Life on Two Legs - Norman Sheffield's Autobiography

^^ LOL, owned

^ what they said.

I hope i'm not missing something obvious here, but why do there appear to be two rocknrolllovers posting under the same username with different post counts?

Preview available. Some typos, of course, but looks like it will be a good read:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/books/dp/0957513305#_

www.lifeontwolegs.com

First press:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/event/article-2368614/Queen-Freddie-Mercury-felt-like-god-Then-started-behaving-like-man-signed-band.html

[QUOTE] [b]tomchristie22 wrote:[/b]

I hope i'm not missing something obvious here, but why do there appear to be two rocknrolllovers posting under the same username with different post counts? [/QUOTE]

It's really something of a mystery. I could say that someone set up an account with the same username and put the same profile picture but I would be wrong in fact, because the second account was set up on the same day as Anton's main account. Hence I get confused. It could be a bug of QZ... unless you can set up an account on this forum using someone's username which will result in having their date of registration and some other basic info as yours.

Inu linger under my username because he hates meso much

Your lies have about as much merit as Mitt Zombie, er, I mean Romlie, um...

Anyways, that you can't even prove your accusation set aside, you're coming down for a review soon enough. If I were you, I'd get my virtual suitcase on the ready just in case ;-)

[QUOTE] [b]Lostman wrote:[/b]

[QUOTE] [b]tomchristie22 wrote:[/b]

I hope i'm not missing something obvious here, but why do there appear to be two rocknrolllovers posting under the same username with different post counts? [/QUOTE]

It's really something of a mystery. I could say that someone set up an account with the same username and put the same profile picture but I would be wrong in fact, because the second account was set up on the same day as Anton's main account. Hence I get confused. It could be a bug of QZ... unless you can set up an account on this forum using someone's username which will result in having their date of registration and some other basic info as yours.[/QUOTE]

Just one more reason this board should switch out its bulletin board system for something much more modern and reliable. I wouldn't be surprised if the ability to copycat a username was accidentally enabled during some "bug fix", that certainly was not possible a very long time ago.
I'd be concerned about privacy invasions at this rate if this board doesn't get all it's holes plugged up OR replaced...

He's on BBC Radio London today. I will upload it later if anyone wants.

OK, so it just hit me that, never mind some other parts of that excerpt that was posted reeks of potential revisionism, I have an extremely hard time believing this bit: [QUOTE]"I did see him once, in the years following our fallout, in 1986, when I took the family to their Knebworth concert. He was friendly, as if the rows of the past were forgotten. It turned out to be their last live concert, which meant I was at their first and last." [/QUOTE] I am highly cynically doubtful that Norman Sheffield could have even possibly seen Queen on their very first show back in 1970, particularly given that he only met the band well after John was part of the established line-up! Anyone else smell cash grab bullshit?

Would the band have invited Sheffield to Knebworth? Most likely not
Coudl he have bought tickets himself (or blagged them via a contact)? Very possibly
Would the band have allowed him backstage to meet them? My guess would be no

There are two sides to every story (and Brian's version of events is just that, one version), but I am very doubtful of a lot of Sheffield's reecollection of things.

He has repeated the Killer Queen was a number one hit. It wasn't.

But I do believe the Knebworth tale and the way it was resolved. They had bigger problems then.

On the plus side, it's very readable, entertaining, informative and, as it's been said already by other reviewers, it tells the story of a legendary studio and legendary recordings and artists. It's quite nice that he speaks highly of people who weren't necessarily nice to him, and he also admitted his intentions were far from altruistic (why should they be? He and his family needed to make a living), while at the same time defending himself from accusations he's received over the years because of hearsay. There's obviously many sides of every story, and it's good to know his.

It's sort of a trend to vilify music executives and treat them as the worst people on earth, whilst ignoring, overlooking or underrating the importance they have for the industry itself. In a way I guess it makes rock artists more popular when they slam labels and managers... in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if that's often on the advice of said labels and managers as that'll make the artists look 'cooler' and more rebellious and then they'll sell more and everyone will benefit from that. Whether we like it or not, when artists sign up with a company (recording, publishing, distributing, whatever) they become employees and the executives are the investors. Without them, there's no product, no matter how talented the artists are and how much effort they put on writing, arranging and performing the songs.

Having said that, there's one aspect that did disappoint me about the book and is that a lot of the so-called facts are just regurgitated from internet (or old magazine reports). Urban legends, such as 'Bo Rhap' having been played fourteen times by Kenny Everett (Everett officially claimed in 1976 he'd 'only' done it four times), seemed to have been copied and pasted without any sort of verification, thus marring the whole point of what 'setting the record straight' should have been.