Music Publishing II: Denmark Street
by Sheldon Rocha Leal
Creativity and creation are skills that are highly lauded in the modern economy, with many businesses coming to the realisation that these skills are essential for the future sustainability of their structures. Academic research seems to indicate that creatives like to populate spaces occupied by others of their kind and that when a creative district is established there seems to be a migration of like-minded individuals to these areas. Because big business is now actively attempting to attract these types of people into their institutions, the movement of creatives seems to have influenced overall migration patterns, employment and labour market trends. Big business now seems to move where creatives reside.
The congregation of creatives is something that has been happening since time in memorial. In popular music history there have been at various times hubs of music creation and creative excellence, spaces where musicians, executives and creators have coalesced to generate works of musical greatness. Tin Pan Alley (the subject of Music Publishing I) in the 1910s-50s and The Brill Building in the 1950s-1970s in New York, Motown in the 1960s-70s in Detroit, SAW in London 1980s-90s and Cheiron Studios in Sweden 1990s-2000s. For the purposes of this article I’m going to focus on a district in London, which has been prominent in music instrument sales, production, recording and publishing since 1920, Denmark Street. The space has always intrigued me and now I’m going to reveal what I’ve learnt.
Denmark Street was built on the site of a leper colony, St Giles Hospital, built in the 12th century. The road itself was constructed in 1682–1687 under King James II and named after Prince George of Denmark, married to Princess Anne, King James’ daughter and later Queen of England, Ireland and Scotland. By 1691 20 houses had been built along the road, of which 8 are still standing and are now listed buildings (i.e. historically significant buildings). The location is near St Giles Church and the Tottenham Court Road station in London’s West End and runs from Charing Cross Road and St Giles High Street, near Soho, in the Borough of Camden, London. By the 18th century the location had become a slum, but 100 years later it had been mostly cleared up and today is the only street in London to retain 17th century facades on both ends of the property. In the early 19th century properties started being turned into businesses, with ground floors converted into shops and top floors and back rooms into workshops. Japanese immigrants moved into the area in the 1930s, with people renaming it Little Tokyo for a period of time.
The first music business moved into the area in 1897, Francis, Day & Hunter Limited (No23), who published the works of famous Broadway composers such as Jerome Kern, George Gershwin and Cole Porter. David Day’s son, Frederick Day, is acknowledged as one of the driving forces behind the 1911 Copyright Act in the U.K. In 1911, a publishing house (Lawrence Wright Music Company) owned by composer Lawrence Wright, took up residence in the basement of No8 Denmark street and later moved to No11 after World War I. In 1926 Lawrence started the well-known music publication, Melody Maker, which he initially set-up to promote his songs. After being sold to Oldhams Press in 1929 Melody Maker diversified into commentary about all music and was eventually shut down in 2000. Lawrence christened himself The Daddy of Tin Pan Alley or King of British Songwriters. Another famous music publication set-up shop at No5 Denmark Street in 1952 by Theodore Ingham, New Musical Express (NME) and remained in the location until 1964. NME turned 69 years old this year. Campbell Connelly, another iconic music publisher started operations in 1929. The two songwriters Jimmy Campbell and Reg Connelly wrote various hits. These include “If I Had You” recorded by Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and Judy Garland, “Goodnight Sweetheart” a hit for Ray Nobel and “Try A Little Tenderness” a hit for Otis Redding in 1966.
By the 1950s Denmark Street was the music publishing Mecca of Britain and although its history was longer than that of the district in New York, it became known as The Tin Pan Alley of London. Other publishers in the area included Mills Music (which occupied No20), where Elton John started his career as a staff songwriter in 1963. He later wrote his first hit with Bernie Taupin on Denmark Street, “Your Song” (1970). Lionel Bart, the composer of “Oliver!” also started his career on the street and was known as The King of Denmark Street. Other publishers on the street included Peter Maurice, Leeds, Box & Co (who occupied No7) and Carter & Lewis, who also owned Southern Music. Donovan recorded “Catch The Wind” (No4 U.K./No23 USA) in 1965 at Southern Music (which occupied No8), who owned their own recording studio on the ground floor. These companies were constantly on the lookout for new songwriters and songs that they could promote to recording labels. Not only were songwriters employed at publishers, but also song pluggers who used to promote songs represented by their companies to movie/television production companies, stage producers and recording labels. This, inadvertently, attracted many music aficionados to the area.
