 |
Nigel Martin-Smith | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Manchester, England |
| Occupation | Band manager |
| Website | www |
Nigel Martin-Smith is a Manchester-based English musical band manager.
|
Nigel Martin-Smith | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Manchester, England |
| Occupation | Band manager |
| Website | www |
Nigel Martin-Smith is a Manchester-based English musical band manager.
Martin-Smith entered the entertainment industry in the early 1980s working as a casting agent from offices in Manchester's Royal Exchange. From there, he challenged the "London-centric" attitude of many in the business, championing the cause of local talent and establishing many actors in film and television. His first success in the music industry was the artist Damian who had a UK top 10 hit with a cover of "The Time Warp" in 1989. He also ran the Film Artist Agency at Half Moon Chambers in Manchester.
In 1989, Martin-Smith sought to create a British male vocal singing group, a campaign to audition men who could sing and dance, led to auditions in Manchester, where Gary Barlow, Mark Owen, Robbie Williams, Howard Donald and Jason Orange were selected to form the group ‘Kick-It’ who then changed their name to Take That. [1]
Take That sold 19 million records (9 million albums and 10 million singles) between 1990 and 1996. Between the band's first single release in 1991 and their break-up in 1996, the BBC described Take That as "the most successful British band since The Beatles in the UK, beloved of young and old alike". [2] Take That's dance-oriented pop tunes and ballads dominated the UK charts in the first half of the 1990s, spawning two of the best selling albums of the decade with Everything Changes in 1993 and their Greatest Hits in 1996.
In 1995, Williams left the band. [3] After his departure, the third Take That album Nobody Else was re-issued in some markets excluding some vocals by Williams, most notably a new recording of "Love Ain't Here Anymore". The rest of the band finally split in 1996.
In 1995 Gay Times listed Martin-Smith as one of the most influential gay people in music. [4]
In 2007 Martin-Smith was parodied (along with the members of Take That) in the Channel 4 spoof documentary series Star Stories . [5]
Robbie Williams left Take That in 1995 under a strict performance and confidentiality agreement. In 1997, Martin-Smith sued Williams for unpaid commission in relation to a Take That management contract. Williams responded by saying that Martin-Smith had been in breach of his fiduciary duties as the group's manager. The court found in Martin-Smith's favour and determined that Williams had indeed violated the terms of the contract. Williams appealed against the decision but lost again. [6]
On Williams' 2006 album Rudebox , Williams originally detailed in the track "The 90s" about how he fantasised about gouging out Martin-Smith's eyes out during his time with Take That. The lyrics prompted Martin-Smith to instigate legal action against Williams and EMI prior to the album's release. EMI instructed Williams to rewrite the song and remove the offending lyrics. [7] [8] However, since promotional copies of the album had already been dispatched to the media and the lyrics had been made public knowledge, Martin-Smith proceeded with his lawsuit against Williams and EMI and won £300,000 in the High Court for defamation of character. Williams and EMI were also forced to issue a public apology to Martin-Smith. [9]
Martin-Smith entered into a consultancy deal with Virgin Records and managed the comeback of Scottish singer Lulu. Around this time, Martin-Smith made a huge investment in his Manchester-based talent agencies moving into purpose-built studios and offices and employing leading agents to oversee his roster of artistes. The NMSM Talent Group now incorporates:
Nemesis Agency (of which Martin-Smith was the sole director) was sold in a pre-pack deal after entering administration in June 2013. [13] [14]
In 2005, Martin-Smith was contracted to work on the re-launch of Take That which saw him co-produce a TV documentary about the group, manage the release of their Ultimate Collection compilation album, and launch their sell-out UK tour. However, Martin-Smith was removed from the position once the documentary was over and just before the tour as, according to Mark Owen, he "wasn't needed." Martin-Smith later said: “I can’t believe what a success the comeback has been. I thought they would do the tour and that would be it. But now they could tour every year and pack stadiums.” [15]
In 2008 Nigel Martin-Smith, formed a new vocal group after auditioning boys from the North West. The initial line up consisted of Lewis Conroy, Dean Kelly, Jayme Kontzle and Craig Worsley. The band was initially called ASBRO, a play on words related to an ASBO (Anti Social Behaviour Order), and were described by Danny McFadden in The Guardian as the new East 17. [16]
Martin-Smith stated in an interview that, in seeking members for the band, he, "wanted them to be ‘streetwise’ as well as having bags of personality, a good voice and looking good in front of a camera." [17]
In early 2010, Martin-Smith auditioned for a fifth member, which resulted in the addition of Kris Evans to the group. At this point Lewis Conroy left the line up and the group became a four piece consisting of Evans, Kelly, Kontzle and Worsley. [18]
In 2011, due to the negative associations linked to the name ASBRO, the group became known as The Mend. Of the change, Dean Kelly stated in an interview, 'We loved the name Asbro, but we felt it was holding us back because there was negative feedback about it. We thought ‘we need to mend this’, hence how we came up with The Mend.' Jayme Kontzle added of the name change, "No record label has seen us as The Mend so it’s like a new start for us. It also stands for The Manchester End." [19]
They stated during their first appearance on Britain's Got Talent in early 2012 that they had been together for three years.
