SEYMOUR STEIN
Sire Records visionary 1942 2023
ONE of Talking Heads’ fondest memories was of Seymour Stein exuberantly singing one of their songs during a breakneck taxi ride across New York City. “He was our champion,” they wrote. “Some people can spot a diamond in the rough and Seymour was one of them.”
As co-founder of Sire Records, Stein o ered to sign Talking Heads in 1975 on the strength of one show. He was prepared to wait another year for them to agree. A similar scenario played out with the Ramones. Tipped o by his wife Linda, who’d seen them at CBGB the night before, Stein auditioned the band in June ’75. They eventually joined the label seven months later. Both episodes served to illustrate Stein’s tenacity when it came to business, alongside his sheer enthusiasm and impeccable taste, despite griping that “radio stations wouldn’t touch the Ramones with a toilet brush”.
An avid music fan, he’d begun as a junior clerk at Billboard in 1958, followed by short spells at King and Red Bird Records in the early ’60s. In 1966 he teamed up with songwriter-producer Richard Gottehrer to form Sire, its moniker drawn from a merger of their rst names. The pair began by licensing European rock bands, landing their rst major hit in 1973 with “Hocus Pocus”, by Dutch outfit Focus.
Gottehrer’s departure two years later caused Stein to scour his home turf for raw talent. Aside from Talking Heads and the Ramones, his new acquisitions included Dead Boys and Richard Hell & The Voidoids. When Sire became a subsidiary of Warner Bros in the late ’70s, Stein expanded his reach in the US, eventually overseeing artists like Depeche Mode, The Pretenders and Echo & The Bunnymen. His most successful charge was Madonna; Stein was so eager for her signature that he nalised the deal while hospitalised with a heart complaint in 1982.
He went on to become vice president of Warner Bros, staying until his retirement in 2018. His core philosophy remained constant throughout the years. “Being liked was not my goal in life,” he wrote in his memoir, Siren Song. “My business was turning great music into hit records.”
Frampton sideman 1951 2023
Bassist John Regan enjoyed a long association with Peter Frampton, both live and on record, beginning with 1980’s Rise Up. His other main collaborator was Ace Frehley, playing with the ex-kiss guitarist in Frehley’s Comet from 1984-90. Regan’s various session credits include Bowie and Jagger’s Live Aid single, “Dancing In The Street”.