The walls of Barrie Marshall’s office reflect his standing as one of rock’s top concert promoters. There are posters and plaques marking landmark shows by acts such as Paul McCartney, Tina Turner, Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonder, Bon Jovi, Whitney Houston, P!NK and the Spice Girls.

But there is one item of gig memorabilia which really underlines his reputation as a hands-on promoter. It is The Golden Mop, which was presented to Barrie by Paul and Linda McCartney, during their 1989-90 World Tour, for services above and beyond the call of duty.

The story goes that Barrie was backstage at several different venues in America when he discovered that the portacabin dressing rooms were in a particularly filthy state.

The site cleaners were nowhere to be found, so Barrie decided to solve the problem personally,” recalls Mark Hamilton of Rock Steady, who co-ordinated security on the tour. “He swept rubbish out of the portacabins, then washed them out with a mop and bucket. One night, Paul and Linda arrived early and caught him at it and couldn’t believe what they were seeing. Later the McCartneys commemorated the occasion by presenting Barrie with The Golden Mop. It hangs proudly in his office to this day.”

Such stories about Marshall, who founded Marshall Arts in 1976 with a staff of six people in a tiny office in Upper Street, Islington, are many and various and in some cases near legendary.

“In 2004, Paul McCartney was appearing in Prague and the venue was on a site adjacent to a former Communist car plant on the outskirts of the city,” continues Hamilton. “On show day, there had been torrential rain and the conditions underfoot for everybody, audience and crew alike, were treacherous. There were real safety fears.”

Marshall apparently took it upon himself to remedy the situation and make all the roads and pathways a little more solid.

“When we arrived on site there was Barrie – in wellington boots and with a shovel in his hand – directing trucks unloading tons of hard-core. There were mini-road rollers driving up and down flattening the ground with Barrie supervising operations. “

Marshall’s delicate negotiating skills were also called upon earlier during that same tour. He arrived in Moscow to find that the sightlines outside St Basil’s Cathedral on Red Square were substantially obscured by scaffolding which needed the agreement of the city council before it could be taken down. In Rome, on the other hand, he came under severe pressure from the Vatican who feared that the ageing Pope John Paul II would be kept awake by the noise drifting across from McCartney’s free show next to the Coliseum.

In an unusually diplomatic statement, which was quoted in media all over the world, Marshall said, “Obviously we do not want to cause any offence or sleeplessness to His Holiness and… we are now considering our position on performing loud rock songs.”

Whether McCartney actually turned down the volume on the night in question is unknown. But the show most certainly went on.

There is no doubt then that Barrie Marshall is one of the most hands on and hardest working concert promoters in the business. Indeed everybody who has ever worked with him or for him says he is unique in that respect. And if it is attention to detail which is Marshall’s real calling card, then that is a skill which he has picked up painstakingly during a music industry career which has lasted over 40 years.

By his own admission, Marshall became a booking agent and promoter by default, when, in 1965, he quit a career training to be a civil engineer to join Arthur Howes Limited, which promoted nationwide tours for many of the top acts of the day, such as The Beatles, The Kinks, Status Quo and Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Titch.

As pop gave way to rock, Barrie Marshall too moved with the times and was soon managing Welsh progressive rock band Man, representing them for very nearly 10 years and 11 albums with United Artists and A&M labels, during which time they toured the UK, Europe and North America almost incessantly.

But that all ended just as Punk began to explode in 1976 and, like many of his peers, Marshall took the opportunity to strike out seriously on his own and become a promoter himself. And so Marshall Arts was formed.

But where others zigged, Marshall zagged and turned his attention primarily not to the new and fashionable punk rock sound but to those classier soul and R &B rhythms which were frequently overlooked by the media at large, but which enjoyed large and loyal fanbases. As a result, Marshall Arts soon built up an enviable roster of top quality black music acts which included The Commodores, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson and The Gap Band. He also developed a client list of jazz-based artists such as Al Jarreau, David Sanborn, John McLaughlin, Leo Kottke and the world’s foremost Flamenco guitarist, Paco de Lucia.

“Luckily, I loved that kind of music, so it was a great area for me to work in,” he says now.

