Tony Coleman, the co-founder and head A&R man at Hospital Records, has announced he’ll be stepping down from his day to day duties at the label.
Coleman, better know as London Elektricity, revealed during an in depth interview on ROAR: The ‘90s Rave Podcast, that he’d reached a stage in his career that he was going to focus on his artistic side and prioritise making music for the label while leaving the admin side of things to his team.
London Elektricity’s Announcement
“Lockdown has been a period of contemplation for everybody I think, in a lot of people it’s triggered change, myself included. At the moment I’m stepping back, not only from the day to day admin running of the company, also the A&R side as well”.
After talking about the relentless nature of Hospital Records release schedule & how he’s micro managed to A&R side of the label for 25 years now Coleman said that “It’s not a question of me relaxing in an armchair”, and followed up saying “I’m still very creative and I want my creativity back”.
25 Years Building Hospital Records
Since founding Hospital Records with Chris Goss some 25 years ago, Coleman along with his team, have kick started & nurtured the careers of household D&B names such as Danny Byrd, High Contrast, Nu:Tone, Logistics, Netsky & Degs just to name a few.
He’s of course also himself been a prolific artist on the label, having recorded 5 studio albums under his London Elektricity guise, one of which was included in our Best D&B Albums article. He successfully toured London Elektricity as a live act in 2013 & reimagined his biggest tracks to be performed as part of theLondon Elektricity Big Band Show in 2016 at the inaugural Hospitality In The Park & other selected festival dates.
Most recently his album ‘Yikes!’ got remastered to mark 10 years since it’s original release.
Liberty, Sadness & Excitement
Tom Latchham, the host of the ROAR Podcast, asked Tony how he felt about stepping away from the label he built from the ground up, to which Tony responded that “I can only imagine it’s very similar to when you’ve dedicated your life to bringing up your kids then they just leave and go do their own thing”. He alluded to feelings of liberation sadness & excitement.
“It’s been a difficult decision to make but now I’ve made it every cell in my body says it’s the right decision”.
Having been a fan of London Elektricity’s music since getting my hands on a promo copy of ‘Songs In The Key Of Knife’ I’m fully looking forward to hearing what he comes up with when he’s focusing 100% of his energy on the music.
New A&R At Hospital Records
On announcing his departure as the labels figurehead he did say that the role of A&R at the Hospital will now be taken up by co-founder Chris Goss, Dan Nu:Tone and any member of the Hospital Records staff that wants to get involved.
Coleman said that “The sound of a label is the people that make the decisions to sign artists & nurture those artists. It’s going to be interesting so see how it moves forward.“
What Else Was Covered In The Interview?
Spread over 3 episodes, hostTom Latcham & guest Tony Coleman discuss subjects ranging from how Hospital Records got it’s name, how Brexit is looking to kill the resurgence of vinyl, what the drum and bass scene might look like post-pandemic & Tony speaks candidly for the very first time about allegations of racism that consumed the label last year.
All in all it’s a great listen! Check out all episodes of ROAR: The ‘90s Rave Podcast on their YouTube channel.
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