Tim Jackson - Virgin King (Text Only)

Not even the most skilful A&R person could have guessed in 1980 that George O’Dowd would within three years be topping the charts in seventeen different countries. A former window-dresser and model, who had worked for the Royal Shakespeare Company as a make-up artist, George had almost joined a band under the influence of Malcolm McLaren. By 1980, he was delivering stylishly polished performances in gay nightclubs in London, and had been signed as a songwriter to Virgin Music Publishers – but he had no recording contract. His manager, Tony Gordon, had contacted Simon Draper and offered to provide a fleet of limousines to take Draper and his colleagues down to a rehearsal room where Culture Club, George’s new band, was performing an odd mixture of soul, pop and reggae. Danny Goodwyn, a Virgin talent scout, was one of his most enthusiastic fans. ‘He was an extraordinary creature,’ remembered Steve Lewis. ‘What I liked about it was that there were some really classic pop songs – “I’ll Tumble For Ya”, which I thought was great, and “Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?”, which was brilliant.’ Back at Virgin’s offices in Vernon Yard, however, there were doubts about whether such a clearly gay artist could attract a straight following.

Those doubts were soon laid to rest. Under intense pressure from Gordon – who had agreed with George and his fellow-members of Culture Club that he would either get them a place in the top thirty on one of their first three singles, or lose the right to manage them – Virgin assigned Lewis, who was by then deputy managing director of the record company, to look after the artist personally. There was little that Lewis needed to do. As well as an ability to write elegant songs in a number of different styles, George also knew exactly how he wanted the band to look. The artwork on record sleeves, the T-shirts – all the ideas came from him. An album had been recorded, and two singles from it had already been released in order to drum up public interest. But there was not yet a Top Thirty single. And Tony Gordon was getting worried.

It was the promotion department that solved the problem. A message was passed to Lewis that the song which the disc jockeys at the radio stations would be willing to play was ‘Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?’. At a meeting with George, Lewis reported this. ‘George freaked,’ he recalled. ‘He was convinced that it wouldn’t be a hit.’

‘People will think we’re a white reggae band,’ said the singer. ‘It’ll ruin our career.’

‘Right now, George,’ said Lewis, ‘you don’t have a career.’ George allowed himself to be persuaded; the song duly went to number one.

But Culture Club just grew bigger and bigger. By 1983, with the launch of Colour By Numbers, the album containing the ‘Karma Chameleon’ hit single, George was the world’s most successful musician for more than a decade. Virgin employees, sometimes unable to reach their offices because of the crowds of fans who had assembled outside in the hope of catching a glimpse of Boy George, began to understand what it must have been like to be at the centre of Beatlemania. The sums that flowed into Virgin’s London bank accounts made the Oldfield millions of eight and nine years earlier seem almost paltry. Not for nothing was it later said that Boy George paid for Richard Branson’s airline. There would be trouble later, as George became a heroin addict and attracted the wrath of the tabloid press. But for the moment, he and Virgin Records could do no wrong.

Long before George’s popularity reached its height, Richard Branson had withdrawn from daily control over the record company. In no sense had he lost his touch as manager and deal-maker; only recently he had faced down an attempt to form a staff union by appearing uninvited at the meeting at which the staff were intending to prepare their demands, and shedding genuine tears at the idea. ‘We’re all one family,’ he had said, prompting the plotters to melt away, shamefaced at the realization that they had hurt his feelings so much. But Branson had left the creative decisions to Simon Draper, and the contractual and managerial matters to Ken Berry, since 1978. Branson’s role consisted of two activities: talking to both his lieutenants on the telephone, often several times a day; and appearing at the record company’s new offices on the Harrow Road whenever his presence was required to elicit the signature of an especially big or important star. Even the overseas distribution deals could be left to them; thankfully, Branson was no longer responsible for climbing aboard an aircraft with a suitcase full of cassettes and carrying it exhaustedly from one office block in New York to the other, trying to sell the work of Virgin artists in Britain for distribution in the United States. Draper managed the company by means of informal weekly meetings, first at Branson’s house, then in the coffee shop of the Hilton hotel at Shepherd’s Bush, then at his own house. Steve Lewis, who had become deputy MD of the record company in 1979 after Virgin had withdrawn from the business of managing artists, was responsible for the weekly meetings at which the pop charts would be analysed and strategies for sales and marketing decided.

Simon Draper, taking advantage of Nik Powell’s departure, had raised with Branson the question of his shareholding in Virgin. Pointing out that the record company was overwhelmingly the most profitable business in the Virgin Group, and that its profits were for years being reallocated to other areas for expansion, Draper suggested to Branson that his shareholding in the subsidiary record company should be converted into an identical shareholding in the parent. For until he owned part of the Virgin Group, Draper knew that he would never be financially secure. ‘I used to get terribly anxious about the profits,’ he remembered, ‘because they were always massaging them. I remember having secreted away in a drawer a note from the auditors saying, “For the purposes of valuing your shares, the profits should have been x. ”’

Branson immediately saw the justice of Draper’s case. But he was far too practised a negotiator to agree immediately to such a suggestion. In return for Draper’s 20 per cent shareholding in the record company, he at first offered only 10 per cent of the group. It required a number of painful meetings between the lawyers for Branson to raise his offer to 15 per cent, and to accept Draper’s demand for a payment of £100,000 in cash and for a watertight agreement on profits which guaranteed Draper’s share of the money that the music group would make, but protected him from losses presided over by Branson elsewhere in the group. Draper’s lawyer, who appeared not to recognize that it was the record company that was making the vast majority of the group’s profits, was horrified. After all, Draper seemed to be parlaying a fifth of the record business for an only slightly smaller share of what seemed to be a much larger business – including retailing, films, clubs and a number of other interests. ‘He didn’t realize what a strong position I was in,’ recalled Draper. ‘He didn’t realize how valuable the record company was in relation to the record shops … I should have asked for £300,000.’

Given Branson’s normal business methods, the negotiation was conducted in a strange way. Branson felt that the sums of money were so vast that he did not want to deal directly; his cousin, however, saw things differently. ‘We hardly ever spoke face to face,’ said Draper. ‘Neither of us enjoy it. [When we did meet] I’d just say that’s what I want, and he, very tightlipped, would always agree.’ For Branson knew that Draper had too often seen behind the facade that worked so well with outsiders. His cousin, his most trusted business partner, preferred to negotiate with Branson by letter and through lawyers.