Steve Pratt talks to music boss Spender Baldwin about the truth behind the ficton of new DVD release Music & Lyrics

HUGH Grant the is epitome of the British romantic comedy leading man but he could have made it as a pop star, according to one music industry executive. That's the opinion of Spender Baldwin, whose 23-year career in the music business as a producer and manager has seen him working with such names as D:Ream, Simply Red and Sister Sledge.

In the rom-com Music & Lyrics, Grant stars as a washed-up 80s pop sensation given a chance to reignite his career by writing a song for a new music star. It leads to romance with Drew Barrymore, playing the girl who looks after his houseplants. A music video at the opening of the movie has Grant giving a credible impersonation of a pop star in the Wham or Duran Duran mould. Baldwin is confident that had Grant wished, he could've been a hit in the music business.

"I thought the film was a really good representation of the process of songwriting and how an artist can make a comeback," he says. And Grant's musical ability? "That's a very difficult question. That kind of band certainly did make it in the 80s and I thought the one in the film did quite a good job." He would have taken on the group fronted by Grant. "They say in the movie he had hit 20m record sales, so I'd only have thought about it for two seconds before saying yes," says Baldwin.

His own route into the music industry came through working in a record shop straight from school. "All my musical talent is in recognising the talent in others and putting the right people together," he says. "When you're 16 or 17, you see people coming through the store and get a good idea of what people want to buy."

He grew up listening to a mix of music - jazz, Sinatra, Joni Mitchell, the Stones and the Beatles. In terms of influence, he rates Simon and Garfunkel as "incredible songwriters".

Eventually, he came out from behind the counter, having met reps from the record labels who'd visited the record shop. By the end of the 80s, the whole club sound started to explode with Baldwin moving from club promotions for the record labels to DJing.

He spent seven years at East West (now Atlantic) as an A&R man, working with some big names from the UK and US roster. He also signed artists including BT, Quivver, Tilt and Mozaic and helped relaunch Paul Oakenfold's Perfecto label. Baldwin was involved with D:Ream, the Northern Irish electronic pop band who dominated clubland in the 90s with their hit single Things Can Only Get Better, later adopted as the soundtrack to the Labour Party's 1997 leadership campaign. A decade ago, he started his own label, Barracude Recordings, and moved into artist management. His club hits have included Cream Anthem Taste Experience's Summersault, while bands he's managed include the duo Breeder and DJ Rowan Blades.

More recently, he's been working with Sergio Della Monica and Gig Canu from Planet Funk in Naples on the Bustin' Loose label, as well as managing Alex Neri and his studio partner Marco Baroni (the other half of Planet Funk) for productions and remixes outside Italy. Baldwin is currently working on getting a Planet Funk Greatest Hits album released this autumn.

Another of his current talents is a duo called Audiofly, whom he's managed since 2005 and who've risen through the underground techno/minimal scene in London and across Europe and the US. The latest addition to his management roster is the group Dynamite, who have a single signed to Minstry of Sound.

Baldwin has see big changes in the industry. "Music always goes around in cycles. You see a roughly ten-year cycle. It seems to be about to change again. This decade so far has been about guitar bands," he says.

He's never been tempted to go out on stage himself. "It's one of those things, if you have a natural talent nothing is going to hold you back. I think I know where my skills lie," he says.

Age, of course, alters his musical perception. " I certainly don't spend as much time in clubs or out and about as I would have done a few years ago," he says.

"It's important to keep in touch with music, which you can do through the internet. That's changed the industry."

Those changes means record shops like the one in which he started his working life are an endangered species. People can get music through a variety of electronic ways these days. Baldwin thinks there will always be shops for the specialist as people are hanging on to "physical units" like CDs.

Music is his life at and away from work. "You have to spend so much time listening to music that it's one of those jobs where you are having to do your hobby for a living," he says.

* Music & Lyrics is released on DVD by Warner Home Video.