things from the aspect of marketing, brilliant in
that area actually, but overall I do not think so. He was a risk taker
which is a beneficial character trait for an entrepreneur to have yet it
can also be one's downfall. I think that Defries took too many risks.
The truth is that had it not been for RCA Defries would not have gone
far. This point is debatable and I can offer this in defence of what I
believe. What would have happened if RCA refused to pay the $100,000.00
hotel bill Defries ran up on the first American tour and billed to them
without their permission to do so? Defries had no money. The hotel would
have sued him and easily won and Tony Defries as well as MainMan would
have been named in the judgement since the   forty six people were all
registered with the hotel under MainMan. A judgement of over
$100,000.00, which it would be when you take into consideration the
court costs, lawyers, interest and other charges which may very well be
levied, would have put MainMan out of business. I have learned that
Defries is a very complicated individual. Most people are either good at
something or not good at it. Someone can be good at math and not so good
when it comes to sports. Now, if a person is good at a sport they can
have a few days when they don't perform as well as they usually do. This
is considered normal. The question here is can a person be good at
something and not so good at the same thing? For example, can a person
be a good, and a not so good mechanic? Now, I am not talking about a few
"off days" where someone isn't performing up to par , I am talking about
overall.  A person who is a good mechanic can maybe fix certain cars but
not others, yet that does not make him a bad mechanic. I learned
something about Defries while I was doing some research for this article
and I do not think that I have ever seen this characteristic in anyone
else and I find it quite interesting.  When it comes to his talents Tony
Defries can be both a genius and totally incompetent at the same thing
and at the same time.

Finances. Defries excelled in this field and at the same time he was
incompetent. The financial situation at MainMan almost from day one was
a precarious one at best. The company teetered on the verge of financial
ruin throughout its entire history. Corrine (Coco) Schawb earned her
reputation as a dedicated employee who was a competent problem solver
when she worked at MainMan. It was Coco who single handedly kept the
creditors away who would demand payment after being given a string of
promises and bad cheques. MainMan's cheques may as well have been made
of rubber they bounced so well. Her capabilities captured Bowie's
attention and she remains to this day his personal assistant. She has
never married and instead devoted her entire life to looking after the
needs of Bowie. When it came to Main Man there was never enough revenue
coming in to even begin to pay the bills. Since Defries had total
control of every aspect of the company it would be easy to reach the
conclusion, based on the situation at MainMan that Defries was
incompetent at handling the finances of the company. Based on the
balance sheets this statement is true and MainMan eventually went
bankrupt.

Now, at the same time he was proving that he was incompetent when it
came to finances he was proving that he was a genius when it came to
finances. Yes, you heard me right. You see, Defries was managing his
personal finances extremely well. So well in fact that in just over
four short years he would have himself set up for life, becoming a
millionaire several times over and retireing to a life of luxury. Most
Bowie listeners are aware of the fifty fifty split agreement in the
contracts Bowie signed with Defries contracts with Bowie. There are
terms and agreements in those contracts however that many fans do not
know about and these clauses made Defries much more money than the fifty
fifty split.  I would like to touch on those because they reveal just
how bright Tony Defries was when it came to securing a comfortable
living for himself. It is important to note that there was not just one
company and one contract involved, there were several companies and
several contracts. If what you are about to learn here shocks you, rest
assured that you are not alone.

First of all there is the publishing contract that gave Defries total
control over the sheet music and lyrics to Bowie's work. This includes
the copyrights as well. The contract is between Bowie and Chrysalis
which is owned by Defries. Chrysalis not only owns the copyrights from
the albums recorded during the MainMan days, it owns all of the rights
to what Bowie wrote previously and that includes the recordings done for
Pye, Decca and Mercury. Chrysalis bought the rights to them in one lump
sum payment to Bowie of twelve thousand dollars. The royalties were
split with Bowie. There are two clauses in this contract that made it
very lucrative and one is the expiration date. There isn't one. This
contract does not expire, it is FOREVER. That means Defries would
continue to collect fifty percent of the royalties on the publishing of
all of Bowies work up to and including Young Americans. Now, I do not
know if Bowie managed to buy the rights back because I have not looked
into it. I will find out though when I have time. The fact is though
whether he did or not makes no difference because Defries had suceeded
in obtaining the copyrights for eternity. The icing on the cake was that
Gem required someone to manage it so Defries hired himself. He got a
salary for this which came out of Bowie's own pocket as it was an
expense. Tony Defries got paid before any profits were divied up.

