Eric Easton (1927–1995) was an English
record producer
A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure.Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...
and the first
manager
Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business.
Management includes the activities o ...
of British
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
group
the Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically d ...
. Originally from
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly.
The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...
, he joined the music industry playing the organ in
music hall
Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as variety. Perceptions of a distinction in Bri ...
s and cinemas. By the 1960s he had moved into management and
talent spotting, operating from an office suite in London's
Regent Street
Regent Street is a major shopping street in the West End of London. It is named after George, the Prince Regent (later George IV) and was laid out under the direction of the architect John Nash and James Burton. It runs from Waterloo Place ...
. Easton met
Andrew Loog Oldham
Andrew Loog Oldham (born 29 January 1944) is an English record producer, talent manager, impresario and author. He was manager and producer of the Rolling Stones from 1963 to 1967, and was noted for his flamboyant style.
Early life
Loog Oldha ...
in 1963; Oldham wanted to sign an unknown band, called the Rolling Stones, about whom he was enthusiastic. At the time, the band were still playing small clubs and
blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
bars. Easton saw them once—at the
Crawdaddy Club
The Crawdaddy Club was a music venue in Richmond, Surrey, England, which opened in 1963. The Rolling Stones were its house band in its first year and were followed by The Yardbirds. Several other notable British blues and rhythm and blues acts a ...
in
Richmond
Richmond most often refers to:
* Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States
* Richmond, London, a part of London
* Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England
* Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada
* Richmond, California, ...
—and agreed with Oldham. Their partnership was one of contrasts: Oldham has been described as bringing youth and energy, while Easton brought industry experience, contacts and financing. Together, they signed the group to both a management and publishing deal, which, while giving better terms for the group than
the Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
received, was to the advantage of Easton and Oldham who received a larger cut. Easton was primarily responsible for booking gigs—he was keen for the group to get out of London and play nationally—but also acted as record producer on a number of occasions, including on their first single, a
cover version
In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...
of
Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the " Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and developed rhythm and blues into th ...
's "
Come On
Come On may refer to:
Music
* ''Come On'' (EP), by Elf Power, 1999
* "Come On" (Billy Lawrence song), 1997
* "Come On" (Christine Anu song), 1995
* "Come On" (Chuck Berry song), 1961; covered by the Rolling Stones, 1963
* "Come On" (CNBLUE so ...
" in June 1963. Easton was responsible for many aspects of the band's development, ranging from managing their
fan club
A fans club is an organized group of fans, generally of a celebrity. Most fans clubs are run by fans who devote considerable time and resources to support them. There are also "official" fan clubs that are run by someone associated with the per ...
to organising their
tour of America in 1964.
As the Stones' fame and popularity increased, so did their expectations of Easton. However, after a number of problems on an American tour, in 1965 Oldham decided to oust Easton from the partnership and bring in New York promotor
Allen Klein
Allen Klein (December 18, 1931 July 4, 2009) was an American businessman whose aggressive negotiation tactics affected industry standards for compensating recording artists. He founded ABKCO Music & Records Incorporated. Klein increased profits ...
. Oldham persuaded members of the group to support him and Easton was sacked. The band, with the exception of
Bill Wyman
William George Wyman (né Perks; born 24 October 1936) is an English musician who achieved international fame as the bassist for the Rolling Stones from 1962 until 1993. In 1989, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member ...
, acquiesced. Easton launched a number of
lawsuit
-
A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil actio ...
s for
breach of contract
Breach of contract is a legal cause of action and a type of civil wrong, in which a binding agreement or bargained-for exchange is not honored by one or more of the parties to the contract by non-performance or interference with the other party ...
, and eventually
settled out of court
In law, a settlement is a resolution between disputing parties about a legal case, reached either before or after court action begins. A collective settlement is a settlement of multiple similar legal cases. The term also has other meanings in t ...
for a large sum. In 1980 he and his family emigrated to
Naples, Florida
Naples is a city in Collier County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the historical city (i.e. in the immediate vicinity of downtown Naples) was 19,115. Naples is a principal city of the Naples-Marco Island, Flori ...
, where he went into business; his son, Paul, also became a music manager and
booking agent
A talent agent, or booking agent, is a person who finds jobs for actors, authors, broadcast journalists, film directors, musicians, models, professional athletes, screenwriters, writers, and other professionals in various entertainment or sport ...
.
Musical context
During the
post-war
In Western usage, the phrase post-war era (or postwar era) usually refers to the time since the end of World War II. More broadly, a post-war period (or postwar period) is the interval immediately following the end of a war. A post-war period c ...
era, British audiences became accustomed to American popular music. Not only did the two countries share a common language but Britain had, through the stationing of US troops there, been exposed to American culture during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. Although not enjoying the same economic prosperity as America, Britain experienced similar social developments, including the emergence of distinct youth leisure activities and sub-cultures. This was most evident in the popularity of the
Teddy Boy
The Teddy Boys or Teds were a mainly British youth subculture of the mid 1950s to mid 1960s who were interested in rock and roll and R&B music, wearing clothes partly inspired by the styles worn by dandies in the Edwardian period, which Savil ...
s among working-class youths in London from around 1953. British musicians had already been influenced by American styles, particularly in
trad jazz
Trad jazz, short for "traditional jazz", is a form of jazz in the United States and Britain in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, played by musicians such as Chris Barber, Acker Bilk, Kenny Ball, Ken Colyer and Monty Sunshine, based on a revival ...
,
boogie-woogie
Boogie-woogie is a genre of blues music that became popular during the late 1920s, developed in African-American communities since 1870s.Paul, Elliot, ''That Crazy American Music'' (1957), Chapter 10, p. 229. It was eventually extended from pian ...
and the
blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
. From these influences emerged
rock and roll
Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from Africa ...
in America, which made its way to Britain through Hollywood films such as ''
Blackboard Jungle
''Blackboard Jungle'' is a 1955 American social drama film about an English teacher in an interracial inner-city school, based on the 1954 novel ''The Blackboard Jungle'' by Evan Hunter and adapted for the screen and directed by Richard Brooks. I ...
'' and ''
Rock Around the Clock
"Rock Around the Clock" is a rock and roll song in the 12-bar blues format written by Max C. Freedman and James E. Myers (the latter being under the pseudonym "Jimmy De Knight") in 1952. The best-known and most successful rendition was record ...
