I get asked this a lot; yes 16 years ago I was poised to take over EMI. If I had, would my interference have saved the corporation, saved the British music business and the global industry? Of course I think I would have made a huge difference. After all, I did manage to save Eurovision and win it for the UK in 1997. And boost the retail situation by the Record of the Year Show in the late 90s. And revive The Brits after the 1989 fiasco. But perhaps the Napster revolution and the birth of streaming and stealing would still have brought the business to its knees.

I liken it to when they changed Radio One from a mass appeal to a specialist station in the early 90s and I started The Tip Sheet to counter the effects. That really helped.

We shall never know.