Terry Noon is one of those rare creatures - a publisher who has spanned four decades in the British rock industry - and is still active as we approach the millennium. He played drums for Gene Vincent and.was a member of Them, backing Van Morrison, but when legendary manager Peter Grant fixed him up with a job in music publishing, he took it.

Here, in his own words, is the story of Terry Noon - music publisher extraordinaire.

First song
I once had a song published but I was so naive, I didn't know if I was entitled to any money from it, although I presumed I was. The guy I signed it to told me it was going to be in a film, and I thought this was fantastic. But I never heard anything about it again.

It was a very well known agent, in fact, who had publishing as a small time thing,  who obviously knew there was money there, but I don't think the person concerned is in the music business any more.

First job - Ambassador Music, London
I remember the first day, walking in and seeing a large table, and on it were boxes full of what I presumed were records. But they weren't: they were demo discs. And my boss Lee Pincus said, "These are our songs. What you have to do is to get them recorded by major artists, that's how we earn our money". They were mainly from America, because this was the British branch of an American company, and there must have been about 300 of them, all in alphabetical order.

So I remember picking out the first one, playing it, and it was awful. And Lee said, "Get to know them and then make some appointments". And I thought, "Who do I see?" Luckily there was a guy there named John Beecher who saw my predicament and helped me with a few suggestions. And I think the first person I saw was Tony Hatch, who was fine. He listened to ten songs and said he'd hold one, and then I went round and saw a few other people, but I just didn't get into it at all.

And Lee also said, "Go up to the BBC and get some airplay on the records we have out", and again I didn't know what to do. I remember going to the BBC and trying to plug songs and I got nowhere, and I thought, "This is not for me". I wasn't being lazy, I just didn't know what to do and I wasn't learning. So I left

I think Lee was a bit shocked I'd left, and he called me up and said, "Give it another try". And I said, "I'm not coming back as a run-around - I want to learn," and Lee said, "OK". But I remember going in the following Monday and falling over these suitcases as I walked in the door, and Lee was saying, "John Beecher is now looking after copyright, you're the General Manager, come with me to the airport and I'll tell you what I think you should do". Lee threw me in at the deep end, and went off to America.

First hit - "I Can't Let Maggie Go"
I used to drum with a band called Steve Derbyshire & The Yum Yum Band at a very "in" club in Oxford Street called Tiles, where we had a tremendous following.  Anyway, I eventually left, to be replaced by Peter Kircher (who later joined Status Quo by the way), and they changed their name to Honeybus: and Pete Dello said, "I'll write material for the group if you manage them".

First record deal
I got them a deal with Decca through Dick Rowe, who heard some demos and liked the and we had several records out, including "Do I Figure Your Life?", a beautiful song by Pete, which was signed Apollo Music. A lot of people liked that record, it got quite a lot of airplay, and the song received a lot of interest from America. Now by the time started my second stint with Ambassador and within a couple of months, the Honeybus record took off in England in a big way.

In America, much to my annoyance, there were at least two cover versions out, after I'd thought we'd agreed to go with the Honeybus version. But the American company thought that English groups didn't mean  anything any more - they'd had the Beatle boom and thought that was it. And the song died a death over there, because nobody worked on it.

But the Pincus family suddenly thought, "this guy can spot talent", because apart from the success over here, we had a very big hit in Holland and Germany. and I was busily taking the group over there as their manager, while also acting as publisher. Later, with the help of John Beecher, I negotiated the Nimble Bread advert,  which became one of the longest running advertisements on TV.

That started with the advertising company, I think it was J Walter Thompson, ringing up and saying they wanted to use "Maggie on an advert, and in fact, they also wanted Honeybus to sing on it. I was wearing two hats of course: I did a deal for them to use the song, but as the group's manager, I consulted with the boys, and we decided that they would not sing on it.

Honeybus used to regard themselves as a very "in" band: they used to do "Top Gear" every other Sunday with John Peel, they were one of the first rock bands to use a string quartet, and they wanted to keep that image of being something special

The Ambassador Music catalogue
It had songs like "A Taste Of Honey", and in America quite a few Beatles' songs too, things like "Please Please Me". In fact, I think at one stage, they had four Beatles' records in the Top 10 in America.

George Pincus, the American owner, was a very old style music publisher, one of the greats, a tremendous hustler, who knew everybody in America. He was very "American", very friendly always cracking jokes, giving people  cigars  and sweets grabbing people by the lapel. and hugging them. He's dead now unfortunately. but he was quite a guy.

