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Tony Hall, Decca Records Music Executive, Producer, Writer & DJ, Dies Aged 91

Hall’s storied career included work with seminal artists ranging from Ike & Tina Turner, to Black Sabbath, Tubby Hayes and The Real Thing.

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Tony Hall Decca Records Executive Dies
Photo courtesy of Decca Records

Tony Hall, the pioneering British music executive, columnist, record producer and radio DJ (centre in the above photo, with Martha Reeves) has died at the age of 91.

Hall (full name Anthony Salvin Hall) was born in Avening, Gloucestershire, on 1 April 1928 and was educated at Lancing College. After National Service, he started working at the Feldman Swing Club (later the 100 Club) in Oxford Street, London, where he became a regular host and met many of the leading jazz acts of the day.

“I got friendly with Jack Marshall, who was the compere there, and he was also the assistant editor of Melody Maker under the legendary Pat Brand,” Hall told Record Collector in 2013. “Jack was getting a bit tired and wanted to give it up. He asked me if I’d like to do the gig.

Christmas Music 2024 Playlist
Christmas Music 2024 Playlist
Christmas Music 2024 Playlist

“So my first Sunday out of the Army, dressed in a dreadful demob suit, I appeared at Britain’s top jazz club, hiding behind the microphone and working with all the fabulous guys whose names I only knew from records.”

In 1952, Tony Hall started working for Jeffrey Kruger at the Flamingo Club. After writing music reviews for publications such as Disc and The Sporting Review, he then started working as an A&R man for Decca Records in 1954 after the label’s then promotions man, Bunny Lewis, suggested he apply for the job.

“I went along, not thinking I had a hope in hell of getting it”, Hall revealed in 2013. “There were about 20 people who applied – and by some fluke I got the gig. So that was me getting into the record business as a product manager and promotion guy.”

Hall soon took responsibility for reviving the subsidiary Tempo label, and produced sessions by jazz acts such as Ronnie Scott, Tubby Hayes, Dizzy Reece and Victor Feldman for the label, before the imprint was discontinued in 1961.

As part of his work for Decca, Hall also presented regular sponsored pop music programmes on Radio Luxembourg during the late 1950s and 1960s. Also in the 1960s, he contributed a regular column to the pop music weekly Record Mirror, which Decca owned at the time. He also managed the promotion and distribution of Atlantic Records product in the UK, and promoted Ike and Tina Turner’s ‘River Deep, Mountain High’, a record which had failed in the US but became a major hit in the UK.

“White producers [in the US] wouldn’t play it because Ike & Tina Turner were black artists, so it died a death there”, Hall told Record Collector. “But thanks to Radio London, which was a big help, we got ‘River Deep..’ to No. 1 in England.”

River Deep - Mountain High

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The soul devotee was an early champion of Motown Records, as he told writer and kindred spirit Adam White, the author of Motown: The Sound of Young America. “I was one of the first to wave the T-M flag,” said Hall. “I became converted thanks largely to The Beatles – and my former assistant, Tony King. When ‘the boys’ lived across the street from me, it was the Miracles, Mary Wells and the Marvelettes all night, every night. I repaid part of my debt by introducing them to Marvin Gaye. Strangely enough, they’d never heard him. Ask George or Ringo.” More of that conversation can be found at White’s West Grand Blog

Reach Out I'll Be There

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Hall was a mentor for many of the emerging industry figures of the 1960s, including the Rolling Stones’ co-manager Andrew Loog Oldham. He was also very much the man about town on the London scene of the period, often as compere for the artists he championed. He was MC for the Four Tops’ debut UK shows at the Saville Theatre of late 1966 and for their British tour early the following year. Alan Smith, in his review of the latter concert for the NME, wrote: “As compere, Tony Hall was in absolute command. He knows what he’s talking about, and audiences respect him for it.”

Also in 1967, soon after leaving Decca and setting up Tony Hall Enterprises, the entrepreneur’s ear for a hit led him to the bluebeat sound of Desmond Dekker’s ‘007.’ Some smart detective work on the whereabouts of its Pyramid label, and soon he was promoting the Jamaican artist’s debut UK hit, which soared to six-figure sales.

Such was Hall’s standing that, in December 1967, an edition of the Observer newspaper ‘s colour supplement dedicated to the London underground music scene included a feature on him. It documented a day in his busy life, under the title Promotion and Two Per Cent.

