|
Post by maddogfagin on Apr 2, 2013 7:33:38 GMT
A 1987 interview with Chris Wright, co-founder of Chrysalis Records with Terry Ellis, from the Express magazine.
|
|
|
Post by maddogfagin on Oct 25, 2013 16:13:18 GMT
www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/entertainment/books/439060/One-Way-Or-Another-by-Chris-Wright-reviewBook News One Way Or Another by Chris Wright In his honest autobiography, Chrysalis record label-founder Chris Wright admits his successes and failings during one of the most fertile periods in rock and pop music. Review by Gerard Henderson, Friday, October 25, 2013 IN the words of Blondie, one way or another he's gonna getcha. Unless, that is, you're David Bowie, The Kinks or The Spice Girls. Chris Wright pulls no punches in telling his gripping, fascinating life story. Amid the many massive hits of his stellar career as a rock, media and sport mogul he's also brutally honest about the misses. The man who created Chrysalis and forged it into an iconic brand and cutting-edge, creative multi-media group struck it rich with the likes of Blondie, Spandau Ballet and before that Jethro Tull and Ten Years After. Along the way Chrysalis decided not to sign Bowie, thought at the time to be an "apparent one hit wonder", to its record label. The blow was softened by a deal giving the company 25 per cent of his published work. The Kinks slipped from his grasp after a jet-lagged Wright fell asleep during one of their concerts. "Ray Davies was not impressed," he recalls. The Spice Girls were offered a £250,000 advance after turning up at Chrysalis's London office and miming to a backing track of Wannabe. A rival offered more so they went elsewhere. Despite these misses the sounds of success play loud in this candid story. In his breezy style Wright takes us on his remarkable journey from a childhood spent on a windswept Lincolnshire farm to the head of a global multi-media powerhouse. This is a real who's who of the music business. It's also a playlist of the defining soundtracks of the past half century. From the hippie counter revolution, through to punk, the new romantics, ska and on to the music of the new millennium, Wright was at the heart of it all, forging careers for stars on both sides of the Atlantic. He lifts the lid on the industry as the ultimate insider, from the sex, drugs and rock'n'roll of the American concert circuit to the Machiavellian cut and thrust of high and low boardroom politics, no more so than during the eventual sale of Chrysalis. An entrepreneurial spirit, an ear for music and sometimes just plain good luck kept Wright at the top for so long. It also saw Chrysalis, started with business partner Terry Ellis in a Shepherd's Bush bedsit, expand into TV, radio and publishing. Sport also plays large in Wright's story and again he isn't prepared to sit on the side spectating. As owner of Wasps rugby union club he propelled it to massive success on the pitch. His time in charge of Queens Park Rangers proved less of a triumph and again honesty shines through in his telling of the story, giving a revealing insight into the business side of the game and the emotional and financial cost he paid for his love of the club. "When it comes to football all similarities to normal business disappear out of the window completely," he says, reflecting ruefully on his time at Loftus Road. There's more honesty when he chronicles the tangled ups and downs of a complicated personal life. But music and those who create it remain at the heart of this story. Chris Wright is the man who called the tune and this is a record of a life spent in the main at the top of the charts. VERDICT: 4/5 One Way or Another: My Life In Music, Sport And Entertainment by Chris Wright, £19.95, is published by Omnibus Press
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Nov 21, 2013 13:31:50 GMT
Chris Wright releases autobiography One Way or Another www.louthleader.co.uk/news/local/chris-wright-releases-autobiography-one-way-or-another-1-5689222Rock mogul Chris Wright, who was brought up in the Louth area, has released his autobiography. One Way or Another tells of the creation of record company Chrysalis and how he bought Queens Park Rangers FC. Chris signed hit makers Jethro Tull, Blondie, Billy Idol, Ultravox, Spandau Ballet and The Specials. The book also tells how he missed out signing David Bowie, Dire Straits and The Spice Girls. He was educated at King Edward VI Grammar School and lived in Grimoldby. One Way Or Another is published by Omnibus Press.
|
|
|
Post by maddogfagin on Mar 12, 2014 10:07:17 GMT
An interview with Chris Wright at blogs.ocweekly.com/heardmentality/2014/03/chris_wright_chrysalis_records_one_way_or_another_book.phpWhat would you consider to be the key points in your development as a pioneer in the record industry?