By the 1960s the music publishing trade on the street started to decline, as many producers started losing touch with what artists wanted. Many of Britain’s iconic bands (The Rolling Stones and Beatles) were now writing their own content and, therefore, did not require the services of a publishing company. The Beatles even opened their own company in 1963, Northern Songs, to deal with the business of the songs they wrote. Paul Simon’s (who was living in London at the time) songs including “The Sounds Of Silence”, were rejected by various publishers who felt his music was uncommercial, which illustrates how out of touch the publishers were at the time.
There was, therefore, a shift with regard to the type of music business happening on the street in the 1960s from music publishing to sound recording and music shops. It was a natural progression as some of the publishers already owned their own studios, which they used to record demos of songs they were “plugging”. But in the 1960s the studios were being used by artists to record demos of songs on which they were working. Ralph Elman, a famous violinist, actually opened the first studio in the area in 1954. Southern Music (which occupied No20) had their own studios in the area since the 1950s, as well as KPM (No21), TPA (Tin Pan Alley) Studios (No22), Enterprise Studios (No1–3) and Central Sound (No9). KPM (Keith-Prowse-Maurice) was established in 1780 and originally manufactured instruments, later branching out into music publishing. The company eventually developed a music library and in 1969 were bought by EMI to form EMI Production Music, which operated from Denmark Street.
Regent Sound Studio, which occupied No4, was established in 1961 and was often used by the Rolling Stones’ manager Andrew Oldham. The Rolling Stones recorded their first album at Regent in 1964 and their song “Not Fade Away” was also recorded there. The Who, Black Sabbath, Jimi Hendrix, Bananarama, Vera Lynn and The Kinks all recorded at Regent. The building inhabited by Regent also contained a photographic studio for clients wishing to put together a final product for the recording labels. In 2004 Regent was bought by Rick Harrison and converted into Regent Sounds Studio Guitar Shop and was later bought by one of his employees Crispin Weir, who still owns the landmark business. Many great musicians recorded or rehearsed in different buildings on the street: Stevie Wonder, The Small Faces and Bob Marley amongst them. Malcolm McLaren, the Sex Pistols’ Manager, converted No6 into a rehearsal space and the band lived on the top floor and recorded their first demos on site. Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones played at Denmark Street studios as session musicians before becoming famous and The Kinks recorded “You Really Got Me” (No1 U.K./No7 USA) at studios on the street.
If musicians were being attracted to the area, it goes without saying that there were would be some sort of location in which people could enjoy the music being created on the street. La Gioconda Café, No9, was a local hangout frequented by many musical greats like David Bowie, who recruited his backing band in the venue, Elton John and Jimi Hendrix. The Café was finally closed down in 2014 and a blue plaque was erected on the site, commemorating its vast musical legacy and that of the street. Another famous venue opened at No26 in 1994, The 12 Bar Club, which finally closed in 2015, as part of the redevelopment of the area. The site of the venue was formerly the location of a 17th century stable yard and a 19th century blacksmith. Artists like Adele, Damien Rice, Keane, Regina Spektor, Martha Wainwright and Jeff Buckley played at the venue.
The next phase in the long history of Denmark street was the domination of music stores, specifically guitar shops. Musical Exchange (No22), founded by Joe and Larry Macari, opened in 1965 and shifted the way business was conducted on the street. The shop is cited as the location in which the Tone Bender Fuzz boxes were invented. Top Gear Instruments opened their doors at No5 in 1969 and was founded by Craig and Rod Bradley. The shop initially traded pre-owned equipment and sold guitars to Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Eddy Grant, Bob Marley, Pete Townshend and Bernie Marsden of Whitesnake. It eventually shut down in 1978. Pete Townshend actually bought his first guitar on the street at the Drum Shop. Andy’s Guitars opened in the 1970s and still occupies its original location at No27.
