OK - the first couple of posts are going to be long - I'm bringing over all that's been posted over on ggates so far ...
We’ll kick off with an odd little snippet from The Telegraph in a pre-Pop Idol article about media mogul, Didier Belens:
Despite his relative modesty, Belens shares many of his rivals' characteristics. He can make a career here and smash one there. He has just axed Popstars, the show that manufactured the group Hear'Say and was sold by RTL to ITV. "We think it will be better to focus on one person. The new show is going to be called Pop Idols. We have already recruited Simon Fuller, who used to manage the Spice Girls, to help work on it."
:confused:
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Anyway – on to the articles – I’ve pulled them together in chronological order starting with the oldest first. Unfortunately, I seem to be having some problems with a couple of the sites I usually visit – so it’s just The Telegraph and the BBC at the moment, I’m afraid, but I’ll add others as I find them.
From The Telegraph
Spice Girls' creator looks for another Glenn Miller
By Oliver Poole
(Filed: 22/04/2001)
THE pop music impresario who launched the Spice Girls is recruiting musicians for a "big band" in the style of Glenn Miller in the hope of taking the sound of 1940s swing to the top of the charts again.
Simon Fuller is hoping to repeat his success at manufacturing pop sensations by reviving the era of the dance hall and the jitterbug. He has teamed up for the project with Nigel Lythgoe, the man behind ITV's Popstars series.
The pair have proven track records in creating artificial pop groups with tailor-made mass teenage appeal. While the Spice Girls have been one of the most commercially successful pop acts ever, Hear'Say, the group created during the Popstars series, reached number one in the charts with the fastest-selling debut single of all time. Mr Fuller and Mr Lythgoe are hoping to pool their talents to create a market for the old-fashioned big band.
Mr Fuller, 38, is combing Britain and America for singers with the right look for the band, which will be launched next year but has yet to be named. It will be backed by an estimated budget of £6 million, and will appear in its own television series.
The decision to promote big band music is a new direction for Mr Fuller, who has also managed the Eurythmics. He believes that teenagers are bored with dancing by themselves to disco and rave music and are ready to take the floor arm in arm with partners again. The popularity of Latin American dances such as the salsa and tango convinced him. Typical big bands include up to 20 musicians, with a large brass section.
Mr Fuller set up a company called 19TV as a launch pad for his future projects, poaching Mr Lythgoe last month to run the business. The big band will be one of the firm's first ventures. It is not the first time Mr Fuller has launched one of his pop groups with its own television show. His chart-topping band S Club 7 had its record releases accompanied by a 13-episode BBC1 series.
Max Beesley, the actor and percussionist who appeared in the BBC's version of Tom Jones, has been approached to join the new big band group. However, his inclusion could anger his girlfriend, Melanie Brown, the Spice Girl known as Mel B, who no longer talks to her former manager. The group sacked him in 1998 when they decided to take control of their own careers.
A spokesman for Mr Fuller said that it was unlikely any music would be heard from the band before the start of next year.
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From The Telegraph
Back on the big band bandwagon
Filed: 04/04/2002)
As TV's Pop Idols hit the road, the surprise winner is a style of music that dates back to the Fifties, says Caspar Llewellyn Smith
EIGHT thousand fans at the Scottish Exhibition Centre have spent the interval recovering from the excitement of seeing their Pop Idols made flesh and refuelling at the pick'n'mix counter with bags of sweets and pints of Irn-Bru. By the start of the second half they are so pumped up on E numbers that they instantly start shrieking and moaning when a chap emerges from behind the safety curtain playing an instrument they won't recognise as an upright double bass. And shriek and moan they continue to do throughout the rest of this Pop Idol Live show, no doubt to the quiet satisfaction of the shadowy figure behind this concept and phenomenon.
Record-breakers: 'we're going to bring the big band feel back, but make it more contemporary, more poppy'
This could have been the point at which the Pop Idol bubble burst. The Thames TV series was a huge ratings hit and the spin-off book and videos have sold impressively. Winner Will Young and runner-up Gareth Gates have enjoyed record-breaking number one singles. And this sell-out arena tour featuring the 10 finalists has been continually expanded (the 21st and final date is this Saturday at the London Arena, in aid of the Prince's Trust). But the second half of the live show, as well as the inevitable group album (released on Monday), feature the last kind of music you would expect children raised on the fizzy delights of modern pop to appreciate: big band music.
Yet listen to the familiar ritual of hysteria when Rosie Ribbons takes the stage in Glasgow to sing Cheek to Cheek with the 19-piece Big Blue band behind her; when local boy Darius Danesh essays a number right up his street, Let There Be Love; when, surreally, Gareth snaps his way through Weill and Brecht's Mack the Knife; when Will breezes through Charles Trenet's Beyond the Sea.
