Caffy St Luce - Ex-Press Officer, Hall Or Nothing, Spring 2000
By: Toby L
It's thanks to the press-officer that journalists can get interviews with the hottest new talent, gossip about the most established and biggest money-rakers themselves and receive countless piles of promo albums that we then review for your pleasure (or disgust, if you disagree with a given reviewer).
Today, on a rather bleak day in Shepherds Bush, we're here to find out about the world of music according to the press-world, in the eyes of someone that warned us prior to our chat, 'Well, OK then, we can meet, but let me tell you, I'm more self-opinionated than knowledgeable. To tell you the truth, I've followed bands since I was in school and am just making this all up as I go along.' On reading this, rather than shying away, we were even more tempted to meet her (especially seeing as the same goes for many of our writers as well).
Hall or Nothing, the company Caffy works for, has managed to gain itself a reputation of extreme efficiency, whilst being able to deal in the best and hottest acts in the country, including the Beta Band, Feeder and Faithless, as well as many new bands coming up the ladder such as Orange Can, Elbow and My Vitriol. It has evolved into the successful and renowned company it is today thanks to the person who kicked it all off himself, the late Phillip Hall, whom Caffy describes fondly, calling him, the 'patron saint of music'.
What's a normal, basic day for a press officer?
Amusingly and notably, at this point, a stressed colleague of Caffy's enters the room and utters, 'God, all these f**king journalists; all wanting to come back on different bloody trains!' Caffy then replies, 'Sounds about right. There you go, something for your interview article; an example of what it's like being a press agent!
'It's very much and largely a lot of telephone work, a lot of ringing people and asking, 'Did you receive so and so's album,' and generally giving people information and asking if they want to print it about various bands. Quite possibly, I'll do some mailing-out and, as we're independent, there's a lot of photocopying and putting records and press releases in envelopes and posting them. That's a huge job; especially if it's for larger artists, where we're talking about hundreds of CDs going out and there's also a lot of panicking as you just saw! We do travel arrangements as well... The main qualification you need for this is common sense, a bit of wit and enthusiasm and everything else falls under that really.'
What were you doing before? 'Well, I've always been into music; I mean I would even skive school just to see bands! I was working at a record distribution company as a radio-promotions type with a friend and we had been made redundant, though they forgot to tell us. So, we then squatted in their old building having a brilliant time, running our plugs through to the company next door as well as our phone-lines. One of the bands we were doing by then was the Manics and we had to do mail outs by torchlight, because the company next door must have sussed us! Then, when they got their major deal, they said, 'We'll keep you on,' and I simply said, 'Well, thanks, but you're gonna be a massive band on a big, swanky label, I don't think they'll let me stay,' but then Phillip and all the rest at Hall or Nothing said for me to come along! The Manics are probably some of the nicest, most genuine and soundest people I've ever met. A lot of people may have changed around them, but from since I first knew them, they've always been the same.'
The Hall or Nothing press roster is tremendously impressive, dealing with bands such as Radiohead, the pre-mentioned Manic Street Preachers, Oasis, Stereophonics and then the Super Furry Animals and Derrero. Sharp music fans will have noticed the amount of Welsh acts...
What things do you look for in acts that you take on?
'Well, contrary to what you may think, they don't have to be Welsh (giggles)! As you have to go to loads of their gigs, we don't really take them on for the money, we do it because we just get to go to loads of their shows! People think I'm lying when I say that I love all of the bands we do, and when reading people saying there's nothing going on, I just think, 'What? There are thousands of people having great times in concerts, so don't tell me nothing's happening!' Obviously, though, being a press agent, it's hard to say, 'there's something going on,' because everyone's heard it all before. The job is basically retaining peoples' interests and I thoroughly think that it's an old cliché, but the music usually speaks for itself and that has to happen in this work. You know those 'Now That's What I Call Music' compilations? Well, I'd have one that's called 'Bollocks To That, That's What I Call Music' and fill it up with our roster and it would stand up against anything! Basically, the music that I want to take on is the stuff that makes my heart beat faster.'