'' (both 1955). A
moral panic
A moral panic is a widespread feeling of fear, often an irrational one, that some evil person or thing threatens the values, interests, or well-being of a community or society. It is "the process of arousing social concern over an issue", usua ...
was declared in the popular press as young cinema-goers ripped up seats to dance; this helped identify rock and roll with delinquency, and led to it being almost banned by radio stations.
During this period,
UK radio was almost exclusively controlled by the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
, and popular music was only played on the
Light Programme
The BBC Light Programme was a national radio station which broadcast chiefly mainstream light entertainment and light music from 1945 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 1. It opened on 29 July 1945, taking over the ...
. Nevertheless, American rock and roll acts became a major force in the UK chart.
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...
reached number 2 in the UK chart with "Heartbreak Hotel" in 1956 and had nine more singles in the Top 30 that year. His first number 1 was "All Shook Up" in 1957, and there would be more chart-toppers for him and for
Buddy Holly and the Crickets
The Crickets were an American rock and roll band from Lubbock, Texas, formed by singer-songwriter Buddy Holly in January 1957. Their first hit record, "That'll Be the Day", released in May 1957, peaked at number three on the ''Billboard'' To ...
and
Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis (September 29, 1935October 28, 2022) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Nicknamed "The Killer", he was described as "rock & roll's first great wild man". A pioneer of rock and roll and rockabilly music, Lewis made ...
in the next two years. The
music journalist
Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on w ...
Stephen Davis notes that, by the end of the decade, "the Teds and their girls filled the old dance band ballrooms" of the kind Easton had played, and
Keith Richards
Keith Richards (born 18 December 1943), often referred to during the 1960s and 1970s as "Keith Richard", is an English musician and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the co-founder, guitarist, secondary vocalist, and co-princi ...
called it "a totally new era... It was like A.D. and B.C., and 1956 was year one". Record production was dominated by five main companies and London-orientated until the early 1960s. Similarly, promoters—who often combined the roles of manager and agents for their clients—almost always worked out of London too, and used their contacts in the regional music centres to make bookings.
Early life, career and meeting Oldham
Easton's early life has left very little mark on the record. It is known that he was born in 1927 in
Rishton
Rishton is a town in the Hyndburn district of Lancashire, England, about west of Clayton-le-Moors and north east of Blackburn. It was an urban district from about 1894 to 1974. The population at the census of 2011 was 6,625.
History
Its ...
,
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly.
The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...
. At some point he entered the music business and is known to have played the
organ
Organ may refer to:
Biology
* Organ (biology), a part of an organism
Musical instruments
* Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone
** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument
** Hammond ...
in cinemas, on
pier
image:Brighton Pier, Brighton, East Sussex, England-2Oct2011 (1).jpg, Seaside pleasure pier in Brighton, England. The first seaside piers were built in England in the early 19th century.
A pier is a raised structure that rises above a body of ...
s, and other tourist venues such as the
Blackpool Tower
Blackpool Tower is a tourist attraction in Blackpool, Lancashire, England, which was opened to the public on 14 May 1894. When it opened, Blackpool Tower was the List of tallest buildings in the British Empire and the Commonwealth, tallest man m ...
. Easton's early work consisted of performing popular pieces such as
Ray Martin's "Marching Strings",
Richard Rodgers
Richard Charles Rodgers (June 28, 1902 – December 30, 1979) was an American Musical composition, composer who worked primarily in musical theater. With 43 Broadway musicals and over 900 songs to his credit, Rodgers was one of the most ...
' "
Slaughter on Tenth Avenue
''Slaughter on Tenth Avenue'' is a ballet with music by Richard Rodgers and choreography by George Balanchine. It occurs near the end of Rodgers and Hart's 1936 Broadway musical comedy ''On Your Toes''. ''Slaughter'' is the story of a hoofer who ...
" and
John Walter Bratton
John Walter Bratton (January 21, 1867 – February 7, 1947) was an American Tin Pan Alley composer and theatrical producer who became popular during the era known as the Gay Nineties.
Early life
Raised by his grandmother, Mary Bratton, in New Ca ...
's "
Teddy Bears' Picnic
"The Teddy Bears' Picnic" is a song consisting of a melody by American composer John Walter Bratton, written in 1907, and lyrics added by Irish songwriter Jimmy Kennedy in 1932. It remains popular as a children's song, having been recorded by num ...
(which the BBC recorded in
Southend
Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authority area with borough status in southeastern Essex, England. It lies on the north side of the Thames Estuary, east of central London. It is bordered ...
for their
Light Programme
The BBC Light Programme was a national radio station which broadcast chiefly mainstream light entertainment and light music from 1945 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 1. It opened on 29 July 1945, taking over the ...
in 1953). He also played with his own ensemble, called Eric Easton and his Organites, and alongside contemporaries on the
variety circuit such as
Morecambe and Wise
Eric Morecambe (John Eric Bartholomew, 14 May 1926 – 28 May 1984) and Ernie Wise (Ernest Wiseman, 27 November 1925 – 21 March 1999), known as Morecambe and Wise (and sometimes as Eric and Ernie), were an English comic double act, working i ...
,
Patrick O'Hagan
Charles Alphonsus Sherrard (1924-1993) was an Irish-Australian tenor singer better known by the stage name Patrick O'Hagan. Born in Derry, Northern Ireland, he immigrated to Australia where he found success singing traditional Irish and Celtic s ...
and
Al Read
Alfred Read (3 March 1909 – 9 September 1987) was a British radio comedian active throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Originally a businessman, he has been described as highly influential on British comedy.
Early life
Read was born in Brought ...
. Easton's career playing around Britain brought him experience of the music business both in and beyond London.
By the time he met Oldham and the Stones he had many years
in showbusiness, and, says the music journalist Steven Davis, "an old-line talent agent... and veteran of
variety show
Variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical theatre, musical performances, sketch comedy, magic (illusion), magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is ...
s". Musically, the mild-mannered Easton was "a self-confessed '
square
In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90-degree angles, π/2 radian angles, or right angles). It can also be defined as a rectangle with two equal-length adj ...
'", who kept family photographs on his desk; comments, says the musician and author
Alan Clayson
Alan Clayson (born 3 May 1951, Dover, Kent) is an English singer-songwriter, author and music journalist. He gained popularity in the late 1970s as leader of the band Clayson and the Argonauts. In addition to contributing to publications such as ' ...
, for whom "the depths of depravity" were a 20-a-day smoking habit.
Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. His ongoing songwriting partnershi ...
and
Brian Jones
Lewis Brian Hopkin Jones (28 February 1942 – 3 July 1969) was an English multi-instrumentalist and singer best known as the founder, rhythm/lead guitarist, and original leader of the Rolling Stones. Initially a guitarist, he went on to prov ...
