| I was one of those school kids who is always organising the
school dances, the fete stalls, the annual house music drama
festivals, – all the fun things!.
>By the
time I had finished university I was earning a living running
weekend dance parties, booking acts into nightclubs, and running
a restaurant.
One of
the bands I booked in the early 70’s was “Hush”.
They asked me to negotiate their first record deal and thus
a career commenced.
Over the
next 15 years I managed the careers of Hush, Marcia Hines,
Mark Holden, Jon English, Billy Field, Sharon O’Neill,
Richard Clapton, Marc Hunter and a host of other 70’s
and 80’s recording icons. Thirty-three years after we
started, I continue to manage Marcia Hines.
From 1972
to 1987 I made a lot of good friends, led an appalling lifestyle
and toured the world.
Astonishingly,
somehow, we also managed to produce an average, each year,
of 700 performances. It well prepared me for the evolution,
as I headed to the ripe old age of 35, of moving on from artist
management.
By the
early 80’s we had branched out into concert promotion,
including the two Narara Festivals in ’83 and ’84,
and then John Quayle from the Australian Rugby League asked
me to produce the Grand Final entertainment for the emerging
National competition. This moved very quickly to include State
of Origin games and Friday Night Football. Suddenly I was
producing not managing.
The music
business has always been very good to me. By 1985 I was on
the Board of ARIA and they, with some foresight, agreed to
my proposal for an annual Awards presentation to be called
“The ARIA Music Awards”. I was the Chairman and
Producer for the next 14 years.
The journey
from artist manager to producer was swift. Our client relationships
grew through the ‘80’s and ’90’s to
include the Toyota Motor Corporation, Lexus Australia, Price
Waterhouse, The Housing Industry Association, the Olympic
Co-ordination Authority (OCA), the Sydney Organising Committee
for the Olympic Games (SOCOG), St. George Bank, APRA, and
the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority (SHFA).
The skills of concert and theatrical production and the loyalty
and legend that went with rock ‘n roll management was
extended to new skills in video production, exhibition design,
script writing, segment production and those production skills
that are required to constantly deal with the demands of serious
business clients to whom failure is an unacceptable word.
By 2003,
the new world order was looking for a succession plan. After
a difficult period of soul searching and an even more difficult
period of negotiation, PRM was sold to the George P Johnson
Company of Detroit, Michigan.
I could
not have wished for a better parent body. The business has
grown, the resources available to us have quadrupled, the
staff and clients are happy and yet we remain exactly as we
were – independent, resourceful and committed.
And, I
wouldn’t have missed one day of it for quids!”
|
