Mike Gormley
Birth nameJohn Michael Gormley
Born (1945-08-03) August 3, 1945
OriginOttawa, Ontario, Canada
Occupation(s)Music Executive, Journalist, Talent Manager and Broadcaster
Years active1963–present
Websitelapersdev.com

Mike Gormley (John Michael Gormley born August 3, 1945) is a Canadian-American music executive, journalist, talent manager and broadcaster. He is best known as music executive for A&M Records, Polygram Records, music journalist for the Detroit Free Press, the Ottawa Journal, the Chicago Sun-Times, Billboard Magazine, Variety Magazine, Creem Magazine, talent manager for artists including The Bangles, Oingo Boingo, Concrete Blonde, Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, soundtrack composers, and as a radio show and podcast broadcaster.[1][2]

Early life

Gormley was born in Ottawa, Ontario. He attended school in the San Francisco Bay Area. He returned to Ottawa to attend Algonquin College and to write for The Journal.

Gormley played drums with the rock band The Pharaohs, the first band in North America to play Beatle songs in a live set .

Career

Journalism

Gormley was a weekly columnist and writer for The Ottawa Journal, covering The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, The Everly Bros, among others.

He then moved to the United States and became Feature Writer for The Detroit Free Press The Detroit Free Press. On a freelance basis he was a music journalist for the Chicago Sun Times, Billboard Magazine, Variety Magazine, Creem Magazine and others.[3][4]

Gormley was a writer for the daily newsletter published by editors of the Toronto Globe and Mail on behalf of Pierre Trudeau, then making his first run for head of the Liberal Party and Prime Minister of Canada.

Record executive and talent manager

Gormley was Director of Publicity, Mercury Records.[2][5][6] Gormley was on the promo team for Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Rush and Rod Stewart.[7][8]

As Phonogram Records director of publicity, Gormley hosted the reception given by the Canadian Consulate General and Phonogram Records to honor BTO on sales of over 1 million for their "Bachman-Turner Overdrive II" album.[9]

In 1977, Gormley became public relations consultant to the Polygram Record Group, overseeing corporate pr for Phonogram which consisted of Mercury Records, Polydor, Phonodisc. [10]

A&M Records

Gormley was the Vice President of Publicity and assistant to the Chairman, Jerry Moss, of A&M Records,[11] and became Vice President of Communications in 1980.[12]

The position covered publicity, press and TV coverage and use of videos for cable and network TV. Gil Friesen, the President of A&M, was quoted as saying "Mike has distinguished himself under fire and established our publicity department as an important marketing force...".[13]

In a Billboard story on Print and TV Interviews, Gormley was quoted as saying "Artists can be successful without press, but how long will their careers last? The image can make the career last."[14]

With Atlantic Records' Paul Cooper, Gormley co-moderated a panel of publicists, including Norman Winter, Michael Gershman, Dennis Fine, Bob Jones, and Howard Bloom on the effects of Bad Press.[15] Gormley has been a speaker on numerous panels including Billboard's International Talent Forum AGENDA.[16][17]

In 1983 Gormley joined with Miles Copeland, then manager of the rock band The Police to form the management company LA Personal Direction.  Gormley managed pop and rock bands including the Bangles, Oingo Boingo, Concrete Blonde, Wall of Voodoo and launched Danny Elfman's film composing career.[18][19][20][21]

As the first project in their soundtrack venture, James Newton Howard was set by Derek Power and Gormley to score Head Office, a Peter Guber-Jon Peters production via HBO Pictures in association with Silver Screen Partners.[22][23]

Gormley ran his label Wildcat Records.[24] In 1987, Gormley, Alan Somers and Miles Copeland formed the management company International Talent Bank, still continuing their with their company LAPD.[25] In 1996, Gormley was a speaker at Music West.[26]

Broadcasting

As radio show guest host and/or interviewer, Gormley's interviews include The Jeremiah Show with Roxanne Seeman Peter Asher Jeff "Skunk" Baxter and Quincy Coleman,[27][28] and LA Talk Radio podcasts with Paul Zollo and Danny Goldberg.[29]

