Baby You're a Star (4 page)

When Logan met Louis, he was not happy with his record company, or his manager, and wanted new representation. Although Hand had signed a contract with Tommy Hayden Enterprises making them sole management and promoters for the singer, he sought an injunction preventing Logan from working without his involvement within days of the Eurovision win. “It was the usual Irish thing. Where there’s a hit, there’s a writ. That’s what happened,” says Louis.

The dispute inevitably ended in court but was settled prior to the hearing.

“It was huge at the time,” recalls Hayden. “I bore all the costs. We had done a deal with Jim because he couldn’t break the guy, so he said to us ‘Sure, you take him on and if you do something, sure give us a few bob and we’ll be grand.’” Logan’s unprecedented success meant that Hand was less than happy with “a few bob” and all concerned ended up in court. Tommy Hayden explains what happened.

“Johnny came to me in the office one day and said ‘Please don’t let me go back there. Please look after me here. I like what’s happening here. Yourself and Louis are great. Let’s stick together.’ Stick together, all right. I went into court and I spent thousands, thousands. I think it ended up something like £10,000, which was an awful lot of money in those days,” says Hayden.

A deal was reached, which saw Louis and Hayden emerge triumphant. Tommy Hayden and Louis Walsh were confirmed as Logan’s management team, with Louis appointed as the singer’s “personal manager”. Under Louis’ direction, Logan should have had a glittering career ahead of him. Power, success, and a few hefty managerial commission cheques should have awaited him. Except it didn’t quite happen like that.

“He should have been a big, big star,” says Louis. “But if I knew then, what I know now, I’m sure I would have handled things a lot differently.”

Logan’s contractual obligations created a labyrinth of disputes and legal obstacles. Release Records saw the opportunity presented by the Eurovision and rushed out an album of material recorded in late 1977 and 1978, along with
What’s Another Year
. Release sold the UK rights of the album to Pye, but Release only had the Irish rights to
What’s Another Year
so the UK album was missing this song.

Another company called Spartan Records spotted this omission and began importing the Irish version of the album into the UK at the same time. If this wasn’t already a glut of record companies, Irish firm Spider Records owned the world rights and CBS (now Sony), the only global player involved, had purchased the future world rights. Deciphering which company was entitled to which rights took time to disentangle, but time was the one thing Logan did not have on his side. It was crucial for the future of his career that a strong follow-up single and an album of new material were released quickly.

As protracted negotiations started to reach agree-ment between the record companies involved, Logan embarked on an Irish tour in the summer of 1980. The tour, however, was over-ambitious and proved to be a disaster from a financial point of view. Tommy Hayden Enterprises was left seriously out of pocket. Logan was devastated by the failure of the tour. To make things worse, the media began to turn on him.

Four months after Logan had won the Eurovision, CBS finally released a second single called
Save Me
. It received dreadful reviews and flopped. It didn’t even reach No. 100 in the charts. CBS had already spent £87,000 on Logan’s album but the record company decided it was better to cut its losses and run. Logan was dropped. Louis was gutted.

The media went to town on Logan and it didn’t take long for his star to fade. By Christmas 1980, he was a has-been. Instead of topping the charts again, he was appearing as Joseph in Rock Nativity in Cork Opera House.

Louis didn’t see the experience as a complete failure. “Johnny became famous but he could have been a lot more famous,” he says. “He had a No. 1 in 10 countries. I remember going to
Top of the Pops
with him and him singing live. Everybody loved him. The record was huge.
What’s Another Year
was a huge hit record. He recorded it in Spanish, in German and everything and it’s still a well-played record around the world.

“Everybody blames everybody when it doesn’t work. When it works, they never praise anybody. He’s had a good career, but he hasn’t been as big as he should have been. At the end of the day, what really happened? I don’t know. It’s one of those great Irish things; everybody had an opinion on it. We were all naïve but we believed in him. Everybody can blame everybody else, but I still believe the records weren’t as good as they should have been but he still had a big career, and he still does very well.”

Was Louis to blame for what happened to Logan? A little, but not too much. Other factors played a part in the young singer’s downfall.

