2005 Obit: Nathan Joseph, Transatlantic Records

Subject: Obit: Nathan Joseph, Transatlantic Records
From: Mary Katherine
Date: 12 Sep 05 - 10:30 AM

Founder Of Pioneering Folk And Blues Label Transatlantic,
And Theatre Agent Of Note

FROM: The Guardian ~
By Robin Denselow

Nathan Joseph, who has died at the age of 66, played an important role
both in the development of the British record industry and in British
theatre. He founded and ran Transatlantic Records, one of the first
fully independent British record labels, which had an enormous
influence on the development of the British folk and blues scenes, and
later changed direction to become a theatrical producer and agent.
Nat, as the folk world knew him, worked with everyone - from musicians
such as Bert Jansch and the Dubliners, to comedians such as Billy
Connolly and the playwright Arnold Wesker, whom he also represented.
Wesker described him as "an agent who was a father, brother and uncle
figure rolled into one, which made him also a special quality of
friend. More, he was a thorough negotiator."

Joseph was born in Birmingham. His father was a businessman, working
in the metal industry, who had just started his own business when he
died at the age of 47. His son was just nine. Nat would later take
over the firm, and transform it into a modern waste treatment plant,
as a sideline to his main career. An only child, he was brought up by
his mother, and educated at King Edward's grammar school. He won a
scholarship to Queens' College, Cambridge, where he read English and
was noted for his comic performances in college revues. The financial
problems caused by his father's early death left him determined to
succeed in business, and his colourful career started almost as soon
as he left university.

After a year "teaching, and then bumming around the USA", as he put
it, he decided that "I had to earn some money, and returned to England
determined to start a record company." So in 1961, aged 21, he did
just that. He was asked to act as agent for various US labels, but the
deal depended on him selling enough of their records within just a few
months. He did so, by "trudging around southern England carrying
samples in paper bags", and then set out to look for records that
could be produced in Britain.

Once again, he succeeded, this time by recording a bestselling set of
controversial sex therapy albums. He followed up by matching folk
singer Isla Cameron with actor Tony Britton to record a
song-and-poetry set, Songs of Love, Lust and Loose Living, and went on
to record poetry albums by Christopher Logue and Adrian Mitchell, jazz
by Annie Ross and blues by that most influential of early British
bluesmen Alexis Korner.

Much of the most inventive music of the early 1960s emerged through
the British folk scene, and Joseph was an enormous enthusiast. He
first signed the Ian Campbell Group and then the Dubliners, before
moving on to make the Transatlantic label the home for many of
Britain's greatest guitarists and songwriters, from Bert Jansch and
John Renbourn to Ralph McTell. Renbourn said that with Transatlantic
he was "virtually free to record whatever I wanted".

My own first meeting with Joseph was at the Beaulieu folk festival in
1966, when I was a student dabbling in singing and songwriting. As I
came off stage, I found a delightful and enthusiastic man waving a
publishing contract at me. I signed, of course.

Thankfully for Transatlantic, Joseph also had some genuine musical
talent on his books. Jansch and Renbourn were successful solo artists
who went on to form the much-praised Pentangle, while another of his
signings, the Humblebums, consisted of that rock-star-to-be, Gerry
Rafferty, along with Billy Connolly. Other Transatlantic acts included
the Sallyangie (which involved a young Mike Oldfield), those great
harmony singers the Young Tradition, and American bluesman Stefan
Grossman.

In the 1960s and early 1970s, it was crucial for anyone writing about
folk or blues to drop into Joseph's London offices in Marylebone high
street to find out what he was doing, though the conversation could
soon swing to comedy, rock or the US music scene. Apart from his
British acts, Joseph distributed a wide range of American labels, and
had an adventurous catalogue that included world music celebrities
from Ravi Shankar to the Chilean star Victor Jara.

In 1975, Joseph sold his controlling interest in Transatlantic to
Granada, and two years later retired from the music industry. It
seemed like the end of an era, but it was merely the start of a new
career in his early love, the theatre.

As a producer, he presented plays in Britain and on Broadway,
including Alec McCowan's Kipling in 1984, and Brian Clark's The
Petition, starring Sir John Mills and directed by Sir Peter Hall in
1986. His theatrical agency represented young designers and stage
directors, and, in 1985, he became the sole representative of Arnold
Wesker.

Joseph was that rarity, a shrewd, inventive businessman who cared for,
and understood, a wide spectrum of the arts. He was also a keen sports
fan and a life-long supporter of Birmingham City football club, and
Warwickshire cricket team.

He leaves his wife of 40 years, Sarah, and their two sons, Joshua and
Gideon.

· Nathan 'Nat' Joseph, record company founder, theatrical producer and
agent, born July 13 1939; died August 30 2005