The key points were really the mile stones in the groups' development, since we were only as big as our groups were. We didn't really have that many groups any way. So whatever those key milestones were--Ten Years After getting a residency at the Marquee Club, getting in the Fillmore in San Francisco and Jethro Tull headlining the big outdoor festival in England, getting interested in a Jethro Tull record and record companies, it was all one step at a time. We didn't have any money or set out thinking it was gonna be a good way of getting rich. We never thought we'd be getting any money out of what we were doing, we were just doing it because we loved it and wanted to make it work. It was a few years in before it was something we recognized as a real business versus something we just liked to do.
|
|
|
Post by maddogfagin on Sept 29, 2015 8:20:04 GMT
www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/CHRIS WRIGHT: HOW IT FEELS TO BUILD (AND SELL) A MUSIC BIZ LEGENDSEPTEMBER 28, 2015When it comes to the truly legendary companies of the music industry’s past 100 years, Chrysalis deserves its spot at the top table. The company, founded by Chris Wright and Terry Ellis in the late 1960s, became a fabled player in both the label (Chrysalis Records) and music publishing (Chrysalis Music) arenas, developing and breaking acts including Blondie, Ten Years After, Jethro Tull, Procol Harum and Billy Idol. Chrysalis’s capacity for independent A&R greatness was famed across the music biz for decades, but it wasn’t to last: short of cash flow, Wright ended up selling Chrysalis Records in 1991 to EMI Music and, under more comfortable circumstances, let go of Chrysalis Music to BMG in 2010. Wright is the latest guest on the Music Business Worldwide monthly podcast, supported by CI, which you can listen to below. We ask him all about the history of the company, his decision to wave it goodbye and what he makes of the modern industry. Soundcloud Podcast Here
|
|
|
Post by maddogfagin on Nov 12, 2016 8:47:11 GMT
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/author/chris-wright1Chris Wright Music, sports, and media entrepreneur; co-founder of Chrysalis Records Music, sports, and media entrepreneur Chris Wright is founder of Chrysalis Records, the music production company that launched the careers of Blondie, Ultravox, Spandau Ballet, Jethro Tull, Ten Years After, Billy Idol, The Specials, Huey Lewis and the News and Procol Harum, amongst others. In addition to the Chrysalis Records Company, Chrysalis Music Publishing signed up a very young David Bowie, at the start of his career. Through Chrysalis’ radio and TV businesses, they also launched Heart Radio in the 90’s and Midsomer Murders, amongst many other classics. Passionate about sport, almost as much as music and TV, Chris owned for a while both QPR and, for many years, Wasps Rugby. He is passionate about horseracing and owns his own stud, Stratford Place in the Cotswolds.
|
|
|
Post by maddogfagin on Dec 27, 2016 10:09:29 GMT
inews.co.uk/Trump and Brexit will produce a 2017 ‘political pop renaissance’ says music mogul Chris Wright Don’t call us luvvies
inews.co.uk/essentials/culture/music/trump-brexit-will-produce-2017-political-pop-renaissance-says-music-mogul-chris-wright/
“If you’re in the creative industry they call you a ‘luvvie’ and if you’re a ‘luvvie’ you’re an idiot. I think that Daily Mail attitude is despicable because if you ask people abroad the best thing about Britain they will say our creative community, from Shakespeare to JK Rowling and Adele.”
Mr Wright warned that Brexit will hit British musicians. “Before freedom of movement, Chrysalis bands like Jethro Tull and Procul Harum had to get a carnet for every single piece of equipment in their van before they could leave the country.