"That music has supposedly been really unfashionable for such a long time," says 28-year-old Ben Castle, son of the late Roy Castle and leader of the Big Blue. "So for Will Young to say, 'The next song was made famous by Bobby Darin', and for the crowd to erupt The first night, we were all looking at each other thinking, this can't be happening!"
It wouldn't have come as a surprise to one man. While Nicki Chapman, who hosts the live show, and her fellow television judges Simon Cowell, Pete Waterman and Neil Fox are the public face of Pop Idol, the man really pulling the strings is former Spice Girls manager and S Club 7 creator Simon Fuller, a pop svengali in the mould of Larry Parnes, who managed Britain's first pop idols.
It was the 40-year-old Fuller who, three years ago, before dreaming up Pop Idol, thought that big band music might make a comeback, and his management company, 19, started scouring the country for a suitable group of musicians.
By the time Pop Idol was on air, Fuller had found the Big Blue, and a show on which he featured them beat every previous episode in the ratings. He knew then that they were going places.
According to Chapman, Fuller has "always had a great love of big band music - an encyclopaedic knowledge of it - and he felt he wanted to get back to basics".
"He's always been a fan," says Castle, "and he thought big band music would come back because you'd had the Eighties revival, the Seventies, the Sixties" So why not the Fifties?
It seems to have been pure coincidence that the same idea occurred to Robbie Williams and his record company at about the same time, but rather than bemoan the success of Swing When You're Winning, Fuller took encouragement from the fact that Williams's album of big band music sold equally strongly to every age group. There is an element of kitsch appeal to the idea of a new big band record for older listeners, but even pre-teens seem to appreciate the fact that, as Chapman says, "quality music will always come through".
The big band format also provides a perfect showcase for the 10 pop idols' talents. It is easy to be cynical about the process by which the finalists were discovered or sickened by the inevitability of their success, but there is no denying their ability when you see them singing live with a 19-piece group.
Ben Castle also expresses the view that the sight of real people playing real instruments might encourage an audience weaned on teeny pop to pick up a sax or a trumpet. "When my dad was on Record Breakers," he says, "he played a little bit of jazz at the end of the programme, and some of the people in the Big Blue have told me they were turned on to music just by that. I'm hoping that this will have the same effect on kids wanting to learn music."
Rather neatly, Roy Castle himself made a couple of big band albums in the late Fifties and secured a deal through Frank Sinatra to make a record with Reprise. "But," Ben says, "just at the time he was becoming popular in America, Elvis Presley came out, and all of a sudden it was really unfashionable to be into big bands. He always felt really hard done by, so it's nice to be doing this now."
The interesting point is that Roy Castle's rather staid contemporaries in the late Fifties provoked the same reaction from teenage fans as the rock and rollers who followed them. Singers such as Johnny Ray and, from this country, Dickie Valentine and David Whitfield sent the girls wild.
'Usually, they are 'unescorted'," a Picture Post reporter wrote of these native bobby-soxers in 1954, "sitting hunched forward, half-open mouths emitting a strange, continuous symphony of sound. When the song is ended, the arms go into action, flapping and tearing the air. Hands are whipped together. And above the shrieks and the moans, and the sighs, you hear the frenzied appeals: 'Oh Frankie!'; 'Oh Dickie!'; 'Oh-!' "
It was really the start of the pop era and for those names, now substitute Will and Gareth and Zoe Birkett. She is the youngest of the Pop Idol finalists at 16, and, by pleasing circumstance, she is the one chosen to take the big band concept forward once the Pop Idol juggernaut stops rolling (though, inevitably, another series is scheduled for next year). There are plans to release her version of Get Happy! from the album with the Big Blue as a single, and then for her to work with the band on a new record.
"We're not just going to do all old music," she says. "We're going to bring the big band feel back, but make it more contemporary, more poppy."
It's hard to imagine that 50 years since the publication of the first pop chart, big band music really is the future. But, if Simon Fuller has his way - and to date, he has - we'll all soon be swinging again.
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Interesting article from the BBC shows just how diverse his business interests are:
19 Entertainment teams up with BBC Worldwide for educational venture
28.08.02
Pop Goes English featuring S Club
Children all over the world are to be encouraged to learn English through the formation of a very unusual partnership:
BBC Worldwide, one of the world’s leading English language teaching companies, and 19 Entertainment, whose pop act credentials to date have included S Club, Pop Idol stars Gareth Gates and Will Young, and the Spice Girls, have announced an exciting new joint venture, Pop Goes English, that promises to revolutionise the international English language teaching market.
