THE CONTINUING ADVENTURES OF THE ODD COUPLE…
I was speaking to my longtime friend and business colleague Norman Cheng the other day about where we think we are in our lives and the different ways that different generations look at things. We both agreed that it’s not going to exactly be a walk in the park for the next couple of generations and how the buck stops with them. It’s all theirs with a cherry on top.
We’ve done our part to set the wheels in motion, and if these wheels on fire swerve and get sidetracked, it’s no one else’s f***ing fault other than those needing better driving skills.
“Jack,” said Norman, which is his nickname for me, and Walter being mine for him, “so many people look at us as ATM machines and this must stop. We’ve helped them long enough and they have no idea that we started with nothing. I lost my father when I was 9 years old and started working when 15. You arrived in Hong Kong with your parents to get away from the civil unrest that was starting in Ceylon. We made the most out of what we had, which was nothing”.
Maybe “the doing” was more important than the need for trying to acquire more and more wealth and which gave us a solid base from where to work? We didn’t need to immediately jump into the fire. That came later.
With Norman being Chinese and me being this weird mix of Portuguese and Dutch from Ceylon called a Burgher, we were the results driven odd couple- Jack and Walter- running the Regional offices of Universal and then EMI Music and taking the latter from having a four percent market share in Asia to 24 percent, thanks to the monster hits from the debut albums by Coldplay, Norah Jones and Gorillaz.
We made our culturally spaced out oddity and very different tastes in music and equally different work ethics work for us while learning that we had become our own brands with different USPs.
When seeing the private equity vultures hovering around what appeared to be a weak EMI business model, Norman had seen what lay ahead. He put together a new music company, called it Gold Typhoon and sold it to a Hong Kong Chinese businessman who dearly wanted to be seen as being a mover and shaker throughout the Greater China region.
Norman sold him the necessary tools and retired to having fun playing the horses and the guitar with friends.
While I was hesitantly looking at maybe taking up a new position that was being offered by Universal Music, I was invited by the CEO of the Hong Kong Jockey Club to see what I thought of and could do with something at Happy Valley racecourse called “Sassy Wednesday” with advertising that looked like something for an escort club in Macau.
Sassy Wednesday was deleted and what was created and managed and named Happy Wednesday by me focused on and succeeded in attracting a younger demographic to the races, and which I looked after for twelve years. Regrets, I have a few, because I overstayed my welcome by around six years.
I have always wanted to be a creative anarchist like Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett and Banksy and the Beatles and Bob Dylan and Jim Henson, and with it now being 2026, I see the need for something positively disruptive like a one stop new world order of socially conscious entertainment taking shape.
My Garden Of Hope project is the first seedling, and though wary of rushing into things without proper planning, performing due diligence and ensuring that I have the right people around me, I know how to use my strengths in A&R, advertising, marketing, strategic planning and the different ways to present effective and provocative communications.
I can go it alone and cover all bases reasonably well, but I don’t want to be the lonely sound of one hand clapping.
I need a non AI generated real world team that’s a sounding board though extremely wary and weary of those bearing gifts- not always Greeks.
Experience has taught me that these are usually empty vessels making loud chest pounding sounds that ring hollow.
My interests range from what could be the startup of a very differently shaped virtual entity or a one-off project that has Stephen Colbert host a monthly show from ANYWHERE in Asia- like Sri Lanka or the Philippines.
The idea is to then have this reach everywhere and everyone in America with no fear of bully boy reprisals from Diaper Donnie and those he’s either bought or forced to sell out.
After all these years, I STILL want to bring Noodle from Gorillaz to Beijing and where she meets the young bands out there and performs with them.
I would love to work with something really really really special like the really really really special Jessie Buckley and work on a quirky musical that’s a homage to Diane Keaton.
If you don’t aim high, you have your wings clipped. I like my wings and flights of freedom too much to be anyone’s Kunta Kinte and am always available to be part of The Odd Couple- but without going in reverse.
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