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Robert Stigwood (born April 16, 1934 in Adelaide, South Australia) is an Australian-born impresario and entertainment entrepreneur. Events 1178 BC - A Solar eclipse may have marked the return of Odysseus, legendary King of Ithaca, to his kingdom Year 1934 ( MCMXXXIV) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display full 1934 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Adelaide is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of South Australia, and is the fifth largest city in Australia with a South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. Impresario, from the Italian impresa an enterprise or undertaking is a traditional term still very much in use in the Entertainment industry for In the 1960s and 1970s he was one of the most successful figures in the entertainment world, through his management of music groups like Cream and The Bee Gees, theatrical productions like Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar and film productions including the hugely successful Saturday Night Fever. Cream were a 1960s British rock band The Bee Gees were a singing trio of brothers — Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb.

Contents

Early life

Robert Stigwood was born in Adelaide in 1934, the son of an electrical engineer. He began his career as a copywriter for a local advertising agency and then in 1955 moved to England. He had an eventful trip: in one incident recounted by Simon Napier-Bell Stigwood bravely climbed fifty feet down a rope ladder into the hold of a tanker to administer morphine to a seaman who had fallen through a hatch. Simon Napier-Bell (born April 22 1939, Ealing Common, London, England) has undertaken many jobs in the Music industry, In Turkey he spent several months living with the family of a young friend in a hut in a small village and working with them in the fields.

Early Career in the UK

When he arrived in England Stigwood found a job in an institution for "backward teenage boys" in East Anglia. He worked primarily on nightshifts, overseeing the dormitories and "preventing any flow of traffic after lights out". However he found it an "unsympathetic and frustrating job" and left.

Not long after that, he met businessman Stephen Komlosy. They became friends and decided to go into business together, setting up a small theatrical agency and building up a roster of actors. Among their clients was an aspiring young actor and singer called John Leyton, who went on to star in The Great Escape and Von Ryan's Express. John Leyton (born John Dudley Leyton, 17 February 1939, Frinton-on-Sea, Essex) is an English Actor and The Great Escape is a popular 1963 War film about the 250 Allied prisoners of war escaping from a German POW camp Von Ryan's Express is a 1965 World War II adventure film produced and directed by Mark Robson, and starring Frank Sinatra and It was Leyton's unexpected success as a recording artist that made both Stigwood and his erstwhile associate Joe Meek into Britain's first independent record producers. Joe Meek (born Robert George Meek; 5 April 1929 — 3 February 1967 in London) was a pioneering English Record producer and Songwriter

Before the advent of mavericks such as Stigwood and Meek, the British pop music industry was highly stratified. Managers managed artists' careers and little else, agents only booked artists into venues, publishers only published music and sold songs to artists and recording companies, and recording companies recorded, manufactured, sold and promoted the products. It was rare for a manager to also be involved in publishing or agency work and it was almost unheard of for managers, agents or publishers to be directly involved in record production.

This pecking order was typified in the late Fifties and early Sixties by the three dominant figures of British pop -- publisher and manager Larry Parnes (one of the first people to combine publishing with artist management), composer Lionel Bart and the managing director of EMI, Sir Joseph Lockwood. Larry Parnes (real name Laurence Maurice Palmer) was born in 1930 in Willesden, London; and died on 4 August 1989, in London Lionel Bart ( August 1, 1930 &ndash April 3, 1999) was an English composer of songs and musicals, best known for Typically, Parnes would discover new talent -- as he did with Tommy Steele, Marty Wilde and Billy Fury -- and then sign them to a management contract. Tommy Steele OBE (born 17 December 1936 in London England) is an English entertainer Marty Wilde (born Reginald Leonard Smith 15 April 1939, Greenwich, South London) is an English Singer and Songwriter Billy Fury (born Ronald William Wycherley, 17 April 1940 - 28 January, 1983) was an internationally successful British Lionel Bart, already under contract to Parnes' publishing company, would write or co-write songs to be recorded and then Parnes would 'sell' the artist to Lockwood and EMI who would sign them to a recording contract, and then record, press and market the records.

But the brief partnership between Robert Stigwood and Joe Meek would change the face of the British recording industry. Robert George "Joe" Meek was a gifted recording engineer who had trained as an RAF radar technician and began his career working for established recording studios in London. By 1960 Meek had accumulated enough equipment to build a studio in his London flat and he began producing records for his own company, RGM Sound Ltd.

Meek is credited as the first producer in the UK who had the knowledge and ability to undertake every stage of the record production chain himself. He found the talent -- usually young men with the right "look" and perhaps some musical talent to go with it. He found the songs -- often writing them himself, usually with a little help from musicians such as Dave Adams, Geoff Goddard or Charles Blackwell (Meek himself was reportedly both tone-deaf and dyslexic, and didn't read or write a note of music). Dave Adams is an British singer keyboard player and songwriter Geoff Goddard (19 November 1937 Reading Berkshire – 15 May 2000 Reading Berkshire) was an English Songwriter. Tone deafness is the lack of Relative pitch, the ability to discriminate between Musical notes Being tone deaf is having difficulty or being unable to Dyslexia is considered to be a Learning disability. It manifests primarily as a difficulty with written language particularly with Reading and Spelling He recorded the songs with his small roster of artists at the cramped studio he had constructed in his Holloway Road flat, and then offered a completed tape product to an established record company to manufacture and distribute. He preferred it that way after a bad business decision had lost him a potential #1 hit with his production of Angela Jones by Michael Cox. He chose to release the disc on his own independent Triumph label, but the small pressing plant he used had simply been unable to keep up with demand after Cox had sung the song on a top TV music show. Triumph Records was a UK Record label set up in January 1960 by Joe Meek and William Barrington-Coupe with the financial backing of Major Wilfred The record made a respectable appearance in the Top Ten, but it proved that Meek needed the muscle of the major companies to get his records into the shops when it mattered.

