Sandy Pemberton, 1970s British Record Producer Who Switched Careers to Manage Producers, Dies
variety.comChris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticSandy Roberton, a producer and manager who worked with artists ranging from Steeleye Span in the early 1970s to the Matrix in the 2000s, has died, colleagues report.
His age and the cause of death were not immediately known.After a successful career producing records and managing artists in London in the ’70s, the Scottish-born Roberton moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1980s, where he had based his Worlds End Management Company for nearly four decades.
The company has continued to the present day and currently represents producers and mixers including Stephen Lipson, Larry Klein, Brad Wood, Stephen Hague, Ted Hutt and many others.In the mid-’60s, he was part of the duo Rick and Sandy, and released solo singles under the names of Sandy and later Lucien Alexander, before moving behind the scenes as a producer for acts like John Martyn, Iain Matthews, the Chocolate Watch Band, Decameron and others.
He produced the first three albums for the folk-rock band Steeleye Span. But in his subsequent time in Los Angeles, his company made its name representing successful producers like the Matrix, the collective made up of Lauren Christy, Graham Edwards and Scott Spock that hit it big producing Avril Lavigne’s debut album in 2002, going on to work with artists such as Britney Spears, Shakira, Korn and Liz Phair.Christy (pictured above with Roberton, attending Primary Wave Music Publishing’s pre-Grammy party in 2009) told Variety how their former manager was responsible for much of the Matrix’s success.“Graham and I were saddened to learn of the death” of Roberton, Christy said — and “shocked, too, because if you knew Sandy, you know he never stopped working.
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