Born on 4 March 1946 to a Jewish family in Edgware, Middlesex, Goldsmith started out as a pharmacy student in Brighton, East Sussex[4] where he founded Club 66, a successful weekly student livemusic venue and organized larger events at the Brighton Metropole. Goldsmith's first big break in the world of music promotion came with founding the popular 'Garden Party' festivals at Crystal Palace Bowl, which started in 1971 and ran annually until 1980. A decade later the scale of many popular concerts had increased and moved to larger stadiums and had established Wembley Stadium as a major venue for the top artists of the world. In 1975, he was the promoter behind the Loftus Road Concert at Queens Park Rangers' Stadium for Yes when they toured to promote their Relayer album.
In 1985, Goldsmith organised Live Aid with Bob Geldof. This raised £140 million within ten weeks. Live Aid was the first ever "Global Juke Box", featuring two near-simultaneous concerts, one at Wembley Stadium in the UK and JFK Stadium in the U.S. Over 60 countries showed the 17-hour event live on television.
Following the success of Live Aid, Goldsmith became involved with concerts in aid of human rights including a worldwide Amnesty Tour. He joined The Prince's Trust in 1982 and produced the first Prince's Trust Rock Gala. Goldsmith then became a member of The Prince's Trust Board and Vice Chairman of Prince's Trust Trading Ltd.[4]
In 1986, he promotedLuciano Pavarotti at Wembley Arena. Because of Goldsmith's expertise in staging charity events his company Harvey Goldsmith Artiste Management productions was brought in as executive producers of the 1990 live performance of Pink Floyd's The Wall broadcast from Berlin. Due to the success of these concerts, Pavarotti agreed to perform at a free concert in Hyde Park organised by Goldsmith in 1991. This concert was part of Pavarotti's 30th anniversary celebrations and attracted 125,000 people.[5]
In 1992 Goldsmith organised The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert to increase AIDS awareness and this was a live TV success. In the same year he became chairman of the first National Music Day (UK), which was instigated to promote the importance of music in UK.[6] Goldsmith arranged a programme of 1,500 musical events nationwide, in many musical styles. Goldsmith persuaded Pavarotti to return and perform again in UK at Leeds Castle in Kent during 1993.
In 1994 and on behalf of The Prince of Wales and President Havel of the Czech Republic, Goldsmith was appointed Executive Producer of The Prague Heritage Fund Gala Classical Concert. This concert featured Sir Georg Solti, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Murray Perahia and Gabriela Beňačková and was broadcast worldwide.The same year, he co-promoted the SummerSlamwrestling show at Wembley Stadium with the World Wrestling Federation. During the same year Goldsmith began working with Cirque du Soleil. This became one of the most successful shows to perform in the UK, returning to London's Royal Albert Hall on a regular basis. The show was seen by 183,000 people it's popularitty was refelcted by a high ticket sale. In 2005 Goldsmith managed the show simultaneously in London, Birmingham and Manchester. This marked the first time in Europe that there were three different productions in the same country.
In October 2002 Goldsmith promoted Bruce Springsteen at Wembley Arena and tickets for this show sold out in forty minutes, making it one of his most successful promotions. This was followed by three sellout stadium shows in May 2003. In November 2006 Goldsmith produced the UK Arena dates of Springsteen's sell-out tour with the Seeger Sessions band.
In January 2006 Goldsmith was awarded the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres from the French Minister of Culture. He presented the dance spectacular The Merchants of Bollywood. This was the first Bollywood production to tour straight from Film City in Mumbai. Goldsmith was honoured with the 15th Music Industry Trust's Award in October 2006, one of the highest accolades to be awarded in the music industry. this was in recognition of his contribution to the music industry.[8] In the same year Midem (Marché International du Disque et de l'Edition Musicale) the world's largest music industry trade fair honoured The Live Aid founders and Live 8 producers Goldsmith, Bob Geldof and John Kennedy OBE with the Midem Personality of the Year Award. This award was awarded in recognition of their outstanding work in bringing the music industry together to raidse money and to raise money to help alleviate poverty and famine in Africa. It was the first time in the 17-year history of Midem that this accolade was awarded to more than one person.[9] In 2007 he promoted a six-month European tour of The Merchants of Bollywood.[4][failed verification]
In May and June 2008 Goldsmith brought Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band back to the UK. They played at Manchester Old Trafford Stadium, London Emirates Stadium and Cardiff Millennium Stadium. This was the first concert ever held at the Emirates Football Stadium. In October 2008 Goldsmith produced Salute Petra, the official tribute concert to the life of Luciano Pavarotti, held in Petra, Jordan under the patronage of Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein. The tribute featured artists from the world of opera such as Angela Gheorghiu, Andrea Bocelli, José Carreras, and Plácido Domingo, and pop artists such as Sting, Zucchero, and Laura Pausini. The concert was filmed and released on DVD which were sold to raise money for the United Nations Fund for Refugees. In November 2008 Goldsmith was honoured with the Armand de Brignac V.I.P Award from Classic Rock Magazine and he was also given the award for Event of the Year (Led Zeppelin concert at the O2 Arena in honour of Ahmet Ertegun). In December 2008 Goldsmith took over the management of Jeff Beck after meeting him at the Classic Rock Awards. The National Outdoor Events Association presented Goldsmith with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Outdoor Events Industry in February 2009.
