Songwriter Don shares highs and lows of musical memories
An author and retired music entrepreneur has released the second book in his autobiography trilogy.
Black Country-born Don Evitts has recalled his memories of starting work in the industry and his days spent writing songs.
The book titled Beyond My Wildest Dreams covers the years 1971-1985 and is follow up to last year’s From Copper Tops to Mop Tops which covered Don’s early years.
In the book he talks about his success with a song which was performed on Top of the Pops and his time spent working at a record company.
“My book highlights the highs and lows of how a budding songwriter like me started in the music business,” says Don.
“After years of trying to get record companies and publishers interested in my work, without success.
“I suddenly had a breakthrough with three songs released all in the same year, 1975, which were all on different record labels. One of the songs, Do The Buster, made a bit of music history when it was performed on Top of the Pops on New Year’s Day, 1976. Sometimes it’s the case of right place, right time. One of those record companies offered me the job as regional promotions manager.
“Commercial radio stations were in their infancy and just starting to go on air. Most cities had local BBC radio stations which included a mixture of music and chat, but the new commercial stations were geared up to play music all day long.
“Record companies were quick to see the potential in all this and started to employ regional promotion people. Suddenly there was another way of getting music heard if Radio 1 and Radio 2 failed to play their product.
“It was now possible to break a record out of the regions with airplay on these new commercial stations. It was all very new and regional promotion people were looked upon as music pioneers, it was an exciting time,” explains Don, who grew up in Sandwell but now lives in Devon.
As a promotions manager he covered almost the entire country – as far north as Glasgow and Edinburgh, Swansea to the west, Ipswich to the east and everything else in between including his own area, the West Midlands.
Special
“There were three radio stations that I would visit on my patch – BBC Radio Birmingham and BRMB both in Birmingham, and Beacon Radio in Wolverhampton. I attended the launch party at Beacon Radio when it went on air on April 12, 1976. The number one record in the chart that day was Save Your Kisses for Me by Brotherhood of Man.
“Friday was always special because I was local and it became a TV day. My first visit of the day was BBC Pebble Mill and then head over to the ATV studios in Birmingham city centre. This was timed for lunchtime to hang-out in the bar with the Tiswas gang, great memories,” he recalls.
Don later started a music management and production company and also managed Cannock punk band UXB which he talks about in his book. Another one of his many claims to fame is that he promoted the biggest selling 12-inch record of all time.
But he says readers will have to look it up in his book to find out the identity of the song.
“There are lots of humorous stories and photographs included, along with the music and fashions from those times. If you want to relive or discover what it was like working in the music business in the 1970s and 80s then this is a good read,” he says.
Both of Don’s books can be purchased from directly by emailing donevitts@icloud.com or from the Smethwick Heritage Centre website.
