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Former Chrysalis chief back in music publishing, announces first signing
By Chris Cooke | Published on Wednesday 16 March 2016
The former CEO of the Chrysalis music publishing firm, Jeremy Lascelles, is getting back into songs through his new company Blue Raincoat Music, and the establishment of a publishing division to be called Blue Raincoat Songs.
The Blue Raincoat Music business, which also works in artist management, is a partnership between Lascelles and record producer Robin Millar, and boasts the backing of former Chrysalis owner Chris Wright and one time Virgin Entertainment Chairman Robert Devereux. The company says it aims to “bring back the true spirit of independent music to the industry”. And we all love a bit of true spirit, surely?
The first signing to the Blue Raincoat publishing business is pop writing veteran Mike Chapman, who has written, co-written and produced hits for the likes of Suzi Quatro, Mud, The Sweet, Tina Turner and Blondie over his long career. Oh, and Pat Benatar’s ‘Love Is A Battlefield’. Classic. The new deal covers a chunk of Chapman’s oeuvre in various markets, notably the UK, France, Australia, Japan and South Africa.
Confirming his move back into publishing, and the first deal, Lascelles told reporters: “It is incredibly exciting for us to make Mike our first signing. His track record as a writer of era-defining seminal hit songs is quite extraordinary. It’s wonderful that we are able to represent a part of his amazing catalogue, but Mike is still a very active writer and producer and I’m THRILLED that together we will be looking to find new opportunities and new artists for him to work with. On top of that, he is a great bloke”.
Chapman himself added: “There should never be a formula for writing hit songs and Blue Raincoat, with all of their experience in the music business, understand this better than most. It’s good to be working with Jeremy and Chris again, who get that when you write to a formula your songs don’t have a real lasting value. My musical history with Chris goes back to the 70s and what was true then is true now, no hit hook, no hit song. I look forward to getting stuck in with them”.