Iconic South Africans: Clive Calder
by Sheldon Rocha Leal
I think it is essential that we as South Africans are informed about the successes of our fellow countrymen and celebrate the fact that many of our kin have been instrumental in dictating the trajectory of the music business, setting world music trends, standards and consumption patterns. Additionally, I feel that it is my task as an ambassador of Popular Music to create an awareness amongst people that there is more than one route to success in the music industry. Many of the most successful people in the business are not musicians, composers or even vocalists, they are generally people that manage the process of creation and their contributions are just as valuable.
Throughout history, South Africans have made major waves in the music industry and one such individual is Clive Calder. He is the embodiment of the fact that not everyone enters this business to become a world-renowned star or perform on a stage in front of hundreds of thousands of people. Although he was always passionate about music and performing music, he was not driven by a need to perform on a stage or record music in a studio. His passion was rather the business of music and discovering the stars that would affect change in the sector. He is even described as a bit of a recluse. Notwithstanding his iconic status as a music executive who has attained major recognition amongst his peers, his recognizability amongst ordinary music consumers is minimal to non-existent. Yet the stars he has discovered are people who have yielded major power within their respective genres.
So who is this man and what has he done to achieve such great success in the music business?
Clive Calder was born in Johannesburg on the 13th of December 1946, making him 72 years old. He was brought up in the Northern Suburbs of Johannesburg and by the age of 15 had bought his first guitar, eventually starting a band with his school mates to stave off the boredom of school, which he found a dreary and undisciplined environment. He went on to become the bass player in his band and by the age of 18 started gigging to generate an income to support his mother and sister after his father’s untimely demise. It is reported that from a young age he was interested in numbers and finance and that he studied South African tax manuals for recreational purposes.
Clive was later hired by EMI as an A&R (Artist and Repertoire aka Talent Scout), where he met Ralph Simon. The two men went on to form CCP Records (Clive Calder Productions) in 1971 (he was 25 years old), whose artists were initially distributed by EMI records. EMI went on to buy CCP in 1972. Whilst at CCP Clive also befriended a young producer and songwriter who was making waves on the South African music scene, Robert “Mutt” Lange. Iconic South African artists were discovered at CCP records: Brenda Fassie, Chicco Twala, Arthur Mafokate (the King of Kwaito), Mandoza and Aba Shante. The company is still operational as a wholly-owned subsidiary of EMI, focusing on the development and distribution of local talent.
In 1975 Clive, Ralph and Robert moved to the UK in opposition to the South African government’s racist regime and with an understanding that they had achieved all they could in the country. Ralph and Clive continued their business relationship for over 20 years. Cognizant of the fact that they knew little about the music scene in the UK, they opted to establish a publishing and management company as opposed to a recording label. Robert was already gaining some traction as a songwriter/producer amongst local acts and therefore was a revenue stream for the company. This strategy gave the guys the opportunity to focus on the management of artists and publishing of songs, whilst other companies focused on the costly act of manufacturing, releasing, marketing and distribution of artists and their albums. Born out of this understanding Zomba Music Publishing was established, named after a city in Malawi.
In the early days of the company’s evolution, Robert was producing albums for acts such as Def Leppard, AC/DC, The Boomtown Rats, Foreigner and Bryan Adams. He produced “Back In Black” for AC/DC, which shipped over 50million units worldwide making it one of the biggest selling albums of all time. This success catapulted him to the A-league of Rock producers in the world and brought a lot of credibility to Zomba, which resulted in many new signings for the company. One of the first acts Zomba signed was a French producer named Henri Bololo, who had been rejected by various labels in the UK. The man was responsible for creating The Village People and was one of the pioneers of the Disco movement.
In 1978, Zomba offices were established in New York, with the intent of discovering new artists and songwriting talent. Clive and Ralph had a lot of success in the country. One of the first artists with whom they signed a management deal was Billy Ocean. Clive Davis, the then head of Arista, and the company through which many of the Zomba artists were distributed, asked Clive and Ralph if they would handle A&R responsibilities for Arista on the US West Coast. Arista had been having trouble securing the Rock market and as a company that had so much success with Rock acts, Clive Davis felt that it would be the perfect fit to procure Clive Calder’s services. Feeling greater confidence and a more profound understanding of the recording world, Clive Calder turned down Davis’ offer and started his own recording division in 1981, Jive Records (named after a famous dance style in South Africa).
Initially, Jive signed many Pop and British Rock acts, but after employing a young A&R man by the name of Barry Weiss, who exposed Clive Calder to Hip-Hop music, the company’s trajectory was altered. Clive Calder was very impressed with this new genre of music and tasked Barry with targeting different small labels, producers, songwriters and artists who were creating the music, were relatively unknown, but were selling large numbers. Most major recording labels had passed on the emerging Hip-Hop trend, but Clive was very interested in investing in and exposing the genre to the world. One of the first Hip-Hop acts signed at Jive signed was Whodini, who had a hit with “Magic’s Wand”. With the success of this single, Jive became the go-to label for Hip-Hop acts and went on to sign, DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince (the first Hip-Hop act time win a Grammy Award), KRS-One, A Tribe Called Quest, Too Short, R KELLY and Aaliyah.
