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Guy Stevens

 


Record producer, disc jockey, band manager and label manager Guy Stevens was born in East Dulwich, London on 13 April 1943. As well as running the Sue Label he also ran the Chuck Berry Appreciation Society and advised Pye International on their Chess release schedule. He brought Mr Berry to the UK for his first tour. He also named bands Procol Harum and Mott The Hoople.

Wikipedia notes on his importance to the UK music scene in the 1960s.

“In 1963, he started a weekly “R&B Disc Night” at the Scene Club in Soho, run by Ronan O’Rahilly, at which Stevens often played obscure Stax, Chess and Motown records, attracting a growing number of mod clubgoers and musicians, including members of The Who, The Small Faces, The Yardbirds, The Rolling Stones and The Beatles.”

In 1964 Island Records’ Chris Blackwell hired him to run the new Sue Record label in the UK.

He died on 28 August 1981 due to an overdose of prescription drugs he was taking to combat his alcoholism.

Image: Manchester Soul

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