This could be a fake but the fact that it wouldn't suprise me in the least if it were true means that it probably is true.
This came from JLord:
Quote:
Now, everyone suspects that music industry men are bloated beasts in
suits and sniffy noses who might as well be flogging marshmallows as
rock & roll.
And occasionally, something happens that proves it, like this rather
magnificent exchange of emails between various people in the Kooks US
operation discussing how they're going to get the band massive over
there. Leaked by the excellent Stylus magazine, this makes for
illuminating, if highly depressing read. Stylus replaced all specifics,
and we use their replacements below:
---- Original Message -----
From: XXXX@[UK Record Label]
To: XXXX@[UK Record Label]
Sent: Thursday, November 23, 2006 4:12 PM
Subject: The Kooks
We finally got the IFPI [International Federation of the Phonographic
Industry] certification through-it's all signed off and there's a bit of
green tinted plastic you can show the boys when they next stop by here.
Of course over one million European sales is good, very good, but I
think we have to understand that these sales are nearly all domestic.
The album has been on the UK chart almost 40 weeks now but looking at
the data available the album has only got to 107 in France and only to
32 in New Zealand. If we are to make this act a workable long term
investment I think we have to make international recognition our first
priority, then focus on domestic consiladation then and set up the
second album as an international breakthrough. It is my firmly held
belief that this band have a strong enough brand appeal to our keynote
demographics to put them on the A list of priorities for 2007.
----- Original Message -----
From: XXXX@[UK Record Label]
To: XXXX@[UK Record Label]
Sent: Thursday, November 23, 2006 6:03 PM
Subject: Re: The Kooks
That's great. I agree that this lot are really shaping up nicely. I was,
I must admit, a little worried before radio got hold of Naive and the
album took off. Having a third single peak at 12, with the kind of push
we were giving them was disheartening to say the least. Getting them to
agree its single release was a nightmare Luke [Pritchard lead singer of
The Kooks] was very precious about it but I had to lay down the law with
him, I told him that if they didn't have a radio hit they'd be going the
way of BRMC [Black Rebel Motorcycle Club US group who parted company
with Virgin records in 2004]. That shut him up.
His point that the production made it sound like Athlete before they
sounded like Coldplay made me laugh. We made it pretty hot in the
mastering so it sounded great on the radio. I agree international
success is a priority and now with Inside being out there in the US
market place, we can build their profile and maybe come second album
time get a 'Chasing Cars' out of them. I think we are going to have to
miss the indie appeal in the US and go straight for the 'OC.' In the UK
the leather jackets and scruffy hair does half the work, I mean the cred
of The Libertines and the all around appeal of Busted is an obvious no
brainer domestic but in the US both of those bands did sh*t.
One plus point: internationally I reckon no one is going to give a toss
about them going to stage school or whether one of them shagged Katie
Melua. We had to do a little damage control after that Amstell [Simon
Amstell, UK Television Personality] prick took the piss on Popworld. I
mean no one gives a f*ck if spotty [Weekly UK Music Publication] readers
think they don't write their own songs but it's important we keep a bit
of serious artist credibility round them. That aspirational indie vibe
is pretty important when reeling the 25 - 35's in. I gave him
[Pritchard] a bit of a hand with that piece in [Monthly UK Music
Publication] about Bob Dylan. Anyway nothing to get too hung up about
it's just we don't want people damaging the magic of the group, I mean
we have done very well, so far all the press have been pretty much
onside. I did have a bit of trouble with [UK Newspaper] but we got a
decent enough review from them to put a quote on the TV spots. Thanks
for your continued support!
----- Original Message -----
From: XXXX@[UK Record Label]
To: XXXX@[UK Record Label]
Sent: Friday, November 24, 2006 2:55 PM
Subject: Re: The Kooks
Someone should get in touch with [Music Industry Figure] at Sony and
stop him from letting that pillock from Kasabian calling The Kooks girls
music or whatever it was he said. Anyway I saw the TV spot last night,
it's now running as part of [UK music retailers]'s Christmas campaign.
That black white photography works a treat and those press quotes are
all great. I know Ooh La didn't do as well as we hoped but with a decent
push I think we'll get a third or even fourth wind out of this one! I
had another listen to the album on the way home yesterday there's some
catchy songs on there aren't there? That Jackie Big Tits song is a
laugh, we wouldn't have been able to get away with something like that
10 years ago with all that PC nonsense. I don't think we need to be
quite so defensive on the PR front, the only people likely to give them
a bad review are people like [Major Webzine] and the kind of geeks who
read that cr*p don't even buy records anyway.
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