Peter Alexander Edwin Meaden was born on 11 November 1941.
As a teenager, he worked in a restaurant before embracing the mod subculture and establishing himself as a “face” on the scene.
After spotting a young band calling themselves The Who, Meaden became friends with guitarist Pete Townshend and took control of the band as an assistant manager/publicist, reinventing their image and briefly renaming them The High Numbers.
He was ousted from his manager role by two wealthier, more ambitious guys called Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp.
Meaden soon took control of Jimmy James and the Vagabonds and went on to manage Arrows, The Steve Gibbons Band and others. He also served as an advisor during the filming of the cult-classic movie Quadrophenia.
Meaden – who famously described the mod ethos as “clean living under difficult circumstances” – died of a barbiturate overdose on 29 July 1978 at the age of 35.
