- Hugh Mendl
Hugh Rees Christopher Mendl (
August 6 ,1919 ,London -July 7 ,2008 ) was a Britishrecord producer ,A&R representative, and manager who worked forDecca Records for over 40 years.Mendl attended
Radley College and thenUniversity College, Oxford , where he studiedhistory . After falling in love withjazz music in the late 1930s, he abandoned his career in foreign affairs forsound recording and reproduction . Mendl's grandfather, who was chairman of the Decca Gramophone Company, landed him his first position in the business. DuringWorld War II he worked as an announcer for jazz radio inJerusalem and on news broadcasts in theMediterranean . He applied for a job at theBBC 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 withReggie Goff (his first recording),Winifred Atwell (producing her classic recording of "Black And White Rag") andJosh White .Mendl produced
Lonnie Donegan 's first recordings, which were pivotal in defining the newskiffle sound of the 1950s. He was instrumental in establishing Decca's new progressive subsidiaryDeram and acted as executive producer for theMoody Blues ' 1967 album "Days of Future Passed ". Through his efforts,David Bowie ,John Mayall , Caravan, and Genesis signed with Decca. His production credits covered a wide variety of styles -- he also produced the original cast recordings ofmusical s such as "Hello Dolly ", "Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be ", "Oh! What A Lovely War " and "Cinderella", a set of speeches byWinston Churchill , comedy/satire albums byIvor Cutler andFrankie Howerd and even an LP of theLe Mans 24-hour race, inspired by his lifelong passion for motor racing.Mendl encouraged Decca to sign rising Liverpool band
The Beatles in 1962 but they were famously turned down by executiveDick Rowe . As a result of that historic mistake, Decca executives began paying more attention to Mendl's advice and he is credited with recommending several other of the company's most important signings includingThe Rolling Stones (for which Rowe ultimately took credit [http://finaltaxi.wordpress.com/2008/07/22/rock-music-producer-hugh-mendl/ The Final Taxi] ] ),David Bowie ,Genesis ,John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and Caravan [http://www.thestage.co.uk/features/obituaries/feature.php/21478/hugh-mendl "The Stage" - Obituaries - Hugh Mendl] ] .In the mid-1960s Mendl was instrumental in the establishment of Decca's new subsidiary label
Deram and he championed Deram's biggest act,The Moody Blues . He gave the group the support that enabled them to evolve from a struggling 'beat-pop' act into a fully-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 theLondon Symphony 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" [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/hugh-mendl-producer-at-decca-records-876686.html Hugh Mendl obituary, "The Independent", 25 July 2008] ] , 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..Mendl suffered a
heart attack at an industry Christmas party in December 1979, which he blamed on the stress of "working for a dying company". During his convalescence Sir Edward Lewis died, and a few weeks later Decca was taken over byPolygram . 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.He left the company soon after and quit the music business, retiring to
Devon , where he ran an antiques shop.References
* [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article4317752.ece?token=null&offset=0&page=1 Hugh Mendl: Record Producer at Decca] . "
The Times ", July 12, 2008.* [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/hugh-mendl-producer-at-decca-records-876686.html#mainColumn] "Hugh Mendl: Producer at Decca Records", "The Independent", 25 July 2008
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