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   CLUB SANDWICH 45

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CLUB SANDWICH

            Hi there!

            Our Sandwich filling this time has been specially peppered but we trust it's not too hot for your liking! As you couldn't escape knowing, June 1st was the 20th anniversary of the release of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and we've decided to tie in with the celebrations by bringing you this issue devoted to the album and its making. EMI marked the occasion by choosing that date to issue Sgt. Pepper on CD, and to give a celebratory bash at their Abbey Road Studios, which Paul and Linda attended. So to keep to our theme, we've held over our running feature on Paul's videos for future issues.
            Also, we've drafted in Mike Evans, a Liverpudlian himself, who organised the exhibition and book devoted to the Art of the Beatles, to do a special feature for us. He's included some really interesting preliminary sketches done by Peter Blake for the album cover, which give a fascinating insight into its conception.
            Back in April, perhaps some of you managed to hear a rare airing of one of the very earliest Beatles songs, "How Did You Do It", which was played on April 18th on BBC Radio 2's "Sounds of the Sixties' series, in which Ian Grant talked to George Martin. The song had been intended as the Beatles second single, but the group had never felt happy about it, feeling that they could write something better themselves. Of course they did, and "Please, Please Me" appeared instead, but "How Did You Do It" went on to give Gerry and the Pacemakers a No. 1 hit, staying in the UK charts for eighteen weeks straightfrom March 14th, 1963.
            Interest has always remained in the Beatles version, however, and Paul gave his permission for it to be played on the programme, provided special precautions were taken to prevent it being reproduced. Ian played only the first section of the song, which was then faded down into Gerry and the Pacemakers' version to play out.
            As "Let It Be" is still doing so well in Europe, final figures for the amount raised from its sales won't be known for a while. But the sales of the 7" version in the U K were over 600,000, where it topped the charts for three weeks.
            Well that's about all for now. Paul says thanks to all of you who sent him birthday cards back in June. And for those of you who plan ahead, don't forget to keep Sunday, September 13th free for MPL's Buddy Holly Week celebrations at the Grand Rock 'n' Roll Fanfair, which will be held at Camden Town Hall, Euston Road, London NW1. There'll be stalls of memorabilia, with thousands of records and collectors' items, plus a video show and live music in the evening, so don't miss it.

