Baby You're a Star (15 page)

Journalist Michael Ross agrees: “He gave it [the Irish music industry] a sense of optimism at a time when it had none. He more or less singlehandedly raised it from the dead. The boyband phenomenon is not to everybody’s taste, and certainly is not to mine, but if you look at the moribund state of the Irish music business in the mid-1990s, and look at it now, one can only conclude that Louis’ success has only done the business good.”

Louis loves living in Ireland. He says he couldn’t manage living anywhere else. “I like here. I like the people here. I like living in Ireland. I like the pace. I like the thing that you can go anywhere you want and do anything you want to do. People just leave you alone. I like Ireland with all its faults and all its begrudgery. It’s still the best place in the world. It could be a fantastic place but it’s a good place.

“I do wish there was more help for starting new acts. I think we could all work so much better if there was more help here from the government, from radio, from television and from the press.

“The begrudgery thing is definitely here. People love you when you’re struggling but when you make it, they think ‘Ah, who does he think he is?’ You do get that all the time with different Irish people. But still, I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. I pay full tax. I pay an awful lot of tax by living here. My brother Frank thinks I’m crazy but I like here. It’s still the valley of the creaking windows but I like it.”

Asked who he admires in modern Ireland, Louis has little trouble in reeling off a list of names. “I would definitely say Gay Byrne, Eamonn Dunphy, Sinéad O’Connor, [super-market magnate] Margaret Heffer-nan, [fashion designer] Louise Kennedy, Paul McGuin-ness, Roy Keane, Michael O’Leary, U2, Van Morrison and Enya. And obviously there’re a few other people. There’s a friend of mine, Desmond Morris. I have to mention him because he’s one of the people I admire most and he influences me a lot. He’s one of my best friends and he’s involved in one of my companies. And I suppose my mother.”

Who is the real Louis Walsh? More than anything, he is someone who loves music and who is driven by that passion. He might not be a talented businessman in the accepted sense, but he is determined, he works extremely hard and is extraordinarily talented at his job. He is highly intelligent, a shrewd thinker and can be coldly calculating if needs be. He knows how to deal with people and what attitude to adopt when confronted with different types of characters. With some people, he is charming. With others, he is demanding. With others again, he is simply ruthless. He can be impetuous and impatient. He can be poor at accepting responsibility and admitting his mistakes. He is adept at generating publicity and has developed a public persona to suit his own ends.

All of this aside, he is largely a likeable and engaging person. He has many long-standing friends both inside and outside the music business and most describe him as good-humoured, generous and gregarious, a social animal who enjoys nothing more than telling out-rageous stories.

Louis’ most notable achievement has been consistent success in a notoriously fickle industry. Most pop man-agers have one hugely successful act. It’s rare for a manager to maintain an entire stable of stars. Louis’ client list includes Ronan Keating, Westlife, Samantha Mumba, Omero Mumba, Bellefire and Six. He recently signed Lulu.

Like him or loathe him, few deny that he has developed extremely successful products, has contrib-uted to the Irish economy and has gained respect internationally.

“Is Louis Walsh respected by the UK music industry?” asks Frith, his friend.

“Absolutely. I don’t think respect is as important as record sales and it never should be if you’re a manager of a pop band. But he has respect in the sense that he could ring any MD of any record company now, and get a meeting, and they would be falling over themselves. I think that’s the ultimate sign of respect. He could ring any one of the six majors now, say, ‘I want to meet you three o’clock tomorrow morning, can’t meet you any other time.’ They would be there. They would run a thousand miles to make that meeting.”

The music industry is cut-throat and competitive. It is also more fragmented, meaning there are more record companies competing for the teenage market.

Because Louis has reached the top of the business and stayed there for so long, many believe it is only a matter of time before he retires.

Tom Watkins has told Louis that the good times cannot last forever. “What I always warned Louis of was the temporary nature, the transitory nature of the whole business,” says Watkins, “and how you can do your very best for all these guys in the band and in the end, they’re just going to end up kicking you in the teeth anyway. So you’ve got to be prepared to take a real hiding at the end of it. And it will end, sooner or later.”

Louis himself says he has no plans to retire from the music industry. “What would make me stop is if I got into bad health. If I thought I only had ten years left, I’d say ‘fuck this, I’m going to enjoy myself. I’m going to buy a nice apartment in Miami’ but I’d probably get bored.”

While he enjoys the trappings of power and success, Louis is under no illusions about the nature of his achievements.

“I don’t think I’ll be remembered at all. I really don’t. Disposable pop music. When it’s gone, it’s gone. People don’t buy records because . . . I always think the star is the person on the stage, not the person in the back room. The public doesn’t care. It’s the person on the stage that’s the star, not the promoter, the manager, the producer or the A&R men.

“I think we’re all lucky fuckers. I always say that: ‘What are we? We’re lucky fuckers’. We always say that in our business, Ronan, Westlife, all that. We’re not overly talented. We’re just lucky. Right time, right place.

“I’m insecure in my own little way too because I don’t want this to go away. I love the high, the vibe, getting a hit record, I love it. I’m hoping to have three, four No. 1s this year and I think I’ll get them. It’s not the most important thing but it’s fun. It’s what everybody wants, to be No. 1. I’m not going to slash my wrists or anything if it doesn’t happen, or cry or anything like that. I just get on with it and I never look back on the past. I always look to the future because there’s no point in living in the past. It’s forgotten. It’s gone. It’s over.”

Above: Louis Walsh (to the right) aged 10. He attended Kiltimagh Boys National School before attending St. Nathy’s boarding school. As a child, he detested working on his father’s farm.

Above: Louis with his older sister, Evelyn, to whom he is very close. When Louis moved to Dublin, he stayed in Evelyn’s apartment. As children, they used to dance to their father’s records.

Above: The Walsh family home on Chapel Street, Kiltimagh.

Above: Louis with Carol Hanna in Tommy Hayden’s office. The agent was instrumental in guiding Louis through his teengage years. “Louis and myself bounded from the start. We were like brother and sister.”

Above: Johnny Logan. Louis met Logan on a bus and offered to manage him on the spot.

© Photocall Ireland/Gareth Chaney

Above: Linda Martin. She won the Eurovision after entering it for the ninth time. Louis describes her effort as sheer perseverance.

© Photocall Ireland/Eamonn Farrell

Above: Boyzone. Clockwise from left: Stephen Gately, Keith Duffy, Shane Lynch, Mikey Graham and Ronan Keating in Dublin Airport after arriving from London to celebrate the success of their single "Key to my life" going straight to No. 1 in the Irish charts.

© Photocall Ireland/Leon Farrell

Above: John Reynolds at the opening of U2’s nightclub, The Kitchen. Reynold’s is a trusted confidante of Louis Walsh’s.

© Photocall Ireland/Eamonn Farrell

Above: Paul Keogh with the singer, Kerri-Ann. Louis and Boyzone referred to Keogh as ‘God’.

© Photocall Ireland/Leon Farrell

Above: Louis celebrates Boyzone’s success in the Chocolate Bar, owned by John Reynolds.

© Irish Examiner

Above: Louis with his mother, Maureen. She remains the most influential person in his life.

Above: Frank and Maureen Walsh. Louis had a close relationship with his father.