A night to remember

What an honour. Last night, I received The Ivors Academy Honour, in a room full of music trailblazers, innovators and advocates.

It was a full circle moment - joining the stage with Peter Gabriel, while Tubular Bells played on cue. My acceptance speech was a bit longer than expected, but how could I thank all the people who made Virgin Records what it was in just a few minutes? I also couldn’t help reminding Peter of the time I sprung a surprise performance on him in front of 100,000 people in Cape Town!

The Ivors Academy

It was wonderful to have some Virgin Records legends in the room with me, such as Stephen Navin and Richard Griffiths. Some - such as Simon Draper, Donald “Jumbo” Vanrenen, Steve Lewis, Nik Powell, and Jeremy Lascelles - were at the forefront of my mind the whole evening. I was lucky enough to have my family there too, who I have everything to thank for.

The Ivors Academy

Music has been integral to all our Virgin companies, from radio stations to megastores, spacelines to airlines, and the Virgin Music label championing new artists today. Indeed, it was so wonderful to see RAYE up on stage - reminiscing on a time she wrote and performed a song at 30,000 ft on a Virgin Atlantic flight.

It was a joy to see Jon Platt at the awards as well. He thanked me for the way I put trust in people. But when you’re surrounded by the best people in the industry and most talented musicians - trust becomes easy.

Trust was also necessary. My first step in the music industry began when I was 15, and I didn’t know anything. I had left school to start Student, a magazine to give young people a voice. Very quickly, I realised that musicians and artists were the ones getting our ideas out there most passionately and effectively.

The Ivors Academy

I was soon nervously carrying a tape recorder bigger and heavier than myself into a room to interview Mick Jagger. I left with the idea that I’d love to work with him one day…

We started a mail order record company out of the back of Student, which rapidly grew into a larger business than the magazine. When a postal strike threatened to bankrupt us, we found an empty space above a shoe shop on the cheap end of Oxford Street (yes, there was a cheap end in those days!) and opened our own record store.

Virgin.com

We expanded Virgin Records shops all over the country and then bought a run-down country house to convert into a recording studio called The Manor. There, we were handed a demo tape by a teenage genius called Mike Oldfield. The moment I heard it, I knew the world needed to hear it too.

We took it to all the major labels and got rejection after rejection. So, we decided to launch our own record label to put out the album. As I told the room last night, we have this rejection to thank for Virgin Records. Without it, the label may never have existed. Proof that a bit of rejection certainly is healthy!

Virgin

We had our break when John Peel came to the houseboat that we lived on and I played the record to him. He loved it so much that he dropped all other records from the show that night and he played the whole album. When I mentioned John's name in my speech last year, the room erupted in cheer.

I sent the record to him, and he loved it so much he played the entire record on his radio show. Tubular Bells went on to soundtrack The Exorcist and become one of the best-selling records of the 70s.

Empowering that one young artist kick-started the whole Virgin brand. We had so many incredible periods with Virgin Records, from punk rebellion with The Sex Pistols, to new wave with Culture Club, to girl power with The Spice Girls. Oh, and reggae too. Last night I reminisced on how we signed Peter Tosh in Jamaica. Let's just say it involved a spliff the size of a baseball bat.

Bold Man Media

Thanks to some extraordinary artists and some very unorthodox ways of signing them, we created the world’s biggest independent record label.

When we started Virgin Atlantic in 1984, Lord King of British Airways called me “too old to rock and too young to fly”. Seven years later, after several failed attempts, and one thwarted attempt to kill Keith Richards, Virgin Records finally signed Mick Jagger and The Rolling Stones. The press said The Stones were too old then as well. That was 35 years ago – and counting.

I’m sure it’s their music and imagination that keep Mick and the band young. The inspiration I get from the creative people that have always powered the Virgin Group keeps me young too.

I never had musical talent – but I did know how to empower those who were blessed with it. We gave them the space, we gave them the platform - then we got out of their way so they could create magic. Finally, we had a blast promoting it, to ensure the world heard all about it.

Image by Virgin Records

Thinking back on last night and on the last fifty years, I have realised something. Music is all about taking a chance, seizing the moment, and having fun together. My philosophy for our brand, and for life in general, is to say ‘screw it, let’s do it’. The honour I received last night was on behalf of everyone who has brought that spirit to Virgin, to their music, and to all our lives.