Gem was another company owned by Defries, and it is with Gem that David
Bowie signed a recording and distribution agreement. This contract was
signed in 1971 and was valid for a period of six years. Contrary to
popular belief Bowie did not have a recording contract with RCA, his
recording contract was with Gem.  The way it worked was Gem would
advance the moneys necessary for recording costs.  The contracts were
between Gem and RCA, whereby Gem would give the recordings to RCA upon
completion and RCA would then distribute them under license. RCA would
pay a fee to Gem for the distribution rights. This contract was  a real
"gem." ( get it "Gem" and "Gem". ha. ha. ha. yes, I know, and you are
right. that is about as lame as anyone could get. it is a futile
attempt, in my case anyway,  to try and fool someone into thinking that
I'm really clever and witty using the stupidest pun one could ever hope
to find. i will promise to control my intelligence next time so you
don't get sick reading this.)  Anyway, back to the story. Defries would
subtract the "expenses" from these license fees as well as the advances
paid by RCA. After the expenses were subtracted Defries and Bowie would
split the profits fifty fifty. Bowie also received an eleven percent
royalty on the amount of albums sold. Now, from all appearances this
contract looked quite fair to both parties. Unfortunately when it came
to fairness for Bowie it was seriously flawed. What it really did was
give Defries complete access to the moneys paid to Gem and Bowie and by
having the money pass through Defries'  hands first allowed him to grab
as much as he wanted. The dangerous stipulation for Bowie's share of the
money in this contract were the words, "after expenses." This clause
allowed Defries to determine exactly what was qualified to be labelled
"expenses."  In order to operate Gem had to have a president and take a
guess who became the president? Defries. Now, this allowed Defries to
pay himself a salary and he determined the amount that the president
should paid. This was of course an "expense" and deducted from the gross
before Bowie got his share. What Bowie did not know, and did not learn
until just before he and MainMan parted ways, was that Defries was
getting money advanced to Gem from RCA on a continuous basis. We are
talking a large amount of money here and it was estimated to be somewhat
in the neighbourhood of five to seven million dollars. Defries had a
portion of his living expenses paid by Gem as well. This contract
allowed Defries to do anything he wanted and have Gem pay for it.  All
he had to was mark it down as an "expense." The contract also gave Gem
control over Bowie's work, as a matter of fact Bowie did not even own
the rights to his own work, Gem did. This gave Gem the rights to pretty
much do what they wanted with Bowie's recordings and Bowie had no say in
the matter.  Owning David's work was more lucrative than most realize.
Because Gem owned the recordings it didn't matter if Bowie was still
under contract with Defries or not, you see Gem owned them PERMANENTLY.
Bowie could leave but Gem still owned his work and Defries continued to
make money from these recordings long after Bowie had departed. Here is
a good example. In 1976 CHANGESONE was released which was a greatest
hits package. Bowie had left MainMan by this time and he had no say in
the release of this album, as a matter of fact he was against it.
Unfortunately because Gem owned the copyrights to these songs was
nothing Bowie, or anyone else could do, to stop its release. CHANGESONE
became David Bowie's very first platinum album selling roughly 1,330,260
copies of which half of the money went right to Defries and the rest to
Bowie, after "expenses" of course. Defries continued to make a rather
comfortable income from Bowie for many years. It is estimated that in
1983, seven years after Bowie left MainMan, Defries made in excess of
one million dollars. As a said, "What a gem of a deal."

