Daniel Stevens, music manager at First & Last Music and prior to that manager and publicist at Darling Department, has died unexpectedly aged 50.
Following university, Dan Stevens worked for Heavyweight Management, and was at Deconstruction Records for a spell, before joining Darling Department as a PR in 1996.
In 1999 he took over as director of Darling alongside Ed Cartwright, and under their stewardship the PR agency helped launch and manage the careers of artists including Fatboy Slim, The Killers, Justice and Mos Def. David Laub joined as director at Darling in 2007 as the company expanded its suite of services to include artist management and brand consultancy.
As well as working with artists including Tame Impala, Royksopp, So Solid Crew, Underworld, Mylo, Magnetic Man, Little Boots, Alphabeat and Florence & The Machine, Darling handled PR on music projects and events for brands including Diesel, Cadbury, The British Council, Film Four, Vauxhall, Top Man, English National Opera, Motorola and Somerset House.
Darling was the jumping off point for various successful executives, including Capitol Music Group chairman & CEO Tom March; XL Recordings’ director of global publicity Jon Wilkinson; Naomi Williams, senior marketing manager at Polydor Records; Sam Willis, former head of press at Rough Trade Records; Adrian Read, founder of Inside Out agency; and Briana Dougherty Chester, who left Darling to become head of press at Atlantic Records and is now EVP at Mattio Communications in Los Angeles.
In 2012, Dan Stevens, Ed Cartwright and David Laub closed Darling, after two decades, and moved their management and music consultancy clients to two new ventures. Stevens and Laub continued to work together under the newly formed First & Last Music, while Cartwright set up Tusk Management.
First & Last Music managed artists, producers and songwriters including Fyfe, Natty, Foxes, Sam Frank, Fickle Friends and Girli, and worked with brands including Ray-Ban and Ralph Lauren.
After Laub left to set up Halftime Music in 2017, Stevens continued running First & Last Music solo, with one of his clients, Litany, releasing her debut album just weeks before his untimely passing.
Dan Stevens is survived by his wife Annabelle, and his sons Finlay and Joe.
The funeral for Dan Stevens, who died earlier this month, will be taking place in London on Thursday (June 26).
