Jonathan Shalit: the Best Address Book in England

Hard work, initiative and relentless drive are all ingredients in Jonathan Shalit's recipe for success which has seen him named as one of the Top 100 most powerful men in media - but he admits having a contacts book to die for also helps him stay at the top of his game

By Adam Woods

Who works in an office like this? Well, Jonathan Shalit, obviously. A game of music-biz Through The Keyhole in the mildly cramped fourth-floor headquarters of Shalit Global would not take very long.

The music wall is decked with discs honouring sales of Big Brovaz, Jamelia, N-Dubz and others. The TV cuttings wall, from which Myleene Klass, Kelly Brook and Konnie Huq smile down, has a little more room for growth - "I only put front covers on the TV wall," explains Shalit.

In a corner is a photo of Shalit at the White House in 1999, delightedly shaking the hand of Bill Clinton as Charlotte Church stands by. Next to it is another showing an intense Shalit, five years younger, hovering behind Sting, Larry Adler and Sir George Martin. And reclining on the sofa, in two pieces of an electric- blue three-piece suit, is Shalit himself, the 71st most powerful man in media (source: MediaGuardian 100 2009).

"The only music manager in the list," he points out. "I would be lying if I said it wasn't gratifying, because it is nice to be recognised for what you do. And it is the first time I have been recognised, probably. Although I don't seek recognition - I seek success for my clients."

Shalit believes the music industry does not know quite what to make of him. And the music industry, by and large, probably is not disagreeing with that. Child sopranos, hip-hop groups, model- actresses, classical piano-playing TV presenters - Shalit's roster of successes might seem random, if he did not keep on repeating them with increasing finesse.

"I'm aware that, to 99% of the industry, I probably look a bit odd," he says. "I'm also aware that most people in the music industry probably don't know how to take me. They know I have done well, they know I make amazing things happen, but no-one can quantify it or understand it. But it's not hard - I just make sure I have the best address book in England."

There is more to Shalit's manifesto than this - there is his commitment to young talent, his commercial and media acumen and a relentless drive to succeed, backed up with a charm and warmth that does not necessarily come over on paper. What it adds up to is a supremely well-connected manager who works incredibly effectively within the industry, but is unmistakeably not of it.

With the success of N-Dubz at September's Mobos, where they picked up awards for best UK act and best album, Shalit became the most-decorated British manager in the history of the awards, following his past success with Big Brovaz.

He makes an unlikely urban impresario, but having scored platinum albums for Jamelia, Big Brovaz and N-Dubz - recently celebrated in an Observer Music Monthly cover story as a key element of "The New Britpop" - no-one can deny that he is one, among other things.

"I stumbled into it by accident - it wasn't a deliberate move," he says. He is quick to divert credit to his young team, including co-director Severine Berman and A&R Rich Castillo, who handles N- Dubz day to day, but he clearly feels well-qualified in his own right.

"I have had a passion for urban music for a long time," he says. "But I'm 47 years of age, so the one thing I can't do is connect with 19, 20, 21-year-olds. I understand a hit record and I understand sound, but I make sure I have people working with me who speak the language of the artists."

Shalit graduate Jay Dee Springbett, now head of A&R for Sony Australia and an Australian Idol judge, brought Big Brovaz to Shalit's attention. Springbett, who calls Shalit a mentor, recalls his former boss actually relating to the artists rather well.

"I remember Jonathan down in that council flat in Camberwell, in his blue suit with velvet lapels, and all these guys smoking weed, looking at him like, 'Who the fuck are you?'" says Springbett. "His opening line, in that voice he has, was, 'It's not cool to be poor.' And he had them all wrapped around his little finger in about three seconds."

In the classical world, Shalit is better known for his work with crossover artists such as Church, Myleene Klass and Jonathan Ansell, formerly of G4. And if Klass is at least as famous as a presenter, childrenswear designer, baby columnist and face of M&S and Pantene, that just goes to exemplify Shalit's multi-platform approach.

