WILD THING by Ian Copeland

"On the Road, In the Studio, Off the Charts Memoirs of... '

Finished Mo 9/25/17 in one early morning push- 315am-4am.

This is one of my hardbacks that I've owned for years, yet never had read. Ian was an agent for all of the 80's New Wave acts that I loved (still do!) in the 80's, and the section dealing with his time in the service was some of the best that I've read on the subject of Vietnam.

NOTES-

He was born in April, 1949 near the city of Damascus in Syria.

His father, Miles Copeland, Jr., was an early 'senior' member of the CIA, and his mother, Lorraine, an archeologist.

In the early sixties he owned several motorcycles and was part of a criminal gang. Had he not left the country to go back to his family in England, he would have ended up in a middle-eastern prison for car theft. Biking around the middle east with his buddies on the eve of of The Six Day War in 1967 was a most interesting part of the book.

In the states after boot camp he was allowed to pick a nickname. He chose 'LeRoi'- 'The King' in French, but no one at Ft. Dix, New Jersey spoke French, so they called him 'Leroy (Coolbreeze)'.  

2 brothers and a sister- Miles III (IRS), Stewart (drummer for The Police, composer), Lorraine- Lennie, writer/producer

He was one of the first to realize that Punk would be a major factor in the record industry. After London, he took a job with an adjunct of Capricorn Records in Macon, Georgia.

Married a woman from Macon, GA and had two daughters

Wishbone Ash and The Average White Band were among his first picks

 A partial list of his very impressive roster-

Members of R.E.M were all personal friends; Drummer Bill Berry was his chauffeur in his Capricorn days.
Charlie Daniels Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers Band,
the B-52's, The Cure, The Police, Simple Minds, The English Beat, and The Go-Go's,the Buzzcocks, Nine Inch Nails, Concrete Blonde, Iggy Pop, General Public, Charlie Peacock, Let's Active, R.E.M., Sting, Morrissey,Adam Ant, the Bangles, the Smiths, the Thompson Twins, the Fixx, UB40, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Oingo Boingo, the Dead Kennedys, and the Cure.

FBI- Frontier Booking International

In the late 1990's he ran Backstage Cafe bar and restaurant in Beverly Hills. This was not in the book, but I found out via Facebook.

He died of Melanoma in 2006