{"id":242639,"date":"2026-01-17T07:00:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T07:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/242639\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T07:00:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T07:00:12","slug":"impresario-who-promoted-van-morrison-phil-coulter-and-lena-zavaroni-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/242639\/","title":{"rendered":"Impresario who promoted Van Morrison, Phil Coulter and Lena Zavaroni \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Born: September 30th, 1933.<\/p>\n

Died: January 4th, 2026.<\/p>\n

Impresario Dorothy Solomon, who has died aged 92, was part of a Belfast power couple who promoted the likes of Van Morrison<\/a>, Ruby Murray and The Bachelors. She enjoyed the rare distinction of seeing four other of her famous musical proteges being banned from the airwaves.<\/p>\n

Solomon, with her husband Philip, were influential in the careers of many other Irish and British artists, ranging from Donegal ballad singer Bridie Gallagher to the likes of Phil Coulter<\/a>, David McWilliams, comedians Frank Carson and Hal Roach, the poet Pam Ayres and child star Lena Zavaroni.<\/p>\n

They brought the music of The Dubliners<\/a> to a British public with the 1967 hit Seven Drunken Nights, their appearances on the BBC\u2019s Top of the Pops also serving to propel them to global fame and, sometimes, notoriety. The song reached number one in the Irish charts despite a ban by RT\u00c9. <\/p>\n

They also were pivotal in Je T\u2019Aime … Moi Non Plus hitting number one in the UK and number two in Ireland. Serge Gainsbourg had written and recorded the song in 1967 with his then girlfriend, the late Brigitte Bardot<\/a>, but subsequently, in the face of her husband\u2019s objections, Bardot pleaded with him not to release the single. <\/p>\n

In 1969 Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin performed their own version but because of its sexual content it was banned in a number of countries, resulting in the record company that released it, Fontana, withdrawing it from issue.<\/p>\n

The Solomons, following Brendan Behan\u2019s dictum about the value of bad publicity, quickly saw opportunity and their own recording company, Major Minor, re-released the song, piloting it to the top of the UK and other charts, even though it was banned by the BBC. <\/p>\n

\"JaneJane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg <\/p>\n

Relentless airplays on the pirate station Radio Caroline \u2013 in which, usefully, the Solomons had a significant financial interest with another Irish wheeler-dealer, Ronan O\u2019Rahilly \u2013 also assisted in pushing it up the hit parade.<\/p>\n

Similarly, Radio Caroline\u2019s backing for Days of Pearly Spencer by Ballymena singer-songwriter David McWilliams also helped make it a million-seller worldwide but it did not feature in the UK top 10 because the BBC refused to play the song due to the Solomons\u2019 connection with the pirate station. <\/p>\n

Major Minor, which the Solomons sold to EMI in 1970, also issued records by the likes of Taste fronted by Rory Gallagher, Tommy James and the Shondells, Peter Sarstedt, The Isley Brothers and Dizzy Gillespie.<\/p>\n

The Solomons\u2019 promotion of the tear-jerker Terry, sung by 16-year-old Twinkle, reached number four in the UK in 1964 but that also was banned, this time because its story of a young man killed in a motorcycle crash \u2013 \u201cplease wait at the gate of heaven for me, Terry\u201d \u2013 was judged distasteful by the overly sensitive BBC. <\/p>\n

From her young days Dorothy was destined for a life in show business. Her father was the boxing and wrestling promoter George Connell, who staged many of his bouts in the Ulster Hall and King\u2019s Hall in Belfast, also branching out into the dance business. In 1955 Dorothy married Philip Solomon, a member of a well-known Belfast Jewish family who had deep roots in the UK music industry. <\/p>\n

Dorothy and Philip ran a popular music shop in central Belfast which was a magnet for lovers of rock, pop and jazz. They looked after publicity for Belfast singer Ruby Murray, who had a number one hit single with Softly Softly in 1955. They also handled publicity for visiting artists such as Jim Reeves, Acker Bilk, Chris Barber and Jimmy Shand. <\/p>\n