John Leyton was taken on by Robert Stigwood when he was building up his new theatrical agency. Leyton's first major booking was a stint in the TV series Biggles, but better roles proved hard to find. Stigwood asked Leyton if he could also sing, and this led to a series of auditions with various recording companies; he was turned down by all of them until he met Joe Meek. Unlike the others, Meek, unfazed by Leyton's initial lack of singing experience, was impressed by the young actor's good looks.

Simon Napier-Bell's account confirms that it was Meek who gave Stigwood the idea of making records independently, then getting the record company to distribute for them in return for a percentage of the selling price. It was, as Napier-Bell observes, "the music business equivalent of the independent film production that had changed the face of Hollywood". Excited by the idea, Stigwood gave Meek one hundred pounds to make Leyton's first record, but when it was completed Meek was reluctant to hawk the tape to the record companies himself, so Stigwood took on the task.

Meek's first single with John Leyton, a cover of Ray Peterson's U. S. hit Tell Laura I Love Her, was cut in late 1960. " Tell Laura I Love Her," a Teenage tragedy song written by Jeff Barry and Ben Raleigh, was an American Top Ten Popular It had originally been intended for release on Meek's Triumph label, but the label had by now folded and the recording was instead leased to the Top Rank label, owned by the Rank film organisation. Unfortunately, Leyton's single lost out to a rival British version by Ricky Valance. Ricky Valance (born David Spencer, 10 April 1939, Ynysddu, Monmouthshire, near Wattsville, South Wales A follow-up single, Girl On The Floor Above (October 1960) was ignored.

Although Leyton rapidly improved as singer, his chances of a pop career looked slim, but Stigwood's persistence paid off and in mid-1961 he scored a coup when he managed to get Leyton cast in the role of pop star Johnny St. Cyr ("sincere") in a new nationally-broadcast TV series, Harper's West One. Crucially, Stigwood was able to arrange for Leyton's character to perform a song on the show.

Meek's associate, songwriter Geoff Goddard (whose only previous recorded composition was The Flee-Rekkers' Lone Rider) was hurriedly drafted in to write a song for Leyton to perform on the programme. Geoff Goddard (19 November 1937 Reading Berkshire – 15 May 2000 Reading Berkshire) was an English Songwriter. The hastily-penned result was the now-classic Johnny Remember Me, an echo-drenched melodrama in the form of a lover's plea from beyond the grave. " Johnny Remember Me " Produced by the legendary Joe Meek, the song was a 1961 UK #1 hit single for John Leyton, backed by The Outlaws. The song was featured three times during the course of Leyton's appearance in the series and record shops were deluged with orders.

Meek had leased the recording to the Top Rank label (now owned by EMI) and by the time of Leyton's final TV appearance the team had a monster hit on their hands. The single went to #1 and remained at the top of the British charts for fifteen weeks, as well as charting in Europe. It was this success that led Stigwood into record production and management. He became Leyton's personal manager as well as his agent and then began looking around for other people to join his roster.

Johnny Remember Me was the first of a string of British hit recordings from the Meek/Stigwood/Leyton team, and their success set a new pattern for the industry -- according to Simon Napier-Bell, within a couple of years, over half the hits in the UK were independent productions. Leyton's next single, Wild Wind (September 1961) went to #2, and he scored seven more Top 50 hits over the next two years. But his later chart placings were erratic -- his third single Son, This Is She only made #14 and his fourth, a cover of Goddard's Lone Rider barely scraped into the chart at #40.

Leyton's next two singles Lonely City (April 1962, #14) and Down The River Nile (July 1962, #42) were the last to have any significant input from Joe Meek. Stigwood was evidently becoming dissatified with Meek's eccentric recording style and insisted that Lonely City be made at a commercial studio. According to Tony Kent (Meek's personal assistant at the time), the session took place at London's IBC studios; largely at Meek's suggestion, and at which Meek was present but with Stigwood assuming the rôle of dominant co-producer. By the time Leyton's seventh single was released Meek was out of the picture entirely and all subsequent John Leyton recordings list Stigwood as sole producer. From this point Stigwood recorded Leyton at EMI's Abbey Road Studios, but while the audio quality had improved, the crucial ingredient -- the excitement of the 'Joe Meek sound' -- had been irrevocably lost. Leyton's pop career petered out in late 1964, but by then his movie career had taken off.

