Andrew Loog Oldham Born January 29, 1944

Biography

Andrew Loog Oldham was a 19-year-old ‘hustler, a fantastic bullshitter’, with very little experience and a pocket full of big ideas when he was tipped off by Peter Jones of the Record Mirror about a band who were making waves at a regular gig in Richmond.

He made the trip to the South London suburbs to see and hear this bandfor himself, and within a few days he was their manager. Never having managed a band before wasn’t a problem for The Talented Mr. Oldham: not unlike the band, he simply made it up as he went along. The same applied to producing The Rolling Stones in the studio.

Accounts regarding the value of his musical input to The Stones recordings vary, from negligible to absolute zero. This didn’t prove to be too much of a problem either. The band already had an enthusiastic and growing following based on their impressive live performances. Oldham – assisted by the mass hysteria phenomenon that came to be known as Beatlemania, and his native genius for manipulating the publicity machine (his one previous ‘job’ involved working as a PR stringer for The Beatles during their meteoric ascent from obscurity to ubiquity) – skillfully positioned them as a rougher, more exciting and ‘dangerous’ alternative to the relatively clean-cut Liverpudlian popsters.

This public image was summed up by one of the most provocative questions ever asked of parents, but targeted squarely at their over-excited adolescent offspring – ‘Would you let your daughter marry a Rolling Stone?’ The headline resonates down the years and at the time created a category for The Stones that suited their attitude, looks and music perfectly.

The success that ensued was based ultimately, of course, on the increasingly fine, powerful music that the band played, and here Andrew Oldham can claim to have played another major part: he made Mick Jagger and Keith Richards start writing their own songs. The story of how he hailed Lennon and McCartney in the street to beg a tune off them; for Mick and Keith then to witness their friendly rivals ‘knock off’ I Wanna Be Your Man in ten minutes in the corner of the studio, and ‘give’ it to The Stones, served as a key moment of inspiration.

There were some other clever moves – the ‘discovery’ of Marianne Fathfull, the collaboration with Phil Spector – but Oldham’s purpose and usefulness to the fledgling musicians seemed to fade almost as quickly as it had begun to shine. As with Brian Jones, success for Andrew meant indulgence and reward for success; whereas for the band it meant the opportunity to make more and better music for bigger and more diverse audiences.

Andrew Loog Oldham set up Immediate Records in 1965, and some limited wins on the label in the later 60’s and 70’s, notably with Donovan, Chris Farlowe, The Small Faces and Humble Pie; but following his sale of his personal ‘stake’ in The Rolling Stones in 1966 – to Allan Klein – relations between him and The Rolling Stones deteriorated, and their work together formally ended in 1967 after the making of Between The Buttons.