When the British-Invasion ’60s duo of Peter & Gordon decided to go their separate ways after four years of hit records and legions of adoring fans, Peter Asher spent almost four decades producing and managing some of the biggest names on the American pop-rock scene.
Asher spent more than 30 of those years living in Malibu, drawn by “the sea and the sand,” savoring a lifestyle that he has enjoyed, despite weathering more natural calamities than he can count.
The sea and the sand is the setting of the next performance to mark Peter & Gordon’s now three-year-long reunion. The pair will play at a free concert at the Santa Monica Pier on Aug. 21. Asher says, “It’s at the beach, which I love, and the first time we’ve played L.A. for 40 years.”
Asher’s especially enthusiastic that the concert he describes as “casual” will draw family members and friends, including people he has worked with over the years, and adds, “But mainly, I hope that people will come and have fun.”
Asher said the pair had been asked many times to get back together for a concert. They had joined for the annual New York Beatlefest and played a few other dates in the 1980s, but he was wrapped up in music production and Gordon—Gordon Waller—had his own career as a performer.
Then Asher remembers, “Two and a half years ago, Paul Shaffer [of the “Late Night” David Letterman Show] was putting on a concert for a recently paralyzed Mike Smith of the Dave Clark Five with a British-Invasion theme.”
The now 64-year-old Asher says, “That was a hard one to say ‘no’ to, it was such a good cause.” But he says at that point in time, “Saying yes was one thing, but getting back to do it [took] concentrated practice.”
The pair’s performance was so well received, that gig led to another, and Asher says there have now been “20 or so.” As for future requests for the duo to perform, he says, “I will do it whenever it fits in with my day job.”
The origins of Peter & Gordon are staples of music lore. Asher—who has dual British and American citizenship—and Waller were schoolmates and pop music enthusiasts in London.
Asher’s family was close to Paul McCartney, who dated one of the Asher daughters, and even lived for a time in the family’s home.
Through this connection, Peter & Gordon, who had now joined ranks as British pop musicians and began attracting attention, obtained their first and biggest hit in 1964, John Lennon’s and Paul McCartney’s work “World Without Love.”
Peter & Gordon are often described as “the Everly Brothers of the British Invasion.” The pair used harmony, played acoustic guitars in tandem, and recorded a string of hit songs that blended folk, blues and rock with their Brits sense of easy listening music.
Their versions of “All My Trials” and “500 Miles” resulted in a recording contract that led to 10 U.S. Top 40 hits between 1964-1967, including eight in the Top 20.
The pair’s debut single, “World Without Love,” was number one in May 1964. Peter & Gordon were the first British act to score that feat in the wake of the Beatles’ success earlier that year, thereby reaffirming the cultural phenomenon now known as the British Invasion.
The duo went on to subsequent hits with additional Lennon and McCartney songs, “Nobody I Know” and “I Don’t Want to See You Again,” as well as “Woman” (that was ostensibly written by McCartney under a pseudonym).
Peter & Gordon toured all over the world and performed on most of the major TV shows on both sides of the pond, from “Thank Your Lucky Stars” and “Top of the Pops” in the U.K, to the “Ed Sullivan Show,” “Shindig” and “Hullabaloo” in the U.S.
The pair enjoyed a four-year, ten-hit-song run and many successful concerts, but they “amicably went their separate ways in 1968,” according to Asher.
There were fans who expressed puzzlement that the pair split up when they did, but the amicability of the decision has been reiterated repeatedly, and is often described as a factor in the ease of their reunion.
For Asher, the end of Peter & Gordon marked the beginning of what would be years of award-winning music production and performer management.
Asher then became in charge of the A&R department at The Beatles’ Apple Records label, where he produced James Taylor’s first album.
Asher was so convinced of Taylor’s talent that he decided to leave Apple and move to the United States as Taylor’s manager. Asher says he had “always wanted to go to America.”
He produced successful Taylor recordings for decades to follow.
Asher became a top-rung producer, widely credited with playing a major role in shaping the California sound of the 1970s.
He produced records for and managed Linda Ronstadt, who lived in Malibu in the 1980s, with whom he says he “is exceptionally proud to have worked.”
Also on the list are Kenny Loggin, Billy Joel and many others. Asher also worked on hit albums for artists as diverse as Cher and 10,000 Maniacs.
When asked what it was like to work with such a broad array of performers, some of whom had reputations as strong or difficult personalities, he simply says, “I am a diplomat.”
Among major awards are albums for Ronstadt, including “Heart Like a Wheel,” “Simple Dreams,” “What’s New,” and “Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind.”
The pair even joined ranks at a concert, the video of which surfaces regularly on YouTube. Asher’s voice is often heard in the background on his clients’ albums.
When Peter & Gordon appeared at a benefit concert—a tribute to the music of Elton John and Bernie Taupin at Carnegie Hall last October, their performance of John’s and Taupin’s “I Want Love” brought the crowd to its feet.
But the rave reviews and the portent of cult status notwithstanding, Asher stresses that he is “holding on to his day job.”
He remains a record producer and music executive for as eclectic a group of performers as ever.
In 2007, he moved into his new role with Simon Renshaw at Strategic Artist Management, a company that represents the Dixie Chicks, Clay Aiken, and Bo Bice.
In addition to another Malibuite, Pamela Anderson, whose TV reality show recently premiered, Asher manages Everclear, which released a CD earlier this year, and the Webb Sisters, currently touring with Leonard Cohen.
Asher has said when he was described as a music icon that he might prefer to be thought of as a music iconoclast. Iconoclastic icon might be a suitable compromise.
PHOTO
TOGETHER AGAIN—A benefit concert for a fellow musician reunited the ’60s duo Peter & Gordon on stage for the first time in 38 years. The show in August 2005 at B.B. King’s in New York that brought Peter Asher and Gordon Waller together for their first public performance since 1968 was a fundraiser for Mike Smith, the now deceased keyboardist and lead singer of the Dave Clark Five who had been paralyzed in an accident. Their performance was met with resounding enthusiasm and led to nearly two dozen performances, including their first Los Angeles area gig—at the free concert series at the Santa Monica Pier—on Thursday, Aug. 21, at 7 p.m. 
