Giorgio Gomelsky in 1964 (Jeremy Fletcher/Redferns)Giorgio Gomelsky, the music promoter and producer who helped bring attention to The Rolling Stones and managed The Yardbirds, passed away Wednesday in New York City at the age of 81. Gomelsky’s longtime girlfriend, Janice Daley, tells The New York Times that he died from complications of colon cancer.
Gomelsky was an important figure in the London music scene in the early 1960s, operating the Crawdaddy club, where in February 1963 he booked The Rolling Stones for what was the group’s first paid performance. He briefly oversaw The Stones’ career before Andrew Loog Oldham became their manager, and then went on the promote and manage The Yardbirds. He produced the band’s first two studio album — 1965’s For Your Love and Having a Rave Up with The Yardbirds — as well as the live collections Five Live Yardbirds and Sonny Boy Williamson and The Yardbirds.
Gomelsky also is credited with giving Eric Clapton his famous nickname, Slowhand. As Clapton explained in his 2007 autobiography, “I used light-gauge guitar strings, with a very thin first string, which made it easier to bend the notes, and it was not uncommon during the most frenetic bits of playing for me to break at least one string. During the pause while I was changing my string, the frenzied audience would often break into a slow handclap, inspiring Giorgio to dream up the nickname of ‘Slowhand’ Clapton.”
In addition, Gomelsky organized one of the U.K.’s first blues festivals and booked The Animals for some of their first gigs in London. Later in the ’60s, he founded Marmalade Records, which released recordings by such influential jazz-rock artists as Brian Auger and John McLaughlin.
Gomelsky eventually moved to New York City, where he continued to promote a variety of music artists and events.
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