Robert Stigwood

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Robert Stigwood, 1972

Robert Stigwood (born April 16, 1934 in Adelaide , South Australia , † January 4, 2016 in London , England ) was an Australian music and film producer who moved to Great Britain in 1955.

The early years in London

Stigwood came to London in 1955 . In 1960 he founded Robert Stigwood Associates (RSA) with which he placed actors in advertising agencies. There he met John Leyton . Leyton sang, was an actor, and looked splendid. Stigwood had Joe Meek produce some songs with Leyton. He brought Leyton into the British soap opera Harpers West One and had him sing the song Johnny Remember Me , which stormed the charts the following week.

In 1962, Meek and Stigwood parted ways, and Leyton's career ended with that. Stigwood now concentrated more and more on the music business and took on artists like Carol Hedges , Mike Sarne (actually Michael Scheur) or Mike Berry as a manager , all of whom he led in the British charts.

Robert Stigwood Organization

After RSA went bankrupt in 1965, Stigwood worked briefly for management company Starlite Artist , and that same year founded the Robert Stigwood Organization (RSO) on a £ 40,000 loan . In 1966 he founded his own record label Reaction Records and signed The Who with his friend Kit Lambert . They wanted out of a management contract with Shel Talmy . Against his will, the single Substitute was released on Reaction . Stigwood's next coup was the compilation of the supergroup Cream with Eric Clapton , Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker , whose first album Fresh Cream was released on Reaction in December 1966 and immediately caused a sensation in Europe.

On January 13, 1967, Brian Epstein announced surprisingly that his company NEMS Enterprises and RSO would merge. As the manager of the Beatles , Epstein was evidently increasingly overwhelmed and was looking for a way to get his company back on track, but personally to slow down. In a transitional period of 12 months, the books and the countless legal disputes of NEMS should be examined and the merger then completed. Stigwood and his financier David Shaw could then have acquired a 51% stake in the company. After Epstein's unexpected death, however, his appointments with Stigwood and Shaw were lapsed and RSO and NEMS went their separate ways again from December 1967.

In the meantime, Stigwood had signed the Bee Gees for RSO. He also managed comedians like Spike Milligan and Frankie Howerd, and in 1968 he produced Hair, his first musical for the West End of London . He expanded his own RSO publishing department through purchases from various publishers.

With RSO Films , Stigwood et al. a. the film version of Jesus Christ Superstar , filmed the rock opera Tommy and brought Lisztomania of Ken Russell to the movies.

In 1973 he finally formed RSO Records after discontinuing his former label Reaction under the agreement with Brian Epstein. All artists managed by Stigwood were released on RSO Records. The independent label, independent of the industry, produced finished albums which it passed on to its distribution partners Polydor (Europe) and Atlantic Records (USA). Through the success of Eric Clapton and the Bee Gees, RSO Records quickly developed into the most successful independent label of its time.

In 1976 Stigwood entered into a worldwide collaboration with PolyGram . At the same time, Stigwood moved its activities to the USA. RSO was restructured and the Robert Stigwood Group was founded. In 1977 the soundtrack to the RSO-produced film Saturday Night Fever became a millionaire worldwide . In 1978 the film Grease and its soundtrack followed. These two albums alone have sold around 60 million copies worldwide to date.

In 1981 the company was in a crisis. Both the Eric Clapton and the Bee Gees could not be held at RSO. In addition, there was an unfavorable development in the global music industry, whose sales figures have fallen drastically since 1979. In addition, RSO had to deal with a multi-million dollar lawsuit by the Bee Gees, which was decided out of court in favor of the musicians. At the end of the year, RSO Records, the heart of the company, was finally sold to PolyGram.

After that, Stigwood withdrew to Bermuda and largely withdrew from operations. He later lived on the Isle of Wight . He spent his last years in London.

successes

Stigwood's success was largely based on being one of the first to recognize the importance of film and television as advertising space for his artists. When employing artists, whom he supervised as a manager, publisher and producer, in films or television programs he produced himself, he was able to benefit from several parts of the value chain. He achieved this for the first time with Johnny Leyton in 1962 and reached its commercial peak in 1978 with the film project Grease . On the other hand, the financial failure of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band just a year later was a major contributor to the RSO's demise.

Musicals

Films (selection)

  • 1978: From moment to moment (moment by moment)
  • 1980: Times Square - You can all see us (Times Square)
  • 1981: Gallipoli
  • 1996: Evita

Awards

Nominations

  • 1997: OFTA Film Award Online Film & Television Association, Best Picture: Evita (1996)
  • 1997: OFTA Film Award Online Film & Television Association, Best Drama Picture: Evita (1996)
  • 1997: OFTA Film Award Online Film & Television Association, Best Comedy / Musical Picture: Evita (1996)
  • 1982: Stinker Award The Stinkers Bad Movie Awards, Worst Picture: Grease 2 (1982)

Prices

  • 1997: Golden Satellite Award, Satellite Awards, Best Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical: Evita (1996)
  • 1981: AFI Award, Australian Film Institute, Best Film: Gallipoli (1981)
  • 1979: Showmanship Award, Publicists Guild of America, Motion Picture

See also

literature

  • Melinda Bilyeu, Hector Cook, Andrew Môn Hughes, with Joseph Brennan and Mark Crohan: The Ultimate Biography of the Bee Gees: Stories of the Gibb Brothers. Starcluster Verlag, Balve 2007, ISBN 978-3-925005-66-4 .
  • Robin Bell: The History of British Rock and Roll: The Forgotten Years 1956–1962. Lulu Press, 2014, ISBN 978-91-981283-7-6 .
  • Simon Napier-Bell : You Don't Have To Say You Love Me. Ebury Press, 1998, ISBN 0-09-186573-5 .
  • Paul Du Noyer: In the City: A Celebration of London Music. Virgin Books, 2009, ISBN 978-1-905264-60-5 .
  • David English: Mad Dogs & Englishman: Confessions of a Loon. Virgin Publishing, London 2002, ISBN 1-85227-944-3 .
  • Gareth Murphy: Cowboys & Indies: An Adventurous Journey into the Heart of the Music Industry. Paperback. Translator: Bernd Gockel . Heyne Verlag, 2017, ISBN 978-3-453-67704-3 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Robert Stigwood, 'Gallipoli', 'Grease' & 'Saturday Night Fever' producer, dies at 81 In: sbs.com , January 5, 2016, accessed January 5, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Stigwood, Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian music and film producer
DATE OF BIRTH April 16, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Adelaide , South Australia
DATE OF DEATH 4th January 2016
Place of death London , England