Stones Ex-Manager
Likes Remy Shand More Than The Strokes
Andrew Loog Oldham. Interesting name. Interesting man. Living legend. This was the guy who, by the time he was 19, had already been the Beatles press agent and the manager and producer of The Rolling Stones. His tenure with the Stones extended from 1963 until the end of 1967 and it's because of him that we heard of the group at all. Forget about their last two decades — grab all of their '60s recordings (to be remastered for August!!) and see why they were indeed the real bad-asses of rock ‘n’ roll. Back to Oldham — he was a purveyor of hip; creating one of the first boutique record labels (Immediate Records) in existence. He's been a recluse since, like, forever and then turned up in South America to produce Argentinean rock records. He's also coming to Toronto to be the Keynote speaker at this year’s NXNE. On the phone from Connecticut and no doubt wearing the coolest wraparounds ever made: Ladies and Gentleman! Andrew Loog Oldham… ChartAttack: You're coming up to Toronto to speak at the NXNE conference. What for? Andrew Loog Oldham: Well, I live in South America in Columbia, so this is a wonderful opportunity to stay in touch. You get to touch those who are on the way in. You get the fresh approach. If I was a vampire, you could say I got blood! In your speech, what would you impart to young musicians and artists? I’m more interested in what they can impart to me. I come for the education, the two-way street. I expect to get off an audience what I get off an act. I mean, it’s a divine exchange of data, and it keeps me informed what I can inform them of, as everything goes in cycles. We are back, basically, to the (same) form when I came into the record business except the zeros are more, but the game’s the same and just as lame and just as great. I understand you are bringing a film called "Charlie Is My Darling." What exactly is that? It’s a movie that I made with the Stones in 1966. It’s a movie that I’m bringing that I think is edu-taining. Having said that, have you been following the current music trends with respect to the resurgence of rock ’n' roll? Well, what it means is that the young people got older and started buying back catalogue. Isn’t it? Well, what I'm referring to is the emergence of raw rock and roll bands such as The Strokes and The White Stripes. I’m afraid I am more familiar with the names. I’m not (following the current trends). I get the pictures and I want to hear Remy Shand. OK, let’s do a bit of history then. You started working for the Beatles and their manager Brian Epstein. How old were you? Let me see, 1962, I was 18. What was it like working for Brian Epstein? Well, at that time, London and Liverpool was as far away as Buenos Aires and Alaska. People only made long-distance phone calls either to announce a death or maybe a birth. Therefore, Liverpool being a longways away from London, he needed somebody to pound the streets for the Beatles and after that Gerry And The Pacemakers and Billy J. Kramer ‘cause I worked for all of those during the six months I worked for him. I handled the press in London. I thought he was a great example as a manager, and when I come up and talk, he’ll be one of the examples I’ll be talking about in that he had a kind of devotion and a relationship with the artist which is something I hope that I can share and get across. I mean, the idea of the experiences that I have to share are not present-time, but they are things to be grabbed a hold of and used, the same way I was studying at the throne of success. At 19, you first saw the Rolling Stones in Richmond. What was that experience like? Well, I just had a complete wave of totality come over me that was everything. It was a cash machine, a sex-machine, a bank machine, a life machine, a support machine. I saw and knew what my life had been about; what it had been for. It was to get devoted to the Rolling Stones. I had no idea what R ‘n’ B was, which was probably good because I had no point of reference. Had I had an opinion, it might have been subjective and I might have passed on them… Tomorrow, part two of Andrew talking about his further adventures with the Stones and more… —Paul Kehayas --------------------- Oldham Loves Bittersweet Symphony
In Part Two of ChartAttack’s interview with ex-manager Andrew Loog Oldham, (this year’s keynote speaker at NXNE) Paul Kehayas gets further goods from the man who gave us The Rolling Stones. Today he talks more about the Stones and about "Bittersweet Symphony." Take it away, Andy… ChartAttack: You’ve been credited with some impressive publicity creations, such as the "Would you let your daughter marry a Rolling Stone?" headline. Andrew Loog Oldham: I didn’t invent that! Life is not inventing, it’s seizing. The moment becomes yours because you are the person who realized what it was. The statement actually came from an editor for the Melody Maker and it wasn’t even a statement. It was part of a sentence, the same way great songwriters just seize things that we say and state half-sentences that we say and don’t notice. What about the first Stones album? It was considered revolutionary for the time with just a picture of the band on its cover, no band name. It was a brilliant move. It is a managerial sweep in that you have a certain amount of time to get the record company to fall in love with you and/or notice you; and that was part of that device. What would you rate as the most essential Rolling Stones records? Well, I loved Between The Buttons and Aftermath because they were Mick and Keith arriving at controlling their song domain and having got it right after going through the natural process of songwriting which is soppy ballads, then less than soppy ballads and then getting it down to where you learn how to understand and complete the national anthem part; the brainwash part. It's where you graduate from stealing the parts out of three of your favourite songs and putting it together and getting into something slightly more