The Management

From Philosophy student to bass player

In 1968, instead of going to university where he had originally planned to study Philosophy & Law, John went to London with his new band Ibex, in which he was the singer and bass player. Soon after arriving in London they met another group called Smile, which contained Brian May and Roger Taylor. Brian and Roger had a friend, a singer called Fred Bulsara, who wanted to join a group. Fred joined Ibex, who soon changed their name to Wreckage. The new singer too, soon changed his name to Freddy Mercury. After a few months, their drummer Mike Smith left to go to America and was replaced by a local drummer Richard Thompson, but in 1969 when the other founder member, Mike Bersin, returned to Liverpool to go to Art College, the group folded.

Sound Management

After a managing a record store in Piccadilly Circus, John went on tour as a Road Manager with the group Patto, while Freddy joined a band called Sour Milk Sea. Patto toured incessantly until their break up in 1973 when John became a freelance sound engineer. Among the artists he worked with were Ace, Frankie Miller & Andy Fraser and John Martyn before being asked in 1974 to do front of house sound for Brown’s Home Brew ( Joe’s Country / Rock / Gospel band ). When they split, he did freelance sound on shows with Randy Newman, David Elliot and others before taking a job as Tour Manager & front of house soundman with Paul Kossoff’s new band Back Street Crawler.
John was with the band until Paul’s death in 1975, accompanying Paul on the last flight, and disillusioned with remaining members and management he went to work with Atlantic Records V.P. Phil Carson for a few months before taking a step back to look after his wife who had undergone a spine operation following the birth of their daughter Cass.

Following her recovery, and the running out of their money, in 1978 John went on the road again as tour manager for Jim Capaldi & The Contenders. Jim’s management situation was falling apart and he asked John to take over at the end of the tour – He was still Jim’s manager twenty six years later when he finally was overtaken by his battle with Cancer and John still handles business for Jim’s estate including organising and promoting the recent Dear Mr Fantasy Concert which was a tribute to Jim and Starred Steve Winwood, Pete Townshend, Joe walsh, Paul Weller, Yusuf Islam, Gary Moore, Bill Wyman, Jon Lord, Dennis Locorriere & others at The Roundhouse in London.

New Management

In 1986 whilst working on a mixing session at Wessex studios John went to the kitchen for a cup of tea and bumped into Joe Brown’s daughter Sam. She was working in the studio next door and told him that her mum Vicki was going to call him. Vicki had recorded for a Dutch album project which was beginning to do very well. She thought that the record company were going to offer her a solo record deal for which she would need a manager and she wanted John to do it. The call came, he took the job and guided her through all her solo success until her death in 1991. In 1990 John began managing Joe Brown and is still guiding his career now 17 years later. One of the original UK Rock & Roll Stars Joe has endured and his albums and shows are now critically acclaimed by booth his fellow musicians, the press, radio and public alike.

From 1994 to 1998 John took over management of Sam Brown who had not, since her mother’s death, been pursuing her own career. Sam had moved to a remote Scottish Valley, married and now had two young children. In this period she toured with Pink Floyd and Jools Holland’s Rhythm & Blues Orchestra and together with her own band with whom she toured the U.K., Ireland, Europe and Russia and recorded and released the Box album.

In 2000 John received a call from Dennis Locorriere whom he had met some years before in Nashville and had often seen again on subsequent trips there.  Dennis was in Australia having serious trouble with a promoter there and needed some impartial advice.  Later that year they met again in the UK and Dennis asked about management, they have now had a professional relationship ever since that has seen Dennis tour the UK and Europe on a regular basis with Australian and New Zealand tours, appearances at Glastonbury, Cropredy and other major UK and Scandinavian festivals and Dennis’ first Solo chart entry – a Top 3 UK Music DVD chart placing to their credit and several CD and DVD releases.

John began managing Andy Fairweather Low in 2007 and Andy’s Solo live concert schedule is growing exponentially year on year, he now has a second solo CD release since 2006 with a live DVD and a further new CD to be recorded in 2010.

Career highlights

As his career highlights, John lists sound mixing at Madison Square Garden and The Hollywood Bowl at the age of 21 on Patto’s first U.S. tour with Joe Cocker.  Being at Woodstock with Traffic in 1994. Having the sudden full realisation at Dennis Locorriere’s first UK show of what an incredible performer he is.

The success of Vicki Brown as a recording and concert artist and the restructuring of Joe’s career to return him to theatres and making records.  Being privileged to be at The Concert For George representing Joe Brown & Jim Capaldi and the massive satisfaction of promoting and subsequent film, DVD and Audio releases of the Dear Mr Fantasy Concert rank among the highest.  To have subsequent to the Concert For George become involved with another of it’s great performers as Andy Fairweather Low’s manager is for him almost too much to have expected and although not a career matter he is proud to have been involved, following Vicki’s death, in the setting up of The Vicki Brown Huis (a Dutch charity inspired by Vicki’s example ) which counsels cancer patients, their families & friends.