Eddy Temple Morris

Nice guys aren’t losers!

Well if you’re Eddy Temple-Morris you are since his band is called the Losers 😉

His article about the nice guy in the music industry is very revealing. In an industry where bad boy types and beefs create good copy (always thought the love for Oasis after the first LP wasn’t the music but the good pull quotes), and there are a lot of egos you can see where ‘nice’ can be an insult. But it’s a collaborative industry – you can’t get to the top alone and like other industries like the ones I’ve worked in you rely on a lot of other people. Being nasty to them eventually will come back to haunt you, and it’s very true the maxim that you should be nice to people on the way up, because you’ll see them on the way down.

Also I’d counter the ‘Erol/Justice wouldn’t do that’ argument mentioned in the article with ‘well The Beatles, Joe Strummer and John Peel would’ – there’s probably an even bigger list of those who do stop and sign autographs, who do care as much as time allows – and who are much bigger than the moody bad boy types. Paying attention just for a second means such a lot for the person who wants to interact – reading about the Beatles in Weston Super Mare* today (they stayed in the Royal Pier Hotel which sadly now looks like this) and those girls who met them 50 years ago still remember exactly what they said and what happened, those few seconds. It might be weird for the person getting the attention (I’ve met fans of the podcast in the past and it freaked me a little, wasn’t used to it) but it is important to be polite and gracious.

EddyTM is indeed a nice guy – he played my mashup on the radio then sent me an email with encouragement which I’ll never forget…like those who were played by John Peel and talked to him those few words when it feels like no-one is listening means a lot. And although I’m nowhere in that league, in the very rare occasions I interact with people that like what I do I remember this, that people expect you to be ignoring or aloof, and to try and be accessible and friendly. We all have good days and bad days, but it’s what I aim for.

As regards supporting the ‘nice guys or girls’ – this is what I do here as well. I can’t tell if everyone I post is nice, but certainly those I do know and are good people who I think deserve much more love – there is a little of the British love of the underdog there too – they get my help and attention here. It’s sad that those who aren’t egotistical wankers don’t tend to push their music as violently that those who are, and that NME et al love a moody unsmiling set of guitar heroes over someone more interesting who doesn’t fit the mould.

I think Eddy is a little harsh on Damon Albarn, I think he too is a nice guy but has struggled with that early on, and was as he’s said recently a bit of an arsehole when he was younger…would be interesting to quote that to him and find his response now?

* First revealed today! says the Mirror. Err, if they’d done the most simplest of Google searches they’d have found the Beatles in Weston fan page that says they were published in 2008.

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