Philip Raymond Solomon (27 April 1924 – 10 April 2011) was a

music executive A music executive or record executive is a person within a record label who works in senior management and makes executive decisions over the label's artists. Their role varies greatly but in essence, they can oversee one, or many, aspects of a re ...

and businessman from Northern Ireland. He managed artists like

The Bachelors The Bachelors were a popular music group, originating from Dublin, Ireland, but primarily based in the United Kingdom. They had several international hits during the 1960s, including eight top-ten singles in the UK between 1963 and 1966. Car ...

, Them and

The Dubliners The Dubliners were an Irish folk band founded in Dublin in 1962 as The Ronnie Drew Ballad Group, named after its founding member; they subsequently renamed themselves The Dubliners. The line-up saw many changes in personnel over their fifty-ye ...

, founded Major Minor Records and was co-director of

Radio Caroline Radio Caroline is a British radio station founded in 1964 by Ronan O'Rahilly and Alan Crawford initially to circumvent the record companies' control of popular music broadcasting in the United Kingdom and the BBC's radio broadcasting monopoly ...

Biography

Early career

He was born in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

, Northern Ireland. Phil Solomon was the eldest son of a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family in Belfast. Several family members had ties with the

music business The music industry consists of the individuals and organizations that earn money by writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling recorded music and sheet music, presenting concerts, as well as the organizations that aid, train, ...

. His father Maurice, and uncle Harold Peres, founded Solomon and Peres in the early 1920s. Both Maurice and Harold Peres became two of the biggest shareholders of Decca Records, his brother Mervyn founded Emerald Music, an independent record label, specialising in

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

, Scottish and Celtic music. Solomon started his career in the 1950s as a publicity agent for the Northern Irish singer

Ruby Murray Ruby Florence Murray (29 March 1935 – 17 December 1996) was a Northern Irish singer. One of the most popular singers in the British Isles in the 1950s, she scored ten hits in the UK Singles Chart between 1954 and 1959. She also made pop chart ...

, who reached the top of the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

with " Softly, Softly" in 1955. Together with his wife Dorothy, whom he had married in the early 1950s, he also handled the publicity for concert tours by artists like

Jimmy Shand Sir James Shand (28 January 1908 – 23 December 2000) was a Scottish musician who played traditional Scottish dance music on the accordion. His signature tune was "The Bluebell Polka". Life and career James Shand was born in East Wemyss ...

Jim Reeves James Travis Reeves (August 20, 1923July 31, 1964) was an American country and popular music singer-songwriter. With records charting from the 1950s to the 1980s, he became well known as a practitioner of the Nashville Sound. Known as "Gentleman ...

Acker Bilk Bernard Stanley "Acker" Bilk, (28 January 1929 – 2 November 2014) was a British clarinetist and vocalist known for his breathy, vibrato-rich, lower-register style, and distinctive appearance – of goatee, bowler hat and striped waistc ...

Chris Barber Donald Christopher "Chris" Barber OBE (17 April 1930 – 2 March 2021) was an English jazz musician, best known as a bandleader and trombonist. He helped many musicians with their careers and had a UK top twenty trad jazz hit with "Petite Fle ...

and a number of

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 m ...

and dance orchestras. In 1958, the Solomons moved to London, where they handled the publicity for a wide range of performers, like Gene Pitney, Kenneth McKellar, Louis Armstrong and

Mantovani Annunzio Paolo Mantovani (; 15 November 1905 – 29 March 1980) was an Anglo-Italian conductor, composer and light orchestra-styled entertainer with a cascading strings musical signature. The book ''British Hit Singles & Albums'' sta ...

. Solomon also started managing a group,

, a trio from

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

, specialising in close-harmony versions of evergreens. The Bachelors were very successful in the mid-1960s, and scored seventeen British top fifty hits, eight of which reached the top ten between 1963 and 1967.

Manager

The Bachelors' success encouraged Solomon to start managing other artists as well. At first mostly

and

Northern Irish Northern Irish people is a demonym for all people born in Northern Ireland or people who are entitled to reside in Northern Ireland without any restriction on their period of residence. Most Northern Irish people either identify as Northern ...

artists, such as Them, and subsequently

Van Morrison Sir George Ivan Morrison (born 31 August 1945), known professionally as Van Morrison, is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose recording career spans seven decades. He has won two Grammy Awards. As a teenager in t ...

and David McWilliams, but after a short while he also took others under his wing. One of the greatest successes by an artist from Solomon's stable was "

Terry Terry is a unisex given name, derived from French Thierry and Theodoric. It can also be used as a diminutive nickname for the names Teresa or Theresa (feminine) or Terence (given name), Terence or Terrier (masculine). People Male * Terry Albrit ...

" by the English singer

Twinkle Twinkle may refer to: * Twinkling, the variation of brightness of distant objects People * Twinkle (singer) (1948–2015), born Lynn Annette Ripley, English singer-songwriter * Twinkle Khanna, Indian movie actress * Twinkle Bajpai, female con ...

, a song about a young man killed in a motorcycle accident. In the eyes of the

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 exam. ...

