It was all going to be great. But at that moment, with the applause from the last gig still in my ears, the months of intense pressure and burning the candle at both ends, were catching up with me fast. I couldn’t face going to another party, and returned to the hotel alone in my huge white Limo... grateful that for once I could just fall asleep.
After America we flew to Toronto to do even more TV interviews. I could tell I was loosing it slightly by then when I called Canada “North America”, on a Live TV show. Ouch.
Everything seemed primed in the USA. We had management help and the record companies backing. I’d been on MTV, the track was premiering in Ferris Beuller and we were about to go on an interview and promo trip around another 10 U.S cities.
For some reason, EMI, or their label in the States, Manhatten records were reluctant to release the song. They seemed to think they were going to have a huge hit with it already and did not want to compromise that by giving it away in a film. I had no idea of the significance of this. Everyone thought I had all the answers to everything, but in America in particular, I had no idea how to play the game. Everything was alien to me from the way business was done to the way radio was organised. Eventually Manhatten gave in but refused to let the song be on the soundtrack album. It seemed crazy, but with everyone so confident why argue. You can imagine the amount of royalties we lost out on when the film became a huge hit and went on to become a cult classic.
The whole giant video wall show in America looked fantastic. Unfortunately the massive press in Europe, combined with the ever-growing Frankenstein myth about the band, meant a lot of the USA press was already skeptical and forewarned before they even saw the gig. They weren’t going to be taken in by this English scam merchant. That ‘Fleece the World’ t-shirt was coming back to haunt me big time.
New York’s Palladium show was a spectacular evening even if a very young ‘Beastie Boys’ were throwing eggs at us from the balcony. Neal X tried (hopelessly, she swatted him like a fly) to get off with Grace Jones and the gig was completely packed. The video wall performed brilliantly and the band partied in every club in New York.
