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I Second That Promotion

• Stuart Bailie
• 18 Mar 08, 11:47 PM

I’m just back from London where I was combining business with a little recreation. As ever, I was constantly looking up the A-Z directory to get my bearings on the place. Not your average A-Z, mind. I was using my Fleetwood Mac, ‘Everywhere’ guide.

This is not an item that you’ll find in any shop. It was issued by Warners as a promotional item in 1988 to alert the privileged media people that an important single was on the schedules. And so a few hundred of these pieces were mailed out to radio producers, journalists and TV executives. And since I was in the record company press office at the time, I was allowed one for myself.

It’s one of the few bits of promo that I’ve kept from that era. I’ve somehow lost the Ah-Ha ‘Stay On These Roads’ car maintenance set. And I fear that the Debbie Gibson ‘Shake Your Love’ cocktail shaker has also gone missing. Mind you, a metal container with the singer’s name on it looks more like a funeral urn than anything else. Debbie Gibson came into the office with her mother a few times. A peculiar double act, let me say. Frankly I was much more excited about Prince protégée Taja Sevelle. She was big in Warner world back then with ‘Love Is Contagious’ and actually, I was severely smitten. Perhaps I should have suggested a promotional surgical mask...

Anyway, it was the age of the record company freebie. In my journalistic capacity I was wooed by countless T-shirts, jackets and even Filofaxes. I had monogrammed pyjamas, fluffy toys and leather bags. I wouldn’t like to think that any of this had influenced my reviews in the slightest. Although I still have my Thin Lizzy, ‘Whisky In The Jar’ bottle of the actual hard stuff. A shame they couldn’t actually spell the single title correctly, but who needs accuracy when the marketing department is cranking out the hits?

Stu Bailie presents The Late show on Radio Ulster, every Friday from 10pm until midnight. See his playlist here.

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