To this day, one of the secrets of Marshall Arts’ global success is its ability to spot and develop new opportunities ahead of its competitors. Among many such triumphs was a series of spectacular Bollywood productions, headlined by Amitabh Bachchan and featuring some of the top artists and musicians from the Indian film world as well as elephants, horses and motorcycles. That climaxed with a September 1990 concert at Wembley Stadium, the first all-seated music event to take place there.
That same year, he became the first promoter for nearly 15 years to stage shows at Woburn Abbey when he presented first Tina Turner and then, two years later, Dire Straits to sell out open air crowds. In the summer of 1999, he presented the inaugural concert by Rod Stewart at the refurbished Hampden Park in Glasgow, which was a defining moment in football-daft Rod’s career as he graced the same hallowed turf as Scotland heroes Jim Baxter, Billy Bremner and Kenny Dalglish. Later that same year, Marshall helped Lionel Richie fulfill a lifelong ambition with a stunning gig in front of the Pyramids at Giza, Egypt.
Likewise, it was Barrie Marshall who jumped the highest in 2002 when Elton John’s production manager Keith Bradley suggested undertaking a set of solo – “one man and his piano” dates at stately homes such as Leeds Castle in Kent and Harewood House in Leeds. Since then they have moved the concept on and, in a bid to take his music to the people and play venues which are off-the-beaten circuit, Elton’s summer months for the last two years have been spent visiting football clubs and cricket clubs as far afield as Aberdeen and Taunton.
Meanwhile, his keen eye (and ear) for grass-roots acts has earned Marshall and his company a reputation for developing new talent. As such, Marshall Arts can justifiably claim to have been in there on the “ground floor” and been instrumental in turning such as The Backstreet Boys, R Kelly, Destiny’s Child and Curtis Stigers from young hopefuls into top box office attractions.

Nevertheless, big is still beautiful for Barrie Marshall, who has played his part in plenty of historic shows. And they don’t come much bigger than the June 1988 tribute concert which he co-promoted with Tony Hollingsworth to celebrate Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday at Wembley Stadium.

Mandela was still incarcerated in Robben Island and there were no signs that the South African apartheid regime was contemplating a release for the man who would ultimately become the country’s first black President. Just like Live Aid three years before, the Mandela concert snowballed from a political statement initiated by former Specials Jerry Dammers into the hottest ticket in town and televised live by the BBC. An estimated 15m people tuned in to see Whitney Houston, Simple Minds, Dire Straits, Stevie Wonder, George Michael, Natalie Cole plus many others.

Another historic gig in the Marshall Arts annals was Paul McCartney’s appearance at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro

in Brazil in April 1990, which set a world record for stadium attendances when it attracted an audience of 184,000 fans. “I don’t think that will ever be repeated,” says Marshall. “We never stopped checking every detail – no matter how minor. It’s got to be like that when you’re dealing with an audience of 184,000.”

The knowledge that their fortunes will be in such capable hands has been one of the factors which has attracted some of the biggest names in music to the Marshall Arts fold. Indeed, the names on the company’s gig lists read like a Who’s Who of Rock and Pop over the past 30 years; Paul McCartney, Rod Stewart, Elton John, Bon Jovi, Dire Straits, Pink, Lionel Richie, Sting, Stevie Wonder, Joe Cocker, Tony Bennett, Janet Jackson, Garth Brooks, Reba McIntire, and Eurythmics. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Along the way, Simon Fuller and 19 Management approached Marshall to help launch The Spice Girls on an eager British concert going public swept up in a tidal wave of “girl power”, and has presented Italian singer Eros Ramazzoti as well as operatic star Andrea Bocelli during the success of Time To Say Goodbye with Sarah Brightman. He is now also involved with the management of new tenor star Mario Frangoulis.

But Marshall and his team are not just big players in a small pond, they are competitors on a world stage. In 1998 Marshall was nominated as International Promoter of the Year by US touring magazine Pollstar and in 1999 entered Marshall Arts into a strategic partnership with DEAG – the German live entertainment services group – taking a seat on its newly created International Strategy Board. Following the conclusion of that agreement earlier this year, Marshall Arts promptly inked a pact with AEG, the US promoter and owner of London’s O2 (the renamed Millennium Dome) which not only provides significant financial backing and enhanced access to North American markets but allows the company to continue operating under its own name and at its own speed.

But if we’re looking for one factor which has sustained Marshall’s career, it is his ability to form long and lasting relationships with his artists and their managers. It was in 1978, then, that he first took on Tina Turner – and her new manager Roger Davies – who was relaunching as a solo performer following the dissolution of her marriage and business commitments to guitarist and band leader husband Ike.

