Stuart Colman

Ian Stuart Colman^[1] (19 December 1944 – 19 April 2018)^[2] was an English musician, record producer and broadcaster. Allmusic noted that he "has an impressive catalogue as a record producer and much of Shakin' Stevens success can be attributed to Colman".^[2] Over the decades, Colman worked with a diverse array of musicians including Billy Fury, The Blasters, Cliff Richard, Phil Everly, Alvin Stardust, The Jets, The Inmates and Little Richard.

Colman was born into a musical family, took up piano and bass guitar,^[3] and enjoyed his first taste of success when he joined Pinkerton's Assorted Colours in 1966.^[2] Three years later, the group evolved into The Flying Machine and their first single under that name, "Smile A Little Smile For Me", made the top five in the US Billboard Hot 100,^[2] By 12 December 1969, they had sold a million copies of the record, and it was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A.^[4]

In 1976, Colman jointly organised a march to the BBC, protesting about the lack of rock and roll music on BBC Radio 1.^[2] To his surprise, the corporation took him on as a presenter, headlining his own weekly show. Following the popularity of the programme, Epic Records brought Colman in to take over the production of Shakin' Stevens.^[5] There were hits straight away with "Hot Dog" and "Marie, Marie" followed by a string of number ones including "This Old House", "Green Door" and "Oh Julie". During this period he was called upon to produce a wide range of artists, ranging from The Shadows to Paul Kennerley, and Claire Hamill to The Revillos. In 1982, Colman was voted the top singles producer of the year by Music Week magazine.

Meanwhile, as a broadcaster, Colman was also hosting Echoes on BBC Radio London,^[1] a unique forum with a guest list that included Paul McCartney, Dr. John, Robert Plant and Steve Miller. He was also in demand as a journalist writing a weekly column for the Melody Maker, as well as authoring a best-selling book, They Kept on Rockin'.^[1] Colman extended his chart successes by creating hits for Kim Wilde, The Jets and Alvin Stardust, and he made albums with his boyhood idols, Phil Everly and Little Richard. Following his love of comedy recordings, Colman was asked by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton to produce the inaugural Comic Relief record, and "Living Doll", featuring TV's The Young Ones along with Cliff Richard, became an international No. 1.^[1]

In 1986, Colman opened his own Master Rock recording studio in London, fitting the A room out with the first Focusrite recording console, and the B room with a state-of the-art Solid State Logic. Apart from his own productions with Jeff Beck, The Inmates and Jane Harrison, the studio played host to Elton John, U2, Eric Clapton and Soul II Soul. Still pursuing his broadcasting career, Colman then joined London's newly launched Capital Gold, where he played rock and roll at the weekends and anchored the evening slot during the week. At the same time he was producing many major TV music specials for Central Television, where he worked with Natalie Cole, T'Pau, Nona Hendryx and Meat Loaf.

In 1995, geared by his love of American music, Colman decided to move with his family to Nashville, Tennessee,^[1] where he went on to record with a wide variety of artists including Victoria Shaw, Nanci Griffith, The Crickets and Linda Gail Lewis.^[5] He began by arranging and producing the country demo of the Faith Hill smash "This Kiss", then co-produced with Jim Ed Norman the original version of the Garth and Trisha duet, "Where Your Road Leads" by Victoria Shaw and Billy Dean. He delivered a well-received Texas-Swing album by Don Walser for Sire Records, as well as producing a fresh batch of tracks on The Osmond Brothers, a country album by Canadian diva Tracy Fidler, and the debut recordings by Brazilian newcomer, Leandro Beling.

En 2002, a Colman le diagnosticaron cáncer de esófago y se sometió a un intenso tratamiento de quimioterapia , radioterapia y cirugía. ^{[ 1 ]} Aun así, durante este tiempo escribió las notas de los álbumes de muchos CD, incluyendo una caja recopilatoria de grabaciones de Don Gibson para Bear Family . Tras su recuperación, Colman apareció en una película que retrataba la vida y obra de Jack Clement , y también se reunió con Shakin' Stevens tocando el bajo en giras por toda Europa. Finalmente, Colman regresó a los estudios de Nashville, donde dedicó sus energías a desarrollar un nuevo grupo de artistas. Luego, en la primavera de 2009, se mudó, esta vez a Manhattan, donde se casó por segunda vez. La actividad posterior de Colman incluyó la presentación de guiones de comedia para televisión y cine, la gestión de productos de recopilaciones de CD y la escritura de su columna habitual para la revista Now Dig This , ^{[ 6 ]} así como un blog mensual para Collective Review. ^{[ 7 ]} Entre los proyectos de estudio más recientes se incluyen un álbum debut de la banda Moskow, con sede en Hull , grabaciones preliminares con el tenor italiano Roberto IaRussi y un nuevo sencillo del quinteto Yannick.

En enero de 2014, Colman regresó al Reino Unido para dirigir su negocio desde los Cotswolds.

Murió de cáncer en un hospicio de Cheltenham el 19 de abril de 2018 a la edad de 73 años. ^{[ 8 ]}

• Discografía de Stuart Colman en Discogs
• Biografía de Kevin Carey
• Radiorewind.co.uk