, who often used a private
argot
A cant is the jargon or language of a group, often employed to exclude or mislead people outside the group.McArthur, T. (ed.) ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (1992) Oxford University Press It may also be called a cryptolect, argot ...
between themselves, would refer to Easton as an "Ernie". Balding and middle-aged by the early 1960s, his company, Eric Easton Ltd, had offices in Radnor House,
Regent Street
Regent Street is a major shopping street in the West End of London. It is named after George, the Prince Regent (later George IV) and was laid out under the direction of the architect John Nash and James Burton. It runs from Waterloo Place ...
. In a later interview, Easton explained how he and
Andrew Loog Oldham
Andrew Loog Oldham (born 29 January 1944) is an English record producer, talent manager, impresario and author. He was manager and producer of the Rolling Stones from 1963 to 1967, and was noted for his flamboyant style.
Early life
Loog Oldha ...
had met:
![View of 93-97 Regent Street, London, 17 January 2018](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/View_of_93-97_Regent_Street%2C_London%2C_17_January_2018.png)
Easton later described his business partner Oldham as having "something of the
Hayley Mills
Hayley Catherine Rose Vivien Mills (born 18 April 1946) is an English actress. The daughter of Sir John Mills and Mary Hayley Bell, and younger sister of actress Juliet Mills, she began her acting career as a child and was hailed as a promising ...
" about him, complained about his telephone usage and demanded he itemise his calls. Oldham—always
dapper compared to the strictly suit-and-tie wearing Easton—described their partnership as Machiavellian and as a combination of energy and experience. Wyman agrees that Easton treated them in a business-like fashion when they first met, and
Keith Richards
Keith Richards (born 18 December 1943), often referred to during the 1960s and 1970s as "Keith Richard", is an English musician and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the co-founder, guitarist, secondary vocalist, and co-princi ...
later recalled how "if you opened any ''
Melody Maker
''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. It was founded in 1926, largely as a magazine for dance band musicians, by Leicester-born ...
'' or ''
NME
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...
'' at the time, you'd see an ad for Eric Easton Management Agency etc.". He described how, as he saw it, Easton
Career with The Rolling Stones
The Crawdaddy Club
In 1963,
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically d ...
comprised bandleader Jones (guitar, harmonica, keyboards), Jagger (lead vocals, harmonica), Richards (guitar, vocals), Wyman (bass guitar),
Charlie Watts
Charles Robert Watts (2 June 1941 – 24 August 2021) was an English musician who achieved international fame as the drummer of the Rolling Stones from 1963 until his death in 2021.
Originally trained as a graphic artist, Watts developed an i ...
(drums), and
Ian Stewart (piano). Oldham had seen them play the
Crawdaddy Club
The Crawdaddy Club was a music venue in Richmond, Surrey, England, which opened in 1963. The Rolling Stones were its house band in its first year and were followed by The Yardbirds. Several other notable British blues and rhythm and blues acts a ...
,
Richmond
Richmond most often refers to:
* Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States
* Richmond, London, a part of London
* Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England
* Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada
* Richmond, California, ...
that April and was impressed, thinking they would fill a gap in the British music scene. The Stones were the Crawdaddy's
house band
A house band is a group of musicians, often centrally organized by a band leader, who regularly play at an establishment.
It is widely used to refer both to the bands who work on entertainment programs on television or radio, and to bands which ...
, under the aegis of the club's owner
Giorgio Gomelsky
Giorgio Sergio Alessando Gomelsky (28 February 1934 – 13 January 2016) was a filmmaker, impresario, music manager, songwriter (as Oscar Rasputin) and record producer. He was born in Georgia, grew up in Switzerland, and later lived in the Unit ...
, who had already "got them eulogized by ''
Record Mirror
''Record Mirror'' was a British weekly music newspaper between 1954 and 1991 for pop fans and record collectors. Launched two years after the ''NME'', it never attained the circulation of its rival. The first UK album chart was published in ''Re ...
''...
ndwas their manager in every way other than writing". At 19 years old, Oldham was too young to hold a band manager's licence, and as such he "trawl
dthe lower reaches of West End theatrical agents" looking for a partner. Eventually, Oldham turned to Easton because he saw the older man as possessing both the financial experience and the contacts in the industry necessary to forward the band's career; Easton also possessed the professional gravitas to give Oldham's involvement credibility. The two discussed the matter. Oldham argued that managing the Stones was "the chance of a lifetime", and begged him to come to the Crawdaddy with him the next week to see for himself. Easton disliked missing ''
Saturday Night at the London Palladium'' on television, which Oldham called being like going to
mass
Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...
for Easton. Talking to ''
Q Magazine
''Q'' was a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1986 by broadcast journalists Mark Ellen and David Hepworth, who were presenters of the BBC television music series ''The Old Grey Whistle Test''. '' ...
'' later, he described himself as "an average character of my age, wearing a sports jacket" who hoped his night would not be wasted.
Easton travelled to Richmond with Oldham and, in Crawdaddy's, says Clayson, "stood out like a sore thumb" in the young crowd. Gomelsky was absent, having recently left for Switzerland in order to attend his father's funeral. The future photographer James Phelge, who was also in the audience, later observed that Easton looked like a schoolteacher. For his part, Easton later complained to Peter Jones of his "total humiliation and embarrassment": surrounded by screaming teenagers, in "his heavy tweed suit and his heavy brogue shoes", Easton reckoned he looked a
country squire
''Country Squire'' is the third studio album by American country musician Tyler Childers. Recorded at the Butcher Shoppe in Nashville, the album was produced by Sturgill Simpson and was released on August 2, 2019, through Childers' own Hickman Ho ...
. Of the crowd and the heat, too, he called Crawdaddy's "the first free
Turkish bath
A hammam ( ar, حمّام, translit=ḥammām, tr, hamam) or Turkish bath is a type of steam bath or a place of public bathing associated with the Islamic world. It is a prominent feature in the culture of the Muslim world and was inherited ...
I'd ever had". Although he "had winced more than once during the performance
ewas experienced in spotting talent", says his biographer Laura Jackson, and recognised it in the Stones. The Stones were willing listeners, and, over a drink after the show it was agreed that Jones would visit the Regent Street office the following week.