            'til next time,
            Sue


MEET RICHARD OGDEN Club Sandwich 45

            There's a tall, genial presence making things happen at MPL these days. His name is Richard Ogden, Paul and Linda's manager since 1st May.
            His appointment was quite a coup for Paul, for Richard's has been no ordinary music business career. He came to us after two years as MD of Polydor Records, where his masterstroke was perhaps the acquisition
of Phantom of the Opera.
            "/ was on the cover of the Daily Mail as the man who paid a million pounds for something he hadn't heard, which wasn't quite true. I'd heard some of the tunes at Andrew's house and I had great faith in him. The record had made £4 million two months after release and it's still in the top thirty."
            Richard had joined Polydor as International Marketing Manager in 1982, working with Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Style Council, Level 42, Shakatak, the Cure and Lloyd Cole among others. This meant a lot of travel, which didn't get any less when he was promoted to Director of International Marketing for the Polydor, Phonogram and London labels two years later, taking people like Bronski Beat, ABC, Bananarama and Dire Straits under his wing.
            "Then in 1985 Maurice Oberstein became Chairman of Polygram UK and, as so
often happens when a new Chairman comes in, the Managing Director of Polydor went out and I was offered the job."
            How was he approached for the MPL job?
            "Brian Brolly, who used to be Paul's manager, runs Andrew Lloyd Webber's group of companies and we worked closely together on
Phantom". This contact led Brian to mention Richard to Linda's brother John Eastman as a possibility for MPL. Did Mr. Ogden hesitate to move back into Artist Management?
            "I wanted to know that Paul wanted to have a full-time career, including playing concerts, which are very important in the overall picture. When I met him, I was convinced that he did."
            When Richard talks of his early years in the business, he evokes a world as remote from the platinum industry of today as the early days of rock 'n roll or the Beatles.
            "I left Leicester University in 1971 and became Head of Press and Public Relations at United Artists. I'd edited the university magazine, which was very political, being pro the Vietnam marches etc. A lot of Leicester people went into the music business: there are twelve of my contemporaries in the business today."
            Among them is Andrew Lauder, a friend from Richard's home town of Hartlepool,
now masterminding a stream of reissued and 'roots' albums from the Demon/ Edsel/F-Beat group. In the early '70s, Andrew was head of A &R at UA and offered Richard the job.
            "Those were the days when record companies thought they should be doing everything. We ran a booking agency with pub rock bands like Ducks Deluxe, Brinsley Schwarz, Bees Make Honey and Dr. Feelgood and managed the Flamin' Groovies (US rock revivalists), who spent a lot of time over here.
            "Then in 1973 Atlantic asked me to help with PR for the Stones' tour of Britain and Europe. It was for six months only, but I've always felt you should do what appeals to you."
            In fact, of course, the Stones connection did Richard nothing but good. Hawkwind and Man, both United Artists bands, asked him to be their publicist on a freelance basis. ("£30 a week and a free telephone.") Both shared a chaotic hippie approach which Richard found frustrating, especially in the case of Man. This engagement grew into Heavy Publicity over four years, employing six people to serve major US clients like Ted Nugent, Aerosmith, Styx, Kansas and the Tubes. "I loved Man, but thought they never came to grips with what they should have been. I was very depressed when they split up and felt if only I'd been in charge, things would have turned out differently."
            Thus spurred on, he put the Motors together around Nick Garvey (another friend from Hartlepool) and Andy McMaster of Ducks Deluxe, naming the other members Bram Tchaikovsky and Rick Slaughter in true Svengali style. Richard Ogden, Manager, was an immediate success. Neither pretty nor truly New Wave, the group's guitar-based rock still caught the mood of 1977 - later, they branched out with hit ballads like 'Airport'.
            When the Motors split in two, Richard continued to manage both factions with success until setting up his own label (Funzone) and music publishing company in 1981. Then the Polydor Marketing Director phoned and a new phase began...
            Was he a musician himself?
            "Yes, I played guitar and piano in the school group. We played current hits, especially the Stones, and blues numbers by Muddy Waters and Lightning Hopkins."
            Who were his earliest musical influences?
            "Billy Fury and Bobby Vee. I worked with Bobby at UA and did PR for Billy in the mid-70s - he was charming, as you'd expect."
            Yet Richard Ogden could so easily have been worlds away from his heroes -oceans away, in fact, for he was set for a naval career. Born in Hartlepool in 1950, his family background was seafaring rather than naval, but his parents suggested the navy to a receptive young Richard, who was despatched to Pangbourne Nautical College and did his A-levels to the strains
of Sgt. Pepper.
            "/ went to university to escape Britannia Naval College, Dartmouth, where I would have been a midshipman — the navy paid for me. Somehow I got an upper second in Combined Studies (sociology, politics, English, American studies and psychology): apart from six weeks in the library each year, I did no work."
            Today Richard Ogden's links with water are confined to windsurfing and boating. He and his American wife live in central London and get away to their house in Wales whenever they can. Also, unlike the Radio One DJ of a few years back who had no record player at home "because I get enough of that sort of thing at work", Richard remains a true music fan.
            "I'm very pleased with the Beatles' CDs, especially
Sgt. Pepper. I'm a big CD buyer-1 don't buy black plastic records any more - and I listen to Radio One and Capital a lot. I like pop.
            "My favourites? The Cars, Prince, Cameo..."
            And what has Richard been up to in his first eight weeks?
            "Getting to know the things Paul and Linda want to do, so I can get them happening. If Linda wants to do a cookbook right- let's get a publisher, let's get a deadline. I like
doing things.
            "There'll be an album of Paul's hits out in November, probably including two new singles from the sessions with Phil Ramone. I hope that the twelve-inch singles will feature extra songs rather than extended mixes."
            What are his immediate goals?
            "To get Paul back on the road, to see his records in the charts and to encourage and help him to find inspiration
as a musician and a writer. We're having weekly 'get-togethers' with musicians and Paul's playing the bass and singing great."
            The new manager sounds as excited as any fan. Paul, we think you picked the right man.