19 Entertainment is the UK’s No.1 music and TV company and is renowned for its global innovation and cross platform entertainment properties.
Drawing on a universal fascination with the world of showbiz and pop music to teach English was originally the brainchild of 19’s Simon Fuller. The dynamic partnership will create a series of TV programmes and other learning materials to encourage millions of children around the world to learn to speak English. The first 19 Entertainment band to feature in Pop Goes English will be chart-topping S Club, one of the best-known pop bands on the planet. Music from new bands and artists will follow as the Pop Goes English format develops.
BBC Worldwide is a leading innovator in the English language teaching market, with its football-themed Goal TV programme and learning materials, launched to coincide with the 2002 World Cup, proving a huge international success. For Pop Goes English, BBC Worldwide will develop a series of multi-media materials using the S Club brand, including mini TV programmes, videos, books and CD-ROMs, all featuring an engaging combination of lyrics, dance steps and karaoke graphics to make learning English simple and fun for children aged seven to 11.
Young local music artists will host Pop Goes English, acting as interpreter and teacher alongside live S Club performances and songs, including international hits, ‘Bring it all Back’ and ‘Reach’. The first development is already underway in China and Taiwan, with national pop artist e-Vonne, provided by Universal Music, Taiwan. Further developments of the concept with new and existing BBC Worldwide broadcasting and publishing partners around the world are anticipated shortly.
Rupert Gavin, Chief Executive, BBC Worldwide, commenting on the joint venture with 19 Entertainment, said: “Pop music is a major motivational trigger for children around the globe to learn English. Our collaboration with 19 Entertainment, with its unrivalled reputation for discovering and developing new entertainment talent, will result in a ground-breaking realisation of the full potential of pop music as an English learning tool.”
Simon Fuller commented: “There is nothing so universally appealing and motivating to young people as pop music. At 19 Entertainment, we have always been aware of the potential of pop music for learning purposes and we are delighted that this new educational focus will now be added to the global success of the S Club brand. This project continues 19’s incredibly successful partnership with BBC Worldwide, which has led to S Club programming being broadcast in over 100 countries around the world.”
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From The Telegraph
The star-maker
(Filed: 28/09/2002)
With Pop Idol and American Idol and his plans for a 'virtual' superstar, Simon Fuller will change the face of modern entertainment. Caspar Llewellyn Smith meets the elusive impresario in Las Vegas
There couldn't be a better place to celebrate the success of American Idol than Las Vegas, the spiritual home of ersatz entertainment, the city where everyone thinks they'll go home a winner. It also feels right that Simon Fuller, the enigmatic Englishman behind the Spice Girls, S Club 7, Pop Idol, and now the American version of that concept, should base himself at the farthest extremity of the Strip, at the Four Seasons. This is the only hotel in town where the lobby isn't filled with slot machines and bovine herds of pleasure seekers. From his penthouse suite, the 41-year-old entrepreneur and star-maker has an unrivalled view of these neon-lit temples to Mammon but this is a place of relative calm, a place to hatch plans.
Chart-toppers: Simon Fuller's roster include Pop Idol winner Will Young, Geri Halliwell and the Sprice Girls, and Pop Idol runner-up Gareth Gates.
Pop Idol proved a dizzying triumph in Britain. A record 8.7 million phone votes were received on the night of the final in February and the show launched two million-selling stars in Will Young and Gareth Gates, both managed by Fuller. Their new joint single, a cover of the Beatles' The Long and Winding Road, is certain to enter the charts at number one tomorrow. But when Fuller first took the concept to America, the response he met was lukewarm.
"America doesn't understand pop music at the moment," he tells me. "The last time it really did was when the Spice Girls were number one. It's because people in the industry are musical snobs: it's all about being cool. That's always baffled me. Because pop music is popular music."
American Idol has been the surprise TV hit of the summer, with more than 40 million people watching some part of the series final last month (in its last half hour, almost half the female teenage viewers in the country were tuned in). It will net Rupert Murdoch's ailing Fox network £200 million. RCA records are also celebrating, because they have released winner Kelly Clarkson's debut single, which itself is now shooting to the top of Billboard Hot 100.
But Fuller is the real winner because, as ever, he has a finger in both pies. As manager of the Spice Girls, he broke new ground by turning the band into a brand (striking sponsorship and advertising deals with Pepsi, Walker's, Impulse, Asda, Polaroid, Cadbury's, Unilever, Sony and Chupa Chupa sweets). With S Club 7 - and now the diffusion range, S Club Juniors - he has developed that operating principle, selling the idea of a TV series based around a group of singing kids around the world. The actual music is almost an incidental part of the cash equation.