Most Bowie fans are aware of the famous fifty fifty split contract. Most
think that it was MainMan that got the split. What most fans are unaware
of however is the existence of this contract, which was really the split
contract, and it was in essence a personal management agreement. Now, if
you think that taking fifty percent of Bowie's earnings is outrageous
just wait until you hear this. There is another contract which Bowie
signed that many do not know about and the expire date is rather
interesting. It is a very common misconception that the contract Bowie
signed with MainMan was a  contract that managed all of his business
affairs as well as managed him as an artist. This is not correct. There
were two separate contracts that Bowie signed actually. The first one
was a personal management contract and this agreement managed him as an
artist. This agreement was not between Bowie and MainMan as MainMan was
not formed for nearly a year AFTER this contract was signed. On August
the 12, 1971 David Bowie signed a personal management contract and this
contract was then backdated to cover his affairs in effect from  April
of 1970. This contract did not include his business affairs, this
contract concerned the right to manage him as an artist. This personal
management contract that David Bowie signed was exclusively with Tony
Defries.  I am not going to mince words here and I will say that Bowie
was as smart as a bag of nails to sign this agreement, and all the other
ones as well, without getting a second opinion from a lawyer. You will
see why in a second. If one thing was good that came out of  signing all
of them was that it seemed to smartened him up in a hurry. The terms of
this contract were clearly stipulated and Defries being a lawyer insured
that it was iron clad. What this personal management contract did in
effect was give Defries the right to manage Bowie as an artist, and what
that entailed was that Bowie could not negotiate ANYTHING with regards
to his career. His rights to make personal decisions about his business
affairs were  signed over to Tony Defries. To put it mildly Tony Defries
OWNED David Bowie, for lack of a better analogy.  On top of it all
Defries got fifty percent of Bowie's income as a management fee. Now if
that isn't enough, here is the good part. The contract did not have any
clause in it that specified when it would expire so in effect the
contract gave Defries the rights to manage Bowie in perpetuity! Tony
Defries not only owned Bowie, he owned him FOREVER!

Now, if Defries didn't already get enough of Bowie's money already there
was also the MainMan contract. This contract I like to describe as a
money siphon that ran directly into Defries pocket. Thank God for
Bowie's sake that this one had an expiry date of March 31, 1983 on it or
he would probably still be on a salary of $75.00 a week plus expenses.
If you take a good look at the terms of the MainMan contract you will
discover that it not only controlled its own money, but had the right to
control the flow of money from all of the other companies as well. The
context of the wording is as follows, "All MainMan companies can lease
one another the rights they controlled and also be the recipients of
those rights from one another."  In order to find the true meaning of
this all you do is forget the pleasant wording which attempts to make
this clause sound like a harmless exchange of copyrights and read
between the lines. It  basically says this in plain English, "Any
company that Defries owns can at any time take control of any of the
other companies and take what they want and this includes raiding their
bank accounts." It was important that Defries had total control of the
companies finances so he could do whatever he wanted with the money.
Also, it was imparative that Bowie never learn exactly how much money
was coming in, and how much Defries was taking. If Bowie ever did find
out then that would certainly spell the end. Should the end come  the
last money Defries would see would be whatever the courts awarded when
they ruled on a settlement. The terms in the contract however ensured
that it would be very difficult for Bowie to learn very much. Bowie was
never paid directly by RCA or anyone else for that matter all the money
he ever saw came from MainMan. The context of the clause  to enable
Defries to totally control the flow of money to Bowie is as follows,
"The licensee (MainMan) is empowered to collect all of the gross
income." What this effectively did was allow MainMan to be paid every
cent that Bowie made. All the money from recordings, films, live
performances, publishing, royalties, endorsements, commissions, acting
or anything else was paid to MainMan. The money was then distributed to
Bowie, but not until after MainMan took its percentage and all of the
"expenses" were deducted. This is where it gets pretty ugly.

