10 MusicWeek 13.04.12 THEBIGINTERVIEWJIMCHANCELLOR Elbow
JIM AGAINST THE TIDE
RIGHT Kicker | Caption style
OPPOSITE Kicker | Caption style
Why the
Fiction boss isn’t your
average record exec - and how he’s thrived by
simply “signing things I fall in love with”
But Chancellor’s not exactly cut from the cigar-
chewing, career-twisting record mogul template. With his broom brush ‘tash, floppy Allman
Brothers mane and pacific mannerisms, you couldn’t manufacture a more instantly disarming poster boy for Fiction’s organic credentials. In person, with each self-deprecating snigger, sincere artist eulogy and “right time, right place” dismissal of individual glory, the ex-A&R proves exactly the sort of music- adoring kook that performers would clearly warm to. Even when that performer is personal favourite Guy Garvey - and Chancellor’s carefully directing him to modify a masterpiece. “It’s about how you get that message across,” he
says. “If you believe in something and you recognise it’s not quite there, you’ve got to ask. It can’t hurt. So long as it’s not messaged in a: ‘You’re fucked if you don’t give me this,’ kind of a way, most artists are pretty understanding.” Chancellor first saw Elbow at the Barfly shortly
before debut LP Asleep In The Back was released in 2000, and was left mesmerised. He continued to admire the V2-signed group through follow-up Cast Of Thousands, but when an advanced copy of third album Leaders Of The Free World landed on his desk in 2005, a professional craving took hold. “It was an utterly incredible album, but even
more importantly, as a band I noticed they just kept on getting better,” he remembers. “I made a copy of it for [Universal Music UK CEO] David Joseph and [then-A&R exec] Colin Barlow. I was telling them: ‘This is fucking amazing!’ It was those two who went: ‘Let’s try and do it.’” A re-promotion of the album in tandem with
LABELS BY TIM INGHAM
I
t says everything you need to know about Jim Chancellor that when he suggested Elbow append their 2008 The Seldom Seen Kid album
with a hit single, the band didn’t grumble, gripe or groan. They wrote One Day Like This and became a national treasure. This, remember, is a record label MD; a
notoriously mercenary, trigger-happy breed, loudly castigated and mercilessly slandered in each and every chapter of the Grumpy Rock Star Bible. That goes double for those who churn the cogs at a slick, profit-snaring major. They’re not supposed to be listened to, let
alone liked.
V2 was soon in the offing, but never came to light. “Once that collapsed, I just wanted to sign them,” adds Chancellor. “Contractually it was very tense [with V2], but the band just got on and made a record. And when I heard the new songs, they were simply gobsmacking.” Chancellor already had form in not letting a
FICTION FACTORY THE NEW BREED
Chancellor says that Fiction has decided “not to get too crazy” in terms of 2012 releases after handling a dense schedule last year. “We have Spector, and 2:54 (pictured) this
year,” he says. “Both bands are at very different ends of the indie spectrum but they’ve both got very bright futures. Then we’ve got returns from Crystal Castles and Kate Nash, which are both starting to sound magnificent. New Naked and Famous and White Lies records will come next year and there’s a band called Last Dinosaurs from Australia we’ve also licensed for here, who have a lot of promise.”
band he adored get away from him – indeed, it was a crucial factor in the initial reformation of the Fiction label in 2004. At the behest of Colin Barlow, the exec set up an imprint with the objective of “bringing guitar music back to Polydor UK” alongside (now-Polydor MD) Joe Munns and (now-UMG digital director) Paul Smernicki. Just like Elbow in years to come, the career of
their first signing to their Black Lion Lane Records – named after the street outside the trio’s old Fulham office - was already a couple of LPs old: Snow Patrol. The band’s initial label demo included Spitting
Games and Run; songs that would go on to form the cornerstone of mega-selling 2003 LP, Final Straw. When David Joseph suggested Chancellor
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