Alan Edwards is the godfather of modern music PR, whose stellar list of clients has ranged over the years from David Bowie to Amy Winehouse via the Rolling Stones, Blondie, Prince and the Spice Girls and, outside of music, David Beckham and Naomi Campbell – now he tells his story.
“Alan wasn’t just there, he was everywhere, as immersed in the world of rock as any of the bold-face names he represented. From glam to punk, from Bowie to Jagger, from small clubs and sweaty pubs to stadiums and enormodomes, Alan saw it all… and wrote it all down. A brilliant book by a brilliant man.”
“A beautiful, warm, jaw-dropping, once-in-a-lifetime, lifting-the-stone guide to a secret world . . . Edwards is an endlessly charming and gently amused companion as he reveals the truth about that lost time when the music was an embarrassment of riches. I loved it. And if the music ever mattered a damn to you, then you will love it too”
I Was There:
Dispatches from a Life in Rock and Roll
By Alan Edwards
Simon & Schuster / HB / 6 June 2024 / £25
I Was There traces Edwards’ career from the thriving punk scene of ’70s London, which inspired him to set up his own PR company, through his work with acts such as Blondie and the Rolling Stones, his collaboration with David Bowie over nearly four decades, his move into the pop world with the Spice Girls, and beyond.
Along the way, we’re treated to all the entertaining tales of debauchery and rock-star antics you might expect, but more uniquely we’re privy to Edwards’ fascinating observations about the brilliant artists he has worked with, and what makes them tick. We also get a front-row seat to the rise of PR as a major force in British society, from the seven-figure media deal Edwards brokered for the Beckhams’ wedding, to the role of spin in the New Labour government.
Even as Edwards grows into the consummate PR, playing a crucial background role in the lives and careers of some of the world’s biggest stars, he retains a powerful sense of being an outsider – never forgetting how lucky he is to look back on decades of music and culture and say, ‘I was there’.
Feature ideas and talking points:
The hippy trail - escaping from the suburbs and travelling the hippy trail age 16 years with no contacts, no mobile phone and barely any money and ending up with typhoid, dysentery and weighing under 7 stone
Entertainment PR in the beginning - a cottage industry that used Hollywood publicists as a blueprint
The British media then, now and the future
On the road with celebrities – being mentored by Mick Jagger; touring the Sistine Chapel with David Bowie; playing football with Beckham; dealing with the Mob in the US; playing Russian roulette with a hells angel in Amsterdam; introducing Shakira to Tony Blair and chatting about Bowie with Bill Clinton
Working with some of the biggest black music legends of all time - Teddy Pendergrass, Luther Vandross, Janet and Michael Jackson and Prince - and racism in the media
Involvement with reggae, and playing football with Bob Marley
The influence of Punk
US coast to coast road trip adventures with punk star Hazel O’Connor, generating ideas to follow the hit movie Breaking Glass
Pioneering the worldwide stadium tour - how The Rolling Stones, and then Bowie, created a whole new industry
Finding a ‘family’ with the Spice Girls, and brokering the famous £1million OK deal for Posh and Becks’ wedding
Alan Edwards is the founder and CEO of public relations firm The Outside Organisation which has represented an eclectic range of clients including the biggest music stars on the planet, corporations and brands, government, royalty, celebrities, charities, events, sports legends and clubs.
Edwards’ 45 year career has seen him work with David Bowie (for nearly four decades), the Who, Victoria and David Beckham, Bon Jovi, Led Zeppelin, Amy Winehouse, Shakira, P Diddy, Britney Spears, Naomi Campbell, the Rolling Stones, Prince, Michael Jackson, Lin Manuel Miranda, Sir Paul McCartney and the Spice Girls, among many others.
Edwards was the third ever inductee to PR Week’s Hall of Fame in 2017, and as of March 2023 has been named the magazine’s number one entertainment PR for nine years running. He is a regular contributor to TV and radio, and has fronted programmes in the Music Moguls and Hits, Hype and Hustle series for the BBC. In 2015 he staged his own show at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, called “Always Print the Myth: PR and the Modern Age”. Among the contributors were Bob Geldof and Alastair Campbell.
“At times in my career I’ve felt like a foreign correspondent, bag packed and always ready to fly off to the next conflict zone. I realised early on that I was a witness to rock and roll history – I was always writing notes on scraps of paper, airline tickets or the backs of my hands. But it was only years later, when I finally sat down to make sense of it all, that I realised I had wandered through some of the most incredible moments in the last half-century of culture.”
For further information or to request an interview or event, please contact:
EMMA FINNIGAN PR
07870 210468 | emma@emmafinniganpr.co.uk | @emmafinnigan | www.emmafinniganpr.co.uk