References

  1. ↑ Inc, Nielsen Business Media (24 April 1971). Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. {{cite book}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  2. 1 2 McGee and Vallone, David and Mike (18 September 1976). "Dialogue, The viewpoints of the Industry" (PDF). Record World.
  3. ↑ "Rock's Backpages: Search Results". www.rocksbackpages.com. Retrieved 6 November 2021.
  4. ↑ Kubernik, Harvey (9 November 2015). Neil Young: Heart of Gold. Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-1-78323-579-7.
  5. ↑ "Writer Gormley named to Mercury post" (PDF). RPM. 5 May 1971.
  6. ↑ "Gormley Merc Publicty Head" (PDF). Record World. 24 April 1971.
  7. ↑ Gormley, Mike (22 November 1975). "Publicly with a Purpose Aids BTO". Bachman.
  8. ↑ "Magione hits jackpot with Toronto crowd" (PDF). RPM. 10 February 1971.
  9. ↑ "Juno recognition for BTO in U.S" (PDF). RPM Weekly. 15 June 1974.
  10. ↑ "Gormley to Polygram" (PDF). Record World. 10 December 1977.
  11. ↑ m/hd2/IDX-Business/Music/Archive-Record-World-IDX/IDX/70s/79/RW-1979-10-20-OCR-Page-0006.pdf#search=%22mike%20gormley%22 "A&M Names Gormley Asst. to the Chairman" (PDF). Record World. 20 October 1979. {{cite news}}: Check |url= value (help)
  12. ↑ "A&M Names Gormley Communications VP" (PDF). Record World. 14 June 1980.
  13. ↑ "New Vitality in Public Relations-Publicity" (PDF). Billboard. 3 February 1979. p. 10.
  14. ↑ "Talent Forum Report" (PDF). Billboard. 30 September 1978.
  15. ↑ "Publicists Mull Bad Press: Better Than None At All?" (PDF). Billboard. 6 October 1979.
  16. ↑ "Billboard's Interjational Talent Forum IV Agenda" (PDF). Billboard. 6 September 1978.
  17. ↑ "Gormley Names Communications VP for A&N Label" (PDF). Cash Box. 14 June 1980.
  18. ↑ Vare, Ethlie Ann. "Talent: LAPD: ARResting Management" (PDF). Billboard. p. 37.
  19. ↑ "Letterman's Paul Shaffer guests on Luba LP" (PDF). RPM. 9 October 1989.
  20. ↑ Grealis, Walt (20 April 1991). "Rita MacNeil - the top of the iceberg" (PDF). RPM.
  21. ↑ Alexander, Shawn (24 November 1995). "KSCA Hits Cume, 25-54 Benchmarks In Summer Book" (PDF). R&R.
  22. ↑ Berk, Peter (26 January 1985). "Copeland, Cahill Launch Separate Soundtrack Ventures" (PDF). Cashbox.
  23. ↑ Sutherland, Sam (12 July 1996). "Rising Artists Given Wider Soundtrack Role" (PDF). Billboard. p. 86.
  24. ↑ Borzillo, Carrie (8 April 1995). "Popular Uprisings. Billboard's Weekly Coverage of Hot ProspectsFor The Heatseekers Chart" (PDF). Billboard.
  25. ↑ "A&M Names Gormley Asst. to the Chairman" (PDF). Record World. 20 October 1979. p. 6.
  26. ↑ "Vancouver grabs industry attention with Music West" (PDF). RPM. 8 April 1996. p. 2.
  27. ↑ "The Jeremiah Show: SN. 6 | Ep225 - RADIO VERSION - Roxanne Seeman Interviewed by Mike Gormley on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. Retrieved 6 November 2021.
  28. ↑ "SN7 | Ep301 - Brian Chatton, Musician - Interviewed by Mike Gormley - The Jeremiah Show". iHeart. Retrieved 6 November 2021.
  29. ↑ "Accent On! - via Podcast Addict". Podcast Addict. Retrieved 6 November 2021.
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