When it’s party time, an idea for you from a tragic musical failure


Life has a strange way of working.


One of my greatest passions is music. I come from a musical family. I love jazz, opera, classics, R and B, Soul, Blues, even a bit of rap and rock – pretty much everything except “light” music and C & W.

I’ve seen everyone from Louis Armstrong to Miles Davis to Otis Redding to Kiri te Kanawa and Pavarotti. But one of my personal tragedies was that since the minute I lost that boyish treble my vocal skills have been not unlike that of a corncrake in pain.

Happily, my children have made up for this. I may have mentioned Martina here before. I think she’s wandering round the world with Massive Attack right now, but here’s another.

The picture at the top is of a group called The Word. The moody one on the left is my son Nick. If you want a party band, they’re for you- they do 60’s and 70’s stuff. If you’d like to hear what they’re like, you’ll be agreeably surprised at http://thewordpartyband.co.uk/Video.html. I certainly was.

And I was even more surprised when my youngest, who’s in New Jersey, told me she’s been approached by a record label there. Martina started at 15. Chantal is even younger.

I don’t know. My father and two of my uncles were excellent musicans. So was my grandfather. Talent has skipped a generation.

About the Author

In 2003, the Chartered Institute of Marketing named Drayton one of 50 living individuals who have shaped today’s marketing.

He has worked in 55 countries with many of the world’s greatest brands. These include American Express, Audi, Bentley, British Airways, Cisco, Columbia Business School, Deutsche Post, Ford, IBM, McKinsey, Mercedes, Microsoft, Nestle, Philips, Procter & Gamble, Toyota, Unilever, Visa and Volkswagen.

Drayton has helped sell everything from Airbus planes to Peppa Pig. His book, Commonsense Direct and Digital Marketing, out in 17 languages, has been the UK’s best seller on the subject every year since 1982. He has also run his own businesses in the U.K., Portugal and Malaysia.

He was a main board member of the Ogilvy Group, a founding member of the Superbrands Organisation, one of the first eight Honorary Fellows of the Institute of Direct Marketing and one of the first three people named to the Hall of Fame of the Direct Marketing Association of India. He has also been given Lifetime Achievement Awards by the Caples Organisation in New York and Early To Rise in Florida.

8 Comments

  1. warrencottis

    Well Drayton

    it's a pity you don't have any other skills… like marketing guru

    cheers
    Warren

    Reply
  2. draytonbird

    Have you ever compared the music groupies with the guru groupies??? The former want to do all sorts of thrilling things with you (so I'm told). The latter either ask you about social media or – at my age – prod you to see if you're still alive.

    Reply
  3. warrencottis

    sounds like the former are focused on the performance and the latter on the encore… my god they were glorious days

    Reply
  4. draytonbird

    I am desperately trying to find time to lower the tone of literature by writing my autobiography, which will certainly shed a light on the good times

    Reply
  5. Kurt Kopf

    Please watch this trailer of a documentary about the music industry.

    Reply
    1. Drayton

      Thanks Kurt

      Reply
  6. Kurt Kopf

    http://www.welcome-to-the-dream.com/teasers/lowbandwidth/fundingcampaign.php

    Reply
    1. Drayton

      Yes, the music biz is not all happy stuff. Oddly enough since I wrote that blog my youngest has started out. She seems exceptionally level headed though. I think you’ve seen her on my facebook stuff

      Reply

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