In 2000 Martin-Smith opened the first of his commercial entertainment venues in Manchester's gay village, a nightclub called Essential. [20] He then opened a second venue in 2004 called "Queer" — a cafe bar by day and a bar/club by night on Canal Street and finally "Boyz" — an underground pop bar club also on Canal Street, all of which have since closed down. [21]
Robert Peter Williams is an English singer and songwriter. He found fame as a member of the pop group Take That from 1990 to 1995, launching a solo career in 1996. His debut studio album, Life thru a Lens, was released in 1997, and included his best-selling single "Angels". His second album, I've Been Expecting You, featured the songs "Millennium" and "She's the One", his first number one singles. His discography includes seven UK No. 1 singles, and all but one of his 14 studio albums have reached No. 1 in the UK. Six of his albums are among the top 100 biggest-selling albums in the UK, with two of them in the top 60, and he gained a Guinness World Record in 2006 for selling 1.6 million tickets in a single day during his Close Encounters Tour.
Parlophone Records Limited is a record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 1923 as the Parlophone Company Limited, which developed a reputation in the 1920s as a jazz record label. On 5 October 1926, the Columbia Graphophone Company acquired Parlophone's business, name, logo, and release library, and merged with the Gramophone Company on 31 March 1931 to become Electric & Musical Industries Limited (EMI). George Martin joined Parlophone in 1950 as assistant to Oscar Preuss, the label manager, taking over as manager in 1955. Martin produced and released a mix of recordings, including by comedian Peter Sellers, pianist Mrs Mills, and teen idol Adam Faith.
Take That are an English pop group formed in Manchester in 1990. The group currently consists of Gary Barlow, Howard Donald and Mark Owen. The original line-up also featured Jason Orange and Robbie Williams. Barlow is the group's lead singer and primary songwriter, with Owen and Williams initially providing backing vocals, and Donald and Orange serving primarily as dancers.
Adam Peter Rickitt is an English actor and singer. He portrayed the part of Nick Tilsley on the British soap opera Coronation Street from 1997 to 1999, and again from 2002 to 2004. He later joined the New Zealand soap Shortland Street for a three-year stint between 2007 and 2010. From 2017 to 2020, he appeared as Kyle Kelly on Channel 4's Hollyoaks. His other credits include the BBC's Doctors.
Howard Paul Donald is an English singer, songwriter, drummer, pianist, dancer, DJ and record producer. He is a member of the pop group Take That. He was also judge on the German reality talent show Got to Dance from 2013 to 2014, during a Take That-hiatus.
Jason Thomas Orange is an English former singer. He is best known for being a member of the pop group Take That from the band's creation in 1990 until their hiatus in 1996, and again from their reunion in 2005 until he retired from entertainment in 2014.
"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written by Paul McCartney, credited to Lennon–McCartney, and released in 1967 on the album of the same name. The song appears twice on the album: as the opening track, and as "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)", the penultimate track. As the title song, the lyrics introduce the fictional band that performs on the album.
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The discography of Robbie Williams, an English singer-songwriter, consists of twelve studio albums, one live album, ten compilation albums, one extended play, ten video albums, sixty-two singles, six promotional singles and fifty-six music videos. Williams originally found success in the male pop group Take That, which he joined in 1990 following a successful audition: they released a series of UK number-one singles, including "Pray", "Relight My Fire", "Babe" and "Back for Good". Williams left Take That in 1995 to pursue a solo career; the group disbanded the following year.
Maxton Gig Beesley Jr. is an English actor and musician. His television and film credits include The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1997), The Match (1999), Hotel (2001), Kill Me Later (2001), The Last Minute (2001), Bodies (2004-2006), The Last Enemy (2008), Survivors (2008–2010), Mad Dogs (2011-2013), Suits (2013), Empire (2015-2016), Ordinary Lies (2015), Jamestown (2017-2019), The Outsider (2020), The Midwich Cuckoos (2022), Operation Fortune (2023) and Hijack (2023). In 2024, he appeared as boxing promoter Henry Collins in Guy Ritchie's The Gentlemen (2024).
Joe Pizzulo is an American vocalist best known as one of the lead singers on 1980s hit singles credited to Sérgio Mendes, including "Never Gonna Let You Go" and "Alibis". Pizzulo has had several singles and soundtrack appearances, but he is also a prominent background singer for many artists. He is also known as the singer of English version of the 1988 Olympic theme song "Hand in Hand".
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Take That & Party is the debut studio album by English boy band Take That. Released on 17 August 1992 on RCA Records, it reached number two on the UK Albums Chart and stayed in the UK Top 75 album chart for 73 weeks. It was their only album not to reach number one until Wonderland also peaked at number two in 2017.
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Take That: For the Record is a television documentary about the English boy band Take That. It was originally screened in 2005, a decade after the group had originally split up.
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The Mend were a British boy band consisting of members Kris Evans, Jay Kontzle and Craig Worsley. They originally auditioned for The X Factor in 2011 but failed to get any further than bootcamp, due to having a management deal. They went on to audition for Britain's Got Talent in 2012 and reached the semi-finals but, after the public vote was invoked, due to the judges' split decision, they failed to go through to the finals. They were then brought back by the judges for the final and finished in seventh place overall. They released their debut single "Where Were You" on 24 March 2013, independently.
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