Branson bashing. Is this a new sport?

General Discussion
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Tubular Bells … I know a bit about that as a friend of mine engineered and produced it, in the studios at The Manor, Oxon, which he had fitted out. Sound control in the main studio was courtesy of raggy, dusty old carpet hung about the walls.

In short: My pal was a pal of Mike Oldfield. Oldfield came up with an idea for an album, makes demo. Pal plays demo to RB, asks R.B. for funds to buy a reel of 2" [pal told me that RB, in those days, operated with handfulls of fivers] . RB turns him down. Side one recorded on other artists’ 2" reel-ends, spliced together. Side one mixed down to 1/2" stereo and played to RB. RB now authorises funds for a reel of 2" for side 2. Album become a moster and the rest is history.

The late Tony Duhig of Jade Warrior in the control room of Virgin Records Manor Studios, Oxon.

Tony Duhig. Jade Warrior. The Manor Studios.Oxon. Eng. NR20

John Field of Jade Warrior. Virgin Records Manor Studios. Oxon.

John Field. Musician. The Manor Studios. Oxon. ENG. NR20 2

Photos just for fun …

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Interesting.
Any idea how much of the profits went to Oldfield?

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The connection of the photo with Branson/Oldfield is that John Field played flute of the C4 live performance of T.Bells.

Oldfield now lives in The Bahamas. He went on to record many other albums, successful, but nothing on the scale of T. Bells. He’s a very wealthy guy.

The London recording industry had a big clearance sale, staged at Abbey Road Studio 1. Oldstuff bought the Mellotron used on Sgt Pepper which, for reasons unknown, Abbey Rd decided to sell. A sacking offence, surely.

He also bought a pair of reverb units [size of filing cabs in those days] used on T.Bells. What he did not know was they were already his. They had been bought with his money but …ummm… never handed over to him at the end of recording.

Being at a loose end one day, I was persuaded to schlepp these bits from Abbey Rd to Oldfield’s studio in the countryside somewhere …

The producer’s royalties from T.Bells went into a huge barge moored at Little Venice in which my pal built a recording studio, Argonaut Studios. The control room was supposed to resemble Dan Dare’s spaceship cockpit but was never finished as such.

The studio functioned for some years. I was even appointed manager. I did no managing because I received no remuneration. But I was A & R man for a label, Cog Records, set up by my pal, John Field and I. The first recording was planned to be of the noise of dragsters at Santa Pod Raceway [Little Poddington, Leics]. This never happened but we did record a long list of hopefuls.

"They’ll be ripping up the seats
They’ll be fighting in the streets
Tonight. Tonight."

Thank you… Next!

After some years of rock & roll fun and games, the studio was bought by … Richard Branson, as a radio commercials studio.

With the money, my pal bought a pensioned-off Dittisham Class minesweeper. As you do.

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Performers perform. Producers produce. Writers write. Businessmen like Brainstorm do business. They all of them need each other.

And [see above] he didn’t ‘spot the talent’ of T. Bells . He turned down Side 1 initially, until, by using scrap-ends of other recording sessions, spliced together, Side 1 was recorded and mixed down. He then signed off the money to buy a fresh reel of 2" tape to record Side 2. About £35 then, if I recall aright.

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Not a bad ROI then if you discount the massive promotion machinery behind it

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And the cost of buying the real estate of The Manor, equipping it with recording hardware, furnishing the house …

And the staff!

The studio had an engineer on shift at all times, 24/7. So did the kitchens have staff who would cook meals at any time of day/night. There was a go-kart track, a resident Irish Wolfhound, various other distractions.

The idea of The Manor was that musicians could book the place, live there with their wives/g-fs/children et al, as ‘home-from-home with recording facilities’, all found.

It was the commercial equivalent of what at the time was ‘getting it together in the country’, as bands like Traffic, Blind Faith and others were doing then.

Now, CD quality recording can be done in one’s bedroom.

In fact, the ‘promotion machinery’ behind T.Bells was its use as sound track in The Shining. That really put gas in the sales tank

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Thought it was the Exorcist

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Tubular Bells is a firm favourite at our Carol Singing… we always have a musical interlude to let us catch our breath… :hugs: :hugs:

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True. :woozy_face:

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image

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But Geoff, this is the normal “do as i say, not as i do” chatline

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If only!
I hear that Air France is getting a 7 billion euro loan & KLM 4 billion from their respective governments. Easyjet have already secured a £600 million Treasury loan.

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Which is where the industry is at the moment - which makes it odd to single out Branson (whatever you think of him) for trying to secure funds for Virgin.

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They’re all in the same boat, but all quite different. Air France & KLM are still substantially state-owned and registered and taxed here; EasyJet is a public company registered and taxed in the UK (it’s still a third owned by its founder who lives in Monaco - but he has lived their since childhood, long before EasyJet, so can’t be accused of tax-avoidance).

While I really don’t want just to ‘bash’ Branson, I do think any objective observer will have many reservations about him receiving public money from the UK, based not on opinion but on facts like:

  • neither he nor his company is based in the UK, and has not paid UK tax
  • one of his companies has tried to sue the NHS - several times
  • he has been a self-publicist, using this to his business advantage, and so can complain less than others if his personal circumstances are taken into account.
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The image I posted relates of course to the last point - he has taken a specific public and indeed well-self-publicised stance against public subsidy.

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Which might well be why he has tried for a loan secured against Necker rather than a straight cash handout.

It doesn’t seem to have stopped something of a backlash.

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Virgin Atlantic is a company registered at Companies House - company number 01600117.
Virgin Group Ltd is also registered - 02857673.
Virgin Group Holdings Ltd is registered in British Virgin Islands.
Much of his working life he WAS a UK resident & I would assume a tax payer.

Well, once, according to what I can find, & it was settled out of court. I think that the NHS was only one of 6 or 7 entities involved & the amount the NHS agreed to pay is not known.

True.

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IMG-20200425-WA0004
IMG-20200425-WA0004669×1024 97.9 KB

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Why would he need a government loan if he can genuinely offer adequate commercial security?
He could approach a bank - Virgin Money, for instance!

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The way this works Mark is that profits are hived up via various intra-group charges until all the profits get to the holding company - where they are tax-free.