Gomelsky knew nothing of events until his return towards the end of the month. A later assistant of Richards,
Tony Sanchez, described how, "to Brian and Mick, who wanted–needed–so very badly to make it, walking over a couple of old friends was a small price to pay for the break that Oldham and Easton were offering them". Gomelsky says that he met with Easton a few days after the Stones had signed to he and Oldham. They wanted, Gomelsky says, to offer him compensation for his previous input to the band's development. What actually concerned them, he argues, was that Gomelsky would allow the group to continue their residency at the Crawdaddy Club. Gomeslky agreed; Easton also began booking them into the
Marquee Club
The Marquee Club was a music venue first located at 165 Oxford Street in London, when it opened in 1958 with a range of jazz and skiffle acts. Its most famous period was from 1964 to 1988 at 90 Wardour Street in Soho, and it finally closed whe ...
and
Studio 51, in London's
West End, at around the same time.
Signing and Decca contract
Easton and Oldham were keen to sign the Stones up to a label as soon as possible.
Dick Rowe
Richard Paul Brutton Rowe (9 June 1921 – 6 June 1986) was a British music executive and record producer. He was head of A&R (Singles) at Decca Records from the 1950s to the 1970s, and produced many top-selling records during that period.
H ...
, of
Decca Records
Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934 by Lewis, Jack Kapp, American Decca's first president, and Milton Rackmil, who later became American ...
, had heard of the Stones through
George Harrison
George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician and singer-songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Indian c ...
, but when Rowe tried to contact their agent, no-one appeared to know of one. Eventually, Easton's name was mentioned: "I knew Eric, of course. Once I'd spoken to him, the whole deal went through in a matter of days." Easton and Oldham formed an
independent record label
An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represented ...
, Impact Sounds—through which they would manage the group—and signed them on 6 May 1963 for a three-year deal. Philip Norman describes the meeting: Dick Rowe was a friend of Easton's. Rowe—having missed the chance of signing the Beatles the previous year and was still annoyed over it—agreed to sign the band. For their part, Easton and Oldham retained the rights to the group's recorded material, while the group themselves were effectively leased to Decca. Easton intended that he and Oldham would cut out the traditional role of the
A&R man, to which end they formed Impact Sounds. This would own and hold all master tapes and recordings, which they would also lease—"
Spector
Spector is a guitar manufacturing company. It has been based in Woodstock, New York
Woodstock is a town in Ulster County, New York, United States, in the northern part of the county, northwest of Kingston, NY. It lies within the borders ...
-like"—when required for distribution. However, the deal almost did not happen: unbeknownst to Easton and Oldham, Jones had already signed a personal recording contract with
IBC IBC is an initialism that can stand for:
Broadcasting
*Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation, Channel 13, Philippines
* International Beacon Project, Worldwide network of radio propagation beacons
*International Broadcast Centre
*International ...
. Easton gave Jones £100 with which to buy his way out of his obligations, and in doing so bought the group's
master tape
Mastering, a form of audio post production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the Audio mixing (recorded music), final mix to a data storage device (the master), the source from which all cop ...
s for themselves. The eventual deal with Decca was better news for Easton and Oldham than it was for the band. For example, Easton and Oldman were to be paid 14% of any profits from a single release, but their commitment to the band was for 6%, meaning that Easton and his partner received over half of what was earned.
Easton later told ''Q'' that "because there was a lot of interest from other companies, I could go after a really good royalty rate on record sales. And we got it." Sandford comments—reflecting on the group's youth—that "everyone except Easton and Wyman had to have their parents co-sign" their contracts. Easton and Oldham received 25% of the group's earnings in fees. Easton, responsible for the group's wages, personally paid each member £40 a week. Wyman says that the band, too, recognised the different qualities Easton and Oldham brought to managing them, calling the two polar opposites. The group collectively saw them as a good combination, believing that Easton, while he understood little of their music was the kind of established agent they needed. Jagger, in a 1975 ''
The Rolling Stone Interview'' called Easton "a 50-year-old northern mill owner. It was completely crackers."
Gigs and production work
Easton gained the Stones their early work, among the first of which was a
Kellogg's
The Kellogg Company, doing business as Kellogg's, is an American multinational food manufacturing company headquartered in Battle Creek, Michigan, United States. Kellogg's produces cereal and convenience foods, including crackers and toaste ...
Rice Krispies
Rice Krispies (known as Rice Bubbles in Australia and New Zealand) is a breakfast cereal, marketed by Kellogg's in 1927 and released to the public in 1928. Rice Krispies are made of crisped rice (rice and sugar paste that is formed into rice ...
advert
jingle
A jingle is a short song or tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. Jingles are a form of sound branding. A jingle contains one or more hooks and meaning that explicitly promote the product or service being advertised, usually t ...
.
Easton saw the Stones as a continuation of the homely musicianship shown by the Beatles,
Brian Poole
Brian Poole (born 2 November 1941)Eder, BruceBrian Poole Biography, Allmusic. Retrieved 17 August 2014 is a singer and performer who was the lead singer of 1960s beat band The Tremeloes (1957–62) and then Brian Poole and The Tremeloes (1962 ...
and
the Tremeloes
The Tremeloes are an English beat group founded in 1958 in Dagenham, England. They initially found success in the British Invasion era with lead singer Brian Poole, scoring a UK chart-topper in 1963 with "Do You Love Me". After Poole's departu ...
. Comparing them to the Beatles, he identified a similarity in their beat and upfront guitar playing, "except that the Stones were much more down to earth. More basic." To further emphasise the Stone's resemblance to their
Liverpudlian
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
rivals, Easton wanted the group to wear uniform suits on stage, as the Beatles did. They were also to present themselves as all things to all men and women, "direct
ngBeatle-esque grins" at the audience and avoiding controversy. To this end he attempted to stop band members swearing on stage, to which Jagger muttered "bloody hell". Easton retorted, "bloody hell, you don't say". He considered that compromises had to be made before the British public would accept them: their long hair was an obvious target. For their first
photoshoot
A photo shoot is the process taken by creatives and models that results in a visual objective being obtained. An example is a Model (person), model posing for a photographer at a studio or an outdoor location.
A photo shoot is a series of images ...
, Easton bought the band shiny waistcoats, white shirts,
slim-jim ties, black trousers and
Cuban-heeled boots. Among the band, says
rock journalist Paul Trynka
Paul Trynka is a British rock journalist and author. He was the editor of the music magazine ''Mojo'' from 1999 to 2003, and has also worked as editorial director of '' Q'' and editor of ''International Musician''. In 2004, he edited publisher D ...