Goldsmith is chairman of the foundation of The British Music Experience which opened at the O2 Arena in March 2009. The B.M.E is a registered charity and is the U.K's museum of music history, with the purpose to advance the education and appreciation of the art, history and science of music in Britain. It helped over 14,000 students in the last year[clarification needed] and administered over £140,000 in education grants for the local community. In September 2009 Goldsmith produced the Tower Festival in the Tower of London which ran for ten days. He then promoted The Last Night of the Poms[10] starring Dame Edna and Sir Les Patterson, which went on tour around the U.K reviving the show from twenty eight years before. In a busy year Goldsmith produced Andrea Bocelli's U.K tour in conjunction with Kilimanjaro and the first concert tour by Yusuf (formerly known as Cat Stevens) in thirty years. Yusuf's tour ended with a show at the Royal Albert Hall, which featured a preview section of Yusuf's new musical Moonshadow.
2010 saw the release of Jeff Beck's first studio album in over six years. In support of this album, entitled Emotion & Commotion Beck embarked on a tour of Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, the U.S and Europe. Goldsmith also reassembled legendary rock band Faces to perform a handful of U.K dates. In April 2010 Goldsmith was honoured as the International Music Person of the Year for his outstanding contributions to the Music Industry at the Musexpo by the City of West Hollywood.
Goldsmith promoted a concert at the beginning of 2011 for the charity Killing Cancer with a lineup of artists including Richard Ashcroft, Bryan Adams, Jeff Beck, Debbie Harry and the Who. In February 2011 Goldsmith produced City Rocks, which was in support of the Lord Mayor's Appeal,[11] attended by the Lord Mayor of London, Alderman Michael Bear and the Lady Mayoress, Barbara Bear. City Rocks was the first major rock concert held in the city of London. In recognition of his outstanding contribution to the institution's music education, Goldsmith was awarded an honorary fellowship from Ravensbourne. In September 2011. Goldsmith chaired the judges panel for the Editorial Intelligence Awards in October 2011 and became a board member. The Lord Mayor of London honoured Goldsmith with the Freedom of the City in November 2011. In December 2011, Goldsmith was named 100 Club's most influential person in the events business. In the same year he also became the chairman of Ignite.
As part of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations in May 2012, Goldsmith received The Diamond Award for his contribution to The Arts.[citation needed]. During July 2012, the University of Brighton presented Goldsmith with an honorary degree of Doctor of Arts.[citation needed]
In 2017, Goldsmith staged a world tour for film music composer Hans Zimmer. Concerts featured themes from Gladiator, Interstellar, The Da Vinci Code, Pirates of the Caribbean, Sherlock Holmes, The Dark Knight Trilogy, The Lion King, Crimson Tide, Inception, Rain Man, and Driving Miss Daisy.
Promotion companies
In 1973 he formed Artiste Management Productions Limited, to produce and manage artists in the music industry.[4][failed verification]
In 1976 Harvey Goldsmith Entertainments Limited was formed, which became the UK's leading promoter of concerts and events.[4][failed verification]
In 2002 Harvey Goldsmith Productions was formed to carry on the legacy of leading concert and events promotions.[13][full citation needed]
Related Research Articles
Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1970 by Freddie Mercury, Brian May, and Roger Taylor, later joined by John Deacon (bass). Their earliest works were influenced by progressive rock, hard rock and heavy metal, but the band gradually ventured into more conventional and radio-friendly works by incorporating further styles, such as arena rock and pop rock.
Live Aid was a two-venue benefit concert and music-based fundraising initiative held on Saturday, 13 July 1985. The event was organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise further funds for relief of the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia, a movement that started with the release of the successful charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in December 1984. Billed as the "global jukebox", Live Aid was held simultaneously at Wembley Stadium in London, and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia.
The former Wembley Stadium was a football stadium in Wembley, London, best known for hosting important football matches. It stood on the same site now occupied by its successor and by its predecessor, Watkin's Tower.
Wembley Arena (originally the Empire Pool, now known as OVO Arena Wembley for sponsorship reasons) is an indoor arena next to Wembley Stadium in Wembley, London, England. The 12,500-seat facility is London's second-largest indoor arena after the O2 Arena, and the ninth-largest in the United Kingdom.
John Kennedy is a British entertainment lawyer whose career has been largely in the record industry.
The Three Tenors were an operatic singing trio, active between 1990 and 2003, and termed a supergroup consisting of Italian Luciano Pavarotti and Spaniards Plácido Domingo and José Carreras. The trio began their collaboration with a performance at the ancient Baths of Caracalla in Rome, Italy, on 7 July 1990, the eve of the 1990 FIFA World Cup final, watched by a global television audience of around 800 million. The image of three tenors in formal evening dress singing in a World Cup concert captivated the global audience. The recording of this debut concert became the best-selling classical album of all time and led to additional performances and live albums. They performed to a global television audience at three further World Cup Finals: 1994 in Los Angeles, 1998 in Paris, and 2002 in Yokohama. They also toured other cities around the world, usually performing in stadiums or similar large arenas to huge audiences. They last performed together at Schottenstein Center in Columbus, Ohio, on 28 September 2003.