For very nearly eight years, with few records in the charts to attract the crowds, Marshall worked tirelessly to promote and co-ordinate a series of gruelling European tours for Turner which laid the groundwork for success which must have seemed forever just round the corner but always just out of reach. When it finally came in 1985 – with the platinum-selling What’s Love Got To Do With It? – and Turner, Davies and Marshall were ready to reap the benefits of all that hard graft. First there was the Private Dancer tour, on which Turner was supported by an up-and-coming Canadian Bryan Adams, followed by the 1987 Break Every Rule Tour, which broke box office records throughout Europe. By the time Marshall Arts was presenting Tina Turner at Wembley Stadium in 1996, she had become one of the decade’s true superstars.

Barrie Marshall Embraces Tina Turner who has just picked up her 1st Silver Disc as a solo artist for “Let’s Stay Together”.

It should, therefore, come as no surprise then to learn that Roger Davies is still one of Barrie Marshall’s key clients (as well as being a close friend) and that Marshall Arts remains Davies’ promoter of choice when it comes to touring other acts in his stable of stars such as Cher, Sade and Joe Cocker. Indeed, Davies’ youngest protege Pink recently completed a 56-date European arena tour which included five major shows in Scotland – at Aberdeen Exhibition Centre and Glasgow’s SECC – to a total of 46,000 fans. There are no prizes for guessing who presented them.

Another bond forged in rock’n’roll heaven has been between Marshall and another of the music industry’s most iconic figures – Paul McCartney – which lasts to this day. In 1989, the former Beatles bass player decided to go back on the road as a solo artist and asked Marshall Arts to fix up some dates. Those dates ended up as a world tour of 102 concerts in 13 countries playing to an aggregate audience of more than 3m people.

Of course, avenues can open for a former Moptop that might stay closed off for anybody else. And Barrie Marshall has not been reluctant to take advantage of that fact. So it was in 1990 that he persuaded Liverpool City Council to allow him to build a special arena in Liverpool Docks in which to stage Paul McCartney’s triumphant homecoming gig since there was no existing venue on Merseyside big enough to accommodate his audience. Similarly there were those in the classical world who laughed behind their hands at the idea of a McCartney penned symphony. But that didn’t prevent Marshall hiring the Royal Albert Hall in 1997 to stage the world premiere of Paul McCartney’s epic orchestral work Standing Stone. The concert was an outstanding success as its album reached number one in the UK classical charts.

Thus it was entirely fitting that, following the tragic death of Linda McCartney of breast cancer in 1998, Marshall was the promoter Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders turned to in order to help organise a memorial concert. It took place at the Royal Albert Hall in April 1999 and the star-studded cast, which included George Michael, Sinead O’Connor, Elvis Costello, Tom Jones and Ladysmith Black Mambazo, made sure it was a truly emotional evening and a fitting tribute.

And then there is Lionel Richie, who is possibly Marshall Arts’ longest serving artist. The company first promoted shows with him as a member of the Commodores in 1978 and has done every European tour since he went solo in 1987. As skilled a raconteur as he is a singer-songwriter, Richie and Barrie Marshall now enjoy the sort of close relationship where, says Jenny Marshall, “they laugh all the time.” And that’s to the bank and back, as Lionel Richie’s regular forays into the European market invariably come in batches of 30 and 40 arena shows a time, averaging 15,000 people a night.

Moving well into the new millennium, Barrie Marshall’s nose for new talent was focused on Katie Melua in 2004 and it was he and her manager Mike Batt who put together the intensive concert tour which helped her consolidate the chart success of The Closest Thing To Crazy, and establish herself as the biggest new female star in Britain that year with 1.5m sales of her debut album, Call Off The Search. And with those Pink shows and George Michael touring again for the first time in 15 years, 2006 has been another year to remember too.

So what lies ahead for Barrie and the hard working 14 strong team at Marshall Arts. Plans for 2007 have already been carefully drawn up, of course. They include Lionel Richie’s biggest European tour to date, as well as the third UK jaunt by Fame Academy graduate Lemar.

Having celebrated their 30th anniversary, it will be back to business as usual. But today, as this issue of Music Week comes out, Barrie Marshall will be at Wembley Arena for the first of George Michael’s eagerly awaited dates there.

So if you see him with a mop or a shovel in hand – don’t panic. It’s just Barrie Marshall doing his job.

Marshall Arts would like to thank MUSIC WEEK for the use of their article which appeared in Music Week December 2006, written by Billy Sloan & Chas de Whalley. Billy Sloan is showbusiness editor of The Sunday Mail and presents a weekly “new music” radio show on Clyde 1FM.