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markwatkinsconsumerguide · 5 years

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Consumer Guide / No.88 / author of the UK’s First Bubbling Under Book, ‘Hits That Missed’, Michael Hows (aka Colin Driscoll) with Mark Watkins.

MW : Your new book, ‘Hits That Missed’, was 15 years in the making. Why did you set out on this journey, and what were some of the steps (and obstacles overcome) along the way?

MH : When I retired from a job that involved writing I decided to set myself a project which still involved writing. I had always been interested in 1950’s music and I recall Record Mirror published individual dealer returns from which they compiled the Top 20, but there were many other records that were in these returns that didn’t make the charts, so I set out to log these. I didn’t realise how long it would take and what a difficult journey I would embark on.

MW : Why did it take so long?

MH : I first bought up as many of the pre-1961 Record Mirror’s from ebay as I could costing thousands of pounds to lighten the load, as the only place in the UK where these magazines are located en masse was at The British Newspaper Library at Colindale, London (now at The British Library King’s Cross, London).

Record Mirror, which came out weekly, was published from June 1954 and stopped its published dealer returns in March 1961 (the time span of my book). So there are about 350 magazines to carefully trawl through and log the relevant details and put them on a spreadsheet. I could generally get through about ten Record Mirrors per visit to Colindale, but it was not a quiet library and there were lots of distractions so it was tiring maintaining my concentration at times, often meaning I had to double-check the results. I hate to think how many journeys I made to London using the Northern Line to Colindale tube station. I suppose this labour of love did not make economic sense, but it was a project I was determined to complete - although I did not think it would take 15 years!

MW : What type of support have you received along the way from your publisher?

MH : I was lucky that I quickly found an online publisher called Music Mentor with a fantastic back catalogue of 1950’s & 1960’s music books - and was as committed as myself to the project. Without this support I would not have been able to complete the task, particularly in relation to some of the more obscure entries like Jazz & Irish genres and the biographies of long forgotten artists like Nash Lorraine.

It was decided from the outset that we would include all the information from dealer returns - including Classical, Show, Jazz & World Music - not just the pop stuff which became more dominant post-1955. This was a mammoth (i.e elephant!) task and the mammoth took a lot of nibbling away over many often frustrating months - what we hope we have produced is a historical time capsule of the development of post-war music in the 1950’s and the early days of Rock & Roll in UK which so influenced the Beatles & the Rolling Stones - besides being the first ‘UK Bubbling Under’ (the charts as archived by the Official Charts Company) book. We would have loved to have had the support of the Official Charts Company but all they seem interested in was financial return so in the end we did not include their information.

MW : Tell me about the chosen format of the book…

MH : The experience of Music Mentor was key to the book’s layout and the requirement to condense all the information into a reasonable, understandable and affordable number of pages (428 including copious illustrations).

We followed the ‘US Bubbling Under Format’ and UK chart publications of previous decades but keeping our own individual way of presentation.

MW : How has the book been received so far?

MH : If this Book had been published before the Millennium it would have been great - but the music scene has changed completely over recent decades, so much so that artists like Jerry Lee Lewis, Marty Wilde, Chuck Berry & Little Richard - still household names up to the 1990’s - are now forgotten.

So it is a struggle in what now is perceived as a niche market - it means working harder on marketing and this will take time. I am sure there are still an audience out there both in the UK and abroad for this book as it’s entertaining, educational and nostalgic. It is getting across the fact that HITS THAT MISSED is out there. Every little bit of publicity helps, of course.

Online sites like Twitter and YouTube help to spread the message, but some of the “target audience” (probably post-55) may not have wide internet access. There is targeting magazines like Record Collector & Vintage Rock but advertising in these can be very expensive, unlike in the past these mags like the Official Charts are run as businesses with profit margins clearly in mind. There is no such thing as a free lunch these days and when a book (no matter how important or interesting it might be) will not be a big seller it does not make economic sense to market it via this route

MW : Where can we buy it?

MH : The ISBN for HITS THAT MISSED is 978-0-9562679-9-3 so using this number you can order it through any bookshop or on-line. It is also available from the publisher http://musicmentor0.tripod.com/catalogue.html or from Amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hits-That-Missed-Bubbling-1954-1961/dp/0956267998/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=hits+that+missed&qid=1559723063&s=gateway&sr=8-1

MW : Tell me about your interest in music in general?

MH : My teenage hero was Buddy Holly and I have seen the Buddy Show many times - but as time goes by I have widened my musical interests to include Folk/World/Classical but Rock 'n Roll will always be my passion - and name any rock ‘n roller and I probably have had a record or compilation of his/hers at some time. Nowadays, I rely on Radio, YouTube & Spotify to connect with music, although I still collect obscure UK artists that have not been compiled. My latest search is for Cuddly Dudley ‘Too Pooped To Pop’ - is there a copy or mp3 out there?

MW : What’s your all-time favorite single and LP?

MH : Very difficult -it does change from year to year - but I suppose for single the combination of ‘Raining In My Heart’ c/w ‘It Doesn’t Matter Anymore’ must take top spot - so nostalgic - the posthumous release after Buddy Holly’s death February 1959. LP must be Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ - not a naff track on this superbly crafted album - which is somewhat dismissed now but in 1970 was WOW.

MW : What newspapers do you read and why?

MH: I am embarrassed to say that my wife buys the Daily Mail for the puzzles etc. and I have been known to skip through the pages - particularly the sport - I am an avid and often nervous Southampton football club supporter - so a sympathetic sports’ columnist gets me interested. Otherwise I pinch a Metro from the local bus station or get my news off the TV or internet.

MW: …favourite news presenters?

MH : My favourite news reporter is Norman Smith. My favourite news anchor is Louise Minchin & my favourite weather presenter is Carol Kirkwood. Actually, the only one to wind me up is Piers Morgan (he’s like marmite, I guess).

MW : How do you relax?

MH : I have been forced to relax after a health issue this year. I am concentrating more on walking my ten thousand steps per day and eating at least my 5 portions of rabbit food per day! Besides that, I am still chart-compiling but this work is unlikely to be published. Then there’s surfing the internet, listening to music in the background, holiday planning, tending the garden, and my family to keep up with.

MW : Now you’re in retirement, any regrets looking back? What are you now looking forward to?

MH: I never look back (other than my music) but not in my life - I am a great believer in Doris Day ‘Que Sera Sera - Whatever Will Be Will Be. The only regret is that my book was not published in the heyday of chart archive publications - not really for me, because all I ever wanted was to complete my project, which I have done, and I now have my book on my bookshelf to prove it, but for my publisher, George Groom-White at Music Mentor, who put so much faith, energy, patience and kindness into the project, as well as time and money - he deserves success with this book and I look forward with help from the buying public to deliver it to him.

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