DEREK SHULMAN - Giant Steps

Jawbone Press [Publication date 07.10.25]

Let’s be clear. This is an essential book for Gentle Giant fans, another wallet siphon on the back of the recent revamped live set. For those, like this reviewer, who are just as interested in Derek Shulman’s “second” career as a record company mogul they may feel short-changed. That side of the story occupies barely a third of the total and to be honest probably merits a book in its own right.

This welcome autobiography charts Shulman’s progress from humble beginnings in Portsmouth, the solidarity (and rivalry) of three brothers, and chart success with Simon Dupree and the Big Sound. This band morphed into Gentle Giant which consumed Shulman’s energy from 1970 to 1980 as the frontman and multi-instrumentalist. He also managed the band foreshadowing his later business activities.

It is fair to say that Giant have harnessed even greater respect in the past two decades. Shulman details how it was sometimes difficult to purvey essentially cerebral music amidst a record industry baying for hit singles. When the band changed musical tack in the late 1970s they actually produced an excellent and very accessible album (‘Civilian’). But it was their swansong. Constant touring had taken its toll for blokes who were essentially family guys now with partners and maybe a different outlook.

In 1980, when the band called it a day, the musical tide was turning and prog rockers were up against a general aversion to the musical excess that they represented.

Ironically, Shulman faced similar backlash when he was invited to become a radio promoter for Polygram eventually moving into A&R. As with his band, he was totally motivated by the music and shunned the excesses that he witnessed where different departments competed for budget and evidently fuelled by sex, booze and dope.

In his sections on the “second” career he understandably majors on his early prodigy Bon Jovi who went on to sell millions of albums and be the standard bearer for 1980s hair metal. Perhaps a little too effusive about Jon Bongiovi’s looks and charm but this discovery certainly established Shulman amongst his peers and he went on to nurture Cinderella and later Pantera. At the very least a strange musical juxtaposition with prog rockers Gentle Giant and Shulman later details the popularity of his band’s music with hip-hop artists.

I would have liked to have seen a bit more of a rounded view in the section on his record company exploits. For every Bon Jovi there is a Dan Reed Network, a band of great potential who Shulman signed but who imploded in the early 1990s. (I touched on this topic in our May 2025 interview – see link below) By this time Shulman had moved on and distanced himself from his cut-throat colleagues for whom sales charts were of more interest than the songs. He subsequently was the head honcho at Roadrunner.

The book provides a useful insight to band and industry machinations in what was essentially a golden era and our hero Derek doesn’t suffer fools gladly. He is not impressed with The Jam whilst he was scathing too of early encounters with The Beach Boys and Pink Floyd.

He doesn’t offer any comment on the current musical scene (streaming, AI and so forth) but he emerges as a man of integrity and motivated by the music and the artist’s attitude, not money.

Shulman’s ethos is captured in an absorbing account of his early career (when his band toured with Elton John in the line-up): “Being surrounded by pretty girls was a welcome fringe benefit, but it was never a priority. Music always came first, and I would never sacrifice missing a rehearsal, band meeting, or – God forbid – a gig to get frisky with a female fan. I knew many, many musicians who were blinded by that side of the rock world.” ****

Review by David Randall

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