"He looks at the bigger picture and where he wants his clients to go," says Klass. "I met him at the Classical Brits a few years ago. I was watching and he came over and said, 'You should be hosting this.' And two years later, I was."

When you are reaching for some sort of Shalit definition, it is easy to call him old-fashioned. "If you were looking for parallels, you would probably go back to some Hollywood agent, or someone like [theatrical impresario and ex-EMI boss] Bernard Delfont, those legendary names," says friend Alan Edwards of the Outside Organisation.

But as Edwards points out, that does not take into account the fact that Shalit's real point of difference is a network that stretches well beyond the normal borders of the music industry, combined with an exceptionally progressive view of how things can be done.

"He might be perceived as old-fashioned, but if that's how you are describing him, I think there are a lot of other people that could afford to be old-fashioned," says UMI chairman and CEO Lucian Grainge. "Someone who is commercial, who can understand sponsorship and branding, isn't actually old-fashioned at all, he is very modern."

"I spend a lot of time working across different areas," is how Shalit puts it. "I have kept on top of the way the modern media works. I support my artists in the same way a traditional music manager does, but what I have also been able to do is open doors that most of those managers won't know even exist to open."

His contacts in the US go to the top and include figures from music such as Universal Records chairman Monte Lipman and expat Mercury Records president David Massey, as well as showbiz agents such as William Morris's reality TV specialist John Ferriter.

Asked to name his closest industry associates in the UK, he reels off a list of what turns out to be all the major-label managing directors and chief executives. In the television world, he is equally well-known, recently setting up a joint venture between Geffen and GMTV to find Britain's "Number One Family", a single from whom is due at Christmas.

His list of proudest moments features appearances by Nelson Mandela, Luciano Pavarotti, Sting, Whitney Houston, Prince and the Pope.

He is there on the political fringes, too. A few years ago, he capitalised on an acquaintance with Michael Howard to organise drinks at The Ivy for leading music-industry figures to meet members of the Conservative party, including Boris Johnson, and he tries to maintain a dialogue with both sides. In a couple of weeks, he says, Government minister Ed Balls is going to come and do something with N-Dubz.

"He knows absolutely everyone," says Klass. "I have never met anyone so curious about people in my life."

So where did this man come from? He is happy to tell you. In 1993, Shalit was a Saatchi & Saatchi graduate running a graphic- design company when he heard, through a family connection, that harmonica virtuoso Adler was looking for duet partners. He decided to cold-call Sir George Martin to ask if he would produce an album.

"I was a nobody when I called up Sir George," says Shalit. "He agreed to see me, I took him for lunch at The Ivy, he heard what I had to say, he was complete civility, he insisted on paying for lunch because he is richer than me, and he agreed to do the record on a handshake."

The Glory of Gershwin, a collection featuring Adler with Elton John, Sting, Cher, Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel, Elvis Costello and others, sold 2m copies and gave Shalit a self-taught lesson in what was possible, given hard work and a bit of front.

The tale carries echoes of his entry into the advertising business, a few years earlier. Working at Lloyd's of London as a broker, learning the rules of business but hating the job, he peppered the advertising world with job applications, but saved his keenest approach for Saatchi & Saatchi.

"I couldn't get to the boss, because my letters would always be bounced to human resources," he recalls. "So I went to the building, got the concierge to point out the office of the managing director and persuaded a window-cleaner to knock on the window with a letter. He saw me down in the street and invited me up for an interview."

It is upon this kind of direct action that Shalit has built his thriving cottage empire. From the next room he calls in Castillo, youthful N-Dubz A&R man, to illustrate the fact that he respects it in others, too.

"He wrote me a fantastic letter saying he would love to come and work for me, that he loved what I did," says Shalit "What did you write?" he prompts.

"Could I get a meeting to explain to you how I could make you a lot of money?'" says Castillo. "Then I borrowed my mate's suit and my other mate's shoes for the interview."

Shalit is clearly delighted by such initiative, and is insistent that he could not do what he does without his team. He also speaks with pride of Springbett's achievements and those of Nickie Banks, another former Shalit Global employee, now international marketing manager at EMI.

