Pick a random page in Paul Charles’ new memoir, Adventures in Wonderland, and an eye-popping anecdote tumbles out. There was the time the music agent lost his backstage pass at Reading Festival and was rescued by a helpful Phil Collins, who ushered him past security. Or the occasion he arranged for Dexys Midnight Runners to open for David Bowie in Paris – only for Dexys’ frontman, Kevin Rowland, to insult Bowie in English and French. (excerpt from The Irish Times)
“Just because we’re here today doesn’t mean we’re fans of David Bowie,” Rowland informed 65,000 fans of David Bowie gathered at the Hippodrome d’Auteuil, on the edge of Paris, in June 1983. He then compared Bowie “rather unfavourably to Bryan Ferry”, Charles writes. Quicker than you could say too-ra-loo-rye-ay, Team Bowie was yelling blue murder. “The promoter, along with Bowie’s very together PA, Coco, and Bowie’s head of security tracked me down and started screaming at me,” Charles recount.
It was rock’n’roll suicide. Fearing a riot, Charles agreed to cut short their set. But only after the promoter guaranteed the band would be paid in full. Did the Thin White Duke hold Rowland’s insult against him? Apparently not. “I met David Bowie,” Charles continues. “I found him totally charming.”
Adventures in Wonderland, tells the story of how Charles became a heavyweight of London music: booker for Van Morrison, manager of Tanita Tikaram, and friend and confidant of Rory Gallagher, Joan Baez, The Kinks, Alison Krauss and Christy Moore, among others.
Among those he turned down were The Rolling Stones after it was suggested he arrange a concert for the band in Dublin in the early 1980s. One of the initial proposals was a show at Dalymount Park, where the venue’s representative was named George Harrison. “Asgard by arrangement with George Harrison presents The Rolling Stones – can you imagine Mick, Charlie, Keith and the boys arriving and seeing that banner?”
The next suggestion was Slane Castle. “Did Lord Mountcharles want to rent out his castle for a rock’n’roll show? Yes [he] was up for it with bells on.”
There were stumbling blocks, however. The Stones wanted to play on a Sunday, and Charles was reluctant to inconvenience locals on their way to Mass. The band also insisted on the same ticket price for Ireland as for the rest of the tour – which Charles felt was too high. And they pushed for just one support, The J Geils Band.
“Years later the Stones wanted to do (Ireland). They wanted me to compromise. And I didn’t want to compromise. And I didn’t because the Stones didn’t mean anything to me. There were a couple of great songs they did – you can’t deny that. They weren’t ‘my band’. If they were, maybe I would have gone that extra mile. But I wasn’t comfortable with it.”
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