Pop Idol is even more lucrative because Fuller shares control of the TV show and the careers of the winners (he has an option on managing all the finalists). Plus there's the money to be made from the merchandising and further exploitation of the brand. In the new year, Kelly Clarkson and her fellow finalist Justin Guarini start shooting a Hollywood movie together.
It's not surprising that a Real Rock fan - the musical equivalent of a member of CAMRA - should therefore look at Fuller as if he's got two stumpy horns growing out of his head. It probably hasn't helped his image that he does keep journalists at arm's length.
But the Fuller I first meet at the Bel Air mansion he is renting in Los Angeles for the foreseeable future (American Idol 2 hits US screens in early 2003) is charm itself. And he has surrounded himself not with the neighbours (Liz Taylor, Harrison Ford) or pop wannabes, but with friends and family from England. As he shows me around, we interrupt his older brother, Kim, a comedy scriptwriter, story-boarding the American Idol movie. OK, he has brought his cook from France with him, and there's idle conversation about how he has 10 cars but never the time to drive them. But the man I meet is genial, attentive and prone to fits of childish enthusiasm which remind you that he is the grandson of a music-hall comic and acrobat. He raves, for instance, about his idea of creating the "Mahatma Gandhi of pop".
Two nights later, the recording of Fox TV's American Idol Special takes place in a 5,000-seat arena in the bowels of the MGM Grand, the largest hotel in the world, in Las Vegas. The judges on the US series were former pop star Paula Abdul, producer Randy Jackson and the British nation's favourite, Simon Cowell. He isn't here tonight but there are boos when this dastardly English villain speaks in a pre-recorded video clips and alongside the pre-teen kids in the crowd waving "Justin is a hottie" placards, five middle-aged black fans have brought in a "S-I-M-O-N" banner.
The other Simon sits unrecognised throughout the arm-waving, in careful contemplation.
At school, Fuller ran the music club and managed a class-mate's band. Instead of going to university, he started running local discos, before graduating to pop management. His first client was synthesizer whizz Paul Hardcastle, who had a catchy hit about the Vietnam war in 1985, from which Fuller took the name of his company, 19. He has always planned his campaigns like a military operation. "I consciously, methodically did my homework for weeks," he once said of his launch of the Spice Girls, with whom he sold 21 million records before Ginger et al foolishly sacked him.
Five years on, he is more successful than ever. Next year, as well as American Idol 2, he will have at least two new shows on American TV: Supergirl (though the title may change), which involves the search for a multi-talented American teen; and The Monkees, which will see him revive the 1960s series with a bunch of new kids.
Fox will grab the new American Idol series and movie, but two of the other American networks, NBC and ABC, have picked up those other formats. That's typical of the way Fuller works. At 19 he employs a staggeringly slim staff of 80, and says that if that number reaches 100, he will tear up the business plan and start again. That means he can make decisions more quickly than the global media conglomerates that end up helping realise his dreams.
In other words - and to the horror of his rivals and surprise of his critics - Fuller does this for fun. He spends part of the party after the MGM show chatting up the families of the talent, and charming the young singers themselves. He will be managing Kelly Clarkson, an all-American girl (former cocktail waitress from a broken home in small-town Texas with a voice the size of the state) and is talking here to some of the others.
But he is also knocking back the fizz and gossiping. In Bel Air he had talked about how far he could take the Pop Idol format and outlined his plans for creating The Greatest Show on Earth (that title may change) in which winners of national competitions will compete against each other to become the world's pop idol. Now he explains the lure of the challenge: with sky-rocketing marketing costs and the drift of geo-politics, it will become increasingly difficult for pop stars to cross into different national market-places. But with this scheme, he could create his mini-skirted Mahatma.
If all else fails, he will develop his plan to create a "virtual" star, some kind of extra-terrestrial creation. He says this with a laugh, but I'm sure he is deadly serious. Certainly the idea of an artist who can work in any medium appeals, he says, because "I'm not interested in niche entertainment. I revere and respect it - but I want to reach as many people as I can with what I do."
The irony of Fuller's position at the heart of modern entertainment is that he's not personally interested in celebrity. "There's no upside to fame that I can think of," he says. "If I have a girlfriend, I want her to be my girlfriend. I don't want the rest of the world to know if we've gone to the shops." But you live in a world where people are desperate for fame, I tell him. "And it's so weird!" he replies. "In the modern world, celebrity is even afforded to business people, executives. To Simon Cowell - for chrissakes!"
In fact, he's successful because unlike lesser operators in the industry, he's really resolutely ordinary. He understands popular tastes better than anyone. But he has the vision and the gambling instincts to see his dreams through.
Thanks to American Idol, Simon Fuller is currently worth about £200 million, but when he arrived in Vegas he still put a dollar bill in the first slot machine he saw. It paid out out two hundred bucks.
