Andrew Loog Oldham
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Andrew Loog Oldham (born 29 January 1944) is a British rock and roll producer, impresario and author. He was best known as the manager of The Rolling Stones in the 1960s, taking a flamboyant style inspired by his role model and friend Phil Spector.
A celebrated and self-proclaimed hustler who spent teenage summers swindling tourists in French resort towns, Oldham's interest in the emerging British pop culture of the 1960s and the Soho coffeehouse scene lead to odd jobs working for Carnaby Street mod designer John Stephen and later as an assistant in Mary Quant's shop.
He then became a press agent for several British and American rock'n'roll singers, as well as producer Joe Meek (then pushing "Magic Star", the vocal version of Telstar) and found himself doing some London PR work for Brian Epstein, who was still working out of Liverpool trying to push the Beatles's career nationally. He was then tipped off by a journalist friend to check out a young R&B band called The Rolling Stones and almost immediately (with business partner Eric Easton) took over their management duties from promoter Giorgio Gomelsky. The band soon signed a record deal with Decca, whose interest was sparked when George Harrison recommended the Stones to A+R head Dick Rowe, also known as "The Man who Turned down the Beatles."
Notable Oldham moves that helped propel the group included:
- ownership of master tapes, which Oldham would then lease to Decca (a trick picked up from Spector);
- running into an inebriated John Lennon and Paul McCartney, who gave him their barely finished song "I Wanna Be Your Man" which became an early Stones hit;
- forcing the Stones to learn how to write their own material;
- and setting up the Stones' image as "bad-boy" counterparts (who rarely wore uniforms and cursed, smoked and even urinated in public) to the squeaky-clean Beatles. Welcome headlines like "Would you let your sister go with a Rolling Stone?" and Oldham's Clockwork Orange-inspired rants on the back of Stones's albums, encouraging fans to mug blind beggars for record-buying funds, cemented the image.
He developed his studio talents not only by producing with the Stones, but also with his Andrew Oldham Orchestra projects, in which various Stones, and London session players, would record pop covers or instrumentals of songs in the Stones and Spector catalogue. These records were suddenly rediscovered in the 1990s, when the Britpop band The Verve used a string loop based on Oldham's orchestral arrangement of "The Last Time" as the backing for their smash hit "Bitter Sweet Symphony;" in the ensuing court battle, all songwriting royalties for the Verve track were eventually awarded to Jagger and Richards.
As the Stones' manager, record producer and their primary publicist, Oldham led them to international fame. Problems with drug abuse led to the sale of his interest in the Stones to Allen Klein in 1966.
Oldham's role as a svengali also led to tensions with Mick Jagger. Jagger had been happy to have Oldham's input and direction in the earlier part of their relationship. Oldham pushed for Jagger to be the leader and focal point of the band - over Brian Jones - and this helped Jagger gain confidence. However in a parallel to the Henry Higgins/Eliza Doolittle relationship in Pygmalion, once Jagger became successful he became resentful of Oldham's role as a mentor and svengali. Oldham's increasing drug use and erratic personality compounded the difficulties. After Oldham departed as manager/producer in late 1967, relationships between Oldham and the Stones were strained for several years. In subsequent years Oldham's relationships were repaired with all the Stones, except Jagger. The two have never reconciled.
Oldham then set up Immediate Records, one of the first independent record labels in the UK, releasing work by PP Arnold, Chris Farlowe and the Small Faces. Oldham also, voluntarily and out of his own admiration for the work, helped publicist Derek Taylor publicize the British release of the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds album by taking out ads in the music trades praising the album. Oldham was so entranced by the LP that he enlisted songwriter Billy Nicholls to record a British response, which became the largely forgotten album Would You Believe?. After the Small Faces split up, he helped put together Humble Pie, featuring Steve Marriott of the Small Faces. In the 1970s, he lived and worked in New York City, Connecticut, Texas and finally Colombia, where his current wife is from.
Oldham wrote a biography of ABBA in the 1970s and two autobiographies, Stoned (1998) and 2Stoned (2001), in which he and other contemporary music figures recount his glory days as an impresario as well as his dark days struggling with addiction and manic depression. In recent years, he's become an outspoken advocate of Narconon and its parent organization, the Church of Scientology, which he says helped him to kick his longstanding drugs habit. He currently has a show on Sirius Radio.
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