Jamie Arlon, MD of Arlon Music and Arlon Songs Ltd, has died after battling cancer. He was 47.
The son of music manager Deke and Jill Arlon, of D&J Arlon Management, Jamie Arlon established Arlon Music and Arlon Songs as a management company, independent publisher and administration service. It also became the UK creative office for US publisher Shapiro Bernstein & Co.
Jamie Arlon worked with artists including John Lodge of the Moody Blues, Marti Pellow of Wet Wet Wet, Jarrod Dickenson, Julia Fordham and his brother Tim Arlon, aka singer-songwriter TD Lind.
“It’s about having projects with great integrity,” he told Music Week in 2013. “It’s not for me about building a financially huge corporate business, but working with people I get on with very well and caring about them and their music.”
He began his career working with producer Chris Neil. A spell in Nashville and Kentucky led to him managing the band Edenstreet and signing them to A&M Records. Based in LA, he set up the US arm of family publishing company April Music and worked with writers and artists including Jim Weatherly, Robert White Johnson, Dennis Lambert, Nicky Chinn, Bill Wyman and Ray Davies.
He later became director of A&R for Sanctuary Music Publishing in London, with a roster that included Bert Jansch, Todd Rundgren, UB40, Keith Urban, Alan Roy Scott, Gil Scott Heron, Boz Boorer and Axl Rose.
Following the buyout of Sanctuary, Arlon set up a songwriter, catalogue and artist management company, Arlon Music, with its own music publishing company, Arlon Songs Ltd, and independent record label, Tall Tale Records. Arlon Music went on to work with Universal Music, Bicycle Music, Kassner Music, Lo-Jinx Records and TY Songs.
Arlon Songs was nominated for an Ivor Novello Award in 2014 for Grant Mitchell's co-write on Clown, recorded by Emeli Sandé.
Jamie Arlon leaves a wife, Penny, and their young children. A private funeral is planned with a memorial service later this month.
SongLink International CEO David Stark described him as “one of the music industry’s true gentlemen”.
