Rikki Stein's Global Island Discs

Earlier this year Rikki Stein published 'Moving Music - The memoirs of Rikki Stein' (Wordville Press Ltd). For a music fan, it reads like The Greatest Story Ever Told... Rikki Stein had trailblazed his way around the music world since the 1960s. (Read the Outsideleft review here). His book recounts a musical odyssey through Europe, the USA and Africa. Managing and working with some of the biggest names in the world. To accompany on your journey with his book, Rikki has produced this eclectic playlist featuring artists that came into his orbit during a storied career... Over to Rikki Stein...

"I’ve neither desire nor intention to de-camp to a desert island, but in the spirit of that venerated programme, I’ve put this together. My memoirs, Moving Music, encapsulate and describe a lifetime devoted to carrying music and musicians around the world. Here, in chronological order, are some of the highlights..."

I’ve skipped the very early days and begun this musical odyssey in the mid-sixties when I left England and moved to Mouscron, a small Belgian town on the French border when I and my Belgian partner, Jean Van Loo, began bringing British artists to tour in Europe. This included The Kinks, The Animals, The Yardbirds, The Moody Blues, The Zombies and, while he was number one in the UK charts with Hey Joe, the first European tour of Jimi Hendrix. Here he is singing that song: 

JIMI HENDRIX

Upon arrival in Mouscron, my first task was arranging a tour for Olivier Despax, whose claim to fame—apart from being flawlessly beautiful, an accomplished guitarist and a more than passable singer—was that he had once been Brigitte Bardot’s boyfriend but he had broken off with her. Very few years later, this beautiful and gifted young guy was to succumb to a rare blood disease. The Great Gatsby of his time. His flame burned brightly but, alas, was all too brief.

OLIVIER DESPAX

In 1966 I added a new string to my bow when becoming a record producer. My Belgian partner managed a group of three Italian brothers. I found a song that I thought would suit their harmonic abilities, written by the French poet, Boris Vian, describing someone who’d received his call-up papers to fight in the war but didn’t want to kill people, particularly people he didn’t  know. Despite having zero knowledge of record production I took them in to a studio in Brussels and recorded the song. It was immediately banned by French radio which guaranteed its success and my first record rose to the top of the French charts. Here are Les Sunlights singing that song; Le Deserteur:

LES SUNLIGHTS

Encouraged by my success (I went on to have three chart toppers with Les Sunlights) I moved to Paris and joined Barclay Records as a producer. This is the first artist I produced. I can’t find the actual songs I produced for him, but this is the artist; Vigon:

VIGON

Here’s a track that I did produce, though, for the Belgian group, The Pebbles.

THE PEBBLES

Here’s another, talented, but completely mad Belgian artist. Upon signing him he received a significant advance. A few weeks later his girlfriend called me, saying that Ferré needed more money. “You know Ferré, he just throws it out the window.” “Well,” I advised her, “you’ll just have to tell him to be more careful.” “No Rikki,” she replied “You don’t understand. He’s laying on his bed, throwing money out of the window!” Here he is singing the lead track on the album I produced, called Captain Disaster. 

FERRE GRIGNARD

I met the President of the American label, Vanguard Records whose albums were distributed in Europe by Barclay and who wanted to release Captain Disaster stateside. They offered me a job and I left Barclay and moved to New York. The last album I produced for Barclay was with a prodigious master sitarist. Again, I can’t find the album but here’s the artist:

PANDIT DUBUBATRA CHAUDHURI

I didn’t enjoy my time with Vanguard, tore up an extremely high-value contract and headed West, landing in San Francisco in the late eighties and tumbling into a vortex of high-energy nonsense. You’ll have to read my book to find out about that period, but in 1971 I returned to Europe and found myself managing a free festival just outside Paris, to which I brought the Grateful Dead. The Festival was rained out and declared a disaster area. The Dead were staying at the Chateau d’Herouville and we decided to do their show there. Here’s a hippy-dippy video of that event.