In late 1961 Stigwood had made a record production deal with Sir Joseph Lockwood, managing director of EMI, who proved to be the crucial link between the record company and the budding entrepreneur, just as Lockwood had been in the Fifties for Larry Parnes, and just as he would be a couple of years later for Brian Epstein and The Beatles. NEMS Enterprises defaults here For the Latin American record label see NEMS Enterprises (label. The Beatles were a pop and rock band from Liverpool, England formed in 1960 From that time on, all John Leyton's singles were released on the HMV label, distributed by EMI. His Master's Voice, today usually abbreviated to HMV, is a famous Trademark in the music business and for many years was the name of a large record label

Other artists Stigwood signed to a management/recording deal included Mike Sarne, whose Meek-produced Come Outside charted in 1962, and another Meek protegé, Mike Berry, who had scored a hit with the Geoff Goddard-penned Tribute To Buddy Holly. Mike Sarne (born 6 August 1940) is a British Actor and director. For the cartoonist see Mike Berry (cartoonist. Not to be confused with 1960s singer Dave Berry. Under Stigwood's guiding hand, Leyton, Sarne and Berry were still scoring hits but there was a major flaw in the EMI deal -- the minuscule percentage that EMI was paying meant that Stigwood was barely able to make a profit from these recordings. Nevertheless, the system he pioneered changed the style and direction of the UK pop charts forever and his success with Leyton was instrumental in expanding his business, becoming simultaneously agent, manager and producer, a role he evidently relished.

Simon Napier-Bell: "He became fascinated by it. He loved its trickery and tease, and the apparent ease with which money could be made . . . And what made Robert Stigwood different from his predecessors is that he expanded laterally. He didn't remain simply a manager or an agent. He moved into music publishing as well, and into pop concert promotion. But his real contribution to the British music scene was independent record production. "

"He was in every way the first British music business tycoon, involved in every aspect of the music scene, and setting a precedent that was to become the blueprint of success for all future pop entrepreneurs. "

Stigwood's other big innovation was in the songs that he selected. British acts had conventionally covered US hits after they had become successful there, but Stigwood began making regular trips to America to find new releases he thought had potential, and then rushing out UK covers by his acts before the originals hit the American charts.

He became extremely successful because of his control over all almost every facet of the business of his recording artists -- agency, management, production, publishing and concert promotion. His business rapidly expanded and (according to Napier-Bell) Stigwood even bought one of the major music papers in a "fit of pique" when a Stigwood act failed to appear in their Top 30 chart.

The subject of Robert Stigwood's sexuality (he is understood to be gay) and its role in his career is one which has rarely been discussed. Whether or not it gave him an entree to the British showbiz scene is something probably only he can answer definitively, but it certainly would not have been a disadvantage, considering that so many other important figures in the music industry at that time -- Sir Joseph Lockwood, Larry Parnes, Brian Epstein, Lionel Bart, Kit Lambert, Simon Napier-Bell, Joe Meek, Vicki Wickham -- were also gay. Larry Parnes (real name Laurence Maurice Palmer) was born in 1930 in Willesden, London; and died on 4 August 1989, in London Lionel Bart ( August 1, 1930 &ndash April 3, 1999) was an English composer of songs and musicals, best known for Christopher "Kit" Sebastian Lambert ( 11 May, 1935 &ndash 7 April, 1981) was a Record producer and the Manager Simon Napier-Bell (born April 22 1939, Ealing Common, London, England) has undertaken many jobs in the Music industry, Vicki Wickham (b ca 1939 is an English talent manager entertainment producer and songwriter

Music writer Johnny Rogan touched on this intriguing subject in his 1988 book about the British pop scene, Starmakers & Svengalis:

". Johnny Rogan is an Irish / English Author who first emerged in the late 70s with writings on West Coast American music . . I researched the careers of several dozen British pop managers from the fifties to the present and was surprised to discover that a disproportionately high number of entrepreneurs from my sample groups fell into one of three categories: gay, Jewish and male. But what produced this unusual ethnic/sexual equation and why, in the case of homosexuals and Jews, was it valid predominantly from the early days of British pop until the late sixties? A broader observation of societal attitudes during those periods provided some important clues. "

"Few would disagree that there has always been a gay tradition in such 'artistic' occupations as dancing, painting and writing. Even in repressive periods, homosexuals were accepted by the artistic community, though the nature of their sexuality was often masked by euphemisms such as 'eccentric' or 'aesthetic'. Historically, the gay movement has also been well represented in show business and other areas of entertainment. Since British pop music and traditional show business were inextricably linked, at least until the mid-sixties, the homosexual network during that period was particularly strong. "

- Johnny Rogan, (1988), Starmakers & Svengalis: The History of British Pop Management, page 276.

Some Australian music writers have suggested that the main reason why so few Australian acts were able to break into the UK music scene in the Sixties was that they were locked out by the so-called "Pink Mafia" that supposedly dominated British showbiz. The truth of this claim can never be tested, but it is certainly notable that The Bee Gees -- virtually the only act to emerge from Australia in that period who achieved major and lasting fame -- owed much of their international success to the fact that they were managed by Stigwood who was, by the time he met them, an influential part of London's gay showbiz establishment.

Career setback

For a few years Stigwood rode the crest of a wave of success, but according to Napier-Bell, he lived extravagantly and spent lavishly. The small percentages he received from his productions meant that he was largely dependent on agency and management commissions to maintain his cash flow, and gradually his company funds dwindled. Stigwood also promoted pop concerts "as a quick way to make a buck" and top up the books during slow periods. He specialised in summer seaside promotions, which were sometimes highly profitable, but were also notoriously risky since they often depended on the fickle English weather, among the many other hazards of the business.

