Eric Hall, Extravagant British Soccer Agent, Dies at 73

Mr. Hall died on Monday in London. Michael Hall McPherson, his nephew, who is also an agent, said the cause was the coronavirus.

Known for his catchphrase, “Monster, monster,” his love of cigars and his dazzling outfits, Mr. Hall had honed his negotiating skills in the music industry by promoting the likes of Queen and the Sex Pistols, and later applied similar codes to the rapidly changing world of British soccer.

“He took showbiz into football and looked at players as stars, which they weren’t really yet in the mid- and late 1980s,” Mr. Hall McPherson said. “And in the negotiation room, he was a lion.”

Mr. Hall was born on Nov. 11, 1947, in East London. He quit school as a teenager and went to work at a store on London’s Denmark Street, known for its recording studios and music shops. There, he befriended and packed parcels with Reg Dwight, who would go on to become Elton John.

Mr. Hall later worked as a publicist for the British record label EMI, promoting rock bands like T. Rex and Queen. In 1976, he arranged a television appearance for the Sex Pistols that gained lasting notoriety when the band’s guitarist used an expletive against the show’s host, a rare action at the time.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/23/obituaries/eric-hall-dead-coronavirus.html