Robert Stigwood


Photo by Allan Warren in 1972

Born: Robert Colin Stigwood; 16 April 1934; Port Pirie, South Australia, Australia
Died: 4 January 2016 (aged 81); London, England

Robert Colin Stigwood (16 April 1934 – 4 January 2016) was an Australian-born British-resident music entrepreneur, film producer and impresario, best known for managing Cream and the Bee Gees, theatrical productions like Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar, and film productions including the successful Grease and Saturday Night Fever. On his death, one obituary judged he had been for a time the most powerful tycoon in the entertainment industry: "Stigwood owned the record label that issued his artists’ albums and film soundtracks, and he also controlled publishing rights – not since Hollywood's golden days had so much power and wealth been concentrated in the hands of one mogul."

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60s Pop Management

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In 1966 he began managing Cream, formed from two other groups Stigwood had under contract – Eric Clapton from John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, and Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker from the Graham Bond Organisation. They were stars by 1967, after an American tour with The Who - for whom Stigwood was booking agent at the time. Stigwood moved his recording activities to Polydor Records, negotiating a much more advantageous deal than he had achieved with EMI.

Diversification

In 1967, at the suggestion of Beatles manager Brian Epstein, Robert Stigwood merged his agency with Esptein's company NEMS. Within weeks of joining NEMS he started managing teenage vocal group the Bee Gees, who had just returned to their native UK, after many years in Australia, with hopes of a British career. Within months their first international single, "New York Mining Disaster 1941", had become a major British and American hit reaching the top 20 in both markets, while "Massachusetts" reached number 1 in the UK and number 11 in the US, launching a string of Bee Gees hits that continued throughout the late 1960s and beyond. When Brian Epstein unexpectedly died in August 1967, Stigwood was seen as a potential heir to take over the organisation - but The Beatles refused to work with him; as a result he left NEMS ( with a "golden handshake" ) to form his own Robert Stigwood Organisation, taking the Bee Gees with him.

Also during 1967, Stigwood purchased a controlling interest in Associated London Scripts, a writers' agency co-founded by Spike Milligan and Eric Sykes circa 1954, in which many of Britain's best comedy and television scriptwriters had been involved. Beryl Vertue from ALS was appointed as deputy chairman. Vertue was responsible for selling the formats to American producers of the TV series All in the Family and Sanford and Son, which were adapted from the popular British TV shows Till Death Us Do Part and Steptoe and Son.

In the late 60s he produced the Broadway productions Hair and Oh! Calcutta! for the West End stage. In 1971 he produced the first theatrical production of Jesus Christ Superstar - initially in the USA - beginning a successful working relationship with Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice which continued with Evita.

Later successes and disappointments

Stigwood also moved into film and TV production in the early 1970s. By this time both his major music acts were in the doldrums. The Bee Gees broke up briefly in 1970, and after reuniting they floundered for several years, reaching a self-acknowledged "rock bottom". At this time the former chart toppers were reduced to playing the working men's club circuit in the north of England.

Although Cream had split up in late 1968, lead guitarist Eric Clapton remained signed to RSO. His next project, the highly touted supergroup Blind Faith, which united Clapton and Ginger Baker with Steve Winwood (ex Traffic) and Ric Grech (ex Family) fizzled out after just one LP; and the album he made as Derek & the Dominos, Layla & Other Assorted Love Songs (1970), though now acknowledged a masterpiece, was met with a relatively poor critical and commercial reception, and overshadowed by the tragic deaths of close friends Jimi Hendrix and Duane Allman. These tragedies, combined with the angst of his unrequited love for Patti Boyd, sent Clapton into a downward spiral of depression and drug abuse. Clapton eventually kicked his habit, and Stigwood took him back to Miami, where he recorded his successful comeback album 461 Ocean Boulevard (1974), which included his US #1 hit version of Bob Marley's "I Shot The Sheriff".

Soon afterwards, Clapton suggested the Bee Gees might also benefit from a change of scene - they moved, with their band, into the same house on Ocean Boulevard to record their album Main Course. Stigwood urged them to move their sound on from the ballads which had made them famous, and they began to move towards the disco sound that would bring them their greatest success, starting with Jive Talking - a US Billboard number one in 1975. The records were released on Stigwood's own label, RSO Records, which he'd founded in 1973.

Stigwood expanded into film production with success. His first feature was a hit screen adaptation of Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), made in association with its director, Norman Jewison. He followed this with the film version of the Who's Tommy (1975), which became one of the most successful films at the box office in its year of release. In 1975, RSO collaborated with Bob Banner Associates to produce a stunt game show, Almost Anything Goes. The program, which aired on the ABC network in the US, featured three teams of players from small towns in a competition where the emphasis was on good will. The show lasted four seasons.

Stigwood signed actor John Travolta on a million dollar three-picture deal in 1976. Reportedly many in the film industry were sceptical, because Travolta was at that time known for being a TV actor; but RSO Films' next production, Saturday Night Fever, made him a leading movie star. The film had an unlikely source - a supposedly factual magazine article which Stigwood had licensed. The double-LP soundtrack, written by and featuring the Bee Gees, became the biggest selling soundtrack album ever released. Stigwood followed this with a hugely successful film adaptation of the stage rock'n'roll musical Grease (1978), which co-starred Travolta and Australian singer Olivia Newton-John. Stigwood insisted that additional songs be added to the soundtrack including the Barry Gibb penned theme-tune, and songs by fellow Australian, songwriter-producer John Farrar.

Not all of Stigwood's films were popular. The third film of his Travolta deal, Moment by Moment which co-starred Lily Tomlin was panned by critics, and is credited with turning Travolta into 'box office poison'. Also in 1978, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (film), starring the Bee Gees and Peter Frampton, was another critical flop.

But of the 19 singles to hit number one in the Billboard charts in 1978, 8 were from RSO.[22] On the US Billboard Hot 100 chart for 25 March 1978, five songs written by the Gibbs were in the US top 10 at the same time: "Night Fever", "Stayin' Alive", "If I Can't Have You", "Emotion" and "Love Is Thicker Than Water". The Bee Gees enjoyed a run of six consecutive number one singles which continued into 1979. RSO records also had success with soundtracks for Fame (1980 film) and The Empire Strikes Back before Stigwood sold the label to Polygram.

Other notable films produced by Stigwood include The Fan (1981), Grease 2, Peter Weir's well received Gallipoli (1981), produced under the R&R Films banner - the other "R" being another Australian known for his ruthlessness, Rupert Murdoch - and the 1997 Golden Globe Awards best film winner, Evita, starring Madonna.

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Robert Stigwood was looking around for an idea for a disco oriented movie when he read a story in the June 7, 1976 issue of New York Magazine, entitled "Tribal Rites Of The New Saturday Night" written by Nik Cohn. During preproduction on the movie he remembered a song he had heard The Bee Gees sing a few years earlier entitled "Saturday Night, Saturday Night" and put in a call to them to contribute music for the movie project.

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