Bowie signed a contract that gave MainMan ten percent of his gross
income world wide. In addition MainMan would receive fifty percent of
the profits after expenses and Bowie would also get fifty percent. If
you notice the words "after expenses" appears in this contract as well.
Those expenses would turn out to be a prime example of  creative
corporate insanity applied to the art of "cost of business deductions.
The stipulations in the Bowie/MainMan contract are all worded extremely
carefully. It is written so carefully in fact that MainMan appears to be
an extremely responsible company who are quite prudent when it comes to
the management of money. In the agreement it reads, "Care will be taken
to maintain to determine which expenses are those in which MainMan
should participate." Quite simply put is the fact that Bowie paid for
all of MainMan's expenses. When I say all, I mean all. Bowie was
MainMan's only source of income as all of the other artists that had
signed management contracts never made any money. It is ironic that
Bowie was footing the bill for these artists and he was covering their
losses. All that MainMan had came from Bowie's earnings because Defries
wrote it all off against Bowie's earnings as "expenses." These included
all of MainMan's real estate, including the twenty room mansion, the
offices, all salaries, the limousine, tour expenses, recording expenses,
fees paid to artists under contract and everything else. Defries also
took a salary as president of the company, which of course Bowie paid.
In return Bowie got his living expenses paid, which were deducted from
his share of the profits, as well as seventy five dollars a week as a
salary. What most people do not realize is the fact that Bowie really
got screwed do to the personal management contract that he signed with
Defries. Take a good look at this. Bowie got fifty percent of the after
expense profits at MainMan. Now, out of that Defries took half because
he was entitled to take fifty percent of Bowie's earnings under the
personal management contract. Suppose the profits at MainMan were
$100,000.00. Bowie would receive $50,000.00 and Defries $50,000.00.
Defries then got fifty percent of Bowie's earnings so he got another
$25,000.00. Out of the $100,000.00 profit Defries got $75,000.00 and
Bowie got $25,000.00 and to add insult to injury all of MainMan's
expenses were paid by Bowie.

I got a letter from a Bowie fan while posting this article who
questioned one of my statements. What he questioned was the fact that I
said Bowie had little control over his career while at MainMan. He said
it was difficult to believe. Difficult or not the facts prove otherwise
even though Bowie publicly takes all the credit for his success. Bowie
was not ignorant back then, as it is easy to assume only someone who is
downright stupid would sign those contracts. He was not conned either as
some say. Bowie was naive, really naive. He always had others looking
after him and he was plain lucky that Pitt looked out for his best
interests as any other manager would do the same as Defries and try to
make the best deal they could for themselves to make money. Business is
about profits not personal relationships and that is what separates
Defries from Pitt. Bowie was incapable of handling his business affairs
and he did not want to deal with them. Making deals requires
confrontation and Bowie avoided confrontations at all cost, he was much
too sensitive to be tough with anyone. This lack of interest in the
business end of things and his trust of others gave him a false sense of
security. As long as he was looked after all was well in his eyes. Just
how naive and what little interest he had in his business affairs can be
easily proven and until proof arises to the contrary I have to support
my findings. I offer this as a prime example. If he was not naive then
this needs to be explained. Why did he sign any of these contracts
without first having a lawyer, or at least someone else for that matter,
look them over first? It is obvious in my opinion that had he truly
understood how the arrangements between himself and the companies he
signed with I believe he would have had second thoughts. If not, at
least he would have negotiated at bit but he did not. I can't believe
that he would sign away all rights he had to his own music and
publishing as well as sign a contract that would bind him FOREVER in
exchange for a $75.00 a week salary and 25% of his income. Oh, as well
as agree to pay all of the expenses incurred for a company that he did
not own any part of. I do not believe that he would have paid MainMan's
expenses had he known he did not own 50% of it. It is either stupidity
or naivete and I have a difficult time believing that Bowie is stupid.
Uneducated at that time in business yes, but not stupid. I have been
accused many times of supporting Defries and what he did. I have no
option I'm afraid but to believe the truth. Defries saved Bowie but that
does not mean I condone his actions. He made a profit and Bowie signed
the deal. As always it is, "buyer beware." Now, from an ethical and
moral point of view I personally think that it is wrong to take
advantage of anyone to the degree Defries did for the sake of money. He
used Bowie in the worst way and I can't condone what he did. Although
what he did is not illegal, to me it is wrong. One last point here and I
would be interested to hear some feedback on this. I have no evidence to
support this and it is just a thought. Defries could have allowed
MainMan to go bankrupt because after Bowie left there was no revenue
generator, and he had already siphoned off most of the money into his
own pocket. Just a thought.

AladINsaNE

To be continued........



""I don't begrudge any artist for finding an audience"
- David Bowie abt. 1987
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