Thanks to @metal-mickey, I am thinking about music industry heavy hitters. Not necessarily well-known producers like Trevor Horn but the more obscure band member who paid his or her dues on the circuit but ended up running the show behind the scenes.
As is per usual, I am not going to google anything (but you are welcome to). I know that the rubbery-faced big eyebrowed funnyman from Darts, one Den Hegarty, became a grande fromage of some sort. Also Ken from Bros, I believe, did extremely well once he was made to hang up his storewashed jeans. But what others are there?
Did the effeminate one out of Mud end up owning a majority share of Spotify? Did Kay from Toto Coelo use her “I Eat Cannibals!” royalties to buy the publishing rights to Hallelujah off the then-very-skint Leonard Cohen? Did Keith from Candy Flip turn his hand to accountancy and now represents Jay-Z, Beyoncé and over a thousand other artists?
True stories are a bonus. For within these stories, lies a kernel of hope and perhaps inspiration. And that’s an unbeatable combination.
Well Rob Davis, aka The Effeminate one out of Mud, wrote “Can’t get you out of my head” and other hit songs so I think his pension isn’t reliant only on performance royalties for “Lonely this Christmas”.
Dave Dee, as in Dozy, Beaky etc etc, became a fromage in the biz didn’t he?
Incidentally – when I worked in France we referred to management as Grand Fromage, as you do, which the locals found odd – their equivalent is gross légume i.e. big vegetables. Hmm.
Thanks Twang – now that you mention it perhaps in the deepest, darkest recesses of my mind I knew he’d done something like that. However, I’d have guessed Cathy Dennis for ICGYOOMH.
He co-wrote it with CD. I think he did the top line, and recorded it in his writing studio, which is hilariously small, with Kylie standing in the door way on the mic. Good article here:
https://www.soundonsound.com/people/rob-davis
The ultimate example is surely Sixto Rodriguez!
Of course!
Sorry – I mean – who?
Tony Brown is a bit of a dude – piano player in various bands including Elvis and Emmylou’s Hot Band, then jumped sideways into being a record producer and biz mogul with hundreds of millions of album sales to his name.
Clint Mansell, the former shouty frontman of Pop Will Eat Itself, has a successful career writing music for films; Stooge James Williamson was a VP at Sony; and UK Decay singer Steve Abbott has his own classical music record label.
David Balfe of course went from Teardrop Explodes keyboard player to a record company exec who famously lived in a house, a very big house, in the country.
Famously Jeff “Skunk” Baxter is now a missile systems consultant to the Pentagon.
Thanks for the shoutout BC, you’re a gent as always…
KajaGooGoo bassman, Nick “funny haircut” Beggs, was head of A&R for one of the majors for a while, and soundtracks seem to be a “go to” for many – Graeme Revell of Aussie metal-bangers SPK is big in the soundtrack trade, Jim “Foetus” Thirlwell scores the Venture Bros. animated show, Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh is very prolific (especially Wes Anderson’s movies), and I doubt if the lead singer of Oingo Boingo, one Danny Elfman, considers the band to be his main gig these days…
Nick Beggs is also bass player for prog supermo Steven Wilson – and utterly awesome he is too. Live he’s a massive presence and on the albums he boots the rhythm section along like a jack hammer. His Twitter feed is hilarious – shots of him in a mankini on stage at the Albert Hall for a soundtrack before the SW gig are unfortunately etched upon my memory. Unsee!
Also bass player for Steve Hackett (or was)
Phil Thornalley, bassist with The Cure circa The Lovecats, co-wrote Torn (and produced Natalie Imbruglia’s version) and is a go-to pop songwriter/producer for the likes of Pixie Lott.
Oh, that made me think of Dan Wilson of Semisonic, now richer than Croesus thanks to his 3 co-writes on Adele’s “21”, including “Someone Like You”… and that album was very kind to The Cure too, with the cover of “Lovesong”…
Norman Cook. He did quite well after leaving pop janglists The Housemartins.
Yeah, Beats Internation and Freakpower were both great. I wonder what happened to him after…
Muff Winwood – on leaving The Spencer Davis Group moved into production, A&R for Island and then as an executive for CBS.
His production duties included Sparks’ “Kimono In My House” and Dire Straits’ self titled debut.
At CBS he signed Prefab Sprout, Terrance Trent Derby, Sade, The Psychedlic Furs and (ahem!) Shaky.
Den Hearty also ended up presenting a couple series of Tiswas (the post Tarrant/James/Henry years)
He was about assisted by Gordon Astley and Fogwell Flax
Later years Tiswas was obviously not a breeding ground for a TV career
That also ran Boz Scaggs has put out a career defining new album after years in supper club purgatory.
Dallin’.
One of Buffalo Springfield´s guitarists wasn´t considered fit to sing his own songs on the band´s albums. Later managed to buy a model train company on the verge of bankruptcy.