IβM INTO SOMETHING GOOD
A CONVERSATION WITH HARVEY LISBERG
Since the beginning, the rock βnβ roll manager has always been almost as important as the bands/artists they represented. Starting with Colonel Tom Parker through to Brian Epstein, Andrew Loog Oldham, Peter Grant, all the way through Grenville Collins and Robert Wace. And in the middle of them all was the very busy Harvey Lisberg.
Harvey Lisberg broke onto the scene managing Herman and His Hermits, who became Hermanβs Hermits. He went on to manage more artists, including 10cc, Wayne Fontana and The Mind Benders, and Barclay James Harvest. He has finally written his memoir in the wonderful book, Iβm Into Something Good: My Life Managing 10cc, Hermanβs Hermits and Many More!.
Mr. Lisberg has many stories and has been involved with many aspects of the history of rock. It seems surprising that he has taken so long to write his story. βAll my life Iβve been a raconteur of stories. All the strange things that happened to me, lots of which I didnβt think anybody would believe. The stories were too bizarre, too way out. So I phoned up a friend of mine, Charlie Thomas, who had made a documentary on 10cc, which was excellent, for the BBC. I said, βwould you mind coming over, stay at my house for a while, take down all the stories, and maybe writing it up?β I had no idea he was a journalist. I knew he had been a presenter on Sky sports. He said, βI would love to do that.β. He came over, recorded all the stories and we get along really well. The same humour, we both love sports and we both love the same kind of music. And coincidently, he was at Knebworth in the audience when the concert I recollected in the prologue of the book, so we got both sides of the story.β
The Knebworth story that Lisberg is referring was an incredible experience for 10cc. They were to go on before The Rolling Stones, but because they needed more time, they insisted that 10cc delay their set as well. also 10cc also encountered many technical problems.
βI have been thinking about it, and thinking βwhy, why did it happen? Why didnβt the promoter just not let us perform? Most of the audience was there to see The Rolling Stones, at least 99%. I think he knew The Rolling Stones werenβt ready to go on and he wanted to use 10cc to kill the time. No one wants to wait five hours for the headliner. It wasnβt 10ccβs fault, thatβs for sure, the control of the board was handled by the headliner, he was in control of the sound. There was no way 10cc could perform if they couldn’t hear their voices. With their four-part harmonies, it is just too much to ask for, really. They were perfectionists as well.β
However, before he managed 10cc, he managed another successful band. βIt started with Herman and The Hermits, who became Hermanβs Hermits. We had a string of acts that followed, it was an exciting time, the most exciting time of my life. You know, the 60s, with the British Invasion and the explosion of music, it was euphoria all way round. In the fashion, the youth revolution, everything changed. It was a great time to be alive.β
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The first thing was finding a band that he could promote. Lisberg was based in Manchester, so he looked to local talent. So, the next logical step was to set up a talent contest. One band entered, Herman and His Hermits. β I was writing songs and none of the local groups in Manchester accepted them, so I got my own group and set up a talent competition.Β Peter Noone [of Hermanβs Hermits] was a personality. He was a 12-year-old and a TV star on Coronation Street and was a very happy person. He had a solid background. Peter had a band, and I went to see them. They did the usual set that most bands do, but after each number about 50 girls charged the stage. I thought I had won the national lottery. I found out later that they planted friends in the audience. But we went back to his house, started playing some songs. He said, βDo you want to join the band?β I said βNo, I just wanted to manage it.β And thatβs how it started. We had phenomenal success with βIβm Into Something Goodβ, which went to number oneβ
βI was an accountant, going out of my mind. In fairness, the firm I was looking for was very sympathetic to my craziness because I would be booking Hermanβs Hermits and they allowed me the opportunity to get this band going. I was doing my finals in accountancy, in a cram course in Wales, because I was so busy messing around with the music thing that I didnβt keep up with my work. So, I had to cram to get through the exams. I got a call from MGM in America to say βIβm Into Something Goodβ was going up the charts in America and had been number one in England. I was in a dilemma, and I said to my father βI have to have a go at this. I can always go back to accountancy afterwardsβ. So, he said βletβs give it a shotβ, and I was lucky and worked hard. Nobody believed in the band, Then the record went to number one. Their second record died, and I had feelings of βdid I make a mistake here.β And then the next record flew up to number two and went on to have 12 hits, after which my friends stopped decrying me for being a manager and started comparing me to Epstein.β
The comparison to Brian Epstein is very apt. Epstein had his stable of Liverpool groups, including The Beatles, while Lisberg joined forces and represented their artists as well in Manchester. And any soccer fan knows, there is a rivalry between the two cities in sports and music.
The list of artists Lisberg was involved with is incredible. One musician/writer he did manage was Graham Gouldman, who would go on to be a member of 10cc. A group that Lisberg managed and was very successful. β10cc were basically a studio band, because Graham and Eric (Stewart) owned Strawberry Studios, a Manchester Studio, and they were a very successful studio. And 10cc would act as session musicians at the studio and then the four of them were always in the studio. They werenβt prepared to think about their image, they just wanted to get their sound right. A thing that hurt them very greatly. It prevented them from going into the A1 stratosphere, although they were from a critical point of view. The music press thought they were fantastic. But they werenβt selling out stadiums like Pink Floyd or anybody like that. They didnβt have that grassroots following and they werenβt really interested in it.β
Writing the book became very important to Lisberg. He was finally able to get his stories down and learn some new ones. βThe book changed my life because I didnβt do that much research, I just told stories. Afterwards I wanted to confirm that I was accurate, and I found out new stories that I had no idea happened and explanations. Like when we [Hermanβs Hermits] met Elvis Presley. I could never understand why three members werenβt in the photograph. Well, apparently, what I didnβt remember, is apparently they (Elvis and the Colonel) kept changing the time. We were in Hawaii after an extremely long American tour, and the boys got fed up because they kept changing the time. And they said, βRight, weβre going home. Itβs not going to happen; you are not going to meet him.β So, they never met Presley. They lived to regret that one and I just learned it. But I had a colourful life, it was very entertaining.β
SPILL BOOK REVIEW: HARVEY LISBERG WITH CHARLIE THOMAS – IβM INTO SOMETHING GOOD: MY LIFE MANAGING 10CC, HERMANβS HERMITS AND MANY MORE!
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