Jo Lustig

Jo Lustig (1925–1999) was a music entrepreneur.

Jo was born on October 21, 1925 in Brooklyn, New York. At the age of 12 he saw Billie Holiday singing in a club and fell in love with music. He became an apprentice music journalist, meeting up with Gloria Swanson and Mel Brooks. Having gone solo, he handled publicity for Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck and others. After touring Europe with Nat “King” Cole in 1960, he decided to relocate to London.

In 1962 American folk singer Julie Felix decided to hitch-hike around Europe. In 1964 she finally arrived in Britain. Jo Lustig saw her potential and offered to become her agent. At this time Decca was emphatically uncool. When they signed Julie Felix it was the first time a British label acquired a major folk artist. Lustig promoted her to record an album and a single (“Someday soon”) and an appearance on the Eamonn Andrews TV show. She was the first British-based folk singer to fill the Albert Hall. In 1965 when Nico met Lustig at a party hosted by the co-producer of the Bond films, she said “I want to be a singer”. A few weeks later she was on “Ready Steady Go”, singing her first single, thanks to Jo. However, she was not successful, and in 1966 joined Andy Warhol at The Factory.

In 1968 Lustig spotted “The Pentangle”. In 1969 he gave them one of the first mystery album sleeves – a silhouette of the band (see The Pentangle). The cover of their second album Sweet Child was designed by Peter Blake, creator of The Beatles "Sgt. Pepper cover. Lustig also brought Pentangle a U. S. concert tour beginning in February 1969 at the Fillmore East.

In 1970 Ralph McTell changed his manager Bruce May for Jo Lustig. In October he was able to fill the Royal Festival Hall. In 1972 Robin and Barry Dransfield’s “Lord of all I Behold” was Melody Maker’s Folk Album of the Year. Jo eagerly read the pop press and signed them up, even before the album was released. The two brothers were then signed to Warner Brothers in America, and were off on a big concert tour supporting another Lustig act, Ralph McTell. Unfortunately the brothers not only quarrelled with each other but Barry seemed to be psychologically unable to handle large-scale commercial fame. Jo tore up the contract in disgust. This gives a hint of how impatient and short-tempered Jo Lustig was. By the end of the 1972 McTell had also broken with Jo Lustig. Ralph’s brother Bruce was in charge again. It is perhaps surprising that Jo never managed Donovan, the biggest of all British folk artists. The reason is that Mickie Most got there first, and managed Donovan well. Another casualty of Jo’s aggressive publicity-seeking approach was Anne Briggs, who was so disgusted that she gave up singing altogether, citing Jo as one of the reasons. Shel Tamany described him as “one of my most unfavourite people”.

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