How to become a pop star
Brian Sommerville, former publicity manager of The Beatles, explains how the pop scene works
PUBLICITY man Brian Sommerville, the 33-year-old former naval officer who helped the Beatles to fame, knows what it takes to become a pop star today. He left the Beatles earlier this year, because, he said: “They don’t need me any more.” Now he helps to promote such stars as the Kinks, Peter and Gordon, Susan Maughan, Danny Williams, Carol Deene, Noel Harrison and Mike Leroy. He has worked as a publicity man for the Mayfair Hotel, stars like Peter Sellers, Judy Garland and Larry Adler. In this series he writes to help all youngsters who want to be pop stars
WHENEVER anyone asks me, and it’s amazing how many do, if there is one quality a budding pop star needs most of all, I always give the same one-word answer—talent.
If you don’t have talent you might as well go back to the farm, or the bank counter, or wherever it is you work.
Mind you, that talent may not be obvious. It often takes a clever manager to spot it because the person might be shy or trying to start off with the wrong style.
The Beatles illustrate the point. Brian Epstein, their manager, agrees with me that he was extremely lucky in finding four boys who had an incredible amount of talent between them. Some of that talent was obvious but some was not.
John Lennon’s was clear from the start and so was Paul McCartney’s to a slightly lesser extent in that they were both good at composing. But the latent talent in George Harrison and Ringo Starr emerged much later.
Today George is coming out with some really tricky guitar playing. He has proved himself an expert guitarist.
And Ringo has revealed a latent talent in his humour, his new comic image. This talent has been brought out by a process of evolution, actual experience, confidence from success and by being put on the right lines by Brian Epstein.
Another case of really obvious talent is Tommy Steele. He has now graduated from being only a pop singer to becoming a fine all-round entertainer. He always had this natural talent, coupled with a flair for putting it over.
This flair, too, is most important. You need personality to put your talent over.
If you don’t have the personality to put your talent over, you may just as well not have the talent.
Anthony Newley is another example of a man so talented that he emerged as a pop singer as an off-shoot from his main job of acting. He also helps write his own songs and stage shows.
How do you know if you’ve got talent? Most of the time if you are really talented, you won’t know. In fact, if you do think you’re the great undiscovered genius it might be as well to think again. For most talented people I’ve known did NOT know they were talented.
Often the real true artist is the last person to know just how talented he is.
That doesn’t mean they didn’t have the confidence to persevere. You MUST have that.
I remember when I was working in an assistant capacity as publicity man to Peter Sellers. We were watching a scene in a film he’d just made and he didn’t think it was very funny, although to everyone else it was. In fact, it was the funniest scene in the film, yet Peter wanted to do it again.
Just as the law courts will occasionally jail an innocent man or free a guilty man, most people know that justice is almost invariably done. It’s the same with talent in show business. If you’ve got it, you should win through.
There are the freaks — talents who just don’t get noticed and people who get a stardom they don’t deserve. But, generally speaking, talent will be recognised sooner or later and receive its just reward.
Above all, don’t be put off too easily. There may be a number of reasons why you might be told quite consistently by agents and managers that you are not what they want.
Maybe you have some rough edges and they can’t be bothered to smooth them out. Maybe you clash with someone else already on their books. Maybe there is something about you they don’t like, quite apart from your ability.
Never be misled by this. You must still press on. Be as honest as you can with yourself and if you really think you’ve got something, be confident in your own ability. But don’t be too clever or cocky about it.
I’ve just taken on a man called Deke Arion. I’m convinced, as are many who’ve seen him, that he’s very talented. He sings, does impersonations that are cleverly satirical. He compares favourably in the early stages with Tommy Steele or even with Danny Kaye. For all manner of reasons, he never signed with anyone, but now I’m certain he’s destined for stardom.
You may have all the talent in the world but without good management, in this highly competitive business, you don’t really have much chance.
I think the Beatles’ greatest debt of gratitude to Brian Epstein must be from the very early days, before they’d made their first couple of records, when Brian came from Liverpool and literally “sold” them to the recording industry.
This doesn’t apply in every case, of course. But Brian found a recording manager, a recording company and a music publisher and convinced them that the Beatles were worth knowing.
Brian had doors slammed in his face and people didn’t want to know him or the Beatles, but he worked very hard.
I do feel that without him they would never have been pushed so well. He brought their great talents to everyone’s notice. Of course, with their talents they would have been discovered by someone but there are very few managers with anything like Epstein’s abilities.
Brian was so convinced by the evidence of his eyes and ears—and he had experience from running a record shop— that he was inspired to work like he did.
And I would say it was essential for any budding pop star to have a manager who feels like this about him or her.
How do you go about finding a good manager? There are no hard and fast rules. A lot of it is inspired guesswork, a lot of it is sheer luck.
But you should be guided by your own instincts. Instinct is a wonderful thing in show business and first impressions are often right.
You should look, of course, for an honest and reputable person. And you must be convinced that when they say “I will do this or that for you” they mean it and are capable of really doing their best to fulfil their promises.
You should feel the manager has a personal interest in you, believes implicitly in your talent, and that in the face of criticism or in a tight corner he will fight for you and defend you — and not just because he’s paid for it.
He should also be aware of your bad points and idiosyncrasies and know how to counteract them.
As in all basic rules, there is a middle path to follow. Don’t depart too far from it.
Publicity, of course, goes hand in hand with good management. But there is one point I must make: Too many people have the idea in the pop world that if you get a good publicity man — you can include the manager in this, too—you are made.
That all you need then is a little bit of patience, a bit of determination and the right song.
This just isn’t true. Publicity is never a substitute for talent. At its best all publicity can do is present the artist, using all the media available, in the best possible light.
With intelligent thinking between yourself, the management and the publicity man, you can knock off the rough edges, project the artist’s best points, and try to play down, and if possible remove, some of the bad ones.
And there must be mutual trust. For instance, with the Kinks, we appreciate each other’s sense of humour. I appreciate their talents and I think they appreciate my professional ability, publicity-wise.
They know I’m working for them and although they may not see that what I am doing is the right thing, they do trust that eventually I will be shown to be right.
If you’re going to buy a new car or an odd looking shirt, if you’re going to change your hairstyle, if your dog is having pups, if your wife is having a baby, or whatever you are up to, it’s your duty to keep the publicity man informed.
It’s then up to him to see it is exploited in the right way. Keeping an artist’s name before the public in an interesting and glamorous way is very important.
NEXT WEEK: I’ll tell you about the time time even the Beatles needed publicity in 1964. And how to find the “right song”.