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IMMEDIATE: The Rise and Fall of the UK's First Independent Record Label
Praise for the 2007 edition
“One of the greatest accounts of Sixties rock ’n’ roll” - The Independent
“Spence, collaborator on Stoned, delivers the lowdown on the controversial and prestigious British Record label - Waterstones
“The sound of the Sixties” - Clash
“Spence used inside knowledge to produce this definitive book about the maverick independent label” - The Beat
“Sheer brilliance flashes from many of the interviewees” - Dave Thompson
“A story worth reading” - Spin
“Perhaps the most fascinating part of this book is the last chapter where Spence relates some of his experiences of working with ALO - the two of them together in Oldham’s sanctuary of Bogota, Colombia.” - Shindig
Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham was the enfant terrible of Swinging Sixties London, the man who had crafted The Beatles’ antithesis. By 1965 he was a millionaire notorious for working every publicity angle for his rising stars but he still felt frustrated by the men in grey suits who controlled the music industry. His solution to that problem was Immediate Records - the UK’s first independent label - with a mission statement to wash away those grey men.
What followed was five years of scams, chicanery, sex, drugs, violence and sensational music. Immediate’s ‘in-house’ polymath Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Oldham himself, Jimmy Page and Steve Marriott, attracted a crowd of daring, young British talent, forging the hippest scene in the world.
Yet, following his ousting as Stones manager in 1967, the label itself began to fray at the seams as the drugs and booze clouded Oldham's creative genius and the grey suits quietly took their revenge.
Simon Spence’s acclaimed telling of Immediate’s rise and fall was first published in 2007 but has now been augmented with explanatory footnotes and even more detail following a further decade’s research.
“One of the greatest accounts of Sixties rock ’n’ roll” - The Independent
“Spence, collaborator on Stoned, delivers the lowdown on the controversial and prestigious British Record label - Waterstones
“The sound of the Sixties” - Clash
“Spence used inside knowledge to produce this definitive book about the maverick independent label” - The Beat
“Sheer brilliance flashes from many of the interviewees” - Dave Thompson
“A story worth reading” - Spin
“Perhaps the most fascinating part of this book is the last chapter where Spence relates some of his experiences of working with ALO - the two of them together in Oldham’s sanctuary of Bogota, Colombia.” - Shindig
Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham was the enfant terrible of Swinging Sixties London, the man who had crafted The Beatles’ antithesis. By 1965 he was a millionaire notorious for working every publicity angle for his rising stars but he still felt frustrated by the men in grey suits who controlled the music industry. His solution to that problem was Immediate Records - the UK’s first independent label - with a mission statement to wash away those grey men.
What followed was five years of scams, chicanery, sex, drugs, violence and sensational music. Immediate’s ‘in-house’ polymath Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Oldham himself, Jimmy Page and Steve Marriott, attracted a crowd of daring, young British talent, forging the hippest scene in the world.
Yet, following his ousting as Stones manager in 1967, the label itself began to fray at the seams as the drugs and booze clouded Oldham's creative genius and the grey suits quietly took their revenge.
Simon Spence’s acclaimed telling of Immediate’s rise and fall was first published in 2007 but has now been augmented with explanatory footnotes and even more detail following a further decade’s research.
215 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 13, 2023
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 9, 2024
Nearly !
A quite good read , but as always the juicy salacious bits are the best, but unfortunately they are few and far between. But lots of facts , sort of , but it is all a bit smoke and mirrors.
A quite good read , but as always the juicy salacious bits are the best, but unfortunately they are few and far between. But lots of facts , sort of , but it is all a bit smoke and mirrors.
Displaying 1 of 1 review