Alan Edwards, pop PR – ‘Bowie was like King Arthur and the Spice Girls like the Pistols’

We’ve known Alan Edwards since the days when we’d ring him for a quote from Blondie or the Stranglers in the late ‘70s and he’s still one of the key figures in music PR. He’s looked after the Stones, Prince, Michael Jackson, Blondie, Amy Winehouse, the Beckhams and many others. No-one is better positioned to see how that world has changed, from the pre-Google days when you could invent a story and the press would happily buy it to a 21st century where his flat was burgled in pursuit of lucrative celebrity leads. PRs, he believes, "are not messengers but storytellers” and his memoir ‘I Was There: Dispatches From A Life In Rock And Roll’ is full of them. He looks back here at … … striking a £1m photo deal for the Beckhams’ wedding. … Midge Ure, Gen X and other prime examples of fake news. … hotel workers, waiters and airline pilots who sold stories to the press. … the days when a battery-operated portable phone gave you the edge.  … why he was hired by Blondie. … the chilly, manipulative and inscrutable Lou Reed. … Bowie’s disappearance in Berlin in the ‘70s and other things that would be impossible in the age of social media. … Keith Moon in mid-air. … and how it feels to be hacked. Order Alan’s book here …https://www.amazon.co.uk/Was-There-Dispatches-Life-Rock/dp/1398525243 The Outside Organisation …https://outside-org.co.uk/Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content, plus a whole load more!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.