, Jones was "the most enthusiastic about the new managers; that spring of 1963 he remained the Stone with whom Oldham and Easton would huddle and share plans". Easton ensured that the group's money was kept in discrete bank accounts, in order to lower their collective tax bill (although in the event, he overlooked that they would also be liable for tax on touring income). Easton also arranged generous credit with fashionable stores in London; this, says Sandford, allowed Jagger and Richards "to run up impressive bills that they waved away airily on presentation".
The first gig Easton booked for the Stones was a
benefit concert
A benefit concert or charity concert is a type of musical benefit performance (e.g., concert, show, or gala) featuring musicians, comedians, or other performers that is held for a charitable purpose, often directed at a specific and immediate hu ...
in
Battersea Park
Battersea Park is a 200-acre (83-hectare) green space at Battersea in the London Borough of Wandsworth in London. It is situated on the south bank of the River Thames opposite Chelsea and was opened in 1858.
The park occupies marshland reclai ...
organised by the ''
News of the World
The ''News of the World'' was a weekly national Tabloid journalism#Red tops, red top Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published every Sunday in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the world's highest-selling En ...
''. Easton had some doubts as to the quality of Jagger's singing voice, comparing it in the negative to
Roy Orbison
Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician known for his impassioned singing style, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. His music was described by critics as ...
and
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...
. Sandford describes Easton—"his voice falling to a reverential murmur"—as being worried that the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
would not approve of it. As a result, Easton pushed for the band to replace Jagger; Jones seemed agreeable to the suggestion, but Oldham vetoed it, calling them both "completely insane". However, in 1965 Easton told ''
KRLA Beat
''KRLA Beat'' was an American rock music magazine that operated between 1964 and 1968. It began in October 1964 as a free newsletter distributed by the Southern Californian radio station KRLA, before being reworked as a more reportage-focused titl ...
'' his reaction to seeing the group play for the first time:
The
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
musician
George Melly
Alan George Heywood Melly (17 August 1926 – 5 July 2007) was an English jazz and blues singer, critic, writer, and lecturer. From 1965 to 1973 he was a film and television critic for ''The Observer''; he also lectured on art history, with an e ...
said Oldham "looked at Mick like
Sylvester
Sylvester or Silvester is a name derived from the Latin adjective ''silvestris'' meaning "wooded" or "wild", which derives from the noun ''silva'' meaning "woodland". Classical Latin spells this with ''i''. In Classical Latin, ''y'' represented a ...
looks at
Tweetie Pie
''Tweetie Pie'' is a 1947 Warner Bros. '' Merrie Melodies'' cartoon directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on May 3, 1947, and stars Tweety with Sylvester the Cat, who is called "Thomas" in this cartoon.
''Tweetie Pie'' marks the fir ...
", while Easton was "impressed, but with certain reservations". Easton's son Paul later told how his father was amazed at what he saw in the Crawdaddy, as well as the numbers queuing for entry outside.
Increasing fame, increased pressure
In May 1963, Easton supervised the group's first
recording session The term studio recording means any recording made in a studio, as opposed to a live recording, which is usually made in a concert venue or a theatre, with an audience attending the performance.
Studio cast recordings
In the case of Broadway musi ...
at Decca's
West Hampstead
West Hampstead is an area in the London Borough of Camden in north-west London. Mainly defined by the railway stations of the same name, it is situated between Childs Hill to the north, Frognal and Hampstead to the north-east, Swiss Cottage to ...
studios, where they recorded a
cover version
In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...
of
Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the " Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and developed rhythm and blues into th ...
's "
Come On
Come On may refer to:
Music
* ''Come On'' (EP), by Elf Power, 1999
* "Come On" (Billy Lawrence song), 1997
* "Come On" (Christine Anu song), 1995
* "Come On" (Chuck Berry song), 1961; covered by the Rolling Stones, 1963
* "Come On" (CNBLUE so ...
". Oldham had booked three hours' studio time with Easton's cash, on the proviso, said Easton, that they did not run overtime. In the meantime, Easton was booking all the gigs he could for the band, and they were playing at least every night, and sometimes twice. The following month the band applied for an audition at the BBC, but were turned down as not suitable. Easton feared that this rejection would prevent the band getting radio exposure. The BBC thought Jagger "sounded too black", says Davis. Once again, Easton argued to sack Jagger, but in the meantime, under pressure from the group's fans, in July the BBC offered Easton a date for the group's audition. The following month Easton began booking the group into a series of
ballroom
A ballroom or ballhall is a large room inside a building, the primary purpose of which is holding large formal parties called balls. Traditionally, most balls were held in private residences; many mansions and palaces, especially historic man ...
appearances, so marking the end of their days as a club-based
blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
band, suggests Davis.
Easton deliberately took the group out of London. Their first tour was around
East Anglia
East Anglia is an area in the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in ...
, playing distant towns such as
Wisbech
Wisbech ( ) is a market town, inland Port of Wisbech, port and civil parish in the Fenland District, Fenland district in Cambridgeshire, England. In 2011 it had a population of 31,573. The town lies in the far north-east of Cambridgeshire, bord ...
—their opening gig—
Soham
Soham ( ) is a town and civil parish in the district of East Cambridgeshire, in Cambridgeshire, England, just off the A142 between Ely and Newmarket. Its population was 10,860 at the 2011 census.
History Archaeology
The region between Dev ...
,
Whittlesey
Whittlesey (also Whittlesea) is a market town and civil parish in the Fenland district of Cambridgeshire, England. Whittlesey is east of Peterborough. The population of the parish was 16,058 at the 2011 Census.
History and architecture
W ...
and
King's Lynn
King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is located north of London, north-east of Peterborough, no ...
. This was hard work, commented Oldham later, as "most places north of
Luton
Luton () is a town and unitary authority with borough status, in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 census, the Luton built-up area subdivision had a population of 211,228 and its built-up area, including the adjacent towns of Dunstable an ...
were Beatles territory". Easton's strategy was to get the band into a habit of non-stop gig; this would make them well known around the country. He was lucky that a nationwide tour by
Bo Diddley
Ellas McDaniel (born Ellas Otha Bates; December 30, 1928 – June 2, 2008), known professionally as Bo Diddley, was an American guitarist who played a key role in the transition from the blues to rock and roll. He influenced many artists, incl ...
and the
Everly Brothers
The Everly Brothers were an American rock duo, known for steel-string acoustic guitar playing and close harmony singing. Consisting of Isaac Donald "Don" Everly (February 1, 1937 – August 21, 2021) and Phillip "Phil" Everly (January 19, 1939 ...
was about to commence, and Easton was able to have the Stones hired as a backing group. This was relatively successful, suggests Davis, considering the relatively poor showing of "Come On". Although the group saw little immediate change in their circumstances, Easton was organising their future "on the path ordained for an aspiring 'beat' group—the dreary round-Britain path of the pop package show". He was, says Jackson, "busting a gut" to get the group gigs and interviews, and as well as running their fan club from his office. For the remainder of 1963, the group were playing almost every night.
