Kenny Dentons" There Ain't No Rules In Rock n Roll" Stories From My 45 Years in The Music Industry.

The Full Story In Kenny Denton's memoir "There Ain't No Rules In Rock n Roll" The Photograph is Fred's Autograph To My Loverly Wife Sue and Our Son Nathan. Bing Crosby. In the summer of 1975, within the walls of De Lane Lea/ Music Centre in Wembley, a remarkable event unfolded, Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire were collaborating as a duet on an album. There was an air of uncertainty surrounding Bing's...

Firstly UK Only? I would like to point out that the following story New Faces Winners, Koffee n Kreme , Meet Their Fate may only hold interest to my UK friends as the act never gained any international notoriety. The mid 70s During the mid 70s I was very busy working as an engineer at De Lane Lea, but in what spare time was left I would spend writing songs and record them with anyone I could. Havi...

Patrick was a tall, elegant Irishman and what one would call a dapper dresser with the ability to speak at a volume most people couldn't even shout at. Many believed this was due to a slight hearing impediment, though he would never admit to it. Malynn was commonly known in the industry as Paddy Malynn, but if someone made the mistake of calling him Paddy to his face, he would go ballistic. During...

Place -Studio Two, Pye Recording Studios, London Time – 1970 Guest visitor – Diana Dors Diana Dors, born Diana Fluck, was Britain’s answer to Marilyn Monroe. Her likeness appears on the cover of the Beatles album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. After her death in 1984 she was acclaimed as a national treasure. Talking about her real name she once said, “They asked me to change my name. I sup...

From Kenny Denton's memoir "There Ain't No Rules In Rock n Roll" In the mid to late 70s, should you have been working at the legendary studio De Lane Lee/CTS in Wembley after 5.30pm or on weekends, you would be greeted at the front desk by the security guard known as Albert Agras. Albert was a wonderful likeable person with large cartoon type characteristics; highlighted with a nose that was a sim...

Kinky Friedman, The Lone Star New York "Too Much Ain't Enough "The Full Story In Kenny Denton's memoir "There Ain't No Rules In Rock n Roll" Kinky Friedman was a Texas country singer, novelist, songwriter, humorist, and politician. “I support gay marriage because I believe they have right to be just as miserable as the rest of us.” Kinky Friedman, the Texas folk hero known for his flamboyant caree...

Jack Fishman was a songwriter, journalist, spy catcher, and bestselling author whose career spanned music, film, and investigative reporting. As a songwriter, he co-wrote major hits including If Paradise Is Half as Nice , If I Only Had Time , and Help Yourself , with total record sales exceeding ten million. A tireless workaholic, he was also credited with exposing Kim Philby , one of the Cold War...

This Deep Dive is only an overview the full more in depth story is in my book "There Ain't No Rules In Rock n Roll Tommy Boyce was a wonderful complex character. So I wanted to capture the time I spent with him, without understating or exaggerating who he was. On completing my story, I contacted Caroline Boyce and asked her if she would be kind enough to read through my text and said if she wanted...

“I taught them everything they know, but not everything I know.” James Brown. I was on the rebound from my Cajun experience when an associate, Laurie Jay, asked me if I would meet with a couple of girl singers. He was thinking of offering them a management deal and asked me if, assuming I liked their material, I would produce some tracks he could to play to a record company in order to obtain a de...

Finding an A&R Person. Finding an A&R person in any record company, who believes in your product as much as you do, is a rare commodity to say the least. I have never heard of any artist being signed to a label on their first approach to a label. George Martin and EMI, like every other label at that time, had previously turned down The Beatles. When Brian Epstein approached Martin again, h...

https://youtu.be/7IBVBw3-Wxo?si=v0APnkEe_RM6DtvC Augie Meyers, renowned in Texas music lore, gained fame as the keyboardist for both The Sir Douglas Quintet and The Texas Tornados. BOB DYLAN once said of Augie. “Augie’s my man, he’s like an intellectual who goes fishing using bookworms. Seriously though he’s the shining example of a musician, Vox player or otherwise, who can break the code. His pl...

Joe Sun was a respected American country singer-songwriter who recorded for Ovation and Elektra Records, placing 14 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. Over his career he released 15 albums, toured the USA and Europe, voiced national Budweiser radio ads, produced two Grammy-nominated foreign albums (1989/90), and appeared as Tommy Fratter in the film Marie alongside Sissy Spacek and...

Mungo’ Jerry's greatest triumph was with the track “In the Summertime” which dominated the UK charts for seven weeks during the early 1970s. Additionally, this song clinched the number one position in 26 countries globally. Their subsequent release, “Baby Jump” also claimed the top spot in the UK and maintained its position for two weeks. Initially known as The Good Earth, the band underwent a nam...

My relationship with Sonet Records in Sweden gave me the opportunity to work with Rockin' Dopsie. I also got to produce the Queen Ida album On A Saturday Night , Queen. Both Dopsie and Ida were seasoned artists in this foot-stomping, body-moving music. In 1992 I had an idea. I wanted to find a young Louisiana musician or band and mix the traditional Cajun music from Louisiana with a more modern co...

One evening the session had finished early and everyone else had left, this was due to Gigi having to go for a photo session. I remained in the control room making a couple of phone calls, when Jimmy arrived wondering where everybody was. I explained where Gigi had gone and that she wouldn’t be back that evening. Jimmy asked if I wasn’t busy would I like to go for a drink, I jumped at the chance,...

The Pye Mobile was booked to record the entire Isle of Wight festival. We got there on Monday 25th of August and on arriving went to check out the site but didn’t start fully setting up until Wednesday 26th of August. Judas Jump were already performing and Neville and Alan were busy on stage setting up mics whilst Vic and I were in the truck checking that mic feeds were arriving to the desk correc...

t was around 2 am, when The Who finally took to the stage but within three or four minutes of the opening song there was a problem. Vic shouted out to me that Keith Moon had hit the large tom-tom mic with his drum stick and busted it. He told me to get up on stage and put another mic on the drum pronto. I ran to the backstage entrance to find it guarded by several large and rather frightening look...

For over 40 years I had the privilege to work with some of the most amazing, talented, crazy and often deluded people in the world of music and movies. I've spent endless hours stationed behind the mixing desk, orchestrating the recording and production processes for a diverse spectrum of artistes. From the remarkably gifted to those whose creative spark may have flickered less brightly, I've navi...