PRODUCER & MANAGER
When I'm asked who have you worked with, there's been so many that I often don't know where to start, but here are a few of my favourites: Some I managed, some I produced, some I A&R'd, and on some I did all of those things, plus co-writing a great many songs - often uncredited or using pseudonyms like "Andy Julian Paul' (my kids names). It all depended on what was needed, and in each case we all pulled together to make some great music.
Wildflowers
Sunday
from the album
Gas Station Bouquet
Original 1265 Recordings
Wildflowers were a product of singer Siddy Bennett’s amazing knowledge of country legend Patsy Klein, and when we met I'd never met an English girl who matched that passion for country music. They had been students at BIMM Bristol and we developed them, recorded their first album, put them on tour with Robert Plant, and got them on the BBC Playlist with that great track '!00 Personalities' before taking them with us to America. They settled in Denver when it should have been Nashville, and sadly, as with many bands, the internal politics got in their way. This incredible song is a track is from their unreleased 2nd album on which I was also the bass player. It's still one of the best albums I have ever produced for any artist ever. Sid is doing other stuff now and we lost touch, but I am sure that no matter what she does, she will never top this album, and the world deserves to hear her talent.
Charity​
Pretty
from the EP
Yellow
Original 1265 Recordings
We met Charity almost as soon as we opened our DIME Pop Up on Woodward Avenue, Detroit. She made the place available in the evenings for local acts to rehearse and from the moment she started singing, I was in. Charity had been studying her degree in Nashville and had accumulated many songs and I was stunned by her writing ability, so we signed her and went straight into Studio One in Dearborn, in west Detroit where Aretha Franklin was also recording. Charity and I had a shared love of Stevie Wonder so she wrote this one with us intending to have Stevie play harmonica on it, and he even said he would via our friend Nate Watts, but he was on tour and we couldn’t make it happen. This is on Charity’s debut release ‘The Yellow EP’ and of all the records I’ve made in my life, that one is my favourite.
Kirsty MacColl ​
In These Shoes
from the album
Tropical Brainstorm
V2 Records
In the four years I managed Kirsty, the latter two with Sarah, we only ever had meetings in her kitchen because Kirsty loved making lunch. She had recently been to Brazil and Cuba and had learned to speak Spanish. In Havana, she had bought a load of local 7” singles and she looped the intro of one of them to write this song over the top. She sang it to me while she was making the salad and I couldn’t believe how rude it was, but I knew it was going to be massive. By the time she put the salad dressing on she had the whole thing done and were actually dancing round the house, such was the infectious groove. Shame V2 had zero ability to make it a hit, but the album went silver and then gold in around 6 weeks. Even now, this track remains massive and is the theme tune to The Catherine Tate Show. Kirsty was on fire with her writing through this album and it was such fun to make. Great job from Pete and Dave on the production.
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Francis Dunnery & Robert Plant
King Of The Blues
from the album
Fearless
Atlantic Records
Kula Shaker
Hush
exclusive single
Columbia Records
Tom Odell ​
Grow Old With Me
from the album
Long Way Down
Sony Music UK
I’d seen Frank in his band It Bites when their label Virgin Records tapped me to manage them, but there were many problems, so when Frank left the band, he came straight to me, and I got him a deal with Warners in one meeting. We were so close that we made most of this album with just him, me and Dave, Frank’s brother-in-law and excellent programmer. Back then I made all my albums at Jacobs Studios, a residential studio in Surrey, and we played tennis every morning and recorded till late every night. About half-way through ‘Fearless’ I got a call from Robert Plant, with whom I was already working, and he asked me if he could ‘borrow’ Frank to play guitar on his ‘Fate Of Nations’ album and tour, so in the deal I got Robert to agree to come and do a track with us. On the day we did this track, it was just Robert and I at Mayfair Studios, round the corner from his London house and he had a sore throat, so he played harmonica instead of singing. Frank had already written this song about Robert so it was the perfect match. Crazy that we never released it as a single.
