Early Life
Asher was born at the Central Middlesex Hospital. When he was eight years old, he began working as a child actor, and appeared in the film, The Planter's Wife, and the stage play Isn't Life Wonderful. He also appeared in the ITV series, The Adventures of Robin Hood. He was a member of Mensa. While attending the independent Westminster School as a day boy, he first met fellow pupil Gordon Waller (1945–2009), and they began playing and singing together as a duo in coffee bars. In 1962, they began working formally as Peter and Gordon. Their biggest hit was the 1964 Paul McCartney song "A World Without Love."
Asher later read philosophy at King's College London. Asher is the son of Dr Richard and Margaret Asher, and the older brother of actress and businesswoman, Jane Asher, and radio actress, Clare Asher. Jane Asher was, in the mid-1960s, the girlfriend of Paul McCartney. Through this connection, Asher and Waller were often given unrecorded Lennon-McCartney songs to perform.
In 1965, he was best man when singer Marianne Faithfull married John Dunbar in Cambridge.
After Peter & Gordon disbanded in 1968, Asher took charge of the A&R department at the Beatles' Apple Records label, where he signed a then-unknown James Taylor and agreed to produce the singer-songwriter's debut solo album. The album was not a success, but Asher was so convinced that Taylor held great potential that he resigned his post at Apple to move to the United States and work as Taylor's manager. He also produced a number of Taylor's recordings from 1970–1985, including Sweet Baby James, Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon, JT and Flag.
In 1969, Asher was asked by George Harrison to look up an American band called Raven while he was in New York City (The Longest Cocktail Party, pg. 119). He offered Raven an Apple Records recording contract in the kitchen of Steve Paul's Scene but the group turned it down and instead signed with Columbia Records.
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