Dec 24, 2024
Dec 14,2024
Profile: Solomon was a key figure in London music circles during the Swinging Sixties, working with everyone from Van Morrison to Serge Gainsbourg
By Michael Mary Murphy, Institute of Art, Design + Technology Dún Laoghaire
Sharon Osbourne is famous for her swaggering, attitude-driven approach to pop management and she was the first female pop manager to become a global celebrity in her own right. Osbourne was embarrassed about her Irish background. She recalled her Irish mother with a sense of shame "my mother's hair was never done; nothing was ever done. Only when she went out somewhere with my father did she make an effort. Otherwise she was a wreck….She had classic Irish looks, but I didn’t like her because she embarrassed me."
But Osborne’s career role model was also Irish: the Belfast businesswoman, Dorothy Solomon. Although there are very few mentions of her in our history books, she was probably the most influential woman in Irish pop - and one of our greatest businesswomen.
When Osbourne wrote her autobiography, she talked about Solomon. "In many ways you could say that she changed my life", Osbourne wrote. "It was Dorothy who introduced me to luxury. Everything about her was glamorous. An apartment on Park Lane overlooked Hyde Park and was full of beautiful paintings and antique furniture and chandeliers and shiny polished floors. I used to love going there just to be able to sit and move around in those surroundings. But the centre of it all was Dorothy, who looked and dressed like the ladies in the magazines I used to read."
But Solomon wasn't just inspiring future managers like Sharon Osbourne, she was also finding and funding the development of contemporary managers
London was the centre of the Sixties' pop revolution that changed global pop music and Solomon was a key figure in that. Her father was George Connell, a Belfast boxing promoter. By 1949, he was staging fights in the prestigious Kings Hall venue. His events were so well run that he was given the exclusive license to host boxing and wrestling matches in the venue. Even more importantly, he was granted exclusive rights arranging dancing there too.
As a result, his daughter Dorothy had a ringside seat at the emerging Irish live music industry. She married one of the key architects of that industry, Philip Solomon, also from Belfast. Like many Irish people they looked across the water looking for opportunities during the 1950s and emigrated to London in 1958. As a 'power couple’ they proved that the Irish could thrive in the competitive London business world.
One of the anthems of 1960s pop was Them’s Baby Please Don’t Go which became the first Irish rock song to find a global audience. Van Morrison recalled how the song had been a ‘flop’ initially, but then something happened and it was picked up by the ultra-hip Ready Steady Go! TV show.
Them performing Baby Please Don't Go on Ready Steady Go! in 1966
Morrison described this as 'a fluke', but it wasn’t a fluke, it was Solomon. A key mover in the London music scene by then, she persuaded the show’s producers to include the song. It quickly became a sensation and put Irish rock on the map.
Maybe that wasn’t a surprise. After all, Solomon was the woman who put Irish pop on the global map too. Along with her husband, she guided The Bachelors to chart success in Britain and beyond. The Dublin group were not the hippest act of the Swinging Sixties, but they were one of the best-selling. With the Solomons as their managers and booking agents, they scored 17 Top 40 hits in the UK.
The Solomons were a key force in making Ireland’s folk music profitable too. The Dubliners were managed by Philip, he released their records on his Major Minor label and, most importantly of all, he broadcast their songs to a UK and European audience on Radio Caroline, the radio station he part-owned. This resulted in the Dubliners biggest, and bawdiest, hit, Seven Drunken Nights, in 1966. It wasn't the Solomons' only brush with controversy: their Major Minor label steered the Jane Birkin/Serge Gainsbourg single Je t'aime... moi non plus to Number One in Britain in 1969 (it reached Number Two in Ireland).
Serge Gainsbourg & Jane Birkin's Je t'aime... moi non plus originally released on the Solomons' Major Minor label
The Solomons guided the Donegal ballad singer, Bridie Gallagher, to prominence in Britain, and they got TV work there too for Irish harpist Deirdre O'Callaghan. They were at the crossroads of ‘old’ Ireland’s culture and a very modern progress media landscape.
But Solomon wasn’t just inspiring future managers like Sharon Osbourne, she was also finding and funding the development of contemporary managers. One young manger was working as a publicist while he was waiting for his management client to turn a profit. In 1963, Solomon hired him to work with The Bachelors and some of her other acts and that money enabled him to pay a few bills. His name was Andrew Loog Oldham and his band were The Rolling Stones.
It's difficult to imagine how the Irish music industry could have become a major export business without the business brilliance of Solomon
In the 1960s and 1970s the Dorothy Solomon Agency booked dates and managed many middle-of-the road television stars including the child star, Lena Zavaroni. Solomon followed her passion for country life and sport by becoming a racehorse owner.
It’s difficult to imagine how the Irish music industry could have become a major export business without the business brilliance of Solomon, and her husband, Philip. Together with Kerryman Bill Fuller, they proved that the Irish had the skill to compete in the global music industry.
Dr Michael Mary Murphy, is a lecturer in the Department of Humanities + Arts Management, Entrepreneurship at the Institute of Art, Design + Technology Dún Laoghaire.
