Peter Eden

Peter Eden (born 1943) is a British former record producer and record label executive, best known for his work in the mid-1960s with Donovan, and later with jazz musicians such as John Surman.

Biography Eden was born in Hadleigh, Essex. In his teens, he became the drummer in the New Deal Skiffle Group, and then in local groups the Colin Dale Combo and The Problems. He turned professional in the early 1960s, and became a backing musician for such singers as Susan Maughan and Mike Sarne. After his group split up, he helped run the Studio Club at Westcliff-on-Sea, and managed local R&B band The Cops’n’Robbers.

The band's singer, Brian 'Smudger' Smith, suggested to Eden that a friend, Scottish folk singer Donovan Leitch, who had returned from busking in Europe, should perform between the band's club sets. Eden liked Donovan's songs, and agreed with local songwriter Geoff Stephens that they should manage him and produce his records. Through Stephens' contacts, Donovan appeared on Ready Steady Go!, launching his career. Donovan was signed by Pye Records, and Eden co-produced his first single, "Catch the Wind", which reached number 4 on the UK Singles Chart in 1965, and the albums What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid and Fairytale. However, Donovan's partnership with Eden and Stephens ended in late 1965. He had a particular interest in British jazz music, and started promoting it within the progressive music scene and in British colleges, working with musicians such as John Surman, Mike Gibbs, Mike Westbrook, Mike Osborne, Norma Winstone, and Alan Skidmore. Jazz critic Duncan Heining commented that Eden "was responsible for some 18 key British jazz releases of the late 60s and early 70s. It was through Eden [that] artists such as John Warren, Mike Gibbs, Mike Osborne, John Taylor and Norma Winstone got to record in their own right." Many of Eden's jazz productions were issued on the Deram and Dawn labels, the "progressive" subsidiaries of Decca and Pye respectively.