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The man who brings us the musicName any major international music or comedy act to visit South Africa in the last 15 years, and the chances are good that Roddy Quin had a hand in it.
Likewise, mention South African music legend Johnny Clegg or the Mandela 46664 concerts, the Heavyweight Comedy Jam, or even television star and stage actress Kim Engelbrecht, and the name of this super promoter is sure to pop up from somewhere behind the scenes.
Now a young 53 years, Quin has rubbed shoulders with the likes of Nelson Mandela, Richard Branson, Bill Cosby, Phil Collins, Bob Geldof, Art Garfunkel, Andrew Lloyd Weber, Bryan Adams, Chris de Burgh, Youssou N’Dour, Sting and many more famous personalities in his career of some three decades.
Not bad for a regular boy’tjie from Boksburg – that dusty, rough-and-tumble mining village turned little city in the East Rand blue-collar belt of Gauteng, famous for its gold, its lake and its hard-line Conservative Party municipal government that tried to reintroduce the worst of apartheid just one year before the release of Nelson Mandela and the unbanning of the African National Congress.
Initially having made his mark in the rock music arena, I expect to meet someone looking like an ageing rock star complete with bling, tattoos and all as I wait for Quin around a Cape Town hotel foyer.
It turns out he is the unassuming, neatly dressed gentleman who had been standing quietly close to me for the last 10 minutes. The only outward sign of any rock pedigree is his long hair, now starting to grey, and the stubble on his chin.
Quin introduces himself with a quiet modesty that completely belies his success in the cut-throat international entertainment arena. He is in Cape Town for the Mandela 46664 “It’s No Joke” show by top international comedian and actor, Eddie Izzard.
“Eddie is such a gentleman. He has taken so much care to do his best for the 46664 charities.
“He came here to do the shows and to donate the proceeds to 46664. It is so refreshing, as he has absolutely no agenda,” says Quin, displaying the belief in and loyalty to every artist with whom he works.
Without that, he says, he cannot promote an artist, recalling the advice someone gave to him as a young beginner in the business.
Of some of the other artists he has put on stage in South Africa and elsewhere, he says: “Bill Cosby was incredible. He and his family are so much like his TV family. Always having fun, being funny.
“Sting (the rock superstar) is so down to earth. He has this sincerity, this honesty that is in such short supply in this industry.
“Others like the guys of Depeche Mode and Skunk Anansie were a lot of fun,” adds Quin.
I ask him which artist has made the greatest impression on him during his career. Without hesitation, he answers: “Johnny Clegg. It has been an absolute privilege working with him.
“He helped shape my political awareness. But he also taught me much more than politics, such as just being honest and fair.”
Twenty-two years on, he and Clegg are still a team. And now Clegg’s son, Jesse, is also managed by Quin.
Of Jesse, he says: “A great future awaits him. “He is going to go very far.”
Then Quin pauses, reflecting on some of the other big names he has worked with and adds: “It’s really hard to single out any one artist. They each have different qualities.”
It was close family friend and LM Radio deejay Glen Smith who triggered Quin’s interest in the music business. When visiting the family in Boksburg, he would bring the young Quin sample records and pictures of bands and musicians.
“This intrigued me and sparked my interests in the business. And so in standard eight, I took a decision that I wanted to be in the business – but not as a performer, rather managing acts, working behind the scenes. And that is what I do today,” he says.
But apartheid and national service in the army first intervened in a big way that would have a major influence on his career. He was conscripted into the army straight from school.
“At the time, I did not really understand what was happening in our country. Then the political indoctrination in the army basically taught us that no black people could be trusted, that they were the enemy.
“But then when I was sent with my unit to Namibia for border duty, I was surprised to find how heavily the army relied on black South African soldiers as trackers and in other roles. This was very confusing,” he recalls.
By the time he left the army, he “had a loathing for the (apartheid) government”. He became involved in supporting the activities of the United Democratic Front that had been formed in South Africa to oppose apartheid.
While not claiming to have been “a proper activist”, Quin says he supported the fight against apartheid wherever he could, supporting artists who opposed the regime, taking risks by allowing banned songs such as those about Nelson Mandela to be played, staging anti-government concerts and more. Because of these activities, the police raided his house and threatened him.
He fully supported the cultural boycott, working with and helping to fund the SA Musicians’ Alliance. He believes it was the boycotts and sanctions that eventually “broke the camel’s back”.
Quin says he was also very fortunate to be able to work with Johnny Clegg, who had “this incredible knowledge of what was going on in the country and had this clear vision without ever aligning himself with any political organisation”.
And after starting the company Big Concerts together with former Ballyhoo musician Attie van Wyk – of “Man on the Moon” fame – they staged a series of mixed-race concerts called the “Big Birthday Concerts” (to coincide with the birthdays of several music radio stations) and the Mandela Concert. These concerts had both black and white artists as well as racially mixed audiences for which special permits had to be obtained from the government to bypass the Separate Amenities Act and other race laws.
But all this meant that Quin would have to sit out the long wait until the advent of democracy in 1994 before he could become involved in the lucrative international music scene and book the really big names for the local concert circuit.
The wait was worth his while. Not only has he been able to bring a large number of great acts to these shores since 1994, but he has been involved intimately also with the Mandela charity concerts.
After leaving the army and a sales stint in a record shop, he joined the SABC-producing