Promoting concerts by opera singer Mario Lanza in Ireland in 1958 was so lucrative that they decided to move to London to compete with the leading players in the music world. Here they provided publicity for visiting performers such as Louis Armstrong, Gene Pitney and Mantovani. Early in the 1960s they struck the gold seam when, on tour with Nina & Frederik, they came across Dublin band The Harmonichords.<\/p>\n

The couple took over their management, changed their name to The Bachelors and, with close harmony songs such as Charmaine, Diane and I Believe, guided them to the big time, achieving 18 UK top 40 hits, eight of which reached the top 10, between 1963 and 1967. The Bachelors outsold The Beatles in 1964. <\/p>\n

\"ThemThem featuring Van Morrison (centre). Photograph: GAB Archive\/Redferns <\/p>\n

Then Philip\u2019s brother Mervyn, who created his own record company, Emerald Music, persuaded the Solomons to sign Belfast band Them, led by Van Morrison. Their song Baby Please Don\u2019t Go, released in 1964, initially bombed but then reignited after Dorothy managed to convince the producers of the ITV music show Ready Steady Go! to use the song over the programme\u2019s opening credits.<\/p>\n

The Solomons, who never stinted on using the best talent available, recruited New York songwriter Bert Berns to provide Them with their second and final hit, Here Comes the Night. The same Berns advised the Solomons against signing Tom Jones. The couple, who had some issues with Morrison, decided not to represent him as he embarked on his solo career. <\/p>\n

The Solomons also gave a start to Phil Coulter, taking him on at \u00a320 a week after he made a pitch about his songwriting abilities. According to Dec Cluskey of The Bachelors, he was so \u201cworked to death\u201d writing and producing \u2013 including for The Bachelors \u2013 that he jacked the job and went out on his own. Very soon he too reached the big league when his song Puppet on a String, co-written with Bill Martin and sung by a barefooted Sandie Shaw, won the 1967 Eurovision Song Contest.<\/p>\n

\"BillBill Martin and Phil Coulter in 1963. Photograph: Bob Baker\/Redferns\/Getty <\/p>\n

Dorothy also encouraged Sharon Osbourne when, with her late husband Ozzy as her first client, she set off on a career in music management. \u201cEverything about her was glamorous,\u201d said Osbourne of Dorothy in her own autobiography. \u201cIn many ways you could say that she changed my life.\u201d <\/p>\n

In later years the Solomons ran art galleries in Dublin and London and also were involved in horse breeding and horse racing. Dorothy also managed the Scottish singer Lena Zavaroni who, as a 10-year-old in 1974, had a huge hit with Ma! (He\u2019s Making Eyes at Me).<\/p>\n

Zavaroni suffered from anorexia and depression and died penniless in 1999 aged just 35. In recent years there was some criticism that the managerial style of the Solomons may have contributed to Zavaroni\u2019s illness but Dec Cluskey of The Bachelors rejected this claim, saying: \u201cDorothy and Philip adored Lena and treated her like the child they never had and Lena loved them to bits.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"LenaLena Zavaroni and Frank Sinatra <\/p>\n

The Solomons retired to live in Bournemouth. Philip died in 2011 aged 86. Dec Cluskey, who remained close friends with the Solomons and is one of the executors of Dorothy\u2019s will, said she was an absolute \u201cequal partner\u201d with Philip.<\/p>\n

He described her as a larger-than-life, formidable woman whose opening line when meeting clients and friends invariably was, \u201cNow listen here, darling …\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou didn\u2019t argue with Dorothy \u2013 nobody argued with Dorothy,\u201d said Cluskey. \u201cShe was always giving instructions, but with a twinkle in her eye. She was a fearsome, funny, generous, stylish woman and there are a lot of artists, many of them Irish, who have a lot to be thankful for, for what Dorothy and Philip did for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple had no children. She is survived by her sisters, Brenda, Jenny and Elizabeth, nieces, nephews and friends. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Born: September 30th, 1933. Died: January 4th, 2026. Impresario Dorothy Solomon, who has died aged 92, was part…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[146,85,46,130462,130461,22908,94817,130460],"class_list":{"0":"post-242639","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-phil-coulter","12":"tag-rory-gallagher","13":"tag-sharon-osbourne","14":"tag-the-dubliners","15":"tag-van-morrison"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}