Everything about Guy Stevens totally explained
Guy Stevens (born
13 April 1943 in
East Dulwich,
London - died
29 August 1981) worked in a number of different roles in the
British music industry including
producer and
manager. He gave the
rock band,
Procol Harum, its distinctive name.
Stevens is probably best known as the producer of
The Clash's acclaimed 1979
album,
London Calling. The band themselves have always held up Stevens' input as a major factor in the album's popularity and quality. However it wasn't the first time Stevens had worked with the Clash. In 1976 Stevens was present, although not clearly as a producer on a
demo session the band undertook before they were signed.
Mick Jones recalled that:
The Clash involved Stevens because they recognized the influential role he'd played in the British
beat and
blues booms of the
1960s.
The Who,
The Small Faces,
The Rolling Stones and many others used Stevens' knowledge of the
American R&B and
soul scene, as a source for their own repertoire, having heard of him through his
deejaying at the influential New Scene Club in Ham Yard, London W.1, where he exercised his obsessive love of
rock and roll, R&B,
ska,
jazz and soul for an audience that counted
The Beatles and
Eric Clapton amongst them.
Stevens was involved in the early history of
Island Records and also ran the
UK division of the
Sue record label for
Chris Blackwell, and used it to put out obscure American
singles not only from the
U.S. Sue group of labels, but from any number of tiny independent record companies, and some of the bigger ones. It became widely influential. Stevens was also president of the
Chuck Berry Appreciation Society, and had a say in the UK releases that
Pye International put out by Chuck Berry,
Bo Diddley and others on the
Chess and Checker labels. It was Guy Stevens who brought Berry to the UK for his first tour.
Stevens also produced several albums for
glam rock outfit,
Mott the Hoople, naming the band after a book he read while in
prison, as well as albums for
Free and
Spooky Tooth.
In 1981, The Clash wrote a song for, or about Stevens, who had died the same year: "Midnight to Stevens". A lush sweeping song that sounds almost unlike anything the Clash recorded despite the range of styles on
Sandinista! and
Combat Rock. It wasn't released until 1991, where it appeared on disc three of
Clash on Broadway.
Stevens died on 29 August 1981, at the age of 38 years old, having overdosed on the
prescription drugs he was taking to reduce his alcohol dependency.
Further Information
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