Tony Calder

Tony Calder (born 27 June 1943, Surbiton, Surrey, England) is an English rock and roll record manager, impresario, talent-spotter, Promoter and Public Relations agent. He was Andrew Loog Oldham's business partner from 1963 to December 1969.

During a career spanning over 50 years he was instrumental in promoting a number of successful singles in the UK singles chart, including the Rolling Stones "Little Red Rooster" and "Paint It, Black", the Small Faces "Itchycoo Park", Amen Corner's "(If Paradise Is) Half as Nice", Eddy Grant’s "I Don't Wanna Dance" and Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers single "Swing the Mood".

1960s

Calder's grounding in the industry began in the early 1960s at Decca Records under the direction of Edward Lewis. By day he worked in the sales and marketing department.^[1] which gave him a significant insight into the music industry and led him to meeting Brian Epstein, The Beatles, Andrew Loog Oldham and Seymour Stein (who introduced Calder to his all time record hero George Goldner).

In 1962 Calder was hired by Brian Epstein to promote The Beatles single "Love Me Do",^[2] which he did successfully by sending free copies to the top fifty Mecca Ballrooms and also the opposition Top Rank ballrooms, in order to persuade the local independent record shops to order the record. The following year pop impresario Andrew Oldham and Calder merged their clientele to set up the UK’s first independent PR-pop company, ‘IMAGE.’,^[1] and handled the day to day management of the Rolling Stones; and later the promotion of the Beach Boys via their publishing contract.

In early 1965, Calder did his first and last record production, taking over from Oldham producing Marianne Faithfull, producing her biggest hits "Come and Stay With Me", which reached Number 4 in the UK singles chart and "This Little Bird", which reached Number 6 in 1965. In 1965 Calder and Oldham formed Immediate Records,^[3] the first major independent label in the UK, eventually responsible for acts like the The Small Faces, Fleetwood Mac, Rod Stewart, The McCoys, Chris Farlowe, Amen Corner, P.P. Arnold and the The Nice. He also worked with Vashti Bunyan for the label, although it was not until the 2000s that she became a cult hero. At the end of 1969 Calder left Immediate Records.

1970s

In 1971, Calder signed the new band Bay City Rollers with his booking agent business partner David Apps, but quickly relinquished the contract to Dick Leahy, head of Bell Records.^[4][5]

In 1975, Calder was appointed CEO of NEMS Records, where he signed Black Sabbath, Pluto and Marianne Faithfull. However he left this position soon after, and spent the following year setting old friend and fashion designer Ossie Clark back in business; licensing his designs and his name to forge a revival of Clark's image. In 1978, he turned his attention to managing Eddy Grant, whose international record career took off, and he subsequently helped with the formation and development of Grant's Ice Record label.

1980s and after

Calder formed the Big Wave Group in 1988, in partnership with Bill Kimber, and had worldwide success with Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers, who had three consecutive number 1 singles in the UK and throughout Europe and the Number 1 single in the USA with "Swing the Mood".

During the 1990s, Calder co-wrote a biography of ABBA with Andrew Loog Oldham.

In December 2007, Calder was re-hired by Eddy Grant as business manager after Calder negotiated on a new production deal for Grant's Ice label with Mercury Records.

References

Bibliography

• Larkin C Virgin Encyclopedia of Sixties Music (Muze UK Ltd, 1997) ISBN 0-7535-0149-X p90