GRATEFUL DEAD

Shortly thereafter I found my way to Morocco and finished up on top of a small mountain; home to a tribe of musicians, dating back to the 14th century. I was so blown away by what, musically and culturally, was happening there that I tore up my ticket and stayed for 2 years. I talk about this extensively in my book, but here they are in all their glory. At the end of the seventies I returned to the village, got passports for everyone, bought a bus that was always breaking down and toured them around Europe for three months. A mixture of pain and pleasure as many such things are.

MASTER MUSICIANS OF JOUJOUKA

In the late seventies I met up with someone who was to deeply affect the course of my life, up to the present day, and despite the fact that he passed 27 years ago I’m still fully occupied with his affairs. I’m talking about Nigerian cultural icon,Fela Anikulapo Kuti, and a friendship that began on the day that we met and endured until his sad passing in 1997. I travelled the world with him as his manager and he’s still keeping me busy, looking after his 50 album catalogue. Here’s one of my proudest moments at the Zenith in Paris.

FELA KUTI

In the late eighties, at the same time as I was managing Fela,  I encountered an extraordinary group of people; Les Ballets Africans, National Dance Company of the Republic of Guinea and took on their management, carrying their 42 members around the planet for 15 years. This is one of several productions I helped to create and tour. 

LES BALLET AFRICAINS

Whilst in Guinea I met many gifted musicians in this culturally rich country and developed a friendship with this particularly talented group, renewing my production skills when I brought them to Paris and took them into the studio to produce the album Felenko. Here they are in performance.

KALOUM STAR

One of my favourite African countries is Ghana, proven by marrying a Ghana girl with whom, 32 years and two now-grown children, we’re still together. Whilst there I struck up a friendship with a brilliant musician, Nana Danso Abiam, leader of The Pan African Orchestra, taking on their management and bringing them to Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studio to record, having convinced Police guitarist, Andy Summers, to take on producing the album. Here’s an example of them in concert.

PAN AFRICAN ORCHESTRA

Back in London I helped to create the Adzido Pan African Dance Ensemble which was to become the Arts Council’s flagship African dance company

ADZIDO PAN AFRICAN DANCE ENSEMBLE

Following Fela’s passing I sat around for a while, staring at the wall and then stirring myself, decided to start a new management company called Brilliant Collision. The first artist I signed were Les Nubians.

LES NUBIANS

At roughly the same time I began managing an extraordinary Nigerian artist, Femi Sanyolu, better known as Keziah Jones. He was huge in France. This was the song  that launched him there. 

KEZIAH JONES

Then my old mate, Andy Summers, wanting to explore his interest in jazz, asked me to take on his management. I toured him with Larry Coryell and Trilok Gurtu, musically successful but a total pain in the derriere to work with. Jazzers are tricky! 

ANDY SUMMERS TRIO

In the early nineties I was approached by an American who had come across Fela and was totally blown away, proposing to create a musical on Broadway, depicting his life. Huh? That was my first reaction, thinking about populist Broadway musicals, but this guy, Stephen Hendel, wasn’t joking. He brought in prodigious African-American choreographer, Bill T Jones and an amazing adventure began, finishing with a production that played to half a million people on Broadway and another half a million across the U.S. We then created a second company at London’s National Theatre and I went on to take 40 tons of equipment  and 80 people from New York to present the musical in the land of lastminutedotcom, Lagos Nigeria. It was a major challenge but we cracked it! Here’s how it began: 

FELA! THE MUSICAL

Another wonder of the 1990s was befriending the Algerian rocker Rachid Taha. I’d met him at a festival on a mountain top in Switzerland.and we'd become immediate friends. He went on to produce a string of beautifully produced albums, working mainly with British musician and producer, Steve Hillage. I’ve been fortunate during my life to have connected and spent time with individuals who, through their work and actions, were universally acknowledged as possessing an exceptional degree of integrity. Rachid Taha was one such person. Loved by all whom met him and adored by those who heard his music.

RACHID TAHA

I’m ending this musical journey, back in Morocco with the Master Musicians of Joujouka who were invited to animate the Dior Defilé, featuring 100 of the world’s top models in the grounds of an ancient palace outside Marrakech. Accompanied by my photographer daughter, Chantal, a fitting pit-stop! Let’s see what comes next!

JOUJOUKA/DIOR DEFILE