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From the BBC
Simon Fuller: Guiding pop culture
18th June 2003
Simon Fuller with the first American Idol winner, Kelly Clarkson
Performers managed by pop svengali Simon Fuller have claimed the top three spots in the United States charts. BBC News Online looks at his career.
When music fans look back on the charts of the last 10 years, they will see the unmistakable handprint of one man - Simon Fuller.
Described by some as the man with the Midas touch and by others as an evil genius, the pop impresario has swept the globe with his creations from the Spice Girls to Pop Idol.
Estimated to be worth £90m ($150m) and rising, there is no disputing that he has his finger on the pulse of youth culture, and knows how to exploit it.
He began his career at record company Chrysalis, climbing through the ranks to become an A&R scout, finding new talent.
SIMON FULLER'S UK AND US TRACK RECORD
Number one singles - 96
Top 40 singles - 358
Number one albums - 79
Top 40 albums - 224
Source: 19
When he discovered Paul Hardcastle in the mid-1980s, he set out on his own and propelled Hardcastle to number one with his Vietnam war song, 19. Fuller named his company 19 to mark the success.
His next discovery was singer-songwriter Cathy Dennis, who was guided to a string of global hits in the early 1990s.
He still manages Dennis, who has moved behind the scenes to write songs like Can't Get You Out Of My Head for Kylie Minogue.
Spice success
Fuller also took former Eurythmics singer Annie Lennox onto his books, helping her revive her career to become the UK's favourite solo female.
He became known to music fans for managing the Spice Girls
He still manages her too, and her latest album, Bare, has gone into the top five in the US and UK without any single releases.
But he first hit the headlines himself with the Spice Girls, whose carefully constructed brand of bubblegum pop swept through the global charts like a whirlwind in the late-1990s.
He did not bring them together, but took over their reins at the start of 1996, months before they hit the big time.
"On the first day I sat down with the girls, before we had a deal, and it was agreed that we would go for it on a worldwide basis," he said.
Fuller embarked on a strategic campaign to create excitement among record companies and the media, enticing them with their slick pop and energetic, appealing personas.
By July 1996, their debut single, Wannabe, had gone to number one in the UK and went on to do the same in 36 other countries.
S Club 7 were one of the UK's most successful pop groups
Fuller's plan was so successful that there were few places in the world where the Spice Girls name was not known.
But they grew unhappy with his style and sacked him less than 18 months after finding success.
Fuller stumbled with his first attempt at a comeback, launching another group, 21st Century Girls - "a female Slade for the millennium" - who soon sank.
S Club hits
But success was not far away, launching S Club 7, a young men and women who went on to have 11 UK top five hit singles.
Their success spanned music, TV and movies, with the success of each strand propelling the others.
When S Club (they dropped the 7 after one member left) split earlier this year, Fuller already had a ready-made replacement to pick up the mantle, the younger S Club Juniors.
Ruben Studdard (right) beat Clay Aiken to win American Idol 2
"My business is creating fame and celebrity, and I'm one of the best in the world. I know it to the finest detail," he said recently.
It is his TV venture Pop Idol that has doubled his fortune in the last 12 months.
The programme - sold to the US as American Idol - has helped redefine the TV talent show, making viewers a vital part of the process by asking them to vote, and bringing the glamour of the pop world to screens.
The top artists, such as Will Young and Gareth Gates in the UK, and Kelly Clarkson, Clay Aiken and Ruben Studdard in the US, were then taken under Fuller's wing.
Singles that were rushed out to capitalise on the hype broke sales records.
Future projects
For those wary of Fuller's hold over popular culture, there is much more on its way.
Second Chance Idol is expected to give former stars the Pop Idol treatment, while American Juniors - a TV show to create a US version of S Club Juniors - has just launched.
There have been rumours of a UK prime time quiz show where one million viewers could compete on the phone at the same time, and a new version of The Monkees is in the pipeline.
He has talked about reinventing the beauty pageant with a show called All American Girl, and even rolling Pop Idol out to China.
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From Yahoo
Simon Fuller outshines Epstein!
18th June 2003
Pop mastermind Simon Fuller has become the most successful British pop manager since Brian Epstein.
The reclusive genius who gave the world the S Club franchise, the Spice Girls and Pop Idol (to name just a few) will today cement his position as the most successful British manager when it's announced that three of his acts - Clay Aiken, Reuben Studdard and the American Idol Final 10 - have snagged the top three chart positions on the US single sales charts.
If that wasn't enough, over on the album countdown, he has three entries, including Annie Lennox's new album, Bare, which is sitting comfortably in the Top Ten.