Reviews of the group's first single were, says Norman, lukewarm, but according to Easton, "Come On" sold 40,000 records, and he paid them £18 each in royalties and was incensed when they took the song off their live repertoire soon after. In mid-1963 they were given the as-yet-unreleased song "I Wanna Be Your Man" by the Beatles. It was to be the Stones' second single and was recorded at Regent Sound Studios on Denmark Street—described by a roadie as "tiny, ropey, and look
nglike someone's front room"—overseen by Easton. The song met with mixed reviews, but Easton's production was praised by Johnny Dean of ''Beat Monthly''. The B-side was "Stoned (Rolling Stones song), Stoned". Easton, says Davis, "scammed" both the group and his business partner by assigning the rights for the song to a company he had co-ownership in, without their knowledge. On the other hand, he bought the group a brand new Volkswagen van for their touring needs—"which I thought was very good of him", commented Richards later, "considering he was making a heavy fortune off us"—and regularly acted as producer during their studio sessions, as Oldham often failed to turn up. Easton, says Stewart, did not trust Oldham in a recording studio. He also negotiated free stage equipment from Jennings Musical Instruments, Jennings Music in return for endorsements. On one occasion, the equipment was worth £700.
![Stones ad 1965](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Stones_ad_1965.JPG)
Easton favoured Brian Jones over the other band members; Davis suggests that a private deal existed between them whereby, for example, when on tour, Jones and his then-girlfriend would stay in nicer hotels, and Jones would receive £5 more in payment than his colleagues for being the frontman. Jones' girlfriend, Lynda Lawrence, later said that "there was this camaraderie, and understanding between them". Easton may have prevented Wyman from being sacked alongside
Ian Stewart, whom Oldham wanted to remove as not looking sufficiently part of the band. Easton did, however, acquiesce to Stewart's dismissal; Oldham later came to believe that both Jones and Wyman were a pro-Easton faction within the group.
Problems in America and at home
In June 1964 Easton organised the group's appearance on the BBC's ''Juke Box Jury''. This became extremely controversial, as the group refused to abide by the script, and voted against every record they were played. Around the same time, Easton travelled to New York to organise the Stones' first US tour with Decca's subdivision London Records. In New York they stayed at the Hotel Astor (New York City), Hotel Astor in Times Square. This was to cause problems: Easton rarely knew either the promotor or the venue he was booking. To save money, everyone shared rooms, and Easton was in the same room as Ian Stewart; Norman argues "it was not so much a tour as a series of one-nighters". In an attempt to get the group onto the ''Ed Sullivan Show'', Easton personally visited Sullivan, but Sullivan, Easton later said "threw me out of the place, essentially".
The group also appeared on Dean Martin's ''Hollywood Palace'' show; it was not a success. Says Davis, Martin "went out of his way to insult them in his introduction". As a result, Jagger phoned Easton—by now returned to the UK—"and yelled at him". For Easton, says Stewart, the Hollywood show "was the thin end of the wedge". Easton was blamed for a poorly-organised circuit: while some shows in New York were well attended, on other occasions they played to small crowds, either in massive stadia such as the 15,000-seater Detroit Olympia—where they played to an audience of about 600 people—or fairgrounds and fields in Nebraska (where, Wyman later recalled, "you could just tell they wanted to beat the shit out of you").
There was growing tension between Easton and Oldham as well, as the latter had "discovered that Easton had demanded kickbacks from local promoters" while they were touring. Easton, meanwhile, found Oldham's erratic behaviour bizarre. In his attempts at creating an image for himself, Ian Stewart describes Oldham as being "more interested in the image of Phil Spector, running around in big cars, with bodyguards, collecting money, and buying clothes" than producing records. Easton, says the author Fred Goodman, "as unflinchingly middle class as any man who ever worked in the music business, could only scratch his head". The group's road manager, Mike Dorsey, visited Easton in Ealing and asked him to control Oldham.
Easton—who by this time saw the group as being as big as The Kinks—had booked the group to top the bill at the National Jazz and Blues Festival in Reading, Berkshire, Reading, with 50% of the door receipts for the band, who were to be billed as "the triumphant return for the conquering heroes" of America. Soon after they appeared on the BBC's flagship music programme, ''Ready Steady Go!''. When they left, Jones was left behind because of the fan crush; Easton gave him a lift, with Jones hiding in the floor of the car. The autumn of 1964 British tour saw Eric Easton Ltd receive 20% of the tour profits, and when the Stones beat the Beatles in the ''Melody Maker''
's popularity poll, Easton brought each member a new watch. Following the tour, however, Easton and the group sued the tour promoter, Robert Stigwood for supposedly withholding profits. Easton wrote to Stigwood, "we have made every effort to settle the matter amicably, unfortunately without success. The Stones were paid their basic salaries as agreed. This action is over profits".
On the group's The Rolling Stones 2nd American Tour 1964, second US tour, in late 1964, Easton caught pneumonia in New York and returned to London to recover. Following his illness, he contemplated a world tour, with the taking in Australia, New Zealand and the Far East. At about this time, Easton found out that Watts had secretly got married the previous month, and commented: "I suppose now I will have to buy him a wedding present". Meanwhile, relations continued to sour with Oldham. While the group was in America, Easton booked them onto several radio shows in the UK, including ''Saturday Club (BBC Radio), Saturday Club'' and ''Top Gear (radio show), Top Gear''. Oldham found out and cancelled; when the group failed to appear for the BBC shows, the fans were angry and the BBC engaged its lawyers. Easton was under pressure to make deals for the band that were as good as the Beatles had had; he wrote to his US concert agent, Norman Weiss, saying:
Discontent within the group
As the group became more famous, says Forget, the pressure on Easton was beginning to show. Oldham had been predominant in dealing with the Stones' image and creative development. Easton attended to the financial side, but the group was concerned, says Forget, that Easton would be unable to manage the band's approaching fame. Richards believes that Easton—whom he said was tired by then—may have been ill, and this may have affected his work. Either way, he said, he felt that Easton "wasn't big enough to handle anything outside of England". He expanded on this in a 1975 ''Rolling Stone'' Interview, saying that once the band broke America, "this cat Easton dissolved. He went into a puddle. He couldn't handle that scene." Wyman, on the other hand, contests Richards' view of Easton's departure, saying that it was "untrue and a camouflage. Easton functioned efficiently." Easton had also helped sour relations with Oldham: claiming that their work for the Stones was now so big that it necessitated more office space, Easton evicted Oldham from his backroom in Regent Street. Oldham suggests that "in fact, Eric was just totally pissed off. He'd had it with me, my style of personal management."
