Pre-Rumours MacNuggets

[SisterNightroad]

Tony Calder, Music Promoter Who Worked With Beatles, Rolling Stones, Dies (Report)
Tony Calder (below left) partnered with Andrew Loog Oldham (right) to form IMAGE, Immediate Records

Pioneering British music promoter, manager and PR agent Tony Calder, best known for his work with groups like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, died on Jan. 2 at the age of 74, according to reports. His innovative methods helped promote many of the U.K.’s largest acts for more than 50 years.

Calder started his career in the early ’60s at Decca Records where he met his eventual business partner, famed Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham. In his time at Decca Calder met and worked with Brian Epstein, Seymour Stein and the Beatles. And, in 1962, he was assigned to promote the Fab Four’s first single “Love Me Do.” He sent hundreds of copies of the single to clubs, forcing record stores to stock the single and helping kick-start one of history’s most significant musical movements.

A year later, Calder and Oldham started IMAGE, an independent PR company that handled management for the Rolling Stones and eventually promoted the Beach Boys and Freddie and the Dreamers. The partners also formed one of the U.K.’s first and most controversial independent labels, Immediate Records. They signed artists such as Rod Stewart, Fleetwood Mac and Small Faces before shuttering in 1970, but remained at the center of a number of legal battles over unpaid royalties for decades.

In 1965 Calder undertook his sole venture into production when he stepped in for Oldham to work with Marianne Faithfull, producing two of her hits, “Come and Stay With Me” and “This Little Bird,” which reached 4th and 6th on the U.K. charts.

In the ’70s Calder signed groups like the Bay City Rollers and Black Sabbath, and eventually managed Eddy Grant for the most successful period of his career, eventually helping form Grant’s label — Ice Records. It is Calder who is credited with saving Grant’s “I Don’t Wanna Dance” from being a forgotten demo when he pushed for its release as a single.

Through the ’80s and ’90s Calder remained ever-present in the industry, forming the Big Wave group in ’88 and promoting three consecutive U.K. number ones for Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers. In 1994 he paired once again with Oldham when the two wrote the biography “Abba: The Name of the Game.” Calder finished his career with a return stint as Eddy Grant’s manager.

According to reports, Calder died of complications from pneumonia at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London.

Oldham told Variety: “Tony Calder helped me create Immediate Records; he had many other accomplishments. The fact that, via Immediate, we were able to create an example for the future was an achievement. Tony had ears and balls. I loved him and he will be missed.”


http://variety.com/2018/music/news/t...ad-1202652035/

[SisterNightroad]

How Fleetwood Mac's 'Mascot' Harold Nearly Got The Band Thrown In Jail

There have been many incarnations of Fleetwood Mac over the years, but no former bandmate is more notorious than Harold — the 'mascot' that nearly got the group thrown in jail during their early days.

Back then, the group was struggling to stand out from the other British blues bands at the time. So they naturally decided that the best way to catch people's attention would be to put a "massive" dildo on Mick Fleetwood's drum kit during gigs.

"We wanted to stand out from all the other Englishmen playing traditional blues, so we never held back," Fleetwood later said. "I used to play with a massive dildo stuck to the top of my bass drum so the thing would wiggle front and centre through the entire set."

The salacious prop became so common that they nicknamed it Harold and treated it like a mascot. But Harold's touring days came to an abrupt halt when a performance in Texas nearly ended with them getting locked up for obscene behavior.

"Harold's showbiz life came to a crashing end at an American Southern Baptist college, where we were very nearly arrested for his performance," Fleetwood added. "Poor Harold was too much for them and, much to my wife's chagrin, he ended his days on show, sitting on our pine corner cabinet."

But Harold would still leave his mark on the band. The melancholic ballad 'Landslide' is actually about Harold tumbling off the bass drum one night. Just kidding. 'Landslide' has nothing to do with Harold, but good luck hearing it without picturing a jiggling sex toy next time it comes on the classic rock station.


https://www.civilized.life/articles/...hrown-in-jail/

[SisterNightroad]

My favourite photograph by musician Kenney Jones
Legendary drummer Kenney, 69, recalls the partying, the pranks and the pride playing with his band of brothers, the Faces.

“When I look at photographs of the Faces, I get very nostalgic. This one of me, Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood, Ian McLagan and Ronnie Lane was taken at a press call on the top deck of a bus at Reading Festival in 1972. We were a real band of brothers. We enjoyed life and partied to the full.

We’d have a bar on stage and a barman – one of our roadies, Chuch Magee, dressed as a waiter. Any of us could walk to the bar, sit on a stool and have a drink.

Although, as the drummer, my bar was on my drum riser. We were young enough to drink as much as we wanted.

When we were playing, fans felt like they were on stage with us having a party and we felt like we were part of the crowd. It created a joyous atmosphere.

We were getting paid to have a good time – such a good time we got banned from the Holiday Inn chain. We did smash up rooms in America.

Not that we instigated it, somebody else always did and we’d join in. Rod used to say at the end of gigs, ‘Party back at Ronnie’s room.’

He told the audience where we were staying and we ended up with loads of people there.

We played a festival in Puerto Rico once and, when we got to the hotel, our tour manager said, ‘They’ve banned the Faces.’

We said, ‘Who else is staying here?’ He said, ‘Fleetwood Mac.’ So, we checked in as them. That worked a few times.

When Steve Marriott had left the Small Faces, me, Ronnie (Lane) and Mac (Ian McLagan) were lost.

We’d had such success – it was a big blow.

We didn’t know what else to do, so we got together once a week to play in a warehouse the Rolling Stones had. One day, Ronnie Lane brought his new neighbour Ronnie Wood and he started playing with us.

Woody was leaving The Jeff Beck Band and so was his best mate, Rod. Rod used to sit on the amplifiers and watch us play.

When I asked him to join the band, he said, ‘Do you think everyone’d let me?’ I didn’t get a good response, as they didn’t want another Steve walking out on us, but I held my ground.

He’s got a great voice.

Rod says when Ronnie Lane left the band, the spirit wasn’t there anymore.

Ronnie and I had started the Small Faces in 1967 when I was learning drums and he was learning guitar.

For me, though, his spirit is there wherever I go.

Even though he’s no longer living, Ronnie’s never forgotten. I feel his spirit.

Mac’s as well.

I do feel proud of what we did.

I’ve been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with the Small Faces and the Faces and won two Ivor Novello Awards. We influenced many bands.

Paul Weller’s a massive Small Faces fan and Oasis were, too.

I’m proud of all of my career.

The Small Faces were the most creative, the Faces had the most party times and The Who were the most exciting because of the sheer power of the music.

Now, I’ve got my own band, The Jones Gang.

My 70th is coming up. I never thought I’d get this old, but it’s better than the alternative.

I’m lucky to be here.

I had cancer in 1984 – a tumour in my throat.

That scared the life out of me.

Then when I got prostate cancer, it was water off a duck’s back.

If you catch it early, there’s no problem.

The remaining Faces played at my polo club, Hurtwood Park, in 2015, to raise money for prostate cancer. It was great fun.

It’s our 50th anniversary next year, so we’ll do something for that, too.

Woody’s never changed. Nor has Rod.

We’re still great mates.

The five of us together were magical.”


https://www.express.co.uk/life-style...ite-photograph