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Robert Stigwood
Robert Colin Stigwood (16 April 1934 – 4 January 2016) was an Australian-born British-resident music entrepreneur, film producer, and impresario, best known for managing musicians such as Cream, Andy Gibb, and the Bee Gees; theatrical productions such as Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar; and film productions, including Grease and Saturday Night Fever.
Robert Colin Stigwood was born on 16 April 1934 in Port Pirie, South Australia, the son of Gwendolyn (Burrows) and Gordon Stigwood. He was educated at Sacred Heart College in Adelaide.
Stigwood hitchhiked to England in 1955. Among various early jobs, he worked at an institution for "backward teenage boys" in East Anglia. He worked briefly for Hector Ross at the New Theatre Royal in Portsmouth, Hampshire, before Ross left and the theatre closed.[citation needed]
He then met businessman Stephen Komlosy with whom he founded Robert Stigwood Associates Ltd, a small theatrical agency. He signed the actor John Leyton who soon became a teenage heart-throb in 1960 thanks to his appearance in a TV drama based on Biggles. Leyton had ambitions to sing, but was rejected by the major record companies; so Stigwood took him to the producer Joe Meek, who produced the singles "Tell Laura I Love Her" and "Girl on the Floor Above" (October 1960). According to Tony Kent (Meek's personal assistant at the time), although Meek was present at the recording for the latter, Stigwood assumed the role of dominant co-producer. Neither record made much impact, but Leyton's third single, "Johnny Remember Me", produced by Meek and released in the UK on 28 July 1961, became a UK No.1 hit after Stigwood arranged for Leyton to perform it while playing the role of a fictional pop singer called Johnny St. Cyr, performing the song on the new Associated Television drama Harpers West One. Stigwood and Meek licensed the song to EMI Records, who had previously refused the opportunity to sign Leyton for themselves. This action put the men among the first independent record producers in the UK.
Other artists Stigwood signed to a management/recording deal included Mike Sarne, whose Komlosy-produced "Come Outside" charted Number One in 1962, and another Meek protégé, Mike Berry, who had scored a hit with the Geoff Goddard-penned "Tribute To Buddy Holly".[citation needed]
One of the first musical acts he managed during this period was Junco Partners, a blues band which succeeded the Animals as the house band at Newcastle's Club A Go Go. The band recorded for Columbia (the EMI label) and the French Barclay Records, with one of its first releases being co-produced by Stigwood and Vicki Wickham. The band included Charlie Harcourt, later of Lindisfarne and Cat Mother and the All Night News Boys.
Some of the acts he promoted in the mid-60s lost Stigwood money, including UK tours by Chuck Berry and P. J. Proby, and he came close to bankruptcy during this period.
In 1966 he began managing Cream, formed from two other bands that Stigwood had under contract – Eric Clapton from John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, and Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker from the Graham Bond Organisation. They were stars by 1967, after a U.S. tour with The Who – for whom Stigwood was booking agent at the time. Stigwood moved his recording activities to Polydor Records, negotiating a much more advantageous deal than he had achieved with EMI.
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Robert Stigwood
Robert Colin Stigwood (16 April 1934 – 4 January 2016) was an Australian-born British-resident music entrepreneur, film producer, and impresario, best known for managing musicians such as Cream, Andy Gibb, and the Bee Gees; theatrical productions such as Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar; and film productions, including Grease and Saturday Night Fever.
Robert Colin Stigwood was born on 16 April 1934 in Port Pirie, South Australia, the son of Gwendolyn (Burrows) and Gordon Stigwood. He was educated at Sacred Heart College in Adelaide.
Stigwood hitchhiked to England in 1955. Among various early jobs, he worked at an institution for "backward teenage boys" in East Anglia. He worked briefly for Hector Ross at the New Theatre Royal in Portsmouth, Hampshire, before Ross left and the theatre closed.[citation needed]
He then met businessman Stephen Komlosy with whom he founded Robert Stigwood Associates Ltd, a small theatrical agency. He signed the actor John Leyton who soon became a teenage heart-throb in 1960 thanks to his appearance in a TV drama based on Biggles. Leyton had ambitions to sing, but was rejected by the major record companies; so Stigwood took him to the producer Joe Meek, who produced the singles "Tell Laura I Love Her" and "Girl on the Floor Above" (October 1960). According to Tony Kent (Meek's personal assistant at the time), although Meek was present at the recording for the latter, Stigwood assumed the role of dominant co-producer. Neither record made much impact, but Leyton's third single, "Johnny Remember Me", produced by Meek and released in the UK on 28 July 1961, became a UK No.1 hit after Stigwood arranged for Leyton to perform it while playing the role of a fictional pop singer called Johnny St. Cyr, performing the song on the new Associated Television drama Harpers West One. Stigwood and Meek licensed the song to EMI Records, who had previously refused the opportunity to sign Leyton for themselves. This action put the men among the first independent record producers in the UK.
Other artists Stigwood signed to a management/recording deal included Mike Sarne, whose Komlosy-produced "Come Outside" charted Number One in 1962, and another Meek protégé, Mike Berry, who had scored a hit with the Geoff Goddard-penned "Tribute To Buddy Holly".[citation needed]
One of the first musical acts he managed during this period was Junco Partners, a blues band which succeeded the Animals as the house band at Newcastle's Club A Go Go. The band recorded for Columbia (the EMI label) and the French Barclay Records, with one of its first releases being co-produced by Stigwood and Vicki Wickham. The band included Charlie Harcourt, later of Lindisfarne and Cat Mother and the All Night News Boys.
Some of the acts he promoted in the mid-60s lost Stigwood money, including UK tours by Chuck Berry and P. J. Proby, and he came close to bankruptcy during this period.
In 1966 he began managing Cream, formed from two other bands that Stigwood had under contract – Eric Clapton from John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, and Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker from the Graham Bond Organisation. They were stars by 1967, after a U.S. tour with The Who – for whom Stigwood was booking agent at the time. Stigwood moved his recording activities to Polydor Records, negotiating a much more advantageous deal than he had achieved with EMI.
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