You couldn't have a better training than that Nick loves Ferraris, Roger loves the lifestyle, the big house. But I love drums."There's certainly something very single-minded about his approach to the instrument, as shown by the way he prepared for the Ronnie Scott's gig. "You've got to get your hands back in, otherwise they blister. So from April I put in at least two hours, maybe four hours, every weekend with the drums. Then every night I'd get home at 9pm and play them for an hour. I don't think people realise just what goes into playing."It paid off. The day after the gig he was exultant; then he sank into a depression for two days, worried about how he had played. "Then they gave me the CD, and I thought, 'Actually, that's OK. I didn't fuck it up.' I've proved that I was the world's greatest drummer," he adds with endearing grandiloquence, "which is why I'm now the world's greatest publisher."Staff at the Telegraph might care to note Desmond's connection between the two disciplines, as the man who could end up overseeing their futures draws interesting parallels Publishing, Desmond says, should be fun. "I'm not like some others in the business not so far away from here - first name beginning with Clive, last name beginning with Hollick Running newspapers is the most fantastic fun you could have But it's just the same as a band. Your editor is your lead guitarist, your bass player is your number two, you've got the circulation manager at the keyboard, and you're sitting there drumming, trying to add passion and sparkle and keeping time."Media observers pondering Desmond's suitability as the proprietor of another stable of newspapers gleefully seize on his ownership of such titles as The Very Best of Mega Boobs, Asian Babes and 60 Plus, and his legendarily forceful management style.
These factors, however, did not stand in the way of his acquiring the Express group for £125m three years ago; a year later he had paid back the £97m the banks loaned him to buy the papers. Telegraph employees may shiver at the prospect, but in Desmond they would have a proprietor who is a welcome visitor to Downing Street, and the focus he brought to his drumming might not be bad for the finances either.Desmond thinks his experience working with musicians (as a drummer and as the publisher of International Musician, which he no longer owns) was helpful when he started OK! "We were able to succeed because we understood how to deal with artists Elton and all these guys, we know them. Phil Collins, for instance, apart from the fact that he used to support us on gigs, used to be in our ads saying, 'Subscribe to International Musician'."Lest anyone labour under the misapprehension that making music together means there is no possibility of discord, Desmond points out the value of the learning curve "Playing drums is running a business. I suggest people forget about getting MBAs - get some lessons, get out on the road, get the money out of a promoter when he doesn't want to pay you. What better training could you have than to be 15 or 16, you've driven to Norwich, you're stuck in the back of a van with equipment that's going to kill you if the driver goes too fast, and then the bloke doesn't pay you and you're stuck in Norwich? Which has happened to us all." What do you do then? Pay attention, dear hearts of the Telegraph leader office: "You pin the guy against the wall and you get your fiver out of him. You couldn't have a better training than that."The Express proprietor has a meeting at 11am, an important one that appears to concern the Telegraph (whatever happens, Desmond owns 50 per cent of the printing works the two groups share and is entitled to buy the other half if the papers' ownership changes), but the butler who deposits the banana for his elevenses has already been and gone.Still we talk. |
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