Frank Fenter

Frank Fenter

Frank Fenter c. 1976
Background information
Birth name Frank Fenter
Born February 25, 1936(1936-02-25)
Johannesburg, South Africa
Origin Johannesburg, South Africa
Died July 21, 1983(1983-07-21) (aged 47) Macon, Georgia
Genres Southern Rock, Rhythm and Blues and British Rock
Occupations impresario, music manager, record executive , record label co-founder and partner, record producer, actor
Years active 1958–1983
Labels Capricorn Records, Atlantic Records, Fast Forward Productions, Zip Code Productions, Chapell Music Publishing Co., Liberty-Imperial Record Publishing, ARC/Chess Music.
Associated acts Yes, Led Zeppelin, King Crimson, Vinegar Joe, Jimi Hendrix, Aretha Franklin, Rolling Stones, Manfred Mann, Jimmy Page, The Animals, Reginald Kenneth Dwight, Sonny and Cher, Bobby Darin, Solomon Burke, Bill Kimber, Les Fleur de Lys, Gordon Haskell, Sharon Tandy, Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, Booker T. & the M.G.'s, The Allman Brothers, The Marshall Tucker Band, Elvin Bishop, Wet Willie, Sea Level, Dixie Dregs, Billy Thorpe, Dobie Gray, Stillwater, Eric Quincy Tate, Percy Sledge, White Witch, Jonathan Edwards, Priscilla Coolidge, Elkie Brooks, Martin Mull, Alex Taylor, Livingston Taylor, Maxayn, Captain Beyond, Cowboy, White Witch, The Cooper Brothers, Billy Joe Shaver, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Lee Roy Parnell, etc.

Frank Fenter (February 25, 1936 - July 21, 1983) was a music industry executive.

Fenter was the first Managing Director of Atlantic Records for Europe, where he helped discover and sign to Atlantic late-1960s British Invasion groups including Led Zeppelin and the progressive rock bands Yes and King Crimson. Frank Fenter was also instrumental in introducing and breaking Rhythm and Blues music across Europe including artists as Otis Redding and Sam and Dave. He went on in the 1970s to be co-founder and partner in Capricorn Records, the label identified with Southern Rock, led by The Allman Brothers, The Marshall Tucker Band, Wet Willie and Elvin Bishop.

Contents

Early career in London, England. 1958 to 1966

Frank Fenter was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and moved to London, England, in 1958, at the age of 22, initially determined to become an actor. Fenter's acting career included a feature role in the BBC's 1963 The Big Pull; in 1964, he produced, co-wrote and acted in Africa Shakes, the first South African rock movie, which featured Fenter's music act Bill Kimber and the Couriers. The movie was the first to have an interracial cast in Apartheid South Africa.

While doing part-time acting, Fenter began to book bands around London in the early 1960s, including The Rolling Stones, The Animals and Manfred Mann, long before they had recording contracts. Fenter got his first big break in the music industry in 1964, when he joined Chapell Music Publishing Co.; he went on to head Liberty-Imperial Record Publishing and later ARC/Chess Music.

Atlantic Records. London, England. 1966 to 1969

In 1966, Frank Fenter was chosen by Atlantic Records partner Nesuhi Ertegun to head the label in the United Kingdom. Within six months, Frank Fenter was the Managing Director in charge of Atlantic Records' operations in all of Europe. Fenter was responsible for making Atlantic Records the most important American label in promoting British music, according to the late Ahmet Ertegun, co-founder and Chairman of Atlantic Records. Working with his good friend Giorgio Gomelsky, the former manager of the Yardbirds and the first manager of the Rolling Stones, Fenter played a vital role in having brought Led Zeppelin to Atlantic Records and helped discover and sign such British progressive-rock groups as Yes and King Crimson.

According to Ahmet Ertegun, Frank Fenter was instrumental in breaking Rhythm and Blues music throughout Europe, having brought the "Hit the Road Stax" tour there in the spring of 1967; which included the acts Otis Redding, Sam and Dave and Booker T and the MGs. At the start of the European tour, Fenter had Tom Dowd record the live concerts and with Fenter's direction, Stax Records, a label affiliated with Atlantic Records, experienced a sales jump, with seven of the eleven albums recorded live on the European tour received gold certifications.

Capricorn Records. Macon, Georgia. 1969 to 1983

In 1969, Frank Fenter and his good friends, the brothers Phil Walden and Alan Walden, former co-managers of Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, and other Stax artists, formed Capricorn Records with a distribution deal from Atlantic Records. Working with Phil Walden and Jerry Wexler, Frank Fenter negotiated the Capricorn deal with his mentor, Ahmet Ertegun[1] Frank Fenter and Phil Walden envisioned a new kind of record company structure that would be vertically integrated. Capricorn Records would have loosely held subsidiary companies that encompassed all facets of the music business, including artist management, with Phil Walden and Associates; a booking agency, the Paragon Agency; a music publishing house, No Exit Music; and artist merchandising, with the Great Southern Company.

Frank Fenter took the helm of Capricorn Records while Phil Walden focused on artist management and together they helped popularize the genre of Southern Rock. At the height of Capricorn Record's success, Fortune magazine, the business periodical, went on to recognize Fenter as a "Promotional Genius".[2] Singly or together, the two partners discovered and signed such recording artists as The Allman Brothers, The Marshall Tucker Band, Elvin Bishop, Wet Willie, Sea Level, The Dixie Dregs, Jonathan Edwards, Billy Thorpe, Stillwater and Alex Taylor. In 1975, Fenter negotiated with the South African apartheid government to have Capricorn Records recording artist Dobie Gray be the first artist to perform in front of a multi-racial audience in his native home of Johannesburg, South Africa.

Capricorn Records declared bankruptcy in late 1979, but, in 1983, Frank Fenter and Phil Walden restructured Capricorn Records and were ready to forge a comeback, however, in the middle of negotiating a distribution deal with Mo Ostin, the Chairman of Warner Bros. Records, Fenter died of a heart attack in the Capricorn office; with his death, the deal with Warner Bros. fell apart.

Frank Fenter died in Macon, Georgia, from a heart attack at the age of 47.

References

  1. ^ Rolling Stone magazine, The Obituary of Phil Walden, co-founder of Capricorn Records. April 24, 2006. http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/10107379/southern_rock_pioneer_walden_dies
  2. ^ Fortune, Profile on The rise of Capricorn Records. September, 1975