Tony James and Tina practice Helmut Newtons greatest hits
Tina von Hayden and Claudia Cujo relax
at the Montes gig
CHAPTER 6. Fin De Siecle...
So I replaced Sovra with Claudia Cujo... an Austrian model who had played drums with Falko - the bloke who did Amadeus, she couldn't play as well as Sovra but she was a star (when Sputnik reformed years later to play the Lawyer's Ball it was Claudia who played drums with us)... she was a sexy dancer too... perfect, but nothing worked till I found, through Steve Fargnoli, Prince's ex manager, 2 boys called Danny and William in a little group from Manchester called then, Creed (no not the American group having a hit now)... they had this demo tape and even a video and it was amazing... they sounded just like Prince in his Sign of the Times period!... too like prince for Steve Fargnoli but I loved them... I thought they were soooo great and we joined forces... they would write the songs with me and Penelope and produce it all... even be in the band too... so Anton hung out and we went to Manchester for 6 glorious weeks writing and recording,.....in the end we had 10 great great songs like "Fuck of the Century" with sexy lyrics written by Penelope, (listed on the 'spinnoff' page on this site)... Danny who had a wonderful voice had sung all the demos and we got Anton to come by train to Manchester.. there's this picture of him arriving at Manchester station all expectantly and cute... and we went to the studio and it was a disaster...now I can't tell what was the problem... Danny and William hated the way he sang and the songs were all in the wrong key for Anton and he just struggled and struggled, it was impossible,...we got nothing, one track maybe called 3Some where he sounded great to me and he went home distraught.
I still love Anton's voice for its rich velvety texture... and yes, I knew he was a potential self centered nightmare waiting to happen who given any success would have been me me me and probably turned round and said he didn't need ME...but but... I still say he was a star... but I was talked out of it and had to call him up, just out of the blue and fire him which must have destroyed him and hurt so much... I just don't know and never will.
But the thing was I really liked Danny too, and his
partner William... it was like they were becoming my best friends and Danny sang
like an angel and wrote the tunes... it seemed more sensible and I loved being
around them... Anton scared me with what he could have become...so it was
them... Danny got his dream and became the singer... we got Claudia's other
friend Tina von Hayden to play keyboards, a guitarist I found thru a
melody maker ad and we started to rehearse to play live... well I had a vision...
I thought the songs were so great this would blow everyone away... and so we
played gigs... stars came and everyone loved it... at several shows Daryl
Hall was in the front row singing along to every song which freaked Danny
out cos he was his hero... I thought this would be massive... there was a
whole page in the Sunday Times about the band... we played shows at nightclubs
all over town , Noel Gallagher came when we played at Browns... Jake
loved us... Gavin from Bush came... Roger Taylor from Queen
loved us..... everyone we knew loved it, we played the huge opening nite party
at the Cafe de Paris club, a spectacular party, Tara Palmer-Tompkinson
came with us in our car and was photographed arriving with us - we went on to
play at her birthday party - Spandau Ballet came...Mike Edwards
from Jesus Jones loved it... he even stood in on guitar for us at one gig.....
everyone... said we would be huge ... and every record company who came
down wouldn't even talk to me... none of them would even look me in the
eye... boy was I gonna pay for Sputnik...for having too much to say too often.....
I'd already had far too much success in the business, I didn't deserve another
go.....
I remember this great lunch I had with Chris Briggs from Chrysalis... now
he's a real great A n R man of the old school and even gave me some money for a
rehearsal at Nomis studios... anyway we were having lunch with him in Daphnes,
a fashionable restaurant in Chelsea and he loved the idea of the band but
wouldn't invest any more in it... he had another problem on his plate already.....he
had inherited, because of his new job, this guy called Robbie Williams
who had left Take That.... what the hell was he going to do with him...
they were gonna try doing a cover of the George Michael song... Chris is very
rich now.
Oh no... I was gonna die for it... now you may say - well maybe it was shit Tony...
but you know - make your own mind up cos I'm gonna release the CD myself soon
and I say it still stands... its great..... GREAT pop songs - but there was
nothing I could do about it then... it was over..... again
Would this Nightmare of disappointment and struggle ever end?
......... and then my life changed