“The big bands will have accountants to deal with all that but if we go back to those days it will be a total nightmare for new artists going on tour. We need a solution to these issues. Saying ‘we want a red, white and blue Brexit’ is just asinine.”
|
|
|
Post by JTull 007 on Dec 27, 2016 17:40:33 GMT
inews.co.uk/Trump and Brexit will produce a 2017 ‘political pop renaissance’ says music mogul Chris Wright Don’t call us luvvies
inews.co.uk/essentials/culture/music/trump-brexit-will-produce-2017-political-pop-renaissance-says-music-mogul-chris-wright/
“If you’re in the creative industry they call you a ‘luvvie’ and if you’re a ‘luvvie’ you’re an idiot. I think that Daily Mail attitude is despicable because if you ask people abroad the best thing about Britain they will say our creative community, from Shakespeare to JK Rowling and Adele.”
Mr Wright warned that Brexit will hit British musicians. “Before freedom of movement, Chrysalis bands like Jethro Tull and Procul Harum had to get a carnet for every single piece of equipment in their van before they could leave the country.
“The big bands will have accountants to deal with all that but if we go back to those days it will be a total nightmare for new artists going on tour. We need a solution to these issues. Saying ‘we want a red, white and blue Brexit’ is just asinine.” Life just got more complicated for those who travel thanks to fear and political isolationism.
|
|
|
Post by maddogfagin on Jul 27, 2017 15:37:22 GMT
bestclassicbands.com/chris-wright-chrysalis-7-26-17/Chrysalis Co-Founder Chris Wright on Label’s Riseby Best Classic Bands Staff The music industry grew at a remarkable pace in the 1960s and 1970s as pop music and rock ’n’ roll evolved and purchasing habits shifted from singles to albums. Dozens of executives, most of whom never became household names, played a seminal role in delivering the music through the system that most consumers take for granted: discovering and signing the talent, working closely with them on their repertoire, the recording process and their image, and ultimately getting their records onto store shelves and radio station playlists. For every Berry Gordy and Quincy Jones, names well familiar to the public, there were plenty of label chiefs who oversaw huge companies and built artist rosters who were not well-known beyond the industry. Observing and covering the action from his role as Editor-in-Chief of music industry trade magazine Record World was Mike Sigman. Now for leading industry trade mag HITS – co-owned by industry vets Dennis Lavinthal and Lenny Beer – Sigman has served up intimate profiles of many of the era’s top execs in revealing new discussions where they look back at the industry and their part in its development. History of the Music Biz – The Mike Sigman Interviews was published in 2016 by HITS and features interviews with 18 of these titans. The response from the music industry and the public was so positive that a follow-up has just hit the streets. HITS Presents History of the Music Biz Two – The Mike Sigman Interviews serves up another 19 discussions with industry leaders. In Volume Two, Sigman talks to Tower Records founder Ross Solomon, A&M Records co-founder /musician Herb Alpert, and Rolling Stone founder/editor Jann Wenner, among others. Sigman’s longstanding relationships with these execs and familiarity with their accomplishments allowed them to open up and offer insider tales of their careers. Best Classic Bands was pleased to share excerpts from Sigman’s Volume One interviews with former Sony Music chief Tommy Mottola and Geffen Records president Eddie Rosenblatt. Here is an exclusive excerpt from Sigman’s Volume 2 interview with Chris Wright, the longtime artist manager and co-founder of Chrysalis Records. We pick up the story where Wright has begun managing Ten Years After, moved from Manchester, England to London, and met future partner Terry Ellis. “I said, ‘Let’s get an office and share the bills.’ I had Ten Years After and he had a few acts. Then I brought Jethro Tull in, who were called The John Evan Band. I went to the States with Ten Years After and Terry did most of the work with Jethro Tull. Terry suggested we make it a proper partnership, and I said fine.” The Ellis-Wright Agency’s telegram address foreshadowed the storied partnership to come: Chris-Ellis. Chris, the man who put the “Chris” in “Chrysalis,” was all of 23 years old. By the fall of 1968, Ten Years After had released two albums. The following year, Woodstock sent Ten Years After into supernova territory. “Ten Years After had a fine career going before Woodstock, selling out 3,000- to 5000-seat concert halls. After Woodstock, it was sold-out arenas and thousands waiting outside who couldn’t get in. The thing about Woodstock is that unless you were in the film, you were forgotten about. Albert Grossman didn’t let his acts