Biography

Eric Hall (11 November 1947 – 16 November 2020) was a British show business and football agent known for his flamboyant public persona, quick wit, unique fashion sense, and the catchphrase "Monster, monster ...". After an early career as a singer (he sang backing vocals for Tiny Tim) and actor, in the early 1970s Hall became a publicist for EMI Records. There, he worked in the Artists and Repertoire department, where he met and befriended Freddie Mercury, he also claimed the song, "Killer Queen" was written about him, despite Mercury stating it was about a call girl. Hall arranged the Sex Pistols' infamous, expletive-filled appearance on the Today television show in 1976 presented by Bill Grundy. Hall grew up in Bethnal Green in the East End of London, and was a friend of Marc Bolan. He had been with Bolan earlier on the night of the singer's death in a car crash in 1977.Hall was once tea boy to Elton John and also worked PR in the music business, promoting Frank Sinatra, the Sex Pistols, T-Rex, Queen, Steve Harley and the Bay City Rollers.In 1986, a chance meeting with Steve Perryman led to him becoming a football agent, and within 10 years he had built up a roster of about 40 well-known clients, including John Fashanu, Robbie Savage, Tim Sherwood, John Scales, Neil Ruddock, Dave Beasant, Paul Walsh, Dennis Wise, and England team manager Terry Venables. As an agent, Hall helped raise the status of footballers, negotiating for large salaries, appearance fees, branding rights and other commercial bonuses. Hall fell out with John Fashanu over his decision to help his brother Justin sell his story to a national tabloid newspaper, in which he came out as gay. Fashanu was outraged and the pair never spoke again.In 1996, Hall was a regular guest on Caesar's Rude Arena for Television X, hosted by Caesar the Geezer, in which he referred to callers as "bubbeleh", thus revealing his Jewish roots.

Hall can be seen in the July 1973 BBC Television Man Alive documentary film "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", as one of a group of EMI men promoting 11-year-old boy singer Darren Burn and his first single. The programme was first broadcast in October of that year.