subtle. Those two albums were the end product of that accomplishment. The writing on those two albums is just wonderfully diverse, entertaining, sardonic and commercial. How do you feel about the separate British and American issues of the Decca/London records? (They had different track listings with the English singles being placed onto the albums by removing some tracks and playing about with the track listing) Does it tick you off that London mucked with them? Well I didn’t give a fuck quite frankly ‘cause you arrive in America and there are certain things you have to do the way that Americans do it, where it was completely not understandable to us to put "hits" onto an LP. Why was that? Because they had already bought it as a single. It would be thought of as selling somebody short if you put the A-sides and the B-sides on albums, whereas the American record companies regarded it as a given. What was your opinion of the sample of "The Last Time" that The Verve used as the basis for "Bittersweet Symphony"? (This was taken from the recording by The Andrew Oldham Orchestra in 1966.) Well I thought it was wonderful to be part of another national anthem in present-time which is played the crap out of at every football match. It was in Nike. It was in the film Cruel Intentions. And you can’t ask to be sampled better than when somebody takes your recording and makes it their backing track. So it is a definite thumbs-up then? Oh, it’s fabulous! I was pleased with a magazine where, because of that recording, I was put along with other people who I revere like Isaac Hayes and Barry White as one of the top five sampled people of all time. I mean, it’s not bad for Andrew Oldham Orchestra! (laughs) I understand that you digitally mastered "The Rolling Stones Singles Collection: The London Years box. How did it feel, re-living your past? It gave me a complete nervous breakdown. I was still living the other life at the time, so I didn’t handle it as well as I would have handled it now. It was the first time I’d come in touch with my original work in that form and it was quite devastating. Are you proud of the work that you did on it? Yeah! Most certainly. It was a pioneer move, ‘cause at that time, I did it between 1985 and 1987 and the record companies once again were trying to keep the rock ‘n’ roll upstarts out saying, "Oh no, no, no. You can’t do mastering!" And if you heard some of the records, I mean, some of the worst examples of [mastering] at the time were Bobby Darin or Abba. It was just awful. So we went to Hanover to do it and I lucked out by finding a former sound engineer who had done Stones cuts. In those years they were only letting classical people remaster albums. What was your impression of Brian Jones near the end? [The first Stones guitarist, found dead in his swimming pool in 1969.] If [actor] Charles Laughton could have come back and been in Spinal Tap, he would have played Brian Jones. If a cat has nine lives, they made a mistake with Brian and gave him 10! He unfortunately decided on his path and nothing was going to get in the way of him completing it. Any Stones you still keep in contact with? I had a very pleasant dinner with an ex-Rolling Stone, Bill Wyman in January. Outside of that, you don’t run into your first wife that often… Tomorrow in Part 3, we will find out about how Andrew Loog Oldham introduced The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds to the Beatles and about his indie label Immediate Records. —Paul Kehayas --------------------- Oldham On McCartney Hearing Pet
Sounds Connection
In Part 3 of our interview with pioneer Svengali Andrew Loog Oldham, the subject of the groundbreaking record label Immediate Records is examined, as well as the occasion when he turns on Paul McCartney to The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds. The action of which resulted in a splendid time that was guaranteed for all! How’s that for artistic impact? Then read on… ChartAttack: Let’s talk about Immediate Records. It now has the legacy of being one of the coolest pioneering indie record companies in that it promoted creative growth in their artists and a sense of adventurism in promotion. When you set about creating it, what was your aim? Andrew Loog Oldham: Nothing as high tone as that. It was just a way of controlling product; removing Deccas from my life and having the record company behave like more than a factory. But it wouldn’t have been possible if I hadn’t had my Rolling Stones money to put into it. Any favourite recordings from the Immediate label? The Small Faces stuff and Duncan Brown. That’s about it. What about the Billy Nichols record ("Would You Believe") that has people paying upwards of $2,500 for it? Well, he sounds like a castrated sheep on most of it. It’s very hard. I recorded Del Shannon the same year in ’67 and it has been complimented by people going "Oh, man, y’know, it’s like the other year’s Pet Sounds!" Well, you know, I know how many drugs we took to make those records and therefore I know how many drugs Brian Wilson took to do Pet Sounds, which kind of gives you a different viewpoint now if you’re not in that way. I look at it very coldly, so I don’t think that any music that reaches 800 people is that great. In mentioning Brian Wilson, I understand that many Immediate artists covered Beach Boys songs. Yeah, like Tony Rivers and the Castaways. Well to start with, you’ve got to remember that at that time, before global warming, we only had three weeks of sun in England. So those records had a profound effect on your life if you heard them in February! (laughs) No, I’m not only going to be that facetious. Brian Wilson was a babe in arms. An American virgin, OK? I didn’t have the luxury of enjoying the love songs of the Beatles because as I said, they were the other guys who we had to look out for; they were the only top boys on the block. The rest were dependent upon other things. But The Beach Boys were so far away. Brian Wilson’s great gift is that he didn’t mind writing