year, he also founded Record Supervision Ltd, a production company which licensed recordings to major labels. In 1955, he accepted a licensing deal with Pye Records and produced records for Chris Barber, Acker Bilk, Alex Welsh, Frank Holder, Sandy Brown and Al Fairweather, Terry Lightfoot, and Kenny Baker. He also produced some of Lonnie Donegan's early skiffle recordings, including "Rock Island Line", recorded in July 1954 and first released on Chris Barber's album New Orleans Joys in January 1955 before becoming a top ten hit in the UK later that year. In 1956, he established Lansdowne Studios (and associated label Lansdowne Records) in Holland Park, west London. The same year he produced Humphrey Lyttelton's record "Bad Penny Blues" with the recording engineer Joe Meek. When Meek left Lansdowne in 1960, he took inspiration from Preston's independent approach and expanded on this by also producing in his own recording studio. In 1958, immediately after the Notting Hill race riots, Preston was active in the anti-racism movement. With musician and critic Fred Dallas, and musicians Johnny Dankworth, Cleo Laine, Winifred Atwell, George Melly and others, he helped set up the Stars Campaign for Interracial Friendship (SCIF). The organisation linked with activist Claudia Jones to arrange several events and clubs in the area on a non-racial and anti-fascist basis. During the early 1960s, Preston worked with EMI on their Columbia label. He produced Acker Bilk's international hit "Stranger on the Shore" in 1961. Preston was quoted in 1963: "I was a great admirer of those involved in traditional jazz. It was very alive and active. Colyer and Barber seemed to be ploughing a lonely furrow, united against the world.... But with every successive would-be hit, another spark has died." Preston's production branched out from traditional jazz into folk, modern jazz and guitar-based genres, working with artists such as Jack Elliot, Roger Whittaker, Wout Steenhuis, Shawn Phillips, Joe Harriott and Stan Tracey, as well as African and Indian-inspired artists Amancio D'Silva and Kofi Ghanaba. Among his jazz production successes were Stan Tracey's "Under Milk Wood" Suite, and the Indo-Jazz Fusions albums by John Mayer and Joe Harriott. Preston died in Hove, Sussex, in 1979. His Sunday Times obituary described him as "probably the most important figure to emerge from the British jazz business". References 1916 births 1979 deaths People from Stoke Newington British record producers 20th-century British businesspeople