This year alone, Fuller's charges have sold well over 10 million records worldwide and his acts are currently dominating the three biggest music territories in the world -- the UK, USA and Germany.
Back home, the man can do no wrong either. This week, Annie Lennox and S Club's Greatest Hits are sitting in the UK's Top Ten, while his other stars Will Young, Sarah Whatmore and Gareth Gates are currently prepping their new albums.
Meanwhile, on June 30th, Fuller's S Club 8 (formerly the Juniors) release their new single Fool No More, which is set to see them continue where their predecessors left off. Last year, their debut single One Step Closer outsold most of pop's biggest stars including Oasis!
Fuller is also involved in TV production, responsible for Pop Idol, American Idol, American Juniors, the S Club series and also has his hands in film (Seeing Double, SpiceWorld and the newie From Justin To Kelly).
Despite all his success, Fuller appears to be an incredibly humble man and admits he just wants to "empower people" and make "their dreams come true!"
"I'm just like a child," he told The Guardian recently. "I get so enthused, and if people get empowered, they have to take responsibility for it. I agree, short-termism is killing the industry. If it were up to me, I'd rather create things that last long-term, but my thrill comes from reflecting what's going on now."
Speaking about the worldwide success his artists have been enjoying recently, he said: "I'm grateful that my artists and projects are succeeding globally in such a phenomenal way. I'm particularly thrilled by the success that Annie Lennox is achieving with her new album, Bare."
If you still can't get your head around just how successful Simon Fuller actually is, here's a breakdown of just how many hits he's achieved in the UK and US since 19 Entertainment began in 1985:
96 No. 1 singles
358 Top 40 singles
79 No. 1 albums
224 Top 40 albums
Not bad, eh?
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From The Telegraph
Pop Idol's 'insatiable' impresario craves cash
By Damian Reece (Filed: 22/06/2003)
Simon Fuller, the driving force behind the hit show, tells Damian Reece he is looking for an investor
For sale: a stake in Britain's most successful music company with a proven track record of manufacturing hits. Only investors with deep pockets, truly global ambitions and a desire to worship at the altar of Simon Fuller need apply.
So bidders should start forming an orderly queue outside the London offices of 19 Entertainment, the music and media group owned by Fuller, the pop music impresario behind the Spice Girls, S Club 7 and, most successfully, the Pop Idol television show.
He has picked a good moment to sell. Last week, he became the first British music magnate since the Beatle's manager, Brian Epstein, in 1964 to control acts holding the top three slots in the US singles chart.
Now, in the first interview he has given on his business affairs, Fuller has disclosed to The Sunday Telegraph that he wants to dispose of a substantial holding in his business to fund the next stage of expansion plans.
"As my ambitions grow they become limited by the size of the company," he says. "I don't want to float the company on the stock market because it wouldn't allow me the freedom I need. But other options are certainly in my mind."
Those expensive ambitions include the next Pop Idol format, which will be "World Idol", a global pop music contest between the winners from 20 odd countries which have bought the Pop Idol format for their national TV markets.
"When you keep achieving your goals, you are insatiable. It's very exciting," says Fuller, a former Hastings art school student who, as well as dominating the US singles market, also has three acts with albums in the stateside top 20.
So how much will the hopeful bidders for a stake in 19 have to cough up? Fuller values the company at £200m and the size of the stake he eventually sells will depend on the partner he chooses.
He mused last week that he may dispose of as much as 75 per cent. "It's not simply about money," he says. "It's a much bigger game to play. This is not about me becoming a big corporate, that wouldn't work. If anyone bought it [the company] they would have to let me get on with what I do."
Fuller's company is behind a string of successful acts including Kelly Clarkson, winner of the first American Idol, whose single, Miss Independent, is currently America's most played record.
His company does everything from discovering artists and managing them to writing songs and arranging TV and merchandising spin-offs.
The relationship with his stars is - famously - not always cuddly. He took the Spice Girls from zero album sales to 42m in 18 months but the band fired him anyway (although not before Fuller had netted about £30m from the band.) Meanwhile, S Club 7 recently walked out of a BBC interview after being asked how much they had earned from their four years with him compared to Fuller.
But if Fuller has made millions from previous acts, Pop Idol, which spawned Gareth Gates and Will Young in Britain, is by far the biggest money spinner he has dreamt up so far. The programme starts a second run this August, while the US version is in its third series. It has generated $500m of advertising revenue for Fox, the American TV company that bought the US rights.
At a time when most big record companies are complaining about falling sales, the results of the Pop Idol formula are impressive. What's the secret?
"The idea behind Pop Idol was to create a way of finding new talent and launching them through television. I thought that if I could create a show that makes new stars by the public choosing them, then it would become a self-fulfilling prophecy. If they choose them they are going to buy them."