Stigwood copped a lot of flak within the industry when he over-hyped and mis-managed his latest new pop hopeful, an Anglo-Indian singer, called Simon Scott. His heavy-handed promotion included sending out plaster busts of Simon Scott as a promotional gimmick. However, Simon Scott finally scored a hit, the venture cost Stigwood a great deal, and it was money that he could ill-afford to lose.

In January 1965 Stigwood promoted a package tour headlined by notoriously 'difficult' rock'n'roll legend Chuck Berry (who famously always demanded payment in cash, up-front) supported by The Five Dimensions, Simon Scott. Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry (born October 18 1926 in St Winston G. , The Graham Bond Organization (with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker), Long John Baldry, and The Moody Blues with guitarist Mike Patto as compère. Graham John Clifton Bond ( 28 October, 1937 in Romford, East London, England &ndash 8 May, 1974 at Finsbury John William Baldry, popularly known as Long John Baldry, ( January 12 1941 &ndash July 21 2005) was an English The Moody Blues are an English psychedelic rock band originally from Erdington in the city of Birmingham. Mike Patto was a musician most notably with Timebox and Patto.

The tour was poorly attended and adding to his woes, support act The Moody Blues pulled out unexpectedly when the tour reached Manchester (their single Go Now had just gone to #1) and Stigwood had to negotiate with the band to get them back on the show.

Stigwood's finances ran out halfway through the Berry tour and he called in the receivers, owing some £40,000 to his creditors. EMI offered to bail him out, but he refused because he was anxious to get out of the unfavourable deal he had with the company. He fought valiantly to maintain the illusion that he had kept his personal wealth intact, although in reality he was flat broke. But, according to Simon Napier-Bell, Stigwood managed to fool enough people to keep his creditors at bay while he re-established himself. Within two years, he was back on top.

Stigwood's aggressive style and his drive to expand his management empire occasionally brought him into conflict with other entrepreneurs. Stigwood is the subject of one of the most famous stories in British showbiz, a fabled altercation between himself and one of the other big movers and shakers of the British pop scene, Don Arden. Don Arden (born Harry Levy, 4 January 1926, Manchester England – died 21 July 2007, Los Angeles) was an

Sometime during 1966 one of Stigwood's staff made the mistake of discussing a possible change of management with of one of Arden's top acts, The Small Faces. Small Faces were an English rock group from East London, heavily influenced by American Rhythm and blues. Not surprisingly, Arden took exception to this, and in spite of the fact that Stigwood had never met the group personally, Arden decided to pay him a visit with some of his minders, to teach him a lesson:

Don Arden: "I had to stop these overtures - and quickly. I contacted two well-muscled friends and hired two more equally huge toughs. And we went along to nail this impressario to his chair with fright. There was a large ornate ashtray on his desk. I picked it up and smashed it down with such force that the desk cracked - giving a good impression of a man wild with rage. My friends and I had carefully rehearsed our next move. I pretended to go berserk, lifted the impressario bodily from his chair, dragged him on to the balcony and held him so he was looking down to the pavement four floors below. I asked my friends if I should drop him or forgive him. In unison they shouted: ‘Drop him’. He went rigid with shock and I thought he might have a heart attack. Immediately, I dragged him back into the room and warned him never to interfere with my groups again. "

Rebuilding

After the disaster of the Berry tour, Stigwood took on David Shaw, an ex-City banker, as his partner, giving him access to previously unavailable funds and expertise, and he gained some extra cashflow by subletting his offices to The Who's managers, Chris Stamp and Kit Lambert, although he reportedly became the butt of the pair's inveterate and often cruel practical joking. The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964. The primary lineup consisted of guitarist Pete Townshend This page is a list of the various personnel and line-ups that have been a part of The Who. Christopher "Kit" Sebastian Lambert ( 11 May, 1935 &ndash 7 April, 1981) was a Record producer and the Manager

He kept his Robert Stigwood Agency intact and worked to rebuild his career as a manager and independent producer. In 1966 Stigwood made an important connection when he paid £500 to Stamp and Lambert for the right to become The Who's booking agent. This gave him the opportunity, soon after, to lure the band away from Decca Records and onto his own newly established Reaction Records label, for whom they recorded the famous single "Substitute". Decca Records is a British Record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Reaction Records was an "Independent" British Record label run by music executive Robert Stigwood in 1966 and 1967.

The recording was done on the sly, and was explicitly intended by the group as a means of breaking their five-year contract with producer Shel Talmy, with whom they had fallen out (the single's original B-side, "Waltz For A Pig", was reputedly written about Talmy). Shel Talmy (born August 11 1937 in Chicago, Illinois United States is an American record producer best known for his work in 1960s London with The Who and Also in 1966 he became the manager of a new band comprising three of the best musicians from two groups that he had under contract -- guitarist Eric Clapton from John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, and bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker from The Graham Bond Organisation. Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE (born 30 March 1945 is an English Blues-rock Guitarist, singer Songwriter and Composer John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers are a pioneering English blues band led by Singer, Songwriter, and John Symon Asher "Jack" Bruce (born 14 May 1943 is a Scottish -born musician composer and Singer. Peter Edward "Ginger" Baker (born 19 August 1939 Lewisham, South London) is an English Drummer. Graham John Clifton Bond ( 28 October, 1937 in Romford, East London, England &ndash 8 May, 1974 at Finsbury