In the 1990s the company went on a major acquisition spree and landed up buying out a whole lot of recording and publishing companies. At the same time, a bid was made on the company by EMI, but Clive Calder rather sold 25% of the company’s publishing division to BMG (the company with whom they had a distribution deal) in 1991 and an additional 20% of the recording division in 1996. In 1990 Zomba was valued at $225million and consisted of over 50 subsidiaries. At about this time Ralph Simon parted ways with Clive Calder after 20 years, owing to ethical differences. Clive bought Ralph’s 50% share and became the de facto sole owner of Zomba.
Some of the major acquisitions made in the early 1990s included Windsong International, Rough Trade, Silvertone Records, Conifer Classics, Sanctuary Records, Volcano Entertainment, Benson Music Group, Brentwood Music Group, Reunion Records. These acquisitions brought a plethora of speciality companies into the Zomba fold which allowed the company to explore various music genres, everything from Classical Music, to Christian Contemporary Music to Rock. It also gave them access to markets outside of the USA and UK and made them a truly international contender. The Brentwood purchase in 1997 gave Clive access to a catalogue of 46,000 songs which included compositions by Elvis Presley, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson and Linda Ronstadt.
In the late 1990s through an association with the controversial artist manager Louis Pearlman, Clive discovered The Backstreet Boys, at the time signed to Mercury Records, who were not really pushing the band. Clive eventually bought out their contract with Mercury for $35,000 believing that the group could assist Zomba/Jive to expand their exposure in Europe and Asia. He immediately sent the band to Sweden to record at Cheiron Studios (a relationship that generated many hits) and the resultant eponymously titled album shifted over 1million units in Asia in three weeks. The album was, however, not released in the USA as Calder felt that the time was not right for the band in the country. A year later, however, their sophomore album, “Backstreet’s Back”, was released in the USA and combined international sales of the album accounted for a shipment of over 14million units.
The band’s overwhelming success motivated Clive to task his team with finding a female alternative. Steve Lunt, the company’s A&R man, discovered the 15-year-old Britney Spears, who was sent off to Sweden to work with Max Martin at Cheiron Studios. The resultant “…Baby One More Time” album, released in 1999, was a huge success and shipped over 25million units internationally. Jive’s next big signing was *NSync, who Clive broke into the market in a very similar fashion to the Backstreet Boys. Incidentally, they also had a management deal with Louis Pearlman, which resulted in later litigation. The band’s music was initially released in Europe and Asia and based on the success they attained in those two continents they were eventually introduced to the US market. As with the two teen acts that preceded them *NSync’s album sales were astronomical. Their first international release, “No Strings Attached”, shipped over 16million units worldwide and 2,4million units in its first week, at the time a world record for first-week sales. After the disbanding of *NSync in 2002, a recording deal was penned with the band’s lead singer, Justin Timberlake, whose album sales competed favourably with that of his defunct band.
As part of the deal struck with BMG in the early 1990s regarding publishing and then later in the 1990s when they purchased a portion of Zomba’s recording division, Clive was given the option to sell the entire company to BMG by 2002. Clive initially wanted $3,4billion for the purchase of Zomba and all its assets, but after some negotiation and an evaluation of the company, he accepted an offer of $2,7billion. This was the biggest purchase of an independent label at the time. Clive stayed on in an advisory capacity initially but resigned as CEO on the settlement of the deal in 2003.
Clive is a very private individual who shies away from media attention and presently lives in the Cayman Islands with his wife and two children. He travels frequently to Africa focusing on charitable activities through his ELMA Philanthropies (a group of foundations headquartered in Cape Town), whose primary directive is the improvement of childhood education and health in Africa. It is also said that he makes the occasional visit to South Africa in order to watch his favourite sport, cricket. He is currently ranked the 365th richest person in the world, valued at over $4,9billion, according to Forbes Magazine. Bloomberg, however, value the music executive at over $5,3billion. In 2012 he was ranked the second wealthiest music billionaire in Britain, but at that time he was only ranked No521 on Forbes’ richest person list.
It just goes to show that it doesn’t matter what country you come from, the education you’ve had, the amount of talent you exhibit or the socio-economic background from which you come, anyone can succeed if they are willing to invest in their craft. Clive Calder is a self-made billionaire and is an inspiration to many who want to make it in “the business of music”. He also proves that you don’t need to be a celebrity, talented musician, composer or vocalist to be successful in the music business. If one of passionate about what one does and is willing to invest in getting to know one’s industry and craft better, then success is almost always guaranteed. Understanding creatives, the creative industry and the management of creatives and their output can be more lucrative than standing on a stage performing songs. People need to understand that there are many paths to success and Clive Calder’s story illustrates one of these many paths.
