ROCKS OFF - The Rolling Stones Message Board

By Randy Lewis
April 7, 2014, 8:22 a.m.

Andrew Loog Oldham, the Rolling Stones' early manager, producer and publicist who is being inducted this year into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, has announced that he will skip the ceremony.

“I think those people basically hijacked the name 'rock 'n' roll,'” Oldham told an audience during a talk in March at the Berlin School of Creative Leadership. “I won't be there. I'll tell you why.... It's a television show. Twenty years ago it was an incredible party in the Waldorf-Astoria where everybody could behave exactly as they could 20 years ago. And then it became a business. I think it's healthier to stay home.”

Oldham, 70, also apparently is unhappy about some facet of the handling of his induction. On Friday, he tweeted, "Like Brian Epstein i was not consulted as regards this matter & like dear Brian I will not be going." Epstein died in 1967.

Rock Hall officials did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Oldham and Beatles manager Brian Epstein are being inducted this year as non-performers, receiving the Ahmet Ertegun Lifetime Achievement Award, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of 1964’s explosion of the British Invasion on U.S. shores.

Only 19 years old when he discovered and took over management of the Stones, Oldham is being saluted for his role in helping to shape their public image, pushing Jagger into the role of frontman for a group that began as guitarist Brian Jones’ blues band. He also encouraged Jagger and Keith Richards to write their own songs.

After producing the Rolling Stones' first five albums and their initial hit singles from 1963 to 1967, Oldham and the band parted ways, although he recently said he maintains correspondence with Richards from Oldham's home of the last 35 years in Bogota, Colombia.

Since 2005, he has hosted a satellite radio show six days a week that’s part of Little Steven’s Underground Garage channel on Sirius XM.

In an email interview posted recently on Cleveland.com, Oldham went on to say that, "The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has become a televised spectacular. This is not the private, raunchy, no-holds-barred party at the Waldorf Astoria where Ahmet Ertegun spoke his brilliant mind and Phil Spector accepted his induction supported by three bodyguards.

“The [Rock Hall] has adjusted for the times and … I think it may have become an event for performers only and their fans. Rush last year, Nirvana and KISS this year. Now, for the Hall Of Fame to survive, it’s gone 'Simon Cowell' and that, unless you are a Rush or KISS fan, is a shame.”

Other musicians have expressed varying degrees of unhappiness about the Rock Hall’s opening up of the event to TV cameras. Neil Young boycotted the event in 1997 when he was being inducted, saying at that time, "This presentation is in direct opposition to what I believe. Although I accept the honor, in the name of Rock and Roll, I decline to take part in this TV presentation and be trotted out like some cheap awards show. There are already too many of these."

Young has subsequently attended the dinner, and in 2011 gave the induction speech when Tom Waits became a member.

Of Epstein, for whom Oldham worked briefly before connecting with the Stones, Oldham told Cleveland.com, “Without Brian Epstein, you and I would not be having this conversation. For he is the one who persevered and got his lads that all-elusive recording contract and those lads, the Beatles, changed the world and made it possible for all of us to find our various places in it.

“I really believe that Brian Epstein was sent to do just that, that Brian Jones was sent to form the Rolling Stones and I was sent to uncover them and start them on their way,” he said. “I am just lucky that I got to stay here longer.”

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-rock-hall-fame-andrew-loog-oldham-boycott-20140407,0,95557.story#ixzz2yDrFiae2

sad of what its become.

In an email interview posted recently on Cleveland.com, Oldham went on to say that, "The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has become a televised spectacular. This is not the private, raunchy, no-holds-barred party at the Waldorf Astoria where Ahmet Ertegun spoke his brilliant mind and Phil Spector accepted his induction supported by three bodyguards.

Well, Oldham should know that this is exactly how you keep an enterprise funded and ongoing in a media age - "Sell tickets." What Oldham describes is precisely the history of the movie Academy Awards. (Though the Oscars were always a High Mass for the Great Dignity and Humanity of the trade.)

If there's no mega-press coverage, then you might as well hold these things down at the boozer. I wonder how many artists would show up, especially since it wouldn't boost their catalog sales.