Visiting the USA
I went on a couple of appointments with George, and I also met Lee's brother, Irwin, and I learned a lot watching the way those two guys operated: they' were both tremendous music men. I realised that it didn't pay to be too laid back, like the English. You had to believe in your product, or at least look as if you believed in it.

You had to convince a producer, say, that he was recording the best possible tune he could get hold of at the time. With Lee, I hadn't quite seen that. Lee himself was very laid back; in fact, I don't think he was that keen on the music business. I was urged to find talent in Britain, but I was also questioned on why I wasn't getting covers on American product, so I got the stick from both ends.

Pete Dello and Honeybus
We were hoping that they'd go on to really big things, but Pete Dello unfortunately decided to leave the band just after "Maggie". He decided he couldn't really be a "pop star" as it were, and Honeybus stayed around, though not so successfully. I was still managing them when I was offered a new job.

I'd stayed very good friends with Pete Dello, and about a year after "Maggie" he brought me a song called "I'm A Gambler". I loved it and said, "Let me try to place the record". I took it to a couple of companies and they showed interest, but then I took it to Larry Page, who had Page One Records (in partnership with Dick James, the music publisher), and Larry loved it and said "You've got a deal".

So be brought the record out, and I think Larry was very impressed because we got quite a lot of airplay, and with the help of a girl named Lisa Denton, a great deal of publicity, which was amazing, because there was actually no group involved, it was just Pete Dello and session musicians. Then Larry called me one day and said he was leaving Dick James to set up on his own. "I'm getting my  own record company, Penny Farthing, and I'd like you to be managing director of the publishing company" he said. And at first, I said "No".

Honeybus were dwindling in terms of fame and fortune, but they were still gigging three nights a week and picking up good money, and so was I as their manager, not to mention my job with Pincus. But the second time Larry asked me, I didn't actually say "no", and then I went to have dinner with him and his wife. He said, "I know you're half way to saying yes, and I hope you do because I've given the story to Music Week", which was all I needed. I just needed that push. So I said "fine" and gave Ambassador a month's notice. George Pincus was very upset but Lee was very nice about the whole thing. And I started with Larry in Tilney Street, Mayfair.

When I worked for Ambassador, everything was set up already. It was a limited company, they were members of the PRS and MCPS, and to be honest with you, as General Manager, I didn't know too much about all that. I didn't even know what MCPS stood for.

But with Larry, he was saying to me, "You set the whole thing up". Luckily, I had a very good secretary, a very keen young lady, and together we went through all the books, phoned everyone, and gradually started the company from scratch. Again, I'd been thrown in at the deep end.

Shocking Blue and "Venus"
On the Tuesday of my second week with Larry,  I went to Holland with Honeybus.
Although they weren't really together as a band, they were  still  meeting  their commitment with Decca to put out singles, and the original members, minus Pete Dello of course, and I, went out there to do their top TV show, "Top Pops".
And I remember we routined the whole thing in the morning, went downstairs for lunch, and this group came on the TV monitor. Now the sound was off, but I remember seeing this beautiful girl singer wearing very little clothing....and all the Honeybus were looking too. So we turned the sound up and it was a thing called "Venus" by Shocking Blue.

I was knocked out, so were some of the boys, and I said, "I think that could be a smash in England".

Selling Shocking Blue
So I made contact with the group's manager and he told me that he record company had tried to place the record in England and that no one was interested.

They actually wanted a large advance, which I told them I could not give, but I said, "Give me the record and give me three weeks and I'll guarantee you a release". I was, of course, talking on behalf of the label as well as the publishing company, and when I came back with the record and played it to Larry, he just said, "It's a smash; we've got to have it,,.

We did get it, and it was a smash. (It reached No.8 in early 1970). We could have picked it up for America too, but unfortunately Larry did not have an outlet in America at the time - he was still negotiating a record deal in the US, so we missed out on what was to be a No. I in the States. But it was still great for me; it was only the second release for Larry on what was a new independent record label, and I'd only been with him for a week.

We had a lot of trouble with the BBC at first; I suppose they thought "Who needs a Dutch record?" In the end, Larry and I went in there together and in fact we collared Tony Blackburn in the corridor, and said, "We're up here promoting a record called Venus", and he said "I'm not sure if I've heard that".

So we all went back to his producer's office and the guy said,  "Yeah,  we  played  it once Anyway, they put it on in the office, and Tony listened to a few bars of it and said, "Fine - stick it in the programme for the rest of the week". This was on a Tuesday, and that's really how it started.

In those days, you would usually get the rights for three years with an option for two more one-year periods if you got a cover in your territory. But in this case I guaranteed them a release in England, and we had a clause added saying that if the record went into the chart in England, we'd have the publishing for a further two years.

Continued