"People ask me if I mind people leaving, and I say I would prefer to have good people who might leave than crap people who will stay," he says.

Everything he has achieved, Shalit will tell you, has been built on talent. The nurturing of young artists in particular is his great theme.

"What people don't know about is the support we continue to give to young, creative talent," he says. "I can't think of many managers or record companies who have done as much. "

N-Dubz were still in their teens when Shalit came on board. After his well-documented experience with Charlotte Church, you might forgive him for avoiding young artists altogether, but he has done the opposite, and he has strong views about it.

"I don't think a lot of managers and representatives of talent take their role seriously enough. N-Dubz - I use them as the current example - have put their trust and faith in me. I have a massive obligation to them and their parents to make sure they are as successful as possible, and I take that responsibility seriously."

It is 12 years since he guided an 11-year-old Church to huge worldwide success and nine years since his sacking and the ensuing court case, when a dramatic High Court intervention by Sony's Paul Burger left him a rumoured pounds 2m better off.

"There was no real reason for the relationship to break down except that her family thought they could do it themselves," says Shalit. "They invented lots of other reasons and put them before a judge, and he laughed at them all. Hence one of the reasons I got one of the heftiest settlements ever."

PR man Ian Monk represented Shalit during the case and recalls the huge press interest. "I think it is fair to say that Charlotte's mother and the record company were pretty active in putting their side of things to the press and Jonathan found himself at the sharp end of a pretty long stick, to be honest," he says. "He came out with his dues financially and, more importantly, with his reputation properly intact."

Shalit does not seem to harbour any malice about the split, but recalls the excitement of Church's rapid rise. "That was an amazing experience," he says. "I discovered her in June 1997 and everyone laughed at me. So we started to finance the record ourselves and in the space of 14 months she had two double-platinum records in America."

Success with Claire Sweeney followed, and then there was Javine and Rik Waller, followed by Jamelia, Big Brovaz and the current crop of music and TV personalities, including Kate Silverton, Christopher Biggins, Ian 'H' Watkins, Jennifer Ellison, Dani Behr and plenty more, of lesser or greater renown.

Shalit offers up his own measure of managerial achievement, safe in the knowledge that he has easily passed it himself. "I always think, when I look at managers, that a lot of them are people who have got lucky and had one success," he says. "Quite a few people get lucky twice. But if you are a real career manager, I think you need three successes."

Tales of his own, 24-hour approach to business are not hard to find. "I will test him out when he is over in the States and send him an email at two or three in the morning, New York time, and I always get a rapid response," says Warner Bros vice-chairman Jeremy Marsh. "That is a unique thing, that level of dedication, and most of the artists he works with find that to be a real point of difference."

In a similar vein, Springbett recalls his former boss's 12 o'clock maxim: "He says if you are in the music industry and you are out after 12, you are either drunk or showboating, and either way, it's not going to earn you any money."

The point of that one, Shalit explains, is that you make your own luck, and that means using your time and energy to make the opportunities happen.

"A lot of my friends, in the evening, either get a DVD and watch it with their family, or they go to a pub and get pissed," he says. "But Lady Luck isn't going to come and knock on your front door, and she isn't going to come to the pub and buy you a drink.

"You create your luck by going somewhere," he continues. "If I hadn't gone to Cardiff, I wouldn't have signed Charlotte Church. If I hadn't gone to see them in Chelmsford, I wouldn't have met N- Dubz. If I hadn't got to know people on Sky News, I wouldn't have built my TV business."

It is a recipe for success that you cannot argue with, and it is what makes Shalit a tough one to come up against - not a nasty man, but a relentless, shrewd, well-prepared one.

"We were staying in a hotel once, and I remember him coming down with this list of notes, drenched in sweat, having been to the gym," says Myleene Klass. "I said, 'I don't know why you don't just go for a swim,' and he said, 'I can't make notes in the pool.'"

She explodes with laughter. "That's the kind of manager I want."

(c) 2009 Music Week. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.

A service of YellowBrix, Inc.