Veljko Despot

Veljko Despot (born 4 March 1948) is a Croatian music journalist and record business entrepreneur. He has been involved in all aspects of the music industry as manager-director, record label owner, reporter, chief editor, radio and TV program director. In 1998, Despot received recognition from the Croatian government as one of top private entrepreneurs in the country. Despot was born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, and since 1950 has lived in Zagreb, Croatia, where his father was a respected businessman. His mother, Mirjana, studied cello at the Zagreb Conservatory under Italian cellist Antonio Janigro and later taught many cellists herself. Career Despot's career began at the age of 18 in local press ("Plavi vjesnik") reporting from London on swinging sixties and trilling pop and rock scene. He was the first journalist from former Yugoslavia who specialized in covering international popular music, and was the first and only East European journalist to interview The Beatles. This interview was published as one of his first articles, in "Plavi vjesnik" (17 April 1967). In the late sixties, Despot's articles appeared in several Croatian publications, including Arena, Studio, and Vjesnik, interviewing artists such as Pink Floyd, The Hollies, Bee Gees, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Marc Bolan, and The Who. Despot attended recording sessions of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (London, 1967), Rolling Stones' Let It Bleed (London, 1969), Pink Floyd's Ummagumma (London, 1969) and Arsen Dedić's Homo volans (Zagreb, 1973).