My First Attempt at the Music Industry… and the Phone Call I’ll Never Forget

Let me tell you a story — my very first brush with the music industry.
It wasn’t recent. Not last year, not ten years ago…
Try the early 1980s. Yes, apparently that’s 45 years ago, which is frankly rude.

Back then, I had this grand idea that I’d become a music impresario — a proper concert promoter. And because I never did things by halves, I thought:

“Right. I’ll bring someone big to Perth.”

Not a local act. Not a mid-tier touring artist.
No, no — Shirley Bassey.
Dame Shirley it had to be.

Now remember: this was before the internet.
Finding someone’s agent meant hunting through directories, ringing switchboards, begging receptionists, and being put on hold long enough to knit a jumper.

But I did it.
Eventually I got the man himself — Shirley Bassey’s agent — on the phone.

I took a breath and went full confidence:

“Hello, I’m calling from Australia. I’m interested in booking Shirley Bassey for a series of concerts at the Perth Concert Hall.”

A pause.
Then he says:

“Who are YOU?”

Now, in my world at that time — my little corner of Perth — I thought I was fairly important. So I answered proudly:

“I’m Peter Pickering.”

Another pause.

And then, with the subtlety of a falling piano:

“Never heard of you.”
CLICK.

Phone dead.
Dream shattered.
Young me sitting there staring at the receiver like it had personally insulted me.

But do you know what?
It taught me something:
You can be a legend in your own postcode… and absolutely nobody in someone else’s.

And yet here we are, decades later, finally doing it — creating the music I’d always imagined. The voices, the stories, the feel of each track… all shaped with intention and heart, and shared with people who connect to it in a genuine way. The best part? They truly do love it.

Funny how life works.

The gatekeepers who slammed the phone down back then?
They don’t exist anymore.
Today, we decide the music.
We build it, produce it, release it, and share it with the world — no “Never heard of you” required.

And who knows…
If that agent were still around and scrolling through YouTube today, he might just stumble on Sessions on the Green and think:

“Hang on… who the hell is this Peter Pickering?”

Turns out… I got into the music industry after all.