NICK HOBBS

I started off my "career" in the music business as an unpaid roadie for Captain Beefheart while still at school. I started organising concerts for Henry Cow while living in Italy following which I became their manager and agent. After Henry Cow split up I set up Recommended Records with Chris Cutler and then went to live in Stockholm, organising concerts (Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Passage, Nico etc.) in Scandinavia for Sam Ligan. Then I moved back to London, and in the mid 80's worked as a concert agent (New Order, Rip Rig & Panic, Pigbag, The Raincoats, Aztec Camera, James Blood Ulmer, The Sun Ra Arkestra etc.) alongside Mike Hinc at Rough Trade and All Trade Booking. My interest in Eastern Europe started with Henry Cow and the Art Bears and then developed with Rough Trade's & Mike's support, organising under and overground shows in Eastern Europe (the Warsaw Jazz Festival for several years, Misty In Roots, Kevin Coyne, Billy Bragg etc.) before the Wall came down. In '85 we brought Everything But The Girl and Misty In Roots to Moscow, the first ever British pop and reggae concert in Russia. We also co-founded & co-organised the Carrot Festivals in Warsaw and Budapest in 1988. Around this time I also worked in Italy with Fran Tomasi and Cipiesse organising many tours which included Weather Report, Lou Reed and U2.

By this point I was also managing David Thomas, Pere Ubu and The Band Of Holy Joy. In the early '90s, as the climate in Eastern Europe thawed, the work became more and more overground, and took up more and more of my time. With the support of the British Council and other cultural sponsors, we organised pioneering tours of Russia and Siberia with Marc Almond, The Shamen, Nitzer Ebb, David Byrne, World Domination Enterprises, The Sugarcubes, The Young Gods, Peter Hammill, Nick Cave, etc. In 1994, together with the British Council, we programmed and organised the legendary Britronica Festival of British electronic music in Moscow (artists appearing included Aphex Twin, Seefeel, Bark Psychosis, Locust, Alex Patterson, Dreadzone, Ultramarine, Bruce Gilbert etc.). Since then Eastern Europe has become our main work, although managing artists is still an important part of what we do.

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