...

Major Minor and Radio Caroline

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...

Major Minor Records

When the pirate station

ran into trouble, thanks to a heavy burden of debt, he helped clearing the debts. In exchange, he joined the board of directors. Caroline's disc jockeys were from now on obliged to play a given number of Major Minor records every day. Solomon also compelled other record companies to pay Caroline for 'plugging' their new records. These measures limited the disc jockeys' freedom to choose their own music. Some of them rebelled. Michael Pasternak, who called himself

Emperor Rosko Michael Joseph Pasternak (born 26 December 1942), known by his stage name Emperor Rosko, is an American presenter of rock music programmes, most widely known for his shows on Radio Caroline and BBC Radio 1 in the UK in the 1960s and early 1970s. ...

, was fired a few times by Solomon, because he refused to play Major Minor records – and re-employed by Caroline's co-director

Ronan O'Rahilly Aodogán Ronan O'Rahilly (21 May 1940 – 20 April 2020) was an Irish businessman best known for the creation of the offshore radio station, Radio Caroline and the band Sheep On Drugs. He also became manager of George Lazenby, who played James ...

. Even Solomon could not prevent Radio Caroline's demise. Both ships that broadcast Caroline's programs were seized by creditors in March 1968. This event marked the end of his involvement with the pirate station. Major Minor featured many Irish and Northern Irish artists, among them The Dubliners. Their "

Seven Drunken Nights "Seven Drunken Nights" is a humorous Irish folk song most famously performed by The Dubliners. It is a variation of the Scottish folk song " Our Goodman" ( Child 274, Roud 114). It tells the story of a gullible drunkard returning night after n ...

" was banned by the BBC in 1967 (like Twinkle's record a few years before), but reached the British Top Ten nevertheless. The label also owned the rights to the British versions of the records by

Johnny Nash John Lester Nash Jr. (August 19, 1940October 6, 2020) was an American singer-songwriter, best known in the United States for his 1972 hit " I Can See Clearly Now". Primarily a reggae and pop singer, he was one of the first non-Jamaican artists ...

. Major Minor also released a few early records by the Dutch group

Golden Earring Golden Earring (originally known as The Tornados) was a Dutch rock band, founded in 1961 in The Hague as The Golden Earrings. They achieved worldwide fame with their international hit songs "Radar Love" in 1973, which went to number one on t ...

. Major Minor's two biggest hits were " Mony Mony" by

Tommy James and the Shondells Tommy James and the Shondells are an American pop rock/psychedelic rock band, formed in Niles, Michigan, in 1964. They had two No. 1 singles in the U.S. – " Hanky Panky" (July 1966, their only RIAA Certified Gold record) and "Crimson and Clo ...

(number 1 in the UK in 1968) and " Je t'aime... moi non plus" by Serge Gainsbourg and

Jane Birkin Jane Mallory Birkin, OBE (born 14 December 1946) is an English-French singer and actress. She attained international fame and notability for her decade-long musical and romantic partnership with Serge Gainsbourg. She also had a prolific career ...

(1969). In the UK the

...
refused to broadcast it. Originally the record had been released by Fontana Records, but the record company's management withdrew it after it had reached number 2 in the

. (Philips' president

Frits Philips Frederik Jacques "Frits" Philips (16 April 1905 – 5 December 2005) was the fourth chairman of the board of directors of the Dutch electronics company Philips, which his uncle and father founded. For his actions in saving 382 Jews during the Naz ...

in the Netherlands found out it had been issued in the UK and demanded its withdrawal at once. Such was the morality of 1969 where the parent company was primarily selling radios, televisions and white goods to the public, it was felt this record was inappropriate.) Serge Gainsbourg arranged a deal with Phil Solomon, and the record was re-released on Major Minor. It then became number 1 in the UK Singles Chart the following week.

Later years

In 1970, Solomon sold Major Minor to the

EMI Group EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 2012 ...

. He almost completely retired from the music business. Dorothy kept on managing the Scottish singer

Lena Zavaroni Lena Hilda Zavaroni (4 November 1963 – 1 October 1999) was a Scottish singer and a television show host. At ten years of age, with her album ''Ma! (He's Making Eyes at Me)'', she was the youngest person in history to have an album in the top ...

. Other activities by Phil and Dorothy Solomon in later years were horse breeding, horse racing and the exploitation of

art galleries An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The lon ...

in Dublin and London. In the early 1980s, Phil helped to establish a radio station in Dublin, Sunshine Radio. Phil Solomon died of cardiac arrest on 10 April 2011 in Bournemouth, England, where he had settled. His wife Dorothy outlived him; the pair had no children. Phil Solomon is the first cousin to Maureen Black, wife of the British born businessman and television mogul, Roy Keith Black and cousin to film producer, Keith D. Black.

References

External links

Obituary in ''The Telegraph''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Solomon, Phil 1924 births 2011 deaths Music managers from Northern Ireland Businesspeople from Northern Ireland Record producers from Northern Ireland Jews from Northern Ireland Offshore radio broadcasters