Tony Hall Enterprises, the UK’s first independent promotion company, was responsible for promoting acts including Jimi Hendrix, Joe Cocker, and Black Sabbath. “They were a blues band called Earth who went to Germany and came back with the name Black Sabbath”, Hall later recalled. “I signed them through a guy called Jim Simpson. Tony Iommi was a great blues guitarist and Ozzy [Osbourne], used to sing the blues, without any medallions, crucifixes or anything. We got them a showcase down in London’s Ronnie Scott’s and Olav Wyper at Vertigo signed them.”

Hall also played a part in the career development of the young Elton John. DJM Records plugger Steve Brown, who produced Elton’s 1969 debut album Empty Sky, then went to see Hall to talk about potential collaborators. It was the experienced executive that suggested they contact both Gus Gudgeon and Paul Buckmaster, as they did to huge and lasting effect.

Hangin' On A String (Contemplating)

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In his later career, Hall moved into management, guiding the careers of The Real Thing, Loose Ends and Lynden David Hall in the 1980s and 1990s. Even into his last months, as a nonogenarian, Tony’s unquenchable appetite for music had him writing album reviews for Jazzwise magazine.

“I wanted to push things I thought personally were really good musicianly records”, he told Record Collector, looking back on his career. “All of my life I wanted to help artists who were different and it was my jazz background that gave me the highest standards for listening to pop music.” Additional reporting by Paul Sexton.

Format: Union Jack flagUK English
5 Comments

5 Comments

  1. Alan Bailey

    June 28, 2019 at 4:03 pm

    Tony and I were great friends when I gram operated for him on his Deccaa shows for Radio Luxembourg, so this news makes me very sad indeed. I’ve still got tapes of him giving me a credit on his shows.
    A glaring omission to this story is that Tony compered ‘Oh Boy’ the TV spectacular every weekend produced by Jack Good and I used to go along with him. R.I.P dear friend, so proud to have been your friend. xxxx

  2. ME

    June 29, 2019 at 4:28 am

    You will be missed, but you are on your way to meet your beautiful wife Billie. You would often call my mother and say, “where is my son”. Brighton will not be as bright, without you. Last summer you and Helen hated the Indian place I took you to, but you ate the food anyway, so as not to embarrass me. You took me under your wing when I was 14. I had the pleasure of having you as a father for 46 years. I love you and you will be missed.

  3. Roger Watson

    July 24, 2019 at 10:38 pm

    Tony hired me in my first ever job as promo assistant for Decca in feb 65 in Gt Marlboro St. He called me down to the garage at 5 pm on my first Friday &we jumped into his MGB & drove to rediffusion in kingsway & down the stairs to the dressing rooms knocked on a door & Mick Jagger went Hey ! & Tony said guys meet my new assistant ! Mick grabbed my hand bowed his head & said “welcome to the company “

    I went on to Major Minor with Pat Campbell then MCA with Mike Leander – brought them JCSuperstar – Chrysalis LA where I signed Huey Lewis .then Arista UK where I became MD.
    thanks Tony Hall ! that was s kick start job….

  4. Graham Oliver

    July 17, 2022 at 4:09 pm

    I never met Tony, but as a new teen (it was 1961) he was my favourite disc jockey (on Radio Luxembourg), together with Barry Alldis (whom I later met in the early 1970’s).

    I used to listen to Tony every Tuesday night for the Decca ‘Six O’Clock Record Show’. It was a must for me. He had the most brilliant natural DJ voice. His show was divided up into 15 minutes of new releases, followed by requests and finally the Decca top ten.

    One week in 1962, after just about hearing ‘Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah’ by Bob.B. Sox & the Blue Jeans on AFN one Friday evening (ears squashed against speaker to hear it, worse than Luxembourg) I wrote to Tony mentioning that when the record was released in the UK, I thought he would love it. He always hinted that he liked US vocal groups. I nearly fell off my chair the following week when he played it for me in the request spot. He also did say how much he liked it. Tony Hall made my day.

    The only time that I ever wrote for a request on a radio show. I was quite saddened when he left the show, although I don’t remember quite when that was.

    Thanks for the memories from a delighted regular listener Tony. RIP

  5. Christopher Clayton

    March 20, 2024 at 4:21 pm

    Tony Hall was the greatest natural disc jockey on Radio Luxembourg, presenting an hour long weekly early evening show for Decca. This had four sections and the last was the Decca Group Top Ten. At the age of 14, I wrote to him after I missed one show and he replied with the chart. I also loved the American Top Ten on Friday evenings.

    RIP Tony Hall. You gave me so much pleasure as a teenager and I am 77 now.

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