The “gangsterish” charm of Andrew Loog Oldham and Immediate Records, by Simon Spence

The godfather of British independent labels, Immediate, was started in 1965 by the Stones’ manager Andrew Oldham and Tony Calder, its winning slogan: “happy to be part of the industry of human happiness”. As Simon Spence correctly puts it, “it all got very messy”. Oldham tended to fall out with people and then threaten to kill them. Simon’s excellent book, ‘Immediate: the Rise And Fall of the UK’s First Independent Record Label’ has the details (he also co-authored Oldham’s two memoirs, ‘Stoned’ and ‘2Stoned’). Immediate has been a touchstone ever since and their roster included the Small Faces, PP Arnold, the Nice, the Who, Fleetwood Mac, Twinkle, Scott Walker and various others discussed here. Also includes … … “no Andrew Oldham, no Rolling Stones.” … the part played by Tony Hancock’s doctor. … “if you didn’t want to be ripped off, why are you in the music business?” … the range of Immediate’s catalogue from Nico and Rod Stewart to the Turtles and Jimmy Tarbuck. … an advert for the Nice involving three assassinated politicians.   … the time Oldham left his hairdresser in charge of A&R. … Don Arden, the Small Faces and £25,000 in a paper bag. … a secretly recorded blues album and why Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page fell out. … why Oldham wanted to poison the Nice and murder Amen Corner. … invaluable advice from Phil Spector. … and why Immediate finally fell apart. Order Simon’s book here …https://www.backstage-books.co.uk/Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21 Soho on Oct 30th: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/ysY3FvyFaeSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Mark Ellen and David Hepworth have been talking about and writing about music together and individually for a collective eighty years in magazines like Smash Hits, Mojo and The Word and on radio and TV programmes like "Rock On", "Whistle Test" and VH-1.Over thirteen years ago, when working on the late magazine The Word, they began producing podcasts. Some listeners have been kind enough to say these have been very special to them. When the magazine folded in 2012 they kept the spirit of those podcasts alive in regular Word In Your Ear evenings in which they spoke to musicians and authors in front of an audience. Over these years they've produced hundreds of hours of material. As of the Current Unpleasantness of 2020, they've produced yet hundreds of hours more with a little help from guests kind enough to digitally show them around their attics such as Danny Baker, Andy Partridge, Sir Tim Rice and Mark Lewisohn. For the full span of the Word In Your Ear world, visit wiyelondon.com. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.