I hope they get Mike Love to make an anti-Oldham speech. ("Andrew Oldham? I remember the time I just tried to say 'Hello' to Andrew Oldham....") But Oldham is, of course, all about the press value of his refusal. Keeps him young.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vmn9asN-8AE

andrews27 wrote on Apr 8^th, 2014 at 9:28am:

I respectfully disagree.

" Of Epstein, for whom Oldham worked briefly before connecting with the Stones, Oldham told Cleveland.com, “Without Brian Epstein, you and I would not be having this conversation. For he is the one who persevered and got his lads that all-elusive recording contract and those lads, the Beatles, changed the world and made it possible for all of us to find our various places in it.

“I really believe that Brian Epstein was sent to do just that, that Brian Jones was sent to form the Rolling Stones and I was sent to uncover them and start them on their way,” he said. “I am just lucky that I got to stay here longer.”

Wow...The Hall of Fame is bogus? who knew?? Its become a spectacle?? Kinda like the band he used to manage

"But in terms of what's left of white people, we're still it."

Joey wrote on Apr 8^th, 2014 at 4:38pm:

Moof!!!

"But in terms of what's left of white people, we're still it."

Sent? Heaven-sent? Pre-ordained? Is he suggesting God's (sticky) finger purposefully flicked Andrew's managerial-ness into action for a divine purpose (and porpoise)?
What's the ol' man going on about?

Good for Oldham. The RRHOF is nonsense. An outfit that can't wake up long enough to induct the NY Dolls and the Replacements is ludicrous. "Rock n' Roll" hall of fame my ass.

Well...who the hell has actually thought that Rock-n-Roll was the last HOLD OUT...more like
the latest SOLD OUT...

Folks like Oldham act as if no one has ever heard of MTV...VH1...these were products
of the early 80's...and now...all you need to be eligible for induction
is to have released your first ( and quite possibly only) single before 1994...any of these bands had already become FM and TV fodder...
Shame on ALO...he should accept his award and his place
in history with the Stones with grace and decorum and as he
accepts make his rant there...IN THE NAME OF TRUE ROCK AND ROLL.

No one will notice his absence...all they will say is that he lives outside of Bogota Columbia...and it will be forgotten...if even mentioned ever again.
anyway...if he REALLY wants to protest...it should be about that GAWD AWFUL "all-star jam at the end
with 16 guitar players and 9 singers...THAT , my friend, is what has caused the fall of the RARHOF show...except the only exception to this ( Thanks to PRINCE...who saved this night):\

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SFNW5F8K9Y

EDIT: Link not working...but it is the correct link...go to youtube and check it out directly...

Point taken, Android. I may have to stand corrected. (though it is incomprehensible that the Dolls and the 'Mats haven't been inducted yet).

The YouTube link won't show for me, but I assume it's the clip of Prince performing While My Guitar Gently Weeps, yeah? Brilliant performance from my homeboy, and funny because two other great Tele-slingin dudes were there that night - Keef and Bruuuuce - and neither dared join in on the jam. Always wondered why...

Mr. Yeats wrote on Apr 10^th, 2014 at 6:03am:

Yes Yeats...it is the Prince/Gently Weeps performance.
I forgot that Keef and bruce were there...perhaps to their credit they know what a mess 2 more guitars would have been...or maybe they thought of the
spotlight on Prince ( and not them) was not acceptable to them...who know??

The gentle randy dwarf's guitar was shedding tears gentlemanly?

And Bruce Forsyth was in attendance?

Could 'Serious' Andrew do a tap-dance?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_kv2aqVTyA

ROCKS OFF - The Rolling Stones Message Board
http://rocksoff.org/cgi-bin/messageboard/YaBB.pl GENERAL >> MAIN BOARD >> Rolling Stones manager protests Rock Hall of Fame, skips own induction http://rocksoff.org/cgi-bin/messageboard/YaBB.pl?num=1396892068 Message started by Edith Grove on Apr 7^th, 2014 at 12:34pm