His connection to The Who enabled him to get his new group, Cream, onto the bill for a 9-day stint at the RKO theater in New York in 1967. Cream were a 1960s British rock band It was an important showcase for Cream and enabled Stigwood to introduce them to New York's music cognoscenti and helped break them in the USA. It was for this show that Stigwood commissioned the Dutch art collective called The Fool to paint the striking psychedelic designs on Eric Clapton's Gibson SG guitar, Jack Bruce's Fender VI bass and Ginger Baker's drum kit. The Fool were a Dutch design collective and band who were influential in the Psychedelic style

However, during this period Stigwood had another pop flop when he tried to promote a singer called "Oscar". Oscar's real name was Paul Beuselinck; his stage name was taken from his father, Oscar Beuselinck, a music business lawyer whose clients included The Who. Paul Nicholas (born Paul Oscar Beuselinck 3 December 1945 in Peterborough, England) is an English Actor and Oscar had been the pianist in Screaming Lord Sutch's backing band, The Savages. Screaming Lord Sutch 3rd Earl of Harrow, known as Screaming Lord Sutch, born David Edward Sutch ( 10 November 1940 &ndash Under the name 'Paul Dean' he released two singles in 1965-66. As 'Oscar' he cut four singles for Stigwood's Reaction label. The first, "Club of Lights" managed to scrape into the lower reaches of the Radio London Fab 40 chart. The "Fab 40" ( ie "Fabulous Forty" was a weekly Playlist of popular records used by the British "pirate" radio station "Wonderful" The second Oscar single was a version of a Pete Townshend song, "Join My Gang", which The Who never recorded. His third single, a novelty song called "Over The Wall We Go" (1967) is notable for being written and produced by a young David Bowie, and it gained a degree of notoriety because of Bowie's tongue-in-cheek lyrics concerning escaped prisoners and incompetent cops, which satirised a rash of highly-publicised prison break-outs in the UK. David Bowie (ˈboʊiː born David Robert Jones on 8 January 1947 is an English Musician, actor producer, and arranger.

Once again, however, Stigwood overhyped Oscar, sending out a fake Academy-Awards-style statuette. 'Oscar' vanished from sight for some time, but Beuselinck re-emerged in the late Sixties under the name Paul Nicholas. Paul Nicholas (born Paul Oscar Beuselinck 3 December 1945 in Peterborough, England) is an English Actor and He maintained a connection with Stigwood, performing in the London productions of Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar and Grease, and he also featured in many films. He appeared in Stardust, starring David Essex, and he played the sadistic Cousin Kevin in Stigwood's film version of The Who's Tommy (rock opera). David Essex OBE, was born David Albert Cook 23 July 1947, in Plaistow, County Borough of West Ham within Essex.

Stigwood moved his recording activities to Polydor Records, where former EMI staffer Roland Rennie had recently been appointed as the new managing director. Polydor Records is a Record label currently headquartered in the UK, and is a subsidiary of Universal Music Group. Stigwood had apparently been forewarned that Rennie was moving to Polydor, and this, according to Napier-Bell, was the major reason that Stigwood had been unwilling to accept EMI's rescue package.

Rennie had been a key figure in breaking The Beatles in America; he had been sent to New York by George Martin and all EMI product was channeled through him for distribution by EMI's American partners. Sir George Henry Martin CBE (3 January 1926 is a British record producer arranger and Composer. It was Rennie who struck the deal to license the first three Beatles records to the Swan and VeeJay lebels, rather than to Capitol, who at first had no interest in the group.

Stigwood signed a much more advantageous deal with Polydor, with high percentages and substantial funding for his recording costs. This gave him the luxury of being able to take Cream to New York, where they cut their records with Atlantic Records' famed house engineer Tom Dowd and producer Felix Pappalardi. Atlantic Records ( Atlantic Recording Corporation) is an American Record label best known for its many recordings of Rhythm & blues, Rock Tom Dowd ( October 20, 1925 – October 27, 2002) was an American Recording engineer and producer for Atlantic Felix A Pappalardi Jr ( December 30, 1939 &ndash April 17, 1983) was an American music producer, Songwriter,

The NEMS merger

On 13 January 1967 Stigwood signed a career-making deal with his friend and colleague Brian Epstein to merge their two companies. The Beatles were by now off the road, and Epstein was tiring of the demands of his ever-expanding business. He was keen to reduce his involvement in the company he had founded in 1963, NEMS Enterprises, so he eventually struck a deal with Stigwood. NEMS Enterprises defaults here For the Latin American record label see NEMS Enterprises (label.

Why Epstein decided to merge with Stigwood is uncertain. There had been numerous other offers made for NEMS over the previous few years and Epstein is reported to have turned down more than one multi-million-dollar offer from American interests, so it is unlikely that he chose to become a partner with Stigwood simply for the money. They knew each other socially and through business, and Stigwood already had a reputation as a shrewd, tough operator, although it appears that Epstein was probably the only person in NEMS who was in favour of the merger.