Whatever mistakes Louis made in the summer of 1980, he made up for them many times over, according to friends. As Logan’s career stumbled and faltered over the next decade, Louis was one of the few people in the business who stood by him.

4

MR. EUROVISION

Life for Louis quickly returned to normal after his experience at the Eurovision. Logan was just one of the artists managed by Tommy Hayden Enterprises. For months after Logan’s career slid into ignominy, he remonstrated with himself, wondering if he could have done things differently. In truth, he knew he had done everything possible for Logan. Any mistakes he made, were not intentional or malicious. Chastened by the experience, he went back to his day job, more determined than ever to push his artists as best he could.

For some years, Louis had been booking concerts for Linda Martin and her band Chips, and later become her manager. He was first introduced to Martin in Clogherhead, a village in Co. Louth, in the company of Tommy Hayden.

“She was singing with Lyttle People and we went up to see them,” he says. “They had just left Chips, herself and Paul Lyttle, and started their own band. We took them on. They weren’t doing very well and we tried everything with them, got them TV, got them records and got them working.”

Despite Louis’ best efforts, Lyttle People didn’t really succeed and the original Chips group then got back together. The act continued to be represented by Tommy Hayden Enterprises.

Martin was an attractive redhead from Belfast. She was a talented singer and Louis believed strongly in her ability to become an international artist. He was good at assessing artists strengths and capabilities, and he sensed that Martin had what it took. More importantly, from her point of view, he believed she could be a strong contender for Eurovision success. By 1984, Martin was an experienced cabaret singer, who had been singing on the circuit for 10 years. She was also a friend of Johnny Logan’s for a number of years, and when she needed a song for the Eurovision, Logan obliged. He produced a song called
Terminal 3
, which was a lament on the scourge of emigration and long-distance love.

Although Logan’s star had faded after 1980, Louis still believed in the potential offered by the Eurovision. It was, he believed, one of the best opportunities for Irish singers to perform before a truly international audience. It also gave him the chance to make international media contacts.

“You had camera crews and photographers from every country around Europe, and they always wanted to talk to the Irish act for some reason. I think it’s because we were politically free as well in Eurovision, and that helped it as well,” he says.

Another reason Louis persisted in persuading his acts to enter the Eurovision was simply that he was a long-standing fan of the Contest. “I liked all the early Eurovision songs,” he says. “I’m not shy about that. I still like a lot of them.”

In 1984, the Eurovision was still a hugely popular event across Europe and Louis saw it as an oppor-tunity that should be taken and not sneered at. Four years after Logan’s win, Louis was once again bound for the Contest.
Terminal 3
won the Irish National Song Contest on 31 March 1984, narrowly beating Sheeba (who had represented Ireland at the Eurovision in 1981) into second place by two points. Martin was shocked. She had participated in the competition with her group Chips in 1976, 1977, 1978 and 1982, but had never managed to actually win it. Still, won it she had, and soon she was the pundit’s favourite to win the Eurovision too.

The signs were good, as these things go. Before the Contest had even taken place, Martin had been signed up for tours of Turkey and the then Czechoslovakia later in the year. Tommy Hayden Enterprises had developed good contacts in the entertainment industry across Europe.

Luxembourg hosted the 1984 Eurovision, and most of the same people that had accompanied Logan to The Hague travelled to Luxembourg with Martin and Louis, who were now close friends. Like before, they partied the week away before the Contest, this time more quietly confident than they had been in 1980. Moments like these were some of the happiest in Louis’ life. He loved the wheeling and dealing that went on behind the scenes. He was always anxious to hear news about the other acts and meet other managers. Although he enjoyed being part of the Eurovision scene, Louis had secret reservations about Martin’s chances.

“I didn’t think she would even be in the top three,” he says, “I didn’t think the song was amazing at all. I didn’t think it was great but she had a brilliant image at the time with the red hair and the white clothes. It wasn’t a good production but it was good for her.”

Privately, he didn’t believe Ireland would take the first prize having watched the other contestants perform and rehearse.

