VINCE POWER – Godfather of Gigs
Biography
In popular music throughout the 80s, 90s and 00’s, Vince Power put on everyone who mattered – as well as everyone who didn’t. A million bands. A billion fans. He is a live music legend.
Not bad going for a self-confessed Irish chancer who overcame absolute poverty to become pop music’s biggest promoter.
Vince Power was born in 1947 to a poor rural family, one of 11 children crammed into a small cottage in Kilmacthomas, County Waterford. His childhood, he says, “makes Angela’s Ashes look like good bedtime reading”.
Aged 15, Power turned down an agricultural college scholarship in artificial bull insemination and chose to try his luck on the streets of London.
For the first couple of years he held a string of odd-jobs in factories and department stores. But Power possesses an entrepreneurial energy, which soon surfaced when he started trading second-hand furniture.
The business quickly grew through the 1970s into a successful chain of north London shops. Yet furniture was just a way of funding the venture that was Power’s passion: live music.
A huge fan of country & western music, it was his long-standing ambition to open a honky-tonk bar like those in Nashville, Tennessee. And in 1982, that wish came true when he opened The Mean Fiddler in Harlesdon, North London.
The venue quickly gained a reputation for its Irish music nights, showcasing new bands such as The Pogues and Billy Bragg. Within five years The Mean Fiddler was staging high-profile gigs by superstars such as Roy Orbison, and Johnny Cash.
In the late 80s and early 90s, Power dynamically expanded his operations, snapping up venues and nightclubs across London, including the Astoria, the Garage, the Forum, the Jazz Café, the Stratford Rex, Subterrania and Powerhaus.
Within ten years, several major music festivals had been brought under the Mean Fiddler umbrella, including Fleadh, Reading, Leeds and Glastonbury.
That grubby little country & western club had burgeoned into sprawling £60m brand overseeing 8 music festivals, 14 live music venues, and umpteen clubs, restaurants and bars.
Under Power’s management, dead-beat clubs became hip celebrity hangouts, tired concert halls became a home for up-and-coming British bands, boring festivals became must-see spectaculars of the summer.
Power’s professionalism in event promotion came combined with a personal touch, which saw him have a hand in all levels of the business. From negotiating with artists to dealing with the council, health and safety, the police, right down to the t-shirt sellers, he’s always strived to put on the perfect show for the public.
“I love gatherings of people. It’s a great feeling. Sometimes, when I’m at Reading and see 50,000 people sitting on the grass… I get a sense of pride.”
In the last few years Power wound down his involvement in Mean Fiddler Plc. In 2005, he sold all his shares and parted with the company he founded.
Was that it for Vince Power? Had the band played its last note?
No way. The show must go on. Power doesn’t nap.
He didn’t become a £30m music magnate without possessing momentous drive and spirit. To a certain extent, Power cannot switch off. He so abhors the thought of slowing down, he once remarked: “I’ll retire when I’m six months dead.”
And so Vince Power is back at the roulette table, unveiling a smorgasbord of exciting new venues through a new venture called VPMG.
For a man with his record, listen out for the encore from the original Mean Fiddler. |
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POWER POINTS
Interests
• Taking his children (Father of eight, godfather to seven) to Highbury to watch his beloved Arsenal
• Driving his vintage 1970 Buick Skylark
• A flutter on this horses at his racecourse near his home time of Tramore, County Waterford.
• Contributing to children’s charities in Ireland and Bosnia.
Born April 27 1947, Kilmacthomas, County Waterford
Education Kilmacthomas primary school, Dungarvan Vocational College. Turned down scholarship to agricultural college
Career Woolworths assistant; labourer; demolition worker; owner of a chain of furniture shops in north London 1964-82; opened The Mean Fiddler Harlesden 1982 (Mean Fiddler Organisation became Mean Fiddler Music Gp plc 2001), retired as chairman 2004, retired as non-exec director 2005
Founder: Subterania 1989, The Jazz Cafe 1992, The Forum 1993, The Garage 1993, The Crossbar 1995, The Mean Fiddler Dublin 1995, Mean Fiddler 2000, Berkeley Square Cafe 2003
Promoter: Reading Festival 1989-2004, London Fleadh 1990-05, Phoenix Festival 1993-97, Fleadh New York 1997, Madstock 1992- 98, Neil Young 1993, Paul Weller 1996, Sex Pistols 1996, Jamiroquai 1997, operational manager Glastonbury Festival 2002-05
A list of some of the artists he’s worked with:
The Pogues
Dubliners
The Men They Couldn’t Hang
Lloyd Cole and the Commotions
Christy Moore
Paul Brady
Los Lobos
Billy Bragg
Nick cave
Prince
New Order
Erasure
Sting
Annie Lennox
The Pretenders
Echo and the Bunnymen
Madness
The Velvet Underground
Iggy Pop
Pearl Jam
Dinosaur Jr.,
The Mission
Sugarcubes
The Wonder Stuff
Crowded House
Eric Clapton
Make Knopfler
Paul Weller
Johnny Cash
Roy Orbison
Van Morrison
Bob Dylan
The Rolling Stones
Neil Young
David Bowie
John L Hooker
Oasis
Blur
Stone Roses
Beck
REM
Stereophonics
Primal Scream
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Radiohead
Pulp
Elastica
Supergrass
Jamiroquai
Suede
Ice-T
The Fugees
Arrested Development
Gil Scot-Heron
Courtney Pine
Mica Paris
Run DMC
Eminem
Roots Manuva
De La Soul
Public Enemy
Red Hot Chilli Peppers
The Cult
Faith No More
Black Crowes
Sonic Youth
Pearl Jam
The Offspring
Marilyn Manson
Green Day
Foo Fighters
Metallica
Orbital
Prodigy
Moby
Bjork
The Chemical Brothers
Leftfield
Fat Boy Slim
Nitin Sawney
Kylie
Travis
Royksopp
Air
The Stokes
The White Stripes
The Streets
Destiny’s Child
Usher
Justin Timberlake |
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