According to author George Gunby, Epstein told The Beatles' publicist Alastair Taylor that Stigwood had originally offered to buy NEMS, but the deal eventually became a merger, in which Stigwood would have to put all his company assets into NEMS; in return he would received a reciprocal shareholding in NEMS, plus a salary, an executive position as co-managing director, and access to all of NEMS now-considerable financial and other resources. James Alistair Taylor (born 21 June 1935 in Runcorn - died 9 June 2004 in Chesterfield) was the personal assistant of

It was a godsend for Stigwood, and it effectively placed him at the pinnacle of the British pop industry in one easy step, but Epstein seems to have been about the only person in NEMS who was keen on the idea. Alastair Taylor is reported to have exclaimed "You must be joking!" when Epstein told him of the merger. Epstein was also considering handing over his role as manager of The Beatles, but when the Fab Four learned of this they were outraged. They evidently disliked Stigwood intensely. Interviewed in 2000 by Greil Marcus, Paul McCartney recalled the group's angry reaction:

"We said, 'In fact, if you do, if you somehow manage to pull this off, we can promise you one thing. Greil Marcus (born 1945 is an American Author, music Journalist and cultural Critic. We will record God Save the Queen for every single record we make from now on and we'll sing it out of tune. That's a promise. So if this guy buys us, that's what he's buying. '"

Consequently, Epstein stayed on as manager of The Beatles but he handed responsibility for most of his other acts to Stigwood.

The NEMS' staff were also reportedly unhappy about the deal. The company had expanded rapidly growing from fifteen staff in 1964 to eighty in 1966. Epstein had taken over the Vic Lewis agency in 1965, (bringing in Donovan, Petula Clark and Matt Monro) and Lewis became a NEMS director, but many staff members found Lewis' abrasive manner difficult to handle. Donovan ( Donovan Phillips Leitch, born 10 May 1946 in Glasgow) is a Scottish Singer-songwriter and guitarist Petula Clark, CBE (born 15 November 1932 is an English singer actress and Composer best known for her upbeat popular international hits Matt Monro ( 1 December 1930, Shoreditch, London &ndash 7 February 1985, Ealing) was an English According to Gunby: ". . . (they) could see the same problems arising, multiplied tenfold, when Stigwood moved in. His autocratic style would be a time bomb ticking beneath people who had stuck by Epstein through thick and thin. "

Gunby says that Epstein told Derek Taylor that the merger with Stigwood would bring new talent into the fold and would strengthen the operation. Taylor remain unconvinced -- Stigwood, he said, had "a ruthless reputation, a cavalier style that upset more people than it pleased. " Epstein himself soon found himself at odds with his new partner -- he was reportedly unhappy about Stigwood's spending, was upset by Stigwood renting a yacht for The Bee Gees, and was also angered by Stigwood's unilateral decision to send Alastair Taylor to America on a business trip, a plan Epstein overruled. It is claimed that Epstein subsequently decided that he didn't want Stigwood in the company.

Diversification

Stigwood's next big break as a manager came only weeks after he started with NEMS. Teenage vocal group The Bee Gees had recently arrived back in the UK after many years in Australia, with hopes of making it in the UK. The Bee Gees were a singing trio of brothers — Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. Unknown to them, Ronald Rennie had already heard their only Australian hit, "Spicks and Specks", thanks to the band's publisher, so Rennie had made arrangements with their Australian label, Festival, to release it in the UK.

When, to his surprise, Barry Gibb appeared at Polydor's offices in London, Rennie immediately contacted Stigwood, who he thought would be ideal to sign the group to Polydor and manage them. Robert had just begun his eleven-month tenure with NEMS, and the boys' father Hugh Gibb had sent already an LP and acetates of their demo recordings to Stigwood in an effort to sign the group to NEMS. Stigwood signed the Bee Gees to a five-year deal in February and took their contract with him when he separated from NEMS in December.

Polydor released "Spicks and Specks", which had lready been a major hit in Australia, but in spite of Stigwood paying for four week's exposure on pirate station Radio Caroline, the single flopped. Radio Caroline is a European Radio station that started transmissions on Easter Sunday 1964 from a ship anchored in International waters off the coast of Stigwood was undeterred, and with NEMS' resources behind him, he embarked on a concerted campaign (no doubt at NEMS' expense) to break The Bee Gees in the UK, assiduously wining and dining TV producers and DJs; according to the MusicWeb Encyclopedia, he spent £50,000 promoting the group in 1967.

It paid off -- within months their second single, New York Mining Disaster 1941, had become a major UK hit and the follow-up, "Massachusetts", went Top 5 in both England and the USA, the first a string of Bee Gees hits through the late Sixties. " New York Mining Disaster 1941 " was the first song to be released by the Bee Gees in America, and their first song to hit the charts in the US or UK

Stigwood's future with NEMS may have been uncertain, but it was decided in dramatic fashion by Brian Epstein's untimely death in August 1967. Brian's brother Clive took over as Managing Director and Stigwood left NEMS to form his own company, The Robert Stigwood Organisation (RSO), in December.