play without more money, so they weren’t in the film. Look at Joe Cocker, The Who, Joan Baez, Richie Havens—their careers went into the stratosphere.” Just prior to Woodstock, Chris and Terry decided it was time to turn their agency into a full-service music company, and, by using Berry Gordy’s Tamla Motown as a template, Chrysalis was born. “We never really thought in the early days that we were a record company. We thought of ourselves as managers, so we always thought in terms of developing the artist’s career.” Chris had met Procol Harum’s extraordinary keyboardist/singer/composer Gary Brooker during the mid-‘60s. He reconnected with the group when, several years after their monumental 1967 single, “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” and they needed a boost. “I couldn’t believe how badly their career had been handled. They were a mess financially and in every respect.” Procol Harum signed with Chrysalis for management in 1971 and got back on track with the rousing orchestral hit “Conquistador.” When their A&M contract ended in 1973, Chrysalis also became their label. Chrysalis also signed British-born singer-songwriter Leo Sayer in 1973. It wasn’t until his fourth LP, Endless Flight, that Sayer succeeded stateside. Chris described the role he played in tweaking “When I Need You,” the single that broke the album wide open. “The week ‘When I Need You’ came out in the U.S., Leo was playing the Whisky in L.A. Richard Perry (Leo’s producer) put together a fantastic band of session musicians for the gig. I had always had the song scheduled to be a Christmas hit. But on the record there was nothing in the middle, just a piano break. On stage at the Whisky, the sax player played a bit in the middle eight, which took it up a couple of steps. I said, “Let’s recut the record with the sax break in.’” “When I Need You” became Chrysalis’ first #1 single, and a star was born. In the summer of 1977, Chrysalis purchased the contract of pioneering new wave rockers Blondie. Over the next five years, the band, led by singer Debbie Harry and guitarist Chris Stein, achieved massive success and cultural impact on the strength of such smash singles as “Heart of Glass,” “One Way Or Another,” “Call Me,” “Rapture” and “The Tide Is High,” and albums such as Parallel Lines, Eat to the Beat and Autoamerican. The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006 and has sold upwards of 40 million records. Chris bought Terry Ellis out in 1985, taking on institutional shareholders as partners. Chrysalis Records was sold to EMI in 1991, and Chris sold the music publishing arm to BMG in 2010. In 2016, Blue Raincoat Music purchased Chrysalis Records Ltd. and its artist catalog, for the U.K. Chris became non-executive chairman, reuniting him with the company he’d co-founded nearly 50 years before.
|
|
|
Post by maddogfagin on Sept 22, 2017 13:20:59 GMT
www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/money/chris-wright-music-and-midsomer-let-me-make-a-killing-qr37vvkd2Chris Wright: Music and Midsomer let me make a killingChrysalis Records’ founder is back where he began, with TV, radio and sporting feathers in his cap House fan: Chris Wright, pictured at his London home, loves investing in property. Land he bought from Eric Clapton in Antigua and built on has leapt in value TOM STOCKILLChris Wright, the music mogul who launched the careers of Jethro Tull, Blondie and Spandau Ballet, had a lot on his mind last week. His son Tim and Wright’s former wife Chelle were stuck on Anguilla in the Caribbean while it was being battered by winds of hurricane force. Luckily they were unhurt and he was able to persuade his insurer to arrange for them to be picked up from the island on Monday. Wright, who founded the renowned music company Chrysalis Records in 1968, has a five-bedroom house in Antigua, which is about 30 miles south of Anguilla. But the island just missed the full force of Hurricane Irma. I earned nothing last year. I’d rather not get paid because then I can do what I want
|
|
|
Post by maddogfagin on Jun 20, 2018 6:47:05 GMT
www.metro.news/my-money-chris-wright/1108132/My money… Chris Wrightby Oliver Stallwood Published June 19, 2018 CHRIS WRIGHT went from representing rock groups at university to signing Blondie, Ten Years After, Procul Harum, Spandau Ballet and Ultravox. He founded Chrysalis Records with Terry Ellis in 1968, and sold part of it in 2003 for £50million. Now 73, he is relaunching a TV production company under the Chrysalis banner, and plans to re-enter the music business. How did you start out? At university in Manchester in 1962. I was working for a rock group agency. I’d drive bands up and down the country. I was paid £5 a week. The average was £10 but I was young and inexperienced, so I was paid less. How did you raise the funds to start Chrysalis Records? We started a booking agency. We booked