Is it just me or are 99% of PR’s nowadays a waste of space and total hindrance when it comes to getting work done?
Back in the day the press officer used to be this convivial chum ,usually based at a record company who would send you piles of albums to get through the lean times,put your name on the door ,organise interviews and make them exceptionally pleasant affairs for everyone involved.
That was their job,wasn’t it?
Nowadays they seem to be tight fisted champion cock blockers who are there to impede any contact with the artists.Half of them haven’t got answers to enquiries because they haven’t got a fucking clue what is going on.Oh,they can ‘say things are different now,there’s less money,and they have to protect their artists from the paps.Absolute bollocks! A good PR is a good PR and can do their job properly in any conditions.Most of them have their pet journalists,magazines,editors and use their position as a power game.
I get 99% of my work without using a PR and therefore get stuff that magazines want because they can’t it anywhere else.And the secret?Well,not wishing to give the whole game away,it’s about finding ways of getting to the artist without inteference.I’m doing an interview tonight through the manager at the venue the band are playing at.Talk to people that are involved hands on with the artists,do a bit of research…….
If a PR says their artist will only talk to you for 15 minutes,nod obligingly and then go in and tear the arse out of the interview until you get thrown out and then as you are leaving give the interviwee your card….
Ofcourse there are some fantastic PR’s about.Not many ,but enough to give you a tiny morsel of faith.I would like to give them a roll of honour but then I would have to spend another hour giving you a list of the craps one.
7 Responses to I’ll get back to you on that……..
Having just waited the best part of two months to ascertain from a certain US PR when I’d be interviewing Senor Carlos Santana – only to in fact find out AFTER ALL THAT TIME that Carlos is cancelling all interviews for the foreseeable future – PRs aren’t my favourite people right now. This guy has kept me dangling for over 7 weeks while I’ve done secondary interviews with former Santana men Gregg Rolie, Michael Shrieve et al. So I’m not exactly the happiest bunny on Planet Rock.
Barney,always a pleasure…
I am sure there are a hundred stories like.My latest one is that I’m supposed to be doing a short interview with Tony Iommi (who I know,in fact I once did the PR for Black Sabbath).Press day is next Tuesday but my patient and virtuous editor said if I got it by Monday and write it up that they would save some space.Told the PR and duly agreed to sort this out.
Called the office today to find out that she had gone on holiday.I explained the situation and they said they would get back to me.Just got a call to say that they would call me on Monday to confirm if Tony would be available for Tuesday.
I just sighed ; “OK”.
PR’s-what are they good for……?
They don’t even hand out truckloads of CD’s anymore.
Peter
As you say, there are still a few good PRs around. I’ve always found the people at Roadrunner, Warners and Universal efficient and friendly, for example, and you can rely on a few independents (Roland Hyams comes to mind) to get the job done. But there are tons of shit ones too. Try getting anything done via a SonyBMG person, for example.
I expect the same is true of editors, publishers, managers, writers and every other member of the food chain in this insane business — some people are good, others terrible…
Joel
You have my sympathies Pete, and this is why in the course of being editor at Omnibus I long ago decided that PRs, especially those at record companies, were not just unnecessary but a bloody nuisance. None of them could ever get their heads around the idea that the books we publish might actually help to sell their act’s records, especially back catalogue stuff, not least because a book might have a shelf life of several years whereas a magazine has a shelf life of a few days or weeks at most.
For the most part they were deeply ignorant when it came to answering even the simplest of questions about their acts. Either that or they simply didn’t want to bother, or they thought that co-operating with a book publisher or author was not part of their remit.
Anyway, I soon learned how to do without them and Omnibus is still here, which proves they’re redundant to my cause anyway.
Of course I could bang on about how things were different in my day on MM and how PRs would jump to attention when we expressed a scintilla of interest of those artists they represented, but I’d sound like a grumpy old man… heaven forbid.
Howdy, fellow grumps–
Having been on both sides of the PR fence, here’s my experience:
Most record company flaks know zilch about their artists. Standard joke: How many publicists does it take to screw in a light bulb? “I’ll have to get back to you on that.”
However, a few people like me listened to everything the artists ever released, read everything about the artists we could get our hands on, went to see them perform as many times as we could, watched rehearsals, sound checks, and recording sessions (if allowed), and if at all possible, wrote their bios and anything else we could, using correct information.
I gave access to writers who were legitimate, not freeloaders. I invited everyone I could to shows and press events. I gave away freebies when I could–heck, sometimes even advance test pressings!
The one and only deadline I had to blow in my entire career was for a story on Queen for a major rock mag, because the PR person didn’t return phone calls. If I hadn’t been on the road with Robert Palmer doing my job, I would’ve made a visit to the PR’s lair and kicked down the door. The next year I met Brian May at a party and ran into Roger Taylor in a hotel elevator. TOO LATE!!
Peter Makowski is 100% right: go in the back door. Artists never hear interview requests from the PR people. Those people think they’re goalies whose job is to keep the media from scoring. Want to get a word with an artist? Talk to roadies, promoters, agents, receptionists, producers, engineers, sidemen/women, backup singers, tekkies, cousins, your other friends in the music business, etc… no connection is too outlandish. Six degrees of separation, you know?
You’d be surprised at the results.
A friend who was a DJ in Philadelphia was supposed to have a few minutes with Peter Gabriel, and got into philosophy, politics, artistic theory, etc.–kept him going for more than an hour.
I got some of my writing to Pete Townshend through an upstairs neighbor in NYC who had a friend in London who worked for him, who just happened to be staying at a NY hotel for a couple of days…and got a nice Post-it note back from PT that I still have.
Thankfully, the internet is gradually making PR people obsolete. No offense to those who are doing their jobs properly, i.e., media placement.
I disagree on one thing, though. If the PR person says the interview is 15 minutes long, sure, go along with the plan until you’re doing the interview. If you know how to hook an artist’s interest, they’ll keep talking and tell the PR person it’s okay.
Don’t impose yourself on the artist by being a windbag. Just get them on their favorite subject–which may have nothing to do with music– and keep ‘em blabbing. (You can edit out the irrelevant stuff later.) A PR person’s not gonna get pissy with an artist. And they can’t get pissy with you, either, for future occasions, because it was their artist who wanted to go overtime.
SO glad I don’t do PR anymore.
Might I just add, as a PR who tries her damndest to be a good one and does actually give a shit, that sometimes those delays are down to the managements involved, and not the PR being a twat? If managements mess us around and keep us dangling, no matter how much we shout about the deadline date and how important that piece is, there’s little we can do about it but persist.
…or let the dangling writer and editor know that there’s been a delay on the other end, and that just to hedge their bets, maybe they shouldn’t count on making that deadline.
Communication is the name of the game. It can be done without blaming. And the publication can then decide whether to run with a story already in inventory, reschedule the interview, stop the presses, hold the space, or whatever option they may have, instead of white-knuckling it to the 11th hour.
It’s not always fun staying up all night a few hours before deadline, trying to crank out a story when you won’t be able to get anyone on the phone to clarify anything.
Been there.