Jeffery swiftly moved into artist management, tour promotion (some ventures, like Billie Holiday’s last U.K. tour, merit a story in themselves) and production, recording the cream of British jazz talent and leasing the masters to Decca’s specialist Tempo label, run by Tony Hall. By 1955, he’d launched a music publishing company, Florida Music. The next step for his fast-expanding music empire was to create his own record label.

During a business visit to New York City in 1956, he met Al Silver, boss of the R&B label, Herald. Herald had kicked off in spectacular fashion in 1953/54 with three straight No. 1s by Faye Adams. It had also issued a series of brilliant electric down-home blues singles by Lightnin’ Hopkins, followed up by hits like the Turbans’ “When You Dance” and the Nutmegs “Story Untold”. Silver was in the process of setting up a more pop-slanted subsidiary, Ember. With his finger on the pulse of commercial black music, he and Jeffrey Kruger hit it off. “I took to Al and his associate Doug Moody,” Jeffrey explains. “I wanted to work with these guys and we began to lay the foundations of our international music empire. I would represent Herald and its Angel Music publishing company in Britain, the Commonwealth and Europe, and l would handle Florida Music in the States. I felt that there was a bond between us, and on my return to England I started licensing Herald and Ember hits to U.K. major labels”.

While all this live activity was going on, Jeffrey Kruger was also turning his interests to managing artists especially the Jazz stars that he featured at the Flamingo and to publishing their music and recording them initially for release on the major labels and then when R & B and Blue Beat [the fore runner to Reggae] & Soul came into being, Jeffrey Kruger launched his Ember Records Label so as to have an outlet for the release of his musical tastes when the major companies were not interested in experimenting.

Working with leading American independent companies and other foreign companies the results were for English music fans the sounds of Desmond Dekker with his hit ‘Israelites’ released on a British label; the first releases by such diverse talents as James Brown & his Famous Flames; Howling Wolf; John Lee Hooker; Etta James; B B King; George Jones; their were hits by the Harry Simeone Chorale and then John Barry joined the company and waved his magic talented wand and there were world wide hits by Chad & Jeremy & John himself as well as a hit comedy album starring Peter Sellers called ‘Fool Britannia’ and a major sound track album from the film ‘Zulu’.

In 1979, after Kruger had continued to put an impressive number of soul releases by artists such as Ed Robinson, Tony and the Tyrones and golden oldies such as Gladys Knight, as well as new albums by PJ Proby and Johnny Otis, the Ember label, essentially becoming a victim of its own success, was wound down as part of larger company reorganisation.

By this stage Jeffery’s business interests had grown to include Music and Video Production, Music publishing, Artist management and major concert promotions, such as the Cannes Jazz Festival and the Peterborough Country Music Festival. He also acquired Film & TV rights; under the new TKO Banner, the company had acquired the Danziger catalogue and that of the producer Nat Wachberger as well as it had made, filmed and recorded video recordings of many live shows and TV programmes. As the company grew Jeffery would come to increasingly rely on his son Howard, eventually handing over the reins and making him MD of TKO.

Howard Kruger had independently created a contemporary record label and joined forces with a renowned video producer to create an award winning pop video production company (JRTV). JRTV made legendary videos including Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, all of The Eurythmics videos as well as promos by artists Bill Wyman, Tears for Fears, George Michael, Wham and Marvin Gaye. His interests then diversified into personal management and sport. Blending his entertainment experience and entrepreneurship he began promoting sports events Worldwide and on behalf of the National Skating Association, to benefit the Sports Aid Foundation Charity he promoted the last ever Amateur Ice Skating Appearances at Richmond and Nottingham Ice Rinks by World and Olympic Ice Skating champions Jane Torvill and Christopher Dean before they turned to Professional status, and at Richmond Ice Rink, this Gala was attended by the then Prime minister Margaret Thatcher and many other famous celebrities and dignitaries. The event was televised and broadcast worldwide by the BBC.

Howard went on to start a management and sports agency and became one of the first sports agents in the UK, managing/representing footballers including Graeme Souness, Kenny Dalglish and Kevin Keegan. The company soon diversified into other sports representing former England cricket captain Mike Gatting and the Olympic swimming star Sharron Davies. Through a chance meeting with snooker player, Howard saw an opportunity to create a management and promotions company for the sport that eventually represented 10 of the top 14 players. Howard Kruger was the first person in the history of snooker to set up and complete a big money transfer deal when he purchased the contract of Alex “Hurricane” Higgins from his former manager again live on televisions World of Sport. He also managed other household names such as Jimmy White, Tony Knowles, World 1986 Champion Joe Johnson, John Parrott and Tony Drago. During this time Howard was invited to become a Director on the main board of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, the sport’s governing body.

Taking inspiration from his ventures as a concert and event promoter Howard then devised and promoted sports events including the first snooker tournament in Beijing, The Tokyo Snooker Challenge, The Hong Kong Kent Masters, The Dubai Soccer Cup, and other events in Australia, Canada, the Middle East and New Zealand. Combining events with attractive business sponsorship has lead Howard Kruger into successful partnerships with many blue-chip companies such as O2, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Icelandair, The Berkeley Group, Rowenta, BAT and Sony.

Together with his father and as MD of TKO Howard Kruger continued to promote and present concert tours both in the UK and Europe. The combination of “Jeffrey and Howard Kruger presents”, became synonymous in many concert halls, such as the London Palladium, The Royal Albert Hall and the Royal Festival Hall as well as many other UK venues, promoting and presenting such diverse artists and events, such as the European tours of stars of the Kirov and Bolshoi Ballet Companies, the Farewell tour of the legendary Rudolf Nureyev, and international tours of artists including, The Jacksons featuring Michael, Tony Bennet and Lena Horne, Andy Williams, Marvin Gaye, Placido Domingo, Nigel Kennedy, Iron Maiden, Kenny Rogers, Glen Campbell, Johnny Cash and Julio Iglesias as well as The Harlem Globetrotters, The Chinese State Circus and the Peterborough Country Music Festival and Michael Jackson’s first ever concert in Bombay, India.

Howard and Jeffery promoted the Glen Campbell Goodbye Tour, his last ever tour of the UK bringing to a close a relationship that started in 1969, when Jeffrey Kruger discovered Glen in the USA and signed him to Ember Records and had all his hits in the UK such as By the time I get to Phoenix, Galveston, Wichita Linesman, Gentle on My Mind and many others helping Glen to sell over 40 Million albums worldwide and finally bringing to close a forty two year working and touring relationship which has seen the Kruger’s promote every UK and European tour of his and sell over 1 million tickets in his UK history, the “Goodbye Tour” sold out 15 shows between October and November 2011.

Howard and Jeffrey Kruger together promoted Royal Concert Galas patronised by HRH Prince Charles and HRH Princess Margaret as well as many foreign dignitaries including the President of Iceland.

Howard added other divisions to the company. The extensive Music and DVD catalogue of large independent distributor Pegasus Entertainment was acquired. Elm Street Media Productions, was created to produce visual media content for exploitation by the Group as well as creating new format programming for UK and international TV, digital and internet platforms.

Howard also signed a significant and exclusive agreement to exploit classic live concert recordings from ITV’s vast music archive, including rare and previously unavailable footage of some of the most influential and iconic artists from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s.

H Media Rights, part of the H Entertainment Group, has brought together, for the first time, the full Music and Visual rights from both Howard and his father Jeffery. This extraordinary archive of material represents a wonderful Legacy of the Kruger family and their many successful and prolific years in the entertainment industries.