And what can any new investor in 19 Entertainment expect from him? "I can turn my hand to anything. It is about being diversified. Pop Idol and American Idol are doing very well but my head is way ahead of that. I'm interested in what's going to be happening in five years' time."
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From the BBC – 15th July 2003
Fuller is 'music industry leader'
Fuller's acts are among the world's best selling pop artists
Pop Idol creator Simon Fuller has been named the most influential person in the UK music business in a top 50 chart of the industry's key decision-makers.
Fuller's Popstars colleague Simon Cowell also features high on the list published by industry magazine Music Week.
The top ten is made up largely of chief executives and managing directors of music labels, as well as the entertainment manager for the Asda supermarket chain.
Broadcaster Jonathan Ross (38) and Daily Mirror gossip columnists the 3am Girls (50) were more familiar names in the top 50.
U2 singer Bono was the only artist to appear in the list, at number 11. He was included largely for his humanitarian efforts, which include a campaign to try and end Third World debt, rather than his band's music.
Simon Cowell, who become a household name as a Pop Idol judge after a career as an A&R man was at number six in the list.
The Beatles held the top three in the US nearly 40 years ago
Fuller, who runs the management company 19 Group, was the man behind enormously successful pop acts such as the Spice Girls and S Club 7 before creating Pop Idol.
The ITV1 pop talent show, first aired in 2001, has created three pop stars, Will Young, Gareth Gates and Darius Danesh.
Fuller recently became the first British music manager since The Beatles' Brian Epstein to hold the top three positions in the US singles chart.
The man who steered the Spice Girls and S Club 7 to success was in charge of best-selling artists Clay Aiken and Ruben Studdard, together with the American Idol 2 Final 10.
The Beatles, managed by Epstein, held the top five spots in 1964.
Since Fuller's 19 Entertainment firm began in 1985, he has had 96 number one singles and 79 top-placed albums in both the US and UK.
He has managed the artists behind 358 top 40 singles and 224 top 40 albums in the two of the world's biggest music markets.
He is reputed to be worth as much as £90m, according to a recent Sunday Times Rich List.
Music Week, the UK music industry's trade magazine, compiled the list with the help of several music industry figures.
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From here
'American Idol' Dances With 'American Bandstand'
19 Entertainment and dick clark productions to Bring Classic Program Back to the Dance Floor
LOS ANGELES, May 24 /PRNewswire/
In a symbolic passing of the torch from entertainment icons Dick Clark to Simon Fuller, 19 Entertainment has joined forces with dick clark productions to relaunch "American Bandstand," the longest running network television show in history.
"American Bandstand" will be executive produced by 19 president Simon Fuller, Dick Clark and Allen Shapiro, the architect of the deal and president of Mosaic Media Group, which is the controlling shareholder in dick clark productions. A nationwide search for a host will immediately begin for the new "Bandstand" competition, which aims to debut in Summer 2005.
"'American Idol” is one of the very few music formats to have been successful on network television in the U.S. for many years. 'American Bandstand' was the first and longest running," stated Fuller. "Dick Clark is the father of American music television, and the prospect of the two of us working together to bring 'American Bandstand' back to all its former glory, whilst giving it a 21st century twist, is very exciting indeed."
"The 'American Bandstand' brand is one of the strongest in the history of television and remains, in the hearts of millions, the quintessential American show," said Shapiro. "We are thrilled to be working with Simon Fuller, who has his finger on the pulse of music television. His success with 'American Idol' and the vision he brings to television programming is a perfect fit to work with Dick Clark to continue the Bandstand legend."
Commenting on the new "American Bandstand," Dick Clark offered, "Bringing back an American tradition like 'Bandstand' has always been a dream of mine, and I can't think of a better person to partner with than Simon Fuller, whose foresight in trend-setting television shows and music will surely bring the show new luster and then some."
"American Bandstand," which ran on ABC-TV for an unprecedented thirty years (1957-1987), allowed musical artists to perform live or live-to-track, which inspired the writhing of a stage full of young male and female dancers. With a format that was often imitated, its impact on fashion and establishing trends was unmatched. The prominence of "American Bandstand" as a social and cultural phenomena was profound in other ways as well, its name and image finding their way into popular song lyrics, television shows, board games and record collections.
Simon Fuller is represented by CAA.
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About 19 Entertainment / Simon Fuller
Simon Fuller has had a profound influence on global pop culture. At 21, he scored his first hit by signing the then-unknown song "Holiday" - Madonna's first hit to Chrysalis Music in the UK. His career as a manager started in 1985 when he set up "19". He has gone on to become one of the most respected and influential forces within the global entertainment industry. He managed the development of Oscar and Grammy winner Annie Lennox's solo career and he created and managed the Spice Girls, who went on to sell 40 million albums and became a global phenomenon. This was followed by the international television and music success of S Club 7. The group sold over 10 million CDs while their four television series were sold to over 100 countries around the world.
