Melvyn J Taub, who worked at the Jewish Chronicle before a successful career in the music industry, has died aged 64 from pancreatic cancer.
Taub worked in the advertising department for the Jewish Chronicle in the early Eighties, the same decade in which his music career took off.
He formed the bubblegum-pop band The Jetset in 1981 with his friend Paul Bevoir and the group played their debut gig at Covent Garden’s Rock Garden before picking up more experience as a support act for Secret Affair. Taub was a singer in that group and Angus Nanan his friend from the Clapton Jewish Day School (now Simon Marks Jewish Primary School), joined as a keyboardist after they had recorded their earliest demos.
The Jetset (Melvyn J Taub on the right) Lastfm
He enjoyed his first chart success as a backing singer in Mari Wilson’s touring revue band The Wilsations, who he joined in 1981. When Mari Wilson’s career took off, Taub appeared with the Wilsations on Top of the Pops doing Just Wanted I Always Wanted in 1982 when the single peaked at number 8 in the UK chart. He would later return to work with Bevoir in The Jetset, signing to the independent label Dance Network in 1983 and releasing the band’s debut album There Goes the Neighborhood in 1985.
Fellow “Wilsation”, the Eastenders actor Michelle Collins posted a tribute to her former band member on Instagram:
“Dearest Melvyn seems so surreal you have gone so soon, the first of us Wilsations... We met when I was 18, you were 20. You had the best sense of humour, you loved music so much.”
From a set of prints included with the Vaudeville Park album[Missing Credit]
Barry Toberman, former associate editor at the JC, remembers his colleague fondly.“As well as a love of music, he had a dry sense of humour and was fun lunchtime company. But he was also quite reserved until you got to know him and was never someone you would envision being in a band (which is why I think he eventually gravitated to the other side of the industry).”
He added, “I found their albums among my vinyl mountain last night and they are lovingly retro ("in swinging stereo", the album cover for There Goes The Neighbourhood proclaims).”
Mari Wilson and the Wilsations on Top of the Pops in 1982 (screenshot)[Missing Credit]
Martin Hall, who runs London-based management company Hall or Nothing and has managed the Manic Street Preachers for more than 30 years, came to know Taub when he was working at Sony. Hall “bumped into” Taub many times over the years, such is the small world of the music industry – including when Hall was with the Manics and Taub was with Oasis – before employing him to do some tour management.
"He had a very dry sense of humour, very understated,” recalls Hall. “He did so many things in his life that I wasn't aware of, even working with the Jewish Chronicle, and he was an actor in a film... He would never boast. He was such a modest guy, embarrassed by any blowing of trumpets, but he was also a bit eccentric.”
Taub proved a significant and influential member of Hall’s team. “I trusted his ears. I used to call him most mornings on the way to work to send him music and ask what he saw because he had a great love of music and a great encyclopedic knowledge of music, but I also think he had great taste, and I trusted his judgement.”
The Jetset album cover[Missing Credit]
One of those bands whose management signing he played a role in was Isle of Wight duo Wet Leg, whose debut album became a number 1 in the UK chart. Another was the indie-rock band Picture Parlour, who released their debit EP in June, and Hall credits Taub with helping the pop-soul-funk group Haircut 100 to reform and play their first tour in 40 years.
“He was instrumental in helping to put that together. They’ve just come back from an American tour, their first tour in 40 years. He was a really valued and loved member of our small team.”
Hall says Taub’s great achievement was doing the job he loved throughout his adult life, during which he travelled the world many times and worked a lot with Oasis.
“I bumped into Noel Gallagher and he said it was sad news. The music business is quite a small one, and people loved and respected him.”