What advice would you give to up and coming bands that are looking for press attention?
'Oh gosh; I'm probably the worst person to ask... Actually, I'd probably be quite good! (Let us just add, readers, it's now 6:00 pm on a Monday evening, so yes, Caffy's answering powers are waning thin - will she make it to the interview's end before collapsing to the floor and falling into a coma? Stay tuned to find out!) Have faith in yourselves, first of all, because just getting to the stage of putting a record and live shows together takes such hard work after creating songs in the first place and if you've got that far, don't be disheartened. I know it's hard for the money thing and I know a lot of people in new bands that it's just getting a van together to get to gigs that's in their way. Also, make sure you're talented, but you've got to be lucky also. But, once again, if you've got the talent to touch one person with your songs then you've got the talent to touch hundreds of people with your records. I think it's an international language; just look at the Super Furry Animals. Their album (the Welsh language record 'Mwng') is just something else; it's from another planet. Let's call it... 50p then, but I reckon their album will cause people to start learning Welsh by a year's time.'
What do you think of the lukewarm press that the last Oasis album ('Standing on the Shoulder of Giants') received?
'Well, when people start calling them the 'new Beatles', that shows them the disrespect of not having heard their music. This is because, the one thing with the Beatles was that, yes, they were a huge band and it was the right time, but also, you never knew what their next single would be like. At the beginning, OK, they sounded a bit the same, 'She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah,' but they were given time to develop and evolve and turned into this kind of band where all kinds of influential things came from them. If you try to predict what the next kind of Beta Band, Radiohead and Super Furries single will sound like, you can't even begin to guess, whereas there are some bands that are more obvious. I think the press will just see Oasis live and they'll all go and regret what they said, because it will be so epic! I mean, watching them at Reading 2000 (a festival that Hall or Nothing do the press for) will be just amazing. The good thing about that festival, and it was like it last year, is that it just feels like a massive celebration: kind of like a church service gone mad!'
Hall or Nothing deal with online media so how do you think the Internet will affect the future of music?
'I think it's complimentary to selling music in shops and it's just another media: another way of people getting themselves exposure as well as using it as a tool. People will always want things to hold in their hands, like posters, which has better quality on printed press, but the Internet is here, there's no point pretending it's not and it's an international thing. I mean, there's planet earth and then there's planet cyberspace; on planet earth there's a lot of borders and on planet cyberspace, you just go in and there you are. I totally love it, because everyone's on an equal level. Nobody has a nationality on it and everyone just has them and their tastes of music on it and nothing else.'
It's advisory to agree completely with Caffy, because the great thing about the 'net and me is that, in real life, I'm an axe-yielding homicidal maniac, but on the 'web, no one knows my secret, ha ha ha! Uh-oh, well, until now! Seriously, as I hope you'll agree, it was great to meet someone so far up in the industry that hasn't had their views corrupted or distorted with wrongful intentions. All along the interview, Caffy kept suggesting many ideas for this website and offered them to me free of charge, by noting, 'I don't like money.' The bottom line is, as I hope she'll agree, she's a complete and utter music fan and just because she's now working in the industry that fact hasn't changed. In fact, Caffy St Luce is the kind of person that's most lucky in life - able to work with her favourite stars and not worrying about money as a priority...
... No, she's not mad, just lucky. And if you're lucky and get the breaks in life, then you can follow her quite splendid lead.
Since this article was written, Caffy has left Hall Or Nothing. In a farewell email to her mailing-list, she is quoted as saying:
I got to work at the only place ive ever heard of where your work-mates are
like your college-digs buddies, yer bands are genius without losing the
"real life" plot, your boss treats you all like family, there's no
hierarchy, no office politics and even I can get a job! Self motiviation or
what? I appreciate that its heaven here, Hall Or Nothing rule, I must be
crazy to go...
Not crazy: but brave instead. Caffy shall no doubt move on into even better things.
Artists in this article: Caffy St Luce