bands to play on campus. They would get paid by the universities. We would hold the money before giving it to the agency. By 1970, I was managing Ten Years After, and they were invited to play in the US. To raise money for the airfares, I sold the rights to publishing their songs. But my business partner spent the funds making a record with Jethro Tull, a group we had signed. My relief came in an unlikely, and painful, form: appendicitis. I had to have emergency surgery in San Francisco. I used the insurance money for my hospital stay to pay back the travel agency. What mistakes have you made financially? Tonnes over the years. Thinking back to the early days, I was a little naive about working in the US. They don’t take kindly to foreigners, at first. The stakes are high, but the rewards are greater, so you take the risk. How did you know you were going to make it? You never really know. You just keep going. When I was young I believed I was invincible. It’s only as I’ve got older that doubts start to creep in. What was the most daunting thing about starting out? We had a very friendly bank manager who was terrified he would get fired by taking us on. We were facing the prospect of spending the rest of our lives paying the bank back if we failed to make money. Did you have to make personal sacrifices? After university, we were living hand-to-mouth. Sometimes, we didn’t have enough money to eat. I didn’t take a holiday for six or seven years after starting Chrysalis. But then, holidays aren’t something you think about when you’re doing something you love. Has it been about making a lot of money? Never. I’ve always been interested in the artists and their creativity, and believed in every artist I’ve signed. I don’t feel starstruck with the artists because I always signed them before they became famous. The health and happiness of my family is what makes me worried, but not money. What was your first extravagant purchase? A Bentley 51 Continental in 1969. How did it feel to sell for £50million? When we sold Chrysalis Records in 1991 I didn’t sleep for six months. We sold it because we were facing financial problems. I felt like I had cut off one of my legs. We’d made a huge sale, but I felt miserable. Anything you would do differently? I would have worked harder. I was never one of those people who dedicated my whole life to work. I spent time with friends and family; I would watch football. I might have been more successful if I was totally dedicated, but I chose instead to have a more balanced and happier life. Spender or saver? I’ve always been a spender when I’ve had money, and I was lucky enough to be successful, so I’ve almost always had money. Things are different now. Now I’m not earning, I’m much more conscious of saving. I have to think about having something to leave behind for my children. What would you buy if money was no object? A private jet would be the ultimate luxury. But I don’t feel I need anything now. As you get older your instinct is to downsize… maybe I wouldn’t want the jet. It would need an awful lot of maintenance.
|
|
|
Post by maddogfagin on Oct 18, 2020 10:29:48 GMT
www.theguardian.com/Talking Horses Horse racing Talking Horses: Champions Day tips, plus Wright on music-racing parallelsRacehorse owner and founder of Chrysalis Records has high hopes for Wonderful Tonight on Champions Day Greg Wood and Chris Cook Sat 17 Oct 2020 00.16 BST More than half a century after he founded Chrysalis Records and almost 40 years after he bought his first racehorse, Chris Wright can see at least one parallel between the music industry and the sport of kings. “There is one thing which is incredibly similar,” he said on Friday, “and it’s why I think racing is a reasonably natural fit for someone like me. In the music business, you go out of your way to sign artists you think have got the talent and ability to make it, and some of them are expensive to sign and some are not so expensive. You might see a group in a pub that no one else has seen, and you might sign them for less money. “But whoever you sign, the reality is that some will make it and an awful lot won’t make it. And I think that eases the pain when you buy a yearling and it’s clearly turning out to be not very good. It keeps you going because you also know that you might have bought one or signed an artist for not much money that might turn out to be a superstar.” Unearthing talent has been the story of Wright’s life ever since he signed Jethro Tull to the newly-formed Chrysalis Records in the late 1960s. Blondie, Spandau Ballet, Ultravox, Sinead O’Connor, Fun Lovin’ Criminals and the Specials are just a handful of the bands and performers who have been attached to Chrysalis over the decades since, while Wright’s business interests have also extended into television and radio, with hit series including Midsomer Murders and Doc Martin. link
|
|