Adelmo Fornaciari, more commonly known by his stage name Zucchero Fornaciari or simply Zucchero, is an Italian singer, musician and songwriter. His stage name is the Italian word for "sugar", as his primary school teacher used to call him. His music is largely inspired by gospel, soul, blues and rock music, and alternates between Italian ballads and more rhythmic R&B-boogie-like pieces. He is credited as the "father of Italian blues", introducing blues to the big stage in Italy. He is one of the few European blues artists who still enjoys great international success.
Wembley Park is a district of the London Borough of Brent, England. It is roughly centred on Bridge Road, a mile northeast of Wembley town centre and 7.6 miles (12 km) northwest from Charing Cross.
Philip "Spike" Edney is an English musician who has performed with a number of bands since the 1970s, most notably with Queen in their live concerts since 1984.
Denis O'Regan is an English photographer. His imagery is particularly associated with the punk movement, Queen, David Bowie, and Duran Duran, and O'Regan has photographed everyone from AC/DC to ZZ Top, documenting Punk, New Romanticism, Grunge, and Heavy Metal along the way. O'Regan has undertaken many European, US, and World tours, worked as official photographer at Live Aid and the Concert For Diana, and travelled as official photographer to David Bowie, Duran Duran, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Queen, Kiss, Europe, Neil Diamond, Bee Gees, Pink Floyd and Thin Lizzy. His work has been widely published and exhibited. He has photographed David Bowie and Duran Duran more than any other photographer, covering over 200 concerts around the world by the former. In 2021, O'Regan was appointed as the first ever Artist In Residence at London's Royal Albert Hall.
A benefit concert or charity concert is a type of musical benefit performance featuring musicians, comedians, or other performers that is held for a charitable purpose, often directed at a specific and immediate humanitarian crisis.
"I Don't Like Mondays" is a song by Irish new wave group the Boomtown Rats about the Cleveland Elementary School shooting in San Diego. It was released in 1979 as the lead single from their third album, The Fine Art of Surfacing. The song was a number-one single in the UK Singles Chart for four weeks during the summer of 1979, and ranks as the sixth-biggest hit of the UK in 1979. Written by Bob Geldof and Johnnie Fingers, the piano ballad was the band's second single to reach number one on the UK chart.
Live Earth was a one-off event developed to combat climate change. The first series of benefit concerts were held on July 7, 2007. The concerts brought together more than 150 musical acts in twelve locations around the world which were broadcast to a mass global audience through televisions, radio, and streamed via the Internet. It was "unclear" where ticket proceeds from ticket sales went towards.
Loren Gold is an American keyboardist, vocalist, music director, and songwriter. Gold is a keyboardist and vocalist for the Who and Chicago. In addition, Gold has been the touring keyboardist and backup vocalist for Roger Daltrey since 2009. Gold also performs with Rita Wilson and has toured regularly with Don Felder since 2009. Other artists he has toured with include Kenny Loggins, Natalie Maines, and American Idol winner Taylor Hicks. Gold has been musical director for pop stars Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato, and Hilary Duff, and he continues to build and develop bands for other artists. Gold has published two instructional books through his collaboration with Alfred Music, and his original compositions have been featured on HBO and Showtime.
The Billboard Live Music Awards is an annual meeting sponsored by Billboard magazine that honors the top international live entertainment industry artists and professionals. Established in 2004, it has thus been described as "part industry conference, part awards show".
The Human Rights Concerts is the collective name informally used to describe the series of 28 rock concerts presented worldwide 1986-1998 to raise funds for and awareness of the human rights organization Amnesty International.
The Battle Born World Tour is the fourth major concert tour by American rock band The Killers, in support of their fourth studio album Battle Born, which was released in September 2012. The tour included the band's biggest show to date at Wembley Stadium. It also saw them visit new territories including Russia, Ukraine, China and South East Asia. The tour was the 43rd highest grossing worldwide during 2013.
Rob Hallett is the CEO and founder of Robomagic. Hallett founded the AEG UK office in 2005 and worked for ten years as the head of international touring. Hallett has also been a festival programmer, tour manager, music publisher, record label managing director, recording studio owner, and artist manager. He appeared in the Evening Standard's Top 5 in Music in 2007, and was listed in the top 100 most powerful people in music by The Guardian in 2011.
Just For One Day is a jukebox musical with a book by John O'Farrell. Told through a modern-day perspective, Just For One Day retells the events leading up to Live Aid, the 1985 benefit concert organized by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise awareness and funds for the famine in Ethiopia. While the primary events leading to the concert are based on real events, the musical's narrative incorporates fictionalized sub-plots. The title of the musical is named after a line in "Heroes", a song by David Bowie that he performed at the event.
↑ "The Gazette". The Gazette. 14 June 1996. Retrieved 25 July 2020Recorded in The Gazette (London Gazette), issue 54427, 14 June 1996{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
