Andrew Lauder obit

Noted British Label Executive Andrew Lauder, Dead At 78 

He was not on the list.

SEILLANS, France (CelebrityAccess) — Andrew Justus Lauder, the prominent British record executive whose instinct for unconventional talent helped to redefine modern music, has died. He was 78.

His passing was announced by family friends who said that he died at his shop Le Comptoir in Seillans, France on Wednesday morning. A cause of death was not disclosed.

A native of Hartlepool, Lauder relocated to London in the mid-1960s where he landed his first industry job as an accounts clerk at Southern Music. His break came in 1967, when he joined the newly launched Liberty Records and quickly carved out a role in A&R. Lauder became known for adventurous signings, including the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and Family to Can, Hawkwind, and Brinsley Schwarz, which helped to establish Liberty and later United Artists as key labels for underground and eclectic artists.

By the early 1970s, he had become a central figure at United Artists, championing everyone from Quicksilver Messenger Service and Man to Dr. Feelgood, Motörhead, and the Buzzcocks along with American cult favorites like the Flamin’ Groovies to the UK and helped to build  a tight-knit community around the label.

In 1977, rather than join Arista, Lauder stepped into the independent world, co-founding Radar Records with Martin Davis. Over the following decade, he helped create several influential indie labels—Radar, F-Beat, Demon, and later Silvertone, working closely with artists such as Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Bananarama, and The Stone Roses. Briefly at Island Records, he also signed U2 early in their career.

Lauder continued shaping the independent sector through the 1990s and 2000s, launching the This Way Up label and later running Acadia and Evangeline from Devon, releasing music by Ronnie Lane, Spirit, Loudon Wainwright III, and others. His memoir, Happy Trails, written with Mick Houghton, appeared in 2023.

“My Brit wife Anya Wilson and I are heartbroken over the death of Andrew Lauder, quite possibly the finest A&R representative to ever come out of the UK,” says Larry LeBlanc, sernior writer of CelebrityAccess.We followed him from Liberty to United Artists, Radar, Silvertone, and Edsel onto his stints at various blues labels. Jeez, I could talk music for hours with Andrew. He was there for Can, Brinsley Swartz, Dr. Feelgood, the Stranglers, Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, all from the UK but he was also a big champion of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and Guy Clark. One visit to him at Radar & he loaded me up with rare tracks from Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe along with the first RCA album of Guy Clark.”