Steve O'Rourke

Pink Floyd performed Dark Side of the Moon in Earls Court in 1973

The Gulf Team Davidoff McLaren F1 GTR; here at the 1997 Donington 4-hour race . With this car O'Rourke, Tim Sugden and Bill Auberlen achieved fourth place in the 1998 Le Mans 24 Hours

Steve O'Rourke (born October 1, 1940 in Willesden , † October 30, 2003 in Miami ) was a British music manager , racing team owner and racing car driver .

Music management

Steve O'Rourke was born to a fisherman during World War II . His father had given up fishing after the outbreak of war and moved to London from the Aran Islands . In the 1960s he worked in various event and music agencies; among others for the artist agency of Brian Epstein . O'Rourke was a junior agent with the Bryan Morrison Agency , which was taken over by Epstein. The agency managed the bands The Pretty Things , The Incredible String Band , Fairport Convention and Tyrannosaurus Rex . They also looked after Pink Floyd , whose appearances were organized by O'Rourke.

In the late 1960s, rock bands in Great Britain generated their essential income primarily through live acts . O'Rourke was particularly successful at Pink Floyd. It was not uncommon for the band to perform daily for weeks.

Manager of Pink Floyd

After the end of the collaboration of the remaining band members with Syd Barrett in March 1968, the managerial work of Peter Jenner and Andrew King also ended . After Barrett's departure, neither believed in a successful further development of the band. Nick Mason , Roger Waters , Richard Wright and David Gilmour then hired Steve O'Rourke as the new manager.

Under the management of O'Rourke, Pink Floyd became one of the most influential bands of the 1970s and, with nearly 300 million records sold, one of the most successful in musical history. In 1970 he founded EMKA Productions, named after his daughters Em ma and Ka theryne. In addition to Pink Floyd, he subsequently managed the solo careers of Gilmour, Mason and Wright.

O'Rourke managed Pink Floyd until his death in 2003 and thus also after Roger Waters' departure in 1985. He was responsible for the highly lucrative move from Capitol to Columbia Records and organized all of the band tours until his death .

Racing career

In addition to his work in the music industry , Steve O'Rourke had a great passion , motorsport . After a few club races in his home country, his first big race was the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1979 , where he joined Jean Blaton's team as the fourth driver and had Nick Faure and Bernard de Dryver as team partners alongside Belgian team owner . The quartet in the Ferrari 512 BB LM finished the race in 12th place overall.

Between 1979 and 2002 he competed in 94 GT and sports car races , two of which he won. There were also six class wins and 17 podiums including the two overall wins. He had his first successful season in 1981 when he finished second in the 6-hour race of Silverstone, which is part of the sports car world championship, together with Derek Bell and David Hobbs in the BMW M1 behind Walter Röhrl , Dieter Schornstein and Harald Grohs in the Porsche 935J . At the 24 Hours of Le Mans this year , he was involved with his own racing team for the second time since 1980 . Partners in the BMW M1 were Hobbs and Eddie Jordan . That night he left the circuit to fly to London for a Pink Floyd concert. He returned early in the morning to continue participating in the race.

O'Rourke competed eight times at Le Mans . When he was last used in 1998 , he achieved his best overall ranking. Together with Tim Sugden and Bill Auberlen , he finished fourth overall in the McLaren F1 GTR .

In the 1990s and 2000s he competed in the FIA GT Championship , the BPR Global GT Series and the British GT Championship.

EMKA Racing

In 1990 O'Rourke founded his own racing team with EMKA Racing . The team existed until 2003 and was disbanded after his death. As a result, the announced factory support from Porsche for the 2004 season did not materialize. As with his music management company, two of his daughters were namesake here.

In the early 1980s, the team even built Group C sports cars with assistance from Aston Martin . The cars were designed by Len Bailey . With the Emka C84 / 1 , Tiff Needell led the race at Le Mans for a short time in 1985 .

Death in Miami

Steve O'Rourke lived in Great Britain for years and lived in a house in Sussex that was once owned by Bertrand Russell . He was a second married to director Alan Parker's former secretary and had three daughters and one son. He died of a stroke in October 2003 while staying in Miami . The memorial service took place on November 14, 2003 in Chichester Cathedral . While the coffin was being carried into the cathedral, Richard Wright played The Great Gig in the Sky .

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1979	Jean Blaton	Ferrari 512 BB LM	Nick Faure	Jean Blaton	Bernard de Dryver	Rank 12
1980	EMKA Productions	Ferrari 512 BB LM	Richard Down	Simon Phillips		Rank 23
1981	Emka Productions	BMW M1	Eddie Jordan	David Hobbs		failure	Clutch damage
1982	Emka Productions	BMW M1	Richard Down	Nick Mason		failure	no oil pressure
1983	Emka Productions Ltd.	Emka C83 / 1	Nick Faure	Tiff Needell		Rank 17
1985	Emka Productions Ltd.	Emka C84 / 1	Nick Faure	Tiff Needell		Rank 11
1996	Emka Productions Ltd.	Porsche 911 GT2	Guy Holmes	Soames Langton		failure	Engine failure
1998	Gulf Team Davidoff	McLaren F1 GTR	Tim Sugden	Bill Auberlen		Rank 4

Web links

• About Steve O'Rourke
• Steve O'Rourke at Racing Sports Cars

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The best-selling sound carriers in the history of music
2. ^ 6 Hours of Silverstone 1981
3. ↑ On the death of Steve O'Rourke