Although Easton had organised another Stateside tour for autumn 1965, the band was increasingly unhappy under his management. Although they had earned millions touring, they only received £50 a week from Impact Sounds and, says Davis, were permanently short of money. Oldham—by now having moved out of the Regent Street office and no longer on speaking terms with Easton—"wasted no opportunity to bad-mouth his partner to Jagger and Richards", emphasising Easton's lack of "hip" or "cool". Communication between the two had been difficult for some time, says Wyman, who also notes that, although a number of contractual discussions were taking place between Oldham and the group, Easton "was conspicuously absent" from them. Oldham also sent Easton telegrams in Jagger's name, which Easton only discovered were not from the singer when the two spoke on the phone and Jagger denied all knowledge of them. Easton for his part reminded Oldham that, as far as he was concerned:
By July 1965—partly motivated by Oldham's exposure of Easton's underhand dealings with Jones—Oldham and the Stones had agreed that Easton would be forced out. Trynka argues that it was Jones' extra £5 that acted as a catalyst for the others' discontent: "The extra fiver marginalized Easton and Brian—and Oldham used it to his advantage". Wyman seems to have attempted to mount a defence of Easton, but, according to Goodman, he was shouted down by Richards, who accused the bassist of being "fucking mercenary".
On 27 August 1965 at a "bitterly acrimonious" band meeting, a number of allegations were made against Easton, who Wyman says kept his cool throughout the proceedings. Easton reminded the group—and Oldham and Klein—that as far as he was concerned, his contract still had nine months to run; he also argued that Oldham had withheld payments from him. Easton was replaced by New Jersey-born record company auditor
Allen Klein
Allen Klein (December 18, 1931 July 4, 2009) was an American businessman whose aggressive negotiation tactics affected industry standards for compensating recording artists. He founded ABKCO Music & Records Incorporated. Klein increased profits ...
, who Norman says "dazzled" Oldham. For his part, Oldham may have been worried about the immediate future: the Stones' contract with Decca was about to expire, and he may have feared that if Easton had the opportunity to renegotiate it, he might exclude Oldham.
Dismissal
![AndrewLoogOldham](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/AndrewLoogOldham.jpg)
Easton was also sacked as the group's
booking agent
A talent agent, or booking agent, is a person who finds jobs for actors, authors, broadcast journalists, film directors, musicians, models, professional athletes, screenwriters, writers, and other professionals in various entertainment or sport ...
and replaced by Tito Burns. Clayson suggests that Easton's dismissal was as a result of Divide and rule, divide and conquer tactics by Klein, who had originally been employed to undertake some of Oldham's administrative work but was able to persuade Oldham that Easton was no longer required. Trynka says Easton was sacked in favour of the "far more predatory Allen Klein" by an Oldham-Jagger-Richards triumvirate. In 1968, Easton's barrister described him as having been ousted, and music writer Nicholas Schaffner later called it a purge on Oldham's part. It is likely that Richards was the prime motivator behind the move; one of the things he liked about Klein was that "at least he was under fifty". Easton was summarily sacked, and an attempt to buy him off failed. In October 1971, Easton launched a series of lawsuits for
breach of contract
Breach of contract is a legal cause of action and a type of civil wrong, in which a binding agreement or bargained-for exchange is not honored by one or more of the parties to the contract by non-performance or interference with the other party ...
against the band, Oldham, Decca, London Records, Allen Klein and Nanker Phelge. As a result, the High Court froze a million pounds-worth of the Stones' UK assets until the case was concluded. Decca was also instructed to suspend all royalty payments to the group. This process was to last many years. Wyman was, in his own words, "the lone voice to express reservations".
Easton's barrister, Peter Pain, told the court that "in many ways, the whole story is rather sad... it is probably no exaggeration to say that everybody is suing everybody". Easton attempted to enforce a prison committal against Oldham for failing to pay monies owed or to supply documentation. Oldham, says Goodman, was keen to avoid Easton's lawsuit if possible and was
While Oldham's paranoia and fear of a trial for perjury increased, Easton appears to have found the affair little more than "disheartening or silly"; the first time Oldham ran away from him, Easton called after him "you'll have to accept them [the documents] sooner or later, you naughty boy...". It was two years before Oldham was eventually brought to earth, and Easton's lawyers confronted Klein robustly in November 1967. Easton eventually settled for a golden handshake of $200,000 in withheld royalties, in exchange for which he would drop his future claims. On the other hand, according to Easton himself, he voluntarily left the band, on account of the lifestyle not suiting him and the "unsavoury people" he was forced to deal with.
Later life
Easton attempted to put his own side of the story across, but according to Trynka, he was frozen out of the popular music press who "only talked to winners, not losers". According to the ''Melody Maker'' writer Chris Welch, who interviewed Easton, he was "sad and despondent"; Welch's interview was, however, Spike (journalism), spiked by his editor Ray Coleman, whom Welch believed to have been influenced by Oldham. Easton sued Oldham for breaking their contractual partnership, although, suggests Jackson, "he had difficulty serving the papers on Andrew as he would literally leg it". The group's subsequent contracts with Decca and London Records—arranged by Klein—explicitly excluded Easton from claiming anything from them in future. Richards summed up the perspective of the group on Easton's departure:
The group's 1966 Single (music), single, "Paint it Black"—later the opening track on the album ''Aftermath (The Rolling Stones album), Aftermath'', had its origins in what author Tim Dowley calls a "mickey-taking session"—a send-up, says Richards—out of Easton, in which Wyman played a Hammond organ. Richards later recalled how, "Bill was playing the organ, doing a piss-take on our old manager [Easton], who started as an organist in a cinema pit. We'd been doing it with funky rhythms and it hadn't worked out and he started playing it like this [a sort of unintentional klezmer parody]". It was also, suggests Trynka, "in tribute to [Easton's] earlier career as an organist on the chicken-in-a-basket circuit".