When the Saturday night arrived, the Irish team headed for the Municipal Theatre in the hope that Martin would win. She wore a white trouser suit, which was complemented by a blue sash, blue shoes, and seriously big hair. She sang well, but the song was not successful. When the voting was completed, she had 137 points, eight points less than the winners. Ignominious and annoying as it was to come second when she was so close to winning, Martin’s loss was compounded by the fact that the winners were essentially a novelty act from Sweden. They were the Herreys, three brothers who turned up on stage in matching white trousers and gold boots. One wore a blue shirt, one a red shirt, and the other a turquoise shirt, so you could tell them apart. Their song was called
Diggi-Loo, Diggi-Ley
.

The Irish team were devastated not to win and understandably so. Louis, however, was character-istically chirpy and refused to be downbeat about coming second.

“I was really happy she got second,” he says, “It helped her incredibly here. It was great from her point of view.”

True to form, he came out fighting. On the morning after the Contest, the team sat around a table drinking coffee. Everyone was still crushed by the defeat. Except Louis. He was the only one keeping spirits up and staying optimistic. “If he had a title on the team, it would have been ‘Chief Emotional Support’,” recalls Healy.

He began to show the confident public persona for which he would later become known, telling the
Irish Press
that
Terminal 3
had already been released across Europe.

“We will be pushing it by concentrating on countries that gave us 10 or 12 marks in the Contest,” said Louis. “Linda was treated after the show as if she were the winner. That was the impact of her performance. There is no doubt now that she has a very big future.”

Although she had TV appearances lined up in Cyprus, France, Holland, Luxembourg, Portugal and Turkey, her promotional tour wasn’t accompanied by the near-hysteria that had greeted Logan everywhere he went in the weeks following his win. Neither was Martin guaranteed the influx of cash that Logan had received.

Louis was privately anxious to achieve something more after he returned to Ireland. He continued working for Tommy Hayden Enterprises, representing and managing all types of performers but he didn’t like much of the music they performed.

Rock music was the only art form that mattered in Ireland in the 1980s, largely because of the success of U2. As the DJ Dave Fanning has said, it was a time “when you were either too much like U2 or too little like U2. Everything was compared to them. Pop music didn’t get a look in.”

If Louis loved anything, it was pop music. He gravitated naturally towards commercial music and sounds. His attitude towards Irish rock was ambivalent. The rock bands paid his wages but he never liked the music and was not enamoured by the rock scene and it’s culture.

One of the artists who mattered most to him appeared to be fading into oblivion. Logan had sunk deeper into decline since the collapse of his inter-national career in 1980. His despair was compounded when another of his songs,
Hearts
, sung by his brother Mike Sherrard, came last in the 1985 National Song Contest, garnering only three points from the unsympathetic juries around Ireland.

Louis, however, was unbowed by this disaster and exhorted Logan to give it one more try. Logan did so, writing
If I Can Change Your Mind
for Linda Martin. She performed the song in the 1986 National Song Contest, and came fourth. It seemed as if another day of Eurovision glory for Logan and Louis was not to be.

Few people have the endurance of Louis Walsh. He remained the biggest advocate of the Eurovision in Ireland and spent long hours promoting Johnny Logan and Linda Martin, according to Shay Healy. He sent out their concert posters himself, demonstrating that he was a hands on manager. Patiently, he encouraged Logan and Martin to persevere and not to accept failure. His desire for success for both himself and his friends helped make him a zealous advocate of hard work and persistence.

While Louis remained buoyant and determined, Logan was downbeat. By 1987, his career was in tatters. The journalist Orna Mulcahy wrote in the
Sunday Independent
that “Johnny Logan was a name from ancient history, a broken star touring the cabaret spots to bored audiences, singing a song that won the Eurovision, nobody was sure when.”

Logan’s had experienced a lot of personal suffering and unhappiness with his professional career.

Louis was the one person whose support for Logan was unending. He cared more about the singer as a friend than as a client. He was also one of the few people whose support and advice Logan valued. They both felt Logan’s career was going nowhere. Louis, however, remained firm in the belief that Logan was a talented singer and songwriter and encouraged him to compete in the National Song Contest once more. Logan was wounded after his earlier setbacks but reluctantly agreed to try again, warning Louis that he would give up his singing and composing career if nothing came of it.