Robert Stigwood Organisation

Stigwood's companies expanded into almost every field of entertainment. Over the years the Robert Stigwood Organisation has promoted artists such as Mick Jagger, Rod Stewart, David Bowie and which managed and forged the careers of acts including The Bee Gees, Cream, Blind Faith, Eric Clapton and Andy Gibb. Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger, Kt (born 26 July 1943 is a Golden Globe -winning and two-time Grammy -winning English rock Roderick "Rod" David Stewart, CBE (born 10 January 1945 is a Singer and Songwriter born and raised in London England and currently David Bowie (ˈboʊiː born David Robert Jones on 8 January 1947 is an English Musician, actor producer, and arranger. The Bee Gees were a singing trio of brothers — Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. Cream were a 1960s British rock band Blind Faith were an English blues-rock band that consisted of Eric Clapton Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE (born 30 March 1945 is an English Blues-rock Guitarist, singer Songwriter and Composer Andy Gibb ( Manchester, 5 March 1958 – Oxford, 10 March 1988 was an English Singer and Teen idol, and the youngest brother On his RSO Records label Stigwood recorded artists including Clapton, Yvonne Elliman, Paul Nicholas, Player and soundtrack albums for the motion pictures The Empire Strikes Back and Fame in addition to the films produced by his company RSO Films. RSO Records was a Record label, formed by Rock and roll and Musical theatre impresario Robert Stigwood in 1973 Yvonne Marianne Elliman (born December 29, 1951 in Honolulu Hawaii) is an American Singer and Actress. Paul Nicholas (born Paul Oscar Beuselinck 3 December 1945 in Peterborough, England) is an English Actor and Player was an American rock band during the late 1970s Their #1 hit " Baby Come Back " was written by Peter Beckett and J Star Wars Episode V The Empire Strikes Back is a 1980 Space opera Film directed by Irvin Kershner. Fame is a 1980 Musical film conceived and produced by David De Silva directed by Alan Parker, and written by Christopher Gore

By 1968 Stigwood was enjoying huge success with his music ventures -- The Cream and The Bee Gees were now two of the biggest bands in the world -- but he was in no mood to rest on his laurels. He moved into theatre production in 1968, and chose his first projects very wisely indeed.

RSO's transition "from rock management concern to multimedia entertainment empire" began after Stigwood saw the Broadway production of the pioneering rock musical, Hair. Hair The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical is a Rock musical with a book and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni and music by Galt He decided to stage it in London and it was a huge success, running for more than five years in the West End. He followed this with many highly successful productions: Oh! Calcutta!, The Dirtiest Show in Town, Pippin, Sweeney Todd, Sing a Rude Song, John, Paul, Ringo and Bert (Evening Standard Drama Award Best Musical for 1974) and the last of the Tim Rice / Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals, Evita. Oh! Calcutta! was a long-running Avant-garde theatrical Revue, created by British drama critic Kenneth Tynan. The Dirtiest Show in Town is a musical Revue with a book and lyrics by Tom Eyen and music by Jeff Barry. Pippin is a stage musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Roger O Sweeney Todd is a semi-fictional character who first appeared as one of the Protagonists of a Penny dreadful serial entitled The String of Pearls Evita is a musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice. Both Superstar and Evita were successfully reproduced on Broadway, the latter picking up the Tony Award for Best Musical in 1980. More recently Stigwood produced stage versions of his two big film musicals, Grease and Saturday Night Fever. Grease is a film directed by Randal Kleiser and based on Jim Jacobs ' and Warren Casey 's musical, Grease Saturday Night Fever is a 1977 film starring John Travolta as Tony Manero a troubled Brooklyn youth whose weekend activities are dominated

In 1975, RSO teamed up with Bob Banner Associates to produce a stunt game show, Almost Anything Goes. It's a Knockout was a popular British Television Gameshow. Commentators included Eddie Waring, David Vine and The program, which aired on the ABC Television Network in the United States, featured three teams of players from small towns in a competition where the emphasis was on good will. The American Broadcasting Company ( ABC) is an American Television network. The show lasted one season.

Seventies success

Stigwood moved into both film and TV production in the early Seventies. By this time the fortunes of his two top acts were waning -- The Bee Gees broke up briefly in 1970 and for several more years they struggled to regain their former glory. Cream split in late 1968, and after the deaths of his close friends Jimi Hendrix and Duane Allman and the disappointing reception of his 1970 masterpiece, Layla & Other Assorted Love Songs, Eric Clapton withdrew into drug addiction for several years.

Stigwood had meanwhile purchased a production company, Associated London Scripts -- the company which subsequently developed the hit series All in the Family and Sanford and Son in the USA, which were adapted from the popular British TV shows Til Death Us Do Part and Steptoe and Son. All in the Family is an American Situation comedy that was originally broadcast on the CBS television network from January 12 1971 to April Sanford and Son is an American Sitcom that premiered on the NBC Television network on January 14 1972, and was broadcast for Till Death Us Do Part is a British sitcom that aired on BBC1 from 1965 to 1975 Steptoe and Son is a British sitcom written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson about two rag and bone men living in Oil Drum Lane a fictional street In 1973 Stigwood moved into film and produced Jesus Christ Superstar as a motion picture in association with its director, Norman Jewison. Norman Frederick Jewison CC, BA, LLD (born July 21, 1926) is an Academy Award -winning Canadian Film He followed this with the acclaimed film version of The Who's Tommy, which became one of 1975's most popular films and remains one of the few successful mergers of rock music and film drama. Tommy is a 1975 Musical film, based on The Who's 1969 "rock opera" album musical Tommy.

