Hugh Mendl

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Hugh Rees Christopher Mendl (6 August 1919,

A&R representative, and manager who worked for Decca Records
for over 40 years.

Mendl attended

Mediterranean. He applied for a job at the BBC after the war but soon returned to Decca. He worked as a song plugger in the late 1940s, and began producing in 1950, working early in his career with Reggie Goff (his first recording), Winifred Atwell (producing her classic recording of "Black And White Rag") and Josh White
.

Mendl produced Lonnie Donegan's first recordings, which were pivotal in defining the new skiffle sound of the 1950s. His production credits covered a wide variety of styles — he also produced the original cast recordings of musicals such as Hello, Dolly!, Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be, Oh! What a Lovely War and Cinderella, a set of speeches by Winston Churchill, comedy/satire albums by Ivor Cutler and Frankie Howerd, and even an LP of the Le Mans 24-hour race, inspired by his lifelong passion for motor racing.

Mendl encouraged Decca to sign rising Liverpool band

John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and Caravan.[2]

In the mid-1960s, Mendl was instrumental in the establishment of Decca's new 'progressive' subsidiary label Deram and he championed Deram's biggest act, The Moody Blues and acted as executive producer for the Moody Blues album Days of Future Passed (1967). Through his efforts, David Bowie, John Mayall, Caravan, and Genesis signed with Decca, although the records of some of these artists appeared on the Deram imprint. He gave the Moody Blues the support that enabled them to evolve from a struggling 'beat-pop' act into a full-fledged progressive rock group, and he offered them a deal to record a lavish orchestral concept album that would promote the company's DSS stereo sound system. In exchange for which Decca wiped the band's debts, which by then amounted to several thousand pounds. Mendl also backed the group's groundbreaking demand for complete artistic control over the resulting album, Days of Future Passed, recorded with the London Festival Orchestra, and for which he acted as executive producer, as well as writing the liner notes.

Mendl was well known for his "massive contempt" for Decca's rival EMI, which he described as having "all of the arrogance of the BBC without any of the education",[3] but his obituary noted that he largely stood apart from the often bitter and divisive office politics at Decca, where staff were habitually played off against each other by Edward Lewis.[3]

Mendl suffered a

Polygram. When Mendl returned to work, he discovered that his office had been cleaned out on the orders of the new proprietors, and all his diaries — which would have provided a unique insight into the company's operations — had been thrown away.[3]

He left the company soon after and quit the music business, retiring to Devon, where he ran an antiques shop.

References

  1. ^ "The Final Taxi". Finaltaxi.wordpress.com.
  2. ^ "Obituaries - Hugh Mendl". The Stage.
  3. ^ a b c "Hugh Mendl obituary". The Independent. 25 July 2008.

External links