Cash, cocaine and chaos – The mad, bad ’90s music biz with author John Niven

Diving deep into all things ’90s. The music business’s last hurrah of excess, extravagance and super-colossal expense accounts came in the ’90s – and John Niven was in the front row as an A&R man* at era-defining label London Records. His experiences of trying to sign the next big thing in a cloud of money and “stimulants” became the cult book and movie Kill Your Friends (the British American Psycho). What was it all like? John joins Miranda to talk Goldie, lengthy expense accounts, All Saints, Jarvis at the Brits, the terror of not finding a hit, rubbing shoulders with Oasis, becoming James Dean Bradfield’s “Fun Bobby’, and how on earth they got away with it. [* A&R men are the people who find and schmooze the talent, and pay for the “fruit and flowers”] • Hear more on Hit That Perfect Beat – The London Records Story, out now. • Want an extra mini-pod every two weeks, early ad free episodes and access to merch? ⁠Support us on Patreon Follow us on: BlueSky Instagram TikTok Subscribe to our Spotify playlist • All Saints and Goldie photos: Getty Images • Buy Miranda’s book Uncommon People: Britpop and Beyond in 20 Songs (or John’s!) through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll be helping the podcast by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too. • Advertisers! Want to reach smart, engaged, influential people with money to spend? (Yes, they do exist). Some 3.5 MILLION people download and watch our podcasts every month – and they love our shows. Why not get YOUR brand in front of our influential listeners with podcast advertising? Contact ads@podmasters.co.uk to find out more. Written and presented by Miranda Sawyer. Produced by Liam Tait. Audio and video production by Tom Taylor. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group editor: Andrew Harrison. Music by Soniq Branding from Artlist. Talk ’90s To Me is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices