Three MainMan people in the last four days, namely Tony Zanetta – the US president of the company – Hugh Attwool, who was British MD, and Laurence Myers, who owned the company Gem and recruited Tony DeFries, the MainMan founder, as his business affairs manager; MainMan was formed by Tony out of Gem, with Myers retaining a piece of the action. Plus a brief interview with Richard Ogden, the music industry PR who was manhandled by Iggy at the Stooges Kings Cross gig in July 1972.

 

Enthralling interviews all; I especially enjoyed the two interviews with Tony Zanetta, who was very good on the structure of MainMan and its people, which defined many subsequent events. Zanetta was present when Bowie and Tony Defries met Iggy for the first time, at Max’s Kansas city in September 1972. Here’s Zanetta’s character sketch of Defries, at the time Iggy was drawn into his orbit.

 

“He was very very detail-oriented. Very thorough. As I said, he was courageous: he could get anyone on the phone, he had that kind of dreamer thing but he wasn't afraid to take action. And he had a real hard-ass side to him: he could be very cold. He had a killer instinct that you need in business: we were all ladida and he wasn't afraid to do what was necessary. Tony gave us tremendous confidence -  if he asked you to do something you wouldn't doubt him. He did create this family, he and Bowie had a very close relationship and discussed everything to death.. they were mutually dependent. Defries made you feel so special. And he did more than that, he put his money where his mouth was.

 

“Jim's opinion of Defries? Well, Danny Fields was a great guy, he was very hip.. but Danny Fields was no manager in terms of taking care of business…Defries could care about being hip, he just cut right to [the chase], you knew he could and would take care of business. I think Jim knew immediately this was a good chance for him.”