THE Grammy-winning singer Seal has been ordered to pay his former manager about £1 million of the money made from his early hits.

The songwriter said that he did not owe a penny in commission to John Wadlow, the manager he once regarded as a father figure and who gave the singer studio time when he was a struggling unknown.

However, at a hearing at the High Court yesterday, Mr Justice Gray ruled that Mr Wadlow was entitled to payment under an agreement signed by the two men 11 years ago.

He ordered the star to pay commission on his earnings from his first two albums, Seal and Seal II, both of which reached number one in the British album charts.

The court was told that, as an undiscovered 24-year-old in 1987, Seal met Mr Wadlow, who was then a partner in a recording studio business known as Beethoven Street Studios.

The singer’s breakthrough came three years later with the song Killer with Adamski. It spent four weeks at number one.

The singer and manager parted company in March 1995, when they signed a “management and publishing settlement agreement”.

By this time both albums had been recorded and the singer’s star status had been sealed with hits including Crazy, Prayer for the Dying and Kiss From a Rose.

It was this particular agreement, signed to terminate formally their working relationship, which the judge said gave Mr Wadlow rights to the unpaid commission. Concluding that this agreement replaced an earlier one signed in 1990, he said: “Mr Wadlow was agreeing to the termination of what might otherwise have been substantial future earnings as Seal’s manager. The effect of it is that Mr Wadlow has a continuing entitlement to commission in respect of the first and second albums.”

The judge rejected the counterclaim, argued by Seal’s lawyers, that even if he did owe money to his former manager, it would amount to “an unreasonable restraint of trade” and would therefore be “unenforceable” — a claim denied by Mr Wadlow. In his evidence, Seal had described Mr Wadlow as “a father figure” and “someone I trusted, liked very much, and respected”.

He said: “It was a good business relationship and I was happy he was my manager.

“He was a very well-educated man. He was quick to impress on me that lawyers and others in the music industry would spend a lot of your money.”

However, when pressed on the intricacies of the agreements he signed, the singer said: “I was focused on making music.” The 43-year-old singer, whose real name is Henry Olusegun Adeola Samuel, is now married to Heidi Klum, the German supermodel, and this week announced that they were expecting their second child.

The exact amount he has to pay out will be decided after an account is taken of the commission for both albums, but it is understood to be at least £1million.

In the meantime, the judge ordered the singer to make an interim payment of £500,000 by July 21, and another interim payment of £175,000 towards Mr Wadlow’s costs, which are estimated to be more than £500,000.

The judge said yesterday: “It appeared to me that, at least in the early years of his career as an artist, [Seal] had little interest in its financial aspects and preferred to concentrate on his music.

“He has now come to feel strongly — and, I believe, genuinely — that Mr Wadlow, someone whom he once regarded as his mentor and, as he put it, a father figure, has betrayed him, in particular by ‘emotionally coercing’ him into the settlement agreement.”

Of Mr Wadlow, he said: “I suspect that his involvement in the music business came about as a result of his love of music rather than a desire to make money.

“There is no doubt that in the early days he did a great deal to help Seal to build a career. Once Seal’s career took off, he felt himself entitled to share in that success.”