THE man who signed Madonna has shared some of the secrets of his success at Liverpool Sound City’s music conference.

Seymour Stein, co-founder of Sire Records, was keynote speaker on the second day of the conference, which has attracted delegates from all over the world to discuss the music industry’s past, present and future.

Stein, who also signed Echo and the Bunnymen, was joined onstage by that band’s singer Ian McCulloch, who also told stories from his life in music.

Stein told how he signed Madonna in 1982. He had heard her song, Everybody, and wanted to meet her, even though he was in hospital, but was surprised to take a call saying she would be visiting him in just a few hours’ time.

Stein said: “I was in my hospital bed. I hadn’t shaved. I was wearing a gown with a slit down the back. I was hooked up to machines.

“I called my assistant and said ‘can you go back to my house and get pyjamas and a bathrobe?’. I called my father and asked if he could cut my hair.

“When she got there, she couldn’t have cared if I was lying in a coffin on the bed, as long as my hand was there. She wanted a deal because she believed so much in herself.

“If it was Halloween at midnight and the shortest way to where she wanted to go was to walk through a graveyard at midnight, she’d take that route. But I love her – she’s a great lady, very fair, and probably the artist I’ve had least trouble with. She’s amazing and she’s still doing it.”