Charles Worrod

Charles Worrod (

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed ...

, England, 1912 –

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

, 6 June 2008) was the proprietor of the Equator Sound Studios record label (see

Equator Records Equator Records or Equator Sound Studios was originally known as East African Records, owned by Afcot Ltd, situated in Nairobi, Kenya. In 1960, Charles Worrod launched Equator Sound Studios Ltd. along with the Equator Sound Band. Kenyan music ...

) in

Nairobi Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper ha ...

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi ...

, during the 1950s and 1960s, having left post-war England to relocate to

, and later, Nairobi with his wife Wynne. Worrod keenly provided a fruitful atmosphere where his salaried staff could experiment, learn, and develop. In the late 1960s, he enrolled six of his core musicians including legendary Kenyan musician, Daudi Kabaka, in a two-year course at the Conservatory of Music in Nairobi to learn music notation and theory. Worrod was never to reap great financial benefits from the recording industry in East Africa, although he went on to be well known in musical circles both locally and abroad. Worrod is said to have been influential in the development of the growing popularity of the 'African Twist' and similar music styles developing at the time. His hand in the music industry both locally and abroad saw him meeting and promoting music legends such as

Pat Boone Patrick Charles Eugene Boone (born June 1, 1934) is an American singer and actor. He was a successful pop singer in the United States during the 1950s and early 1960s. He sold more than 45 million records, had 38 Top 40 hits, and appeared in mo ...

and

Roger Whittaker Roger Henry Brough Whittaker (born 22 March 1936) is a British singer-songwriter and musician, who was born in Nairobi to English parents. His music is an eclectic mix of folk music and popular songs in addition to radio airplay hits. He is bes ...

. Initially, Roger Whittaker was under contract to Worrod, who allowed him to cancel it to pursue a more lucrative career path with

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

. Worrod is credited with recording songs of international status, such as ''

Malaika Malaika is a Swahili song written by Tanzanian musician Adam Salim in 1945. This song is possibly the most famous of all Swahili love songs in Tanzania, Kenya and the entire East Africa, as well as being one of the most widely known of all Swahil ...

'' (

Fadhili William Fadhili William Mdawida (November 11, 1938 – February 11, 2001), often referred to simply as Fadhili William, was a Kenyan recording artist and composer who is most famous as the first person to record Adam Salim's song "Malaika" which he recor ...

), '' Helule Helule'' (which later caught the interest of the British pop band,

The Tremeloes The Tremeloes are an English beat group founded in 1958 in Dagenham, England. They initially found success in the British Invasion era with lead singer Brian Poole, scoring a UK chart-topper in 1963 with "Do You Love Me". After Poole's departur ...

), and the Kenyan-nationalised anthem-like ''

Harambee Harambee is a Kenyan tradition of community self-help events, e.g. fundraising or development activities. The word means "all pull together" in Swahili, and is the official motto of Kenya, appearing on its coat of arms. Harambee events may ran ...

''. During his time promoting and recording Kenyan music, Worrod instituted the concept of

royalties A royalty payment is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. Royalties are typically agreed upon as a percentage of gross or net revenues derived from the use of an asset o ...

in Kenya for musical artists. He died in

Pietermaritzburg Pietermaritzburg (; Zulu: umGungundlovu) is the capital and second-largest city in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It was founded in 1838 and is currently governed by the Msunduzi Local Municipality. Its Zulu name umGungundlovu ...

on 6 June 2008. {{DEFAULTSORT:Worrod, Charles English record producers British expatriates in Kenya People from Coventry 1912 births 2008 deaths 20th-century British businesspeople British expatriates in South Africa