Читать книгу Simon Cowell - The Man Who Changed the World - David Nolan - Страница 5
ОглавлениеWe are backstage at the National Television Awards at the O2 Arena in London’s Docklands. Britain’s TV industry is doing what it does best – glad handing, air kissing and congratulating itself. Business as usual.
In the dressing rooms and communal areas, TV monitors show a feed of what’s happening on stage. In front of an enormous, hyped-up crowd the usual suspects are getting their gongs: Ant and Dec, outgoing Doctor Who David Tennant and Gavin and Stacey writer and star James Corden.
But some of the screens aren’t tuned to the prizegiving: they’re switched to 24-hour news channels. What’s more, they show very different pictures – rolling news images of the horror caused by a devastating earthquake in Haiti eight days earlier, flickering silently as the party gets started for the television stars and their producers.
One man, clutching an award for Most Popular Talent Show, watches the pain on the faces of the Haitian survivors. Even the hardest of hearts can’t fail to be touched by the human disaster that’s on display – and this man’s heart is famously harder than just about anyone’s.
A plan has started to form in his mind and a high-profile event such as this is the perfect opportunity for him to start putting it into action. He holds court, something he is clearly very used to. ‘I’m literally making this up as we go along,’ he tells reporters in a corridor outside the room set aside for press interviews. ‘We’ve put the word out, we’ll see what comes in over the next two or three days. I don’t know who’s available but I will get a record out in the next seven to ten days. The Prime Minister called me a couple of days ago and said if we put a record out he’ll waive the VAT. It’s not the best time because logistically we’re all over the place.’
As the head of a billion-pound music and TV business, this man has a schedule that’s a globally punishing one. As well as picking up television awards in London, he’s fulfilling filming commitments for Britain’s Got Talent around the UK, and the ninth season of American Idol – the last he is to be involved with – has just gone on air in the US. Then there’s the small matter of his music company Syco, with artists such as Susan Boyle, Leona Lewis, Il Divo and Westlife to look after. ‘How difficult is this going to be for you?’ asks one journalist. ‘Not as difficult as the time they’re having,’ he replies, without missing a beat. ‘I will make it happen.’
No one doubts the man for a second. After all, he’s Simon Cowell. He’s changed the world. And he’s about to do it again.
