Fran Ashcroft: Credit Where It’s Due

Fran Ashcroft: Credit Where It’s Due

Warning: the following article contains blatant, gratuitous name dropping. Readers of a nervous disposition, look away now.

It all started with this book about Damon Albarn of Blur/Gorillaz. The biography didn’t paint an accurate picture of Damon’s pre-Blur days, when he was managed by Graeme Holdaway and Marijke Bergkamp at The Beat Factory, my de facto London office for much of the 1980′s. The book glossed over the events as of no real consequence, and implied Damon was some kind of studio intern. Well, he never made me a cup of tea in the two years they looked after him. But he did record an album, and Graeme and Marijke got a solo deal on the table with London Records which he blew, big style. Then I was asked to see if and how the pieces could be picked up thereafter.

Damon, says I, dump the keyboards,listen to the first Plastic Ono Band album and put a simple 3 piece band together. We used to have cosy little chats about once a fortnight and he’d pick my brains about things. But that’s not quite the point. I found myself reading this book and getting really annoyed that neither my colleagues or myself were properly represented, and I’ve been thinking about credits ever since. They are ideal candidates for Spin: -

Yes, I have worked at Abbey Road and Trident, with Damon Albarn, some Dandy Warhols, big labels, small labels both in this country and around the world, some bands you know, and a lot of bands you’ve never heard of. I’ve taken a taxi to Euston Station with Billy J.Kramer, spent an afternoon in the La’s garden shed, stepped over an unconscious Pete Townshend, shared a lift with Lynsey De Paul, had a pastie fight with Eurythmics Dave Stewart, a drink with Glen Matlock of the Sex Pistols, read several books about Bob Dylan, bought one or two albums by Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones, one of my best friends was in The Wombles for a while, and my Auntie Jack lived next door but one to Pete Shotton, childhood friend of John Lennon of The Beatles. Who also worked at Abbey Road and Trident studios.

I’m not making any of that up.

Credits are not always what they appear to be. They can be bent and shaped to fit the message, and don’t always reflect the truth. They don’t say whether you or the artist actually did a good job, and you can’t base that on record sales either. They are often used like fame by association, and bring to mind those embarassing photos of mafioso record execs with gold chains and their arms round the hot artists of the day in the trade magazines. And when you do work with a landmark artists, you can be trapped by your own success. Jack Endino is a skilled producer who did Nirvana’s first album, and has had nothing other than grunge bands knocking on his door for the last twenty years, which is not unlike having to go on stage and sing your one hit every night for the rest of your life.

We all have to use our credits as some measure of our skill, status, and experience. It would be very bad for business not to. But it really doesn’t matter what we did or who we worked with when.

I’m only as good as my last record. Are you?

Fran Ashcroft’s website