The proliferation of music stores exploded on Denmark Street in the 1990s mainly facilitated by Cliff Cooper, an entrepreneur and inventor. In 1990 he took over No23 and opened The PA Center, he also took over No21 and opened Sutekina (high tech music store), renting the basement of the building to Gibson Guitars as a showroom. He converted No20 formerly Argent’s Keyboard Store to a Brass, Woodwind and Sheet Music store in 1992, No8 became World of Pianos in 1994 and No24 Hank’s Acoustics in 1995. His domination of the street continued in 1996 when he took over No10 and moved Sutekina into the space and converted No21 into a Rhodes Music, No22 became the Bass Shop and in 1998 No28 became The Merchandise Shop. His offices were at the top of No28.
Cliff Cooper essentially converted the street into a vertical music department store. Additionally, he poked holes in the walls between shops to insert a pod-in-tube system to transfer money from one shop to the next as many of the transactions on the street were in cash, ultimately alleviating a major security risk. Other music businesses also occupied the street in the 1990s including Helter Skelter Publishing (No4), which sold music books and sheet music. It was formerly the site of Regent Sound Studios and eventually closed in 2004, with sky rocketing rental making the business unviable. As the biggest lease holder on the street Cliff Cooper made a bid to buy the buildings on Denmark for £11million in 1996. He was, however, beaten to the punch by Consolidated Developments, who undertook to re-develop the whole area. But fortune was smiling on Cliff…
In 1968 he had invented an amplifier which was marketed under the “Orange” brand name, but by the 1980s the amplifiers’ production was limited and was eventually sold to Gibson Guitars in the 1990s. In the interim Oasis became a big name in British Popular music and Noel Gallagher (the band’s guitarist) used vintage Orange amplifiers in the recording studio. Cliff heard of Noel’s penchant for Orange amplifiers and after taking back control of his company in 1997 called the guitarist to Denmark street to give him pointers on how to improve the amplifiers. This resulted in a reversal of fortunes for the brand and Cliff, therefore, decided to sell his interests in the various businesses on Denmark street to work on the revival of the Orange brand.
Cliff Cooper sold the majority of his interests to Rick and Justin Harrison, with the former taking off from where the inventor/entrepreneur left off. Rick bought No21–25, No4 and No5, converting the latter from Roka’s to Rockers. Wunjo Guitars moved to No20 in 2003, having originally opened off Denmark in 2001. Andy Gibson Guitars occupies the store next door to Andy’s Guitars, No28. Denmark Street Studios opened in 2013 on the site of the former TPA Studios, Acid Jazz Records and EMI Music Publishing (No22). Although Andy Preston of Andy’s Guitars, attempted to get the road re-Christened “Music Land” he did not manage to achieve his mission. In 2015 after rumours that redevelopment was going change the dynamic on the street and with various music businesses leaving (as they could not afford the rentals), a group of concerned music lovers decided to protest. The move was supported by Alan McGee the founder of Creation Records. That being said, the significance of the street in British music history had been acknowledged the year before with the unveiling of a blue plaque, making Denmark street a national heritage site. There are still many music businesses on the road and is considered a tourist attraction for music lovers from all around the world, a place where one can experience living music history and possibly buy a memento such as a guitar.
Denmark Street has been various things in its 124 year history (and counting), today it boasts 8 listed buildings (No5–7, 9–10, 20, 26–27) and is recognised as a British heritage site. It has variously been a tourist attraction, place where creatives congregated, location in which music was written, recorded and performed, hang-out for celebrities and place where well-known musicians bought and sold their guitars. This makes the location one of the most musically significant districts in the world and a place that still holds currency in today’s music industry. Not only is it a British institution, it is a globally significant location in the re-telling of our worldwide cultural and musical heritage and a cornerstone of our civilisation. Here’s to another 124 years of music on Denmark Street.