In 2002 Simon Fuller created and launched the incredible global success story that is the Pop Idol television property. All the artists discovered through the show are contracted to 19 Entertainment. This includes Kelly Clarkson, Ruben Studdard, Clay Aiken, Will Young and Gareth Gates to name just a few. The company has built up an unprecedented roster of top music producers, songwriters and artists playing a fundamental role in the creation of hit records for artists including Madonna, U2 Oasis, Celine Dion, Eurythmics, Kylie Minogue, Janet Jackson and Britney Spears.
Today, 19 is recognized as a leading creator, provider and promoter of globally successful, music based entertainment, or "Entertainment Brands". 19 has attracted a unique collection of expertise in people who work together to integrate and leverage activity across television, music film, merchandising, music publishing, recording, artist/writer and producer management, sponsorship and promotion. To date, 19 has been involved in the creation of 101 Number 1 singles and 81 Number 1 albums with an impressive tally of 233 To 40 albums and 389 Top 40 singles.
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From seattlepi.com:
Saturday, May 29, 2004
Contracts for 'Idols' have strings attached
By RODNEY HO - COX NEWS SERVICE
"American Idol" is a monstrous moneymaker -- for creator Simon Fuller, for the judges, for Fox, for virtually anyone who touches it.
Except, perhaps, for the once-unknown singers who become stars.
"Idol" producers 19 Entertainment won't talk about the details of the contracts finalists must sign, and they won't let contestants talk about them either.
But some who've seen them say this much is clear: 19 exercises greater control over the careers of its stars and takes a bigger chunk of their earnings than do typical managers. The new "American Idol," Fantasia Barrino, will have a career that isn't quite her own. Fuller, the man behind 19, can tell her where to appear, what to record, even how to dress.
And according to The Associated Press, he'll take 25 to 50 percent of all her earnings, significantly more than the 15 to 20 percent most managers collect. But then Fuller is no ordinary manager. Ordinary managers function as personal assistants and advisers, taking care of travel and recording arrangements and helping artists make major business decisions. Many also possess important industry connections that can jump-start careers, but they don't have the "Idol" machine at their disposal.
Fuller exacts a heavy price, but he can turn his clients into stars before they even step into the recording studio. He can guarantee them (the winners, anyway) a contract with a major label. He can bring them back to promote their albums in front of 20 million or so viewers.
As Atlanta entertainment attorney Monica Ewing, who hasn't seen the "Idol" contracts but is familiar with some of their details, said, "(Nothing) even comes close to 'American Idol' when it comes to marketing and promotion. The exposure for one of their one-hit wonders far outpaces most seasoned artists out there. In a struggling music industry, they've cracked the code."
And so you don't hear many complaints from the big three -- first season winner Kelly Clarkson, second season winner Ruben Studdard and second season runner-up Clay Aiken -- who among them have sold more than six million albums, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
On the other hand, first season runner-up Justin Guarini has complained bitterly about his treatment by Fuller. 19 and RCA signed and then dropped him after his record sold only 140,000 copies. He has said that the companies forced him to record songs he hated, then abandoned him when the record didn't sell.
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From The Telegraph:
Channel Four to launch radio station with Pop Idol creator
By Guy Dennis (Filed: 30/05/2004)
Channel 4 is set to launch a national radio station as part of a joint venture with the former manager of the Spice Girls, the pop group.
The broadcaster is close to signing an agreement with Simon Fuller, who has a fortune estimated at £220m. Fuller is best known for creating the Pop Idol television series, which has been sold around the world.
Channel 4 and Fuller are planning to turn Popworld, a Sunday morning pop music television show created by Fuller, into a commercial brand that can be exported.
But they are also planning to launch a Popworld radio station in the UK, which would mark Channel 4's first move into the radio industry.
It is understood that the joint venture will also involve a radio company, thought to be UBC Media, the listed group. UBC has stated that it aims to boost the popularity of digital radio using major media brand names.
A deal with Channel 4 and Fuller would tie in with this strategy.
The plan is said to have been masterminded by Rob Woodward, a former investment banker, who heads 4 Ventures, the commercial arm of Channel 4. An initial agreement is expected to be signed within the next two weeks.
Woodward has been credited with helping Channel 4 to almost triple its pre-tax profits last year to £45m after he slashed costs at 4 Ventures.
Channel 4 has since made £90m available to Woodward for investment in commercial ventures, such as the Popworld deal.
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To be continued ...