Neil Slaven obituary

My friend Neil Slaven, who has died aged 79, came to prominence in the music business during the 1960s British blues boom.

In 1965, Neil and his friend Mike Vernon, who both worked for the Decca record label, founded their own independent label, Blue Horizon Records (Neil suggested the name). Their debut release was a 45 by Hubert Sumlin, Howlin’ Wolf’s guitarist, with Neil playing second guitar. They also published the magazine R&B Monthly.

Neil came to be known more widely to blues fans when he wrote the album notes to John Mayall’s bestselling 1966 album Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton (AKA The Beano album, as Clapton is reading a copy of the Beano comic in the cover photograph).

He went on to produce albums by the Keef Hartley Band and Savoy Brown for Decca, while also working on Blue Horizon releases including Fleetwood Mac’s 1969 double album Blues Jam at Chess.

In 1968, Neil and Mike Leadbitter, co-editor of Blues Unlimited magazine, published Blues Records, 1943-66, the first selective discography of thousands of US blues recordings. Dubbed “the blues bible”, it was eventually expanded to two volumes covering 1943 to 1970 (although Neil was not credited on the second volume).

Born in Caterham, Surrey, Neil attended Purley county grammar school. Mike Vernon was a fellow pupil and they shared a passion for US blues and R&B music.

Neil started work in London at Esquire Records, which licensed jazz and R&B recordings from US companies, and then worked at Decca in album sleeve production – joining Mike, who was working there in record production. Neil wrote his first sleeve notes for the 1964 album The Blues of Otis Spann for Decca.

He also produced albums for Deram Records (for the prog rock bands Stray, Trapeze, Chicken Shack and Egg); accompanied Deep Purple on tour for Decca in the mid-70s; and wrote articles and reviews for Blues Unlimited, and later for Juke Blues, Vox and Blues & Rhythm magazines.

He compiled and wrote the sleeve notes for countless LP, CD and reissue box sets from the vaults of US blues and R&B labels, including RCA’s Bluebird label, Sun, Chess, Minit/Instant, King and Ace, for UK reissue companies including Charly, Westside, Indigo, JSP, Sequel and Jasmine.

He also wrote an acclaimed biography of Frank Zappa, Electric Don Quixote (2003), and contributed to The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings (2006).

In 2021 Neil helped produce John Mayall – The First Generation 1965-1974, a 35-CD box set for which he also wrote a 168-page book.