Glenn Wheatley
Glenn
Wheatley (born 1948) is an Australian artist manager
and entertainment industry executive, who began his
career as a musician in Brisbane in the mid-1960s
and in the late 1960s became nationally famous as
a member of leading pop-rock band The Masters Apprentices.
Wheatley's
first significant foray into music was as guitarist
in the Brisbane pop band Bay City Union, which was
fronted by singer Matt Taylor, who later achieved
considerable fame in Australia as the lead singer
of pioneering Australian electric blues band Chain.
In
early 1968 Wheatley was hired as the bass player in
a new lineup of the Melbourne-based pop-rock band
The Masters Apprentices, then one of Australia's most
popular groups. Wheatley's four-year tenure with the
group, which lasted until shortly before their demise
in 1972, included the recording of many of their most
successful songs including the hit singles "Turn
Up Your Radio" (1970) and "Because I Love
You" (1971), and the acclaimed 1971 LP Choice
Cuts, which was recorded at Abbey Road Studios in
London.
It
was during Wheatley's tenure in the Masters that he
learned at first hand about the highly exploitative
nature of the Australian pop industry at that time.
The band endured many "rip-offs" and in
their later career they suffered greatly from poor
management decisions and inadequate support from their
record labels, problems which eventually led to the
group's demise in 1972.
According
to Wheatley's memoir, a key incident took place in
late 1969 when the Masters took part in a nationwide
package tour, "Operation Starlift". The
concert at Brisbane Festival Hall, drew a then record
crowd of over 7000 people, breaking the venue's previous
attendance record set by The
Beatles in 1964. After the concert Wheatley reflected
on the event, and it became the turning point in his
life and career, because it finally drove home just
how badly the group were being ripped off.
Wheatley
knew that patrons had paid AU$5 per ticket, so the
receipts for the night would have been around AU$35,000,
but the Masters Apprentices, like all the other acts,
were on a fixed fee and received a mere $200 for the
show; even the top-billed act John Farnham probably
only earned about $1000. Figuring that the performers
were probably only paid about AU$2000 in total, Wheatley
realised that the promoters had walked away with upwards
of AU$30,000 for that concert alone.
Tired
of their ongoing management problems, in late 1969
the band sacked their manager of the time, Darryl
Sambell (who also managed Farnham) and Wheatley took
over day-to-day business affairs and bookings. The
group also set up its own Melbourne-based booking
agency, Drum, which soon boasted a roster of several
dozen local groups, as well as promoting several international
tours.
After
winning a national talent contest, the Hoaldey's Battle
of the Sounds, the group was able to use their prize
-- free passage to the UK on a cruise liner -- to
travel to England in early 1970. There they recorded
two highly-regarded LPs, but lack of commercial success,
limited work opportunities and continuing financial
problems eventually led to their break-up 1972.
Wheatley
remained in the UK for some time before moving to
the United States. During this period he worked for
various management and booking agencies, learning
the intricacies of management and agency work, contract
negotiations and tour promotions.
In
1975 he set up The Wheatley Organisation and became
the manager of a new Australian 'supergroup', Little
River Band (LRB), which comprised former members of
several leading Australian pop bands of the Sixties
and early Seventies. After establishing themselves
in Australia, Wheatley boldy took the band to the
United States, having learned first-hand of the futility
of trying to break into the insular English music
scene, where scores of other Australia bands had tried
and failed to gain a foothold, with only The Seekers
achieving any ongoing success.
Thanks
to Wheatley's contacts, experience and skill, as well
as the redoubtable talent of the band itself, LRB
became the first Australian band to achieve major
and lasting chart and sales success in America, and
under his guidance they became by far the most successful
Australian band of the period.
After
the split of LRB in the mid-1980s, Wheatley returned
to Australia and began managing an old friend, singer
John Farnham, who had been a leading star in the 1960s
but was now reduced to playing suburban club gigs.
Once again, Wheatley's skill and perseverance paid
off; he mortgaged his own house to help pay for the
recording of Farnham's 1986 "comeback" LP
Whispering Jack, and the gamble paid off handsomely
-- it re-established Farnham as major singing star
and the record became (and remains) the biggest-selling
Australian album of all time.
Wheatley
became involved in FM radio broadcasting in 1980 when
he was a founding director of Melbourne based EON-FM
(now 3MMM FM). In 1987 he negotiated a series of acquisitions
which resulted in the formation of Hoyts Media, a
national FM radio network and from 1987 to 1989 he
was managing director of Hoyts Media before resigning
to pursue other business interests. He founded the
artist agency TalentWorks in 1996, focusing on artist
and sports management, music recording and publishing,
tour promotion and event management.
Wheatley
has been presented with the Advance Australia Award
for Outstanding Contribution in the Entertainment
Industry and was the recipient of the 1988 Business
Review Weekly Australia's Business Award for Marketing.
He has been a director and part owner of the Sydney
Swans Football Club, and a board member of AUSMUSIC,
Tourism Task Force (promoting Australia as a tourist
destination) and the AIDS Trust of Australia.
In
1998 the Masters Apprentices were inducted into the
ARIA Hall Of Fame. In the same year, Wheatley reached
another milestone in his career, with a hugely successful
trio tour, "The Main Event" that starred
Farnham, Olivia Newton-John and Anthony Warlow. The
live album recorded at the Melbourne concert went
on to become a multi-platinium seller and a televised
recording of the show was the most watched Australian
television show of the year.
In
1999 Wheatley he published his autobiography, Paper
Paradise, which was based in part on a ribald memoir
he had begun during his stint in The Masters, entitled
"Who The Hell Is Judy In Sydney?".
In
2002 Wheatley promoted Farnham's last major nationawide
tour, entitled "The Last Time"; which was
said to be the largest tour ever mounted by an Australian
artist, beginning in November with the capital cities
and ending in June 2003 with a tent tour of regional
cities and towns.
Shorlty
after the eight-month tour, Wheatley made an appearance
at the 2003 ARIA Awards in Sydney to induct John Farnham
into the ARIA Hall Of Fame.
Wheatley
also managed Australian female "soapie"
actress and singer Delta Goodrem, helping her to achieve
major success, but Goodrem
split with Wheatley under acrimonious circumstances
in 2003. (Credit:
Wikipedia)
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