Happy Trails: Andrew Lauder's Charmed Life and High Times in the Record Business

Product Information

At that point I knew the album we had was definitely a dead duck because two thirds of the recordings weren’t good enough and it was a different band anyway, so even Dave Edmunds’ tracks were now redundant. Andrew Lauder is one of British record business’s most significant and highly influential figures but outside the music industry few people will probably know his name. We had Brinsley Schwarz but it was very difficult to get them gigs as we were competing against the prog rock people. While I was still at Southern, me and another guy ended up managing a group and getting them a record contract. Andrew Lauder's tale is a classic one: young and naïve country boy who came to the big city, fell into a random, entry-level but opportune position at the publishing company Southern Music, and went on to make his mark in the industry for half a century.

Soon after the band had achieved commercial success in early ‘77, you left UA to pursue other projects. Both of the companies didn’t get on as Liberty was very West coast, Los Angeles based whereas UA was very East coast. All our press photos are LIMITED ARCHIVE ORIGINALS - they are the actual prints that were used by the newspapers, they are not reprints or digital prints produced by us. What I also noticed is that, at the start of his career, pretty much everyone was wonderful and everyone got on, but as time went by, and his projects became less successful, it was always someone else’s fault, but never Andrew’s.Also, the interest from Europe was amazing, probably because The Stranglers were quite musical, people that couldn’t relate to the other bands, could relate to The Stranglers. My first job with Liberty was radio promotion, getting records played on the radio and it coincided with the beginning of Radio 1 in September 1967.

I think, probably because the Feelgoods were a kind of half way house, a friend had signed Eddie and the Hot Rods, Chiswick had the 101’ers, I thought all these things were leading up to it. He was ahead of the game in other ways, too; pioneering a more creative way of marketing and promoting records and revolutionising the way catalogue was organised and presented. Its songs about abortion and activism, bad love and loneliness, have driven him to painful places - but, as he tells GRAYSON HAVER CƯRRIN, that’s where the real stories are: “What’s the point of all this if you’re not terrified?So I went down and it was just me there, which I didn’t really like doing as I felt a bit self conscious. KEEP READING: ‘ Cathi Unsworth’s history of goth is explored through the influential bands, music, and the sociopolitical backdrops that shaped this outsider subculture in her book, Season Of The Witch. I was offered a job at Apple at the same time but the head of the American Liberty company said ‘you’re not going anywhere’ which I took as a compliment. I knew Nick Kent (music journalist who was attacked by Sid Vicious) who was beaten up by a Sex Pistol and I thought ‘he’s a harmless drug-addict music-fan, leave him alone’. Lemmy’s first trio came together quickly with Pink Fairies’ guitarist Larry Wallis and drummer Lucas Fox.

Happy Trails’ by Quicksilver Messenger Service is my all-time favourite record so it’s an apt title for my story, just as White Rabbit is the perfect publisher, since it was hearing ‘Jefferson Airplane Takes Off’ that turned me on to the San Francisco scene that was always such a cause célèbre for me. Prince Charles had already included Sir Andrew in his land-tax levies, for which he personally signed Sir Andrew's receipt, dated 29 September 1745. SEE the BACKSIDE OF the PHOTO - many times the image for sale will present stamps, dates, and other publication details - these marks attest to and increase the value of the press photos.We mixed the tracks in January and by then Lemmy was coming in to see me every day wanting this or that because Doug had pulled out. He's always retained a fan's perspective which, combined with an exceptional knowledge of music, meant he was at ease around musicians and never happier than spending time with them. I would have given it five stars but his co-author stood me up three times for business meetings (we never did actually meet up to discuss a thing) so fer-git that dude. It was Lauder who created the environment within which Hawkwind could rise from the dishevelled jam band he signed in 1969, to become one of the most inventive acts of the early seventies. For a brief period, although they were infamous for being hard to deal with, I thought ‘I can do this’.