Maybe it was because of the adrenaline that last minute acts of desperation can sometimes engender, maybe it was luck, maybe it was just good timing, but in 1987 Johnny Logan wrote a great pop ballad called
Hold Me Now
. A few observers have suggested that it was Louis’ utter belief in Logan’s capabilities that spurred him to succeed. Logan performed the song himself at the National Song Contest held in the Gaiety Theatre on 8 March. He won. It was a triumphant success for Louis, who believed he had pulled Logan out of a deep career rut. For the third time, Louis and Logan were off to the Eurovision, this time in Brussels. Between the national finals and the Eurovision proper, Louis and Logan spoke every day on the phone. “Coming up to the show, he was on the phone to me night and day. He was working at it,” recalls Louis.

The 1987 Contest threw up the usual number of bizarre entrants. There was Lotta Engberg, with her song
Fyra bugg och en coka cola
, which translated as
Four Gums and a Coca Cola
. While her song had sailed through the Swedish finals, there was outrage at such obvious product placement when she reached the Eurovision, and she had to change the song’s title to
Boogaloo
. The Israeli entrants, Datner & Kushnir, also caused a bit of a stir with their song about homeless people in their native country. The song was called
Shir Habatlanim
, which translates as
The Bums
.

On arrival in Brussels, Logan was greeted as a superstar. Because he had won the Contest in 1980, he was recognised and applauded wherever he went. He was revered for his achievement of seven years previous, which Louis and Logan found uplifting. The singer was greeted with chants of “Johnny, Johnny, Johnny” on the streets. Unlike his previous experiences with the Eurovision, Louis felt confident. Admittedly, it is not always easy for a manager to be an objective judge of his own act, but he believed a win was possible. And he was right.

There was no close-run, edge-of-the-seat voting tension in the Palais de Centenaire, where the event was staged. Logan won with 172 points, one of the highest winning scores ever, and 31 points ahead of the German entry,
Wind
.

In the press conference following his win, Logan said his success was due to everyone who had stood by him since 1980. He was speaking about Louis Walsh.

“Louis was the one person who never lost faith in Johnny over the years,” says Healy. “He kept the flag flying.”

Louis genuinely felt for his friend. It is true that Louis is a businessman first and foremost, and realised the earning potential Logan had at that point, but he wanted Logan to succeed, as much out of friendship as anything else. He also believed Logan deserved credit for his achievements.

“It was fantastic because nobody had ever won it twice before. He wrote the song. It was his chance to make all the money and become famous again. He just lived, he lived every minute of it. He had fantastic self-belief and he proved everybody wrong and he won, and he had a huge hit record and made a lot of money that time around.”

Louis saw the business opportunity straight away. No-one had ever won the Eurovision twice before. He had been pressing copies of Logan’s single on anyone who would take it all week, but he decided to stop handing out promotional copies after the Contest, telling journalists and industry figures attending the after-show party to buy the record.

The win took the music industry in Ireland by surprise. Each of the major record shops had taken only the minimum order of
Hold Me Now
, which was 25 copies. The record company CBS, which had signed Logan for the second time, hurriedly organised the pressing of another quarter of a million copies of the single.

It is both an advantage and a disadvantage of celebrity that the general public tends to have a short memory. After his second win, the Irish public and media completely forgot how they had sniggered at Logan’s earlier downfall and turned out in their thousands to welcome him home.

When his flight landed at Dublin Airport, Logan stared out of the window in disbelief at the five thousand fans waiting to greet him. He clutched at Healy for support saying “Oh God, I’ve waited for this.” It was déja-vû for all concerned.

Once again, Logan had to brave the multitude of fans at the airport, but this time it was so much sweeter. Seven years of self-doubt vanished among the cries of “We love you, Johnny” and the banners declaring “We’re holding you now”. Louis, of course, was ecstatic and elated. He was the manager of this double Eurovision-winning wunderkind and he was making the most of it. “He is made for life,” Louis declared rather grandly to the waiting media, “and this time he has control over his own affairs. The bookings are already flooding in. Nearly every European country wants him to do a TV show.”