Jones had been "profoundly disturbed" at the expulsion of Easton, "his one ally" in the group by then, and Easton's departure contributed to Jones' descent into depression and drug use. Easton was still in business in 1967 when he had moved his offices to Little Argyll Street, around half a mile (0.80 km) north along Regent Street. Following the death of Jones in July 1969, Easton attended his funeral in Cheltenham along with Wyman and Watts .
Easton attended a birthday party that was held jointly for Richards and Bobby Keys at Olympic Studios on 18 December 1970. In 1971, the Stones—facing a serious financial crisis—lawsuit, sued Easton and Oldham, among others, for failing to ask Decca Records to increase their royalty payments, which, alleged Jagger, it had turned out Decca had been willing to do but had not been asked to.
Other work
Easton managed a number of other bands and artists, particularly of the Middle of the road (music), middle of the road genre. Among his clients he counted David Bowie's first group, David Bowie#1962–1967: Early career to debut album, The Konrads, although the Konrads, unlike the Stones, "never progressed beyond the suburban pub circuit", says Sandford, and may not have been particularly interested in them. Easton also ran Julie Grant—whom Easton saw as a successor to Helen Shapiro—and booked her to back the Stones on their The Rolling Stones British Tour 1963, first UK tour. Easton claimed to have managed the Dave Clark Five before the Stones, and organised their first American tour. His partnership with them, though, says Easton, ended because the group thought him to be concentrating too much on the Stones and not enough on them. Easton also managed Bert Weedon, Mrs Mills and the Master of ceremonies, host of ITV's popular music show ''Thank Your Lucky Stars (TV series), Thank Your Lucky Stars'', Brian Matthew. Through Matthew, Easton had arranged the Stones' first TV appearance. Clayson says that Easton was "respected and liked by his many prestigious artistes" due to his background in the industry and the fact that he was committed to their long-term success. For example, for Weedon he had obtained a Concert residency, residency on the BBC's ''Billy Cotton Band Show'', and Mills he obtained a place for on ITV's children's series, the ''Five O'Clock Club''. According to Peter Townsend, Easton believed that the Stones' impact would be ephemeral and that it would be his other clients—Grant, Weedon and Mills—who would be his long-term investments. Easton, says Townsend, also had other sidelines to buffer him financially, telling Townsend, "if this popular music business collapses, I'm not terribly worried. I've got a nice little income guaranteed; I hire out 20 organs to Butlins."
Personal life
For much of his career, Easton lived in Ealing. He was married—his wife had been a dancer—with two children, and "his one luxury was a caravan on the south coast", wrote Oldham later. In 1980, Easton and his wife were holidaying regularly in Florida. First, they stayed in Miami and then made their way down the Tamiami Trail to Naples, Florida, Naples, to where they decide to retire the same year. There he opened Easton's Music Centre—trading in pianos and organs—and a real estate business. In an interview, Easton later claimed to have kept in touch with the Stones into the 1990s.
Easton was married to Mary, with whom he had a son, Paul. Paul also went into the entertainment industry, forming ABA Entertainments Consultants. Easton and Paul took in concerts together when artists were in the area, and Paul himself, said Easton, undertook a "whirlwind tour" of the UK in 1990 at the Stones' invitation. The invitation, said Easton, was the result of the group vacationing in Naples, and the Eastons dining with them. Paul later said that his father's business ensured he grew up what he termed a "showbiz brat".
Easton died in 1995, 67 years old. In his 1998 autobiography, Oldham writes that sometime in the "early 90s", after hearing that Easton had not long to live, he telephoned him in Florida "to attempt a closure to all our acts on this earth. Eric came to the phone, but didn't really want to speak with me—his call." Following his death, the Eric Easton Awards were launched in Naples; named after him, they were intended to highlight the three best local student pianists of the year with a public recital.
Reputation
Trynka calls Easton "the forgotten man of the Stones story". Clayson argues that, notwithstanding Easton's own prim dislike of the beatnik culture, it did not "prevent him from turning a hard-nosed penny or two when the opportunity knocked". Wyman, speaking to the ''Evening Herald''
's Eamon Carr in 1990, also believed that, while the Stones in their early days were consistently poor—"all the expenses went onto the band", he said—Oldham and Easton, "probably were quite wealthy". This, suggests Wyman, was both on account of the management team earning twice what the group did, and also that, following their departures, both men received large pay-offs. Giorgio Gomelsky—whose interest in the Stones was "cultural rather than business-orientated"—was unimpressed by either Easton or Oldham, saying "frankly, I thought those two were pretty low-flying characters with no interest in blues, underdog culture or social justice! Dollar signs were pointing their way." The publicist and talent scout Lesley Conn also thought that Easton was a bad choice of manager for the Stones, arguing that Easton "really screwed 'em to the wall". Richards, likewise, considers that Easton and Oldham "fucked Giorgio", although Oldham says that neither he nor Easton knew of Gomelski's existence when they signed the band.
To the contemporary music journalist Sean O'Mahoney, Easton was "vital. Andrew knew nothing about the business side of it... he needed someone who did." Easton was conservative, businesslike and practical as well as "calm, dependable and knew the ropes". he was generally "much-maligned", argues Trynka. Decca executive Dick Rowe called Easton "respected, a steady pair of hands he could rely on". Easton was also highly trusted by journalists. Oldham later criticised Easton as lacking artistic vision, while the music executive Harold Pendleton says of the two men's relationship that "Eric Easton was a run-of-the-mill manager, calm, cold and efficient. Loog Oldham was a temperamental chancer and a fellow who understood artistic people. The combination of the two was better than either of them apart." Within the band, Easton was most respected by Wyman, who was a few years older than his colleagues and did not see Easton as distant from the group as they did. Clayson suggests that age was the relevant factor, as the few years Wyman had over the other Stones meant that he had a similar experience of the post-war depression as Easton. Wyman later described Easton as a "cautious, kindly" figure, diligent in his work and treatment of his clients. Richards called him a "very nice guy". The band generally respected Easton, says Norman, for financing them when they were an unknown quantity, "and whom, in spite of his desperate naffness, they all rather liked". He also emphasised the dangers, in his opinion, of letting hindsight colour the importance of Easton in the group's progression:
In 1991, Easton told a reporter that he was glad the Rolling Stones had become as successful as they had, as "it sort of shows that I know what I'm doing, too, doesn't it?"
Discography
Notes
References
Bibliography
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Easton, Eric
English record producers
English music managers
The Rolling Stones
1927 births
1995 deaths
Musicians from Lancashire
Businesspeople from Lancashire
Talent agents
20th-century English businesspeople