Kula Shaker were called The Kays when I met them in early 1995. They ‘d just been dropped from an indie label and were trying to get on my B.L.O.W. tour so I went to see them with my son Andy who said 'they're perfect for you dad'. We spent the first 6 weeks together in Survival Sound rehearsal studios in Acton, and what came out of that was their 2m selling debut album ‘K’. We also sorted out their live show as we went along, and one day I asked them if they knew any covers for an encore song. ‘We hate covers’ they said, but the bass player was Roger Glover of Deep Purple’s nephew and therefore ‘Hush’ was the only one they knew. When they played it to me, I knew it was a smash and they still encore with it to this day. We recorded it at Neil Young’s studio in LA in three hours, and the band and Sony didn’t rate it, so I did a deal with Sony boss Paul Burger, ‘put it out and we will make the 2nd album right now’. It sold 800k copies in one month and missed number one by 80 singles behind No Doubt’s ‘Don’t Speak’.
In 2011, Tom’s final year at BIMM Brighton, we became good pals and I started developing him at my home studio, outside of the degree he was doing. The plan was for me to manage him, but I had to say no because at the time we were about to open BIMM New York. Tom loved our Yamaha upright piano and quite a few tracks on his debut album ‘Long Way Down’ came from our collaborations, including this one that changed his life, because it was the track that Sony thought was his biggest hit, although that proved to be ‘Another Love’ which he also wrote at this time. I remember Sony Chairman Nick Gatfield telling me he thought ‘Grow Old With Me’ was a number one but it didn’t even make the Top 40, however the album went to number one and Tom won a Brit Award as best new artist. Everything about Tom was exceptional and today, as a live performer, I doubt the UK has anyone to touch him.
Jena Irene Ascuitto
So I Get High
from the album
Cold Fame
Original 1265 Recordings
Aplus
Go Away
from the album
Pride, Liberty, Detroit
Original 1265 Recordings
Little Angels
& Bryan Adams
Too Much Too
Young
from the album
Jam
Polydor Records
DIME Detroit had been open for a couple of years when local gal Jena found herself in the final of American Idol. I hated that show, but her mum got in touch with us when she didn’t get signed through the show’s deal with Universal, so we signed her on the strength of her gigantic voice and her great songs. Jena was such great fun to work with and her talent was without question. She was also a party girl and a product of the huge weed scene in suburban America, hence the subject matter she was writing about. She told me that she wanted to make a timeless album with no computers, and I think we did a dammed fine job. We managed to sneak her into the Billboard Heat-seekers chart just as she decided to disappear with some guy from Florida, and sadly, that was the end of that.
APLUS were sister Anesha Birchett and Antea Shelton, the latter being Head Of Vocals at DIME Detroit. Both of them epitomise the brilliance seemingly on every street corner in Detroit. Antea is Grammy winning songwriter and Anesha could give Aretha a run for her money when it comes to vocal ability. I love the album so much and part of the reason is that we made the whole thing in seven days, the girls, our genius friend Branden 'Showtime' Bland on piano and myself on acoustic guitar, plus we added a bit of trumpet and cello here and there from our mates around Detroit. To work to such standards and at that pace was the biggest test for all four of us and I loved every minute. Still very proud of the three of them to this day.
During the eight years I managed, produced, co-wrote and even played bass (on 'Jam') for with Little Angels we toured with so many legends, its hard to believe the band never made it. They deserved to, if only for the sheer hard graft they put in. The European tours we opened on included Bon Jovi, Van Halen, Aerosmith, ZZ Top and of course Bryan Adams. Throughout his 1993 European tour Bryan was flying back to London often so I travelled with him a few times and we became quite friendly. One flight home when we'd had a gin and tonic, I asked him to do a duet and he agreed in a second. I’d written his song with singer Toby and suggested it would be the best one, and Bryan liked it too, particularly my lyric 'I'll take tomorrow today' which is so B'Adams. During the recording of Bryan’s vocals he took a call on his primitive mobile phone from his friend Diana. Yes that Diana, and enough to say that they were clearly more than just friends.