RSO Films' next production became one of the biggest hits in the history of the business -- the colossally successful Saturday Night Fever. Saturday Night Fever is a 1977 film starring John Travolta as Tony Manero a troubled Brooklyn youth whose weekend activities are dominated The 2-LP soundtrack album, written by and featuring The Bee Gees, made music history -- it became the largest-selling soundtrack album ever released, and one of the biggest-selling albums in recording history, dramatically resurrecting The Bee Gees' career and making them international megastars. Remarkably, the songs were written 'to order' without the group having seen the film, and according to Frank Rose's 1977 Rolling Stone article about The Bee Gees, at least four of the songs -- including "Stayin' Alive" -- were written in just one week.

Stigwood followed this with another huge success, Grease, which launched TV actor John Travolta to super-stardom and became one of the most successful film musicals ever released. Grease is a film directed by Randal Kleiser and based on Jim Jacobs ' and Warren Casey 's musical, Grease

Soon after Grease, Stigwood made a rare but infamous miscalculation with the musical film extravaganza Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is an American Musical film released in 1978. On paper, the multi-million-dollar production looked like a surefire hit -- it featured the songs of The Beatles, and starred two of the biggest rock acts of the day, Peter Frampton and The Bee Gees, plus a long list of rock and film greats in cameo parts. Peter Kenneth Frampton (born 22 April 1950 in Beckenham, Kent) is an English Musician, best known today for his solo Unfortunately, problems surfaced early and grew steadily worse. Stigwood sacked original director Chris Bearde before shooting began; the Bee Gees quickly realised that things did not augur well and begged to be removed from the project, to no avail. Chris Bearde (born 18 June 1936) is a Comedy Writer, producer and director best known for creating the format for Although the new director, Michael Schulz (Car Wash) did a valiant job, the film turned out to be a disastrous flop; lampooned by audiences and critics alike, the unfortunate production is still cited as one of the worst musical films ever made. Car Wash is a 1976 Comedy film produced by Universal Pictures. The film is also cited by some as the beginning of the end of the disco era.

This was followed by The Fan, Times Square, Grease 2, Peter Weir's Gallipoli, produced under the R&R Films banner, and the 1997 Golden Globe Awards best film winner, Evita, starring Madonna. Grease 2 is the 1982 Sequel to the 1978 smash hit Grease. The movie was strongly criticized by many as derivative Peter Lindsay Weir AM (born 21 August 1944 is an Australian Film director. Evita is the 1996 Film adaptation of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber 's musical based on the life of Eva Madonna Louise Ciccone Ritchie (born August 16 1958 known as Madonna, is an American

Not all Stigwood's later films were successful, however. Moment by Moment, which co-starred John Travolta and Lily Tomlin, came out only a year after Saturday Night Fever, but it was panned by critics, bombed at the box-office and is generally credited with singlehandedly turning Travolta in 'box office poison'. Mary Jean “Lily” Tomlin (born September 1 1939 is an American Actress, Comedian, Writer and producer who has won several Five years later Travolta again displayed his now-legendary inability to pick roles when he agreed to appear in Stigwood's ill-advised 1983 sequel to Saturday Night Fever, Staying Alive, directed by Sylvester Stallone. Staying Alive is the 1983 sequel to Saturday Night Fever, starring John Travolta as the main character Tony Manero Cynthia Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone (born July 6 1946 is an American Actor, director, producer and Screenwriter. Although perhaps not as bad as Moment by Moment, the movie was not a success and did nothing to restore Travolta's career, which languished until his ' comeback' in [[Pulp Fiction]] in 1994.

Stigwood's also produced the rock-musical teen girl 'buddy' movie Times Square (1980). Times Square is a 1980 film starring Trini Alvarado, Robin Johnson, and Tim Curry. Stigwood's autocratic streak surfaced again during the making of this film. Stigwood wanted to remove dialogue scenes to include more music, so that the soundtrack could be expanded to a double album, but director Allan Moyle refused to make the cuts, so Stigwood fired Moyle (who didn't make another film for ten years) and made the cuts himself. Allan Moyle (born 1947 in Shawinigan, Quebec, Canada) is a Film director.

Star Robin Johnson later said of the result: "It was disappointing. Robin Johnson (born May 24, 1964) is an American actress Johnson grew up in Park Slope Brooklyn, New York City. It could've been so much more powerful. I'd love to see what Allan's cut would've been. "

Although not successful at the time, Times Square reportedly has a strong cult following among gay women. The music soundtrack is also of considerable interest; it included many notable new wave acts -- Patti Smith, The Pretenders, Talking Heads and Roxy Music and it also became a collector's item for fans of English band XTC because their track "Take This Town" -- written especially for the film -- appeared only on the soundtrack LP. Patricia Lee Smith ( born December 30 1946 is an American Singer-songwriter and poet The Pretenders are a British rock band The original band consisted of group founder and main Songwriter Chrissie Hynde ( lead vocals Talking head Talking Heads was an American New Wave band formed in 1974 in New York City and active until 1991 Roxy Music is an English Art rock group founded in the early 1970s by art school graduate Bryan Ferry ( vocals and keyboards) XTC was a New Wave band from Swindon, England, active between 1976 and 2005

Robert Stigwood remains active, primarily in the theatrical musical industry. He lives at his Barton Manor Estate on the Isle of Wight, off the south coast of England. The Isle of Wight is an English Island and county in the English Channel between three and five miles (8 km from the south coast of the

Major Productions


References

Literature

External links

The Internet Broadway Database ( IBDB) is an online Database of Broadway theatre productions and their personnel
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