that he was fucked up; he hadn’t got to first or second base in a satisfactory way with women, whereas everybody else was going "I’m 21 and king of the mountain." Well, Brian Wilson had the wonder to write: It’s not like that, I’m still a little boy lost in the land of the womb. Is it true that you were the first person to play Pet Sounds for Paul McCartney and John Lennon? It was just Paul McCartney. He was at my house waiting for a gentleman named Lou Adler, who produced Carole King and The Mamas And The Papas, to arrive in London with an acetate. What was his reaction to it? They have an English expression where people are "gobsmacked." Basically we were gobsmacked, probably had another cup of tea and another joint. I don’t know whether Paul admits to those things anymore… Also, you’ve just heard somebody move the game to a new level by basically, not just cutting a clever album, but showing you can have — it’s one of the top recordings after Lenny Bruce — where you’ve got an album of singles. Is it still a favourite of yours? No. My favourite album of the moment is Juanes. He’s from Columbia and he’s on Universal. Y’know, I can’t be like Rock Hudson, watching my old movies and other people’s movies on a Friday night; it’s a sure way to die early. I don’t play any of The Rolling Stones. That (Juanes) is what I’m listening to now. What else am I listening to? Well, I saw a video the other day of Remy Shand. He’s Canadian. Is he? Well isn’t that amazing. Well, I just thought it was terrific. You know, you can tell I like young blood! —Paul Kehayas Tomorrow in our final installment, Andrew Loog Oldham speaks about his book from last year, "Stoned," as well as where he’s been in the last decade or so, and what he feels about the state of the biz now. --------------------- Oldham And The Stones: Like
Celine Without The Baby
In today’s fourth and final installment, ex-Stones manager/producer Andrew Loog Oldham speaks out about the state of his now-defunct Immediate Records, as well as as his book Stoned (riveting reading for anyone interested in finding out how the rock ‘n’ roll universe as we know it was hand-carved) as well as his most recent activities. Read on… ChartAttack: Last year you posted a message on your website saying you were trying to find a home for distribution of Immediate Records reissues. What's going on? Andrew Loog Oldham: See I was in court and by English legal standards, I lost completely in my effort to get myself the 95 per cent of the artists and the 100 per cent of the producers paid royalties for the Immediate recordings. I was unable to do that. The archaic English system allows companies to go into liquidation with no effort to protect the royalty rights by contracts that are set up and have been drawn up and signed for the artists to carry on getting royalties and the producers to get royalties on the CDs, cassettes and vinyl that are sold. I was unable to rectify that and it is a disgusting, unethical situation that will carry on existing. I have withdrawn from that fray, unable to clear my universe. Your book Stoned ends at 1964 with the arrival of the Beatles in America. Why that event as a cut-off? All the time that I spent thinking about writing — which is a long time — I always had three endings. One would be "…and then I met The Rolling Stones." — which would be a little cheeky. The second one is what you’ve got in the book. And the third one was going to be "… and then we recorded 'Satisfaction'." The book’s ending found itself when I was doing the writing. It just said, like a recording, "Fade me now, Andrew, I’m done." "2Stoned" is the name of the sequel and that will take us into 1967… Well, yes. It picks up from Stoned, runs through the end of ’67 and my leaving The Rolling Stones. But like in movies it also has "jump-cuts" in which I move time and show you what happened to me and other people and other situations as a result of that "Summer of Love." Will 2Stoned be written in the same style as Stoned? You mean with "voices?" Most certainly yes. Is the manuscript complete? Yes. I finished it. It’s out in England in October. What do you think of the current pop scene? Your Britneys, your Christinas and your *NSYNCs? I don’t follow it. She [Britney Spears] did "Satisfaction." I’m sure that put a couple of balls of spaghetti on my table! Fortunately I don’t get blinded by written data about how untalented these people are. Hey, if they’ve got a hit song and you can whistle it in the car, or you whistle it in the bathroom, then nothing’s changed. And all of these artists you’re talking about have all managed to do that otherwise we wouldn’t be talking about them! I like pop, y’know. Are you still producing these days? No, I’m not. I was producing a lot in Argentina up until it became apparent that the economy was going to change. I had a great time producing there for about six years with a group called Los Ratones Paranicos, which in English is "Paranoid Mice." Were they a rock band? Oh yeah. They were The Rolling Stones of South America. In fact they appeared with them in ’94. Basically all I had to do was upgrade my technical capacity and I was home. I want to thank you Mr. Oldham for this has been a mind-blowing opportunity to speak to you. One final question – If you were 19 again and you were examining the pop landscape, do you think that the climate would be right to find another band and conquer the world? Always! If you’ve got the boots to kick down the door, all you need is to see the thing that gives passion to your third eye and you’ve got the goods. It can absolutely happen to anybody as long as the marriage is perfect and made on solid ground. That’s the wonder of the game. I mean, c’mon, Celine Dion and her husband, in a perverse way; it’s the same combination, except the Stones and I didn’t have babies! Any regrets? Any regrets? You’ve heard my voice, do I sound like I have regrets? You sound like you’re having a wonderful time. Thank you very much. You’re spot on! —Paul Kehayas |
