Sir Richard Branson has spoken about the pressure he faced after signing Sex Pistols to his record label, comparing the band with Kneecap today, while also having his say on the shifting landscape of the music industry.
Branson spoke to NME ahead of his recent triumph at the inaugural Honours ceremony in London at The Ivors Academy. This saw him recognised for his “extraordinary contribution to music through Virgin Records, signing groundbreaking names and giving songwriters the freedom to innovate and succeed”.
Branson who began his business empire with the mail-order service in 1970, added: “lots of people who helped build the Number One record label in the world” and that the biggest privilege of all was that “the music lives on”.
Speaking to NME, Richard Branson has hailed the impact Sex Pistols had on his record label.
Explaining how the band arrived at their record label, Branson said: “Most of the other labels were very stuffy. The fact that EMI dropped the Sex Pistols because of one swear word on television shows you the era we were living in. A&M, who were supposed to be less stuffy, dropped them the next day".
He continued: "The Sex Pistols really helped propel Virgin and ultimately helped us attract artists like The Rolling Stones, Genesis and Janet Jackson. A lot of massive artists wouldn’t have signed with us if we hadn’t shown our powers at being able to put music on the map. We wanted to build the most credible and successful record label in the world, and the team at Virgin achieved that".
However, Branson did admit that his label faced considerable pressure after he signed the controversial punk rockers.
“Enormous pressure was put on the BBC to stop ‘God Save The Queen’ getting to Number One, and there was no question that it was Number One, and they skewed the charts", he said. "We were prosecuted for the word ‘b*******’. Just the title ‘Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols’ caused outrage. We were at an age not much older than them, we were just having a lot of fun. The more the establishment attacked us, the more we enjoyed it".
Branson was also asked if the hysteria surrounding Sex Pistols from back in the day draws comparisons with controversial rap group, Kneecap.
“Embarrassingly, I haven’t followed it at all, but the more the government overreact, the more successful something is going to be. If they do genuinely feel something is wrong, then you’re just playing into the hands of anybody you overreact against. That certainly happened with Sex Pistols", he said.
Elsewhere, Richard Branson also had his say on the shifting landscape of the music industry.
“If the industry are making ridiculous sums of money, then they should wake up. It’s been consolidated perhaps too much. Independent record labels were what really brought life to the industry. It brought a lot of creativity. If you’re a big company without much competition, then it’s difficult to get your team properly motivated", he stated.
Last month, Sex Pistols and Frank Carter delayed their North and South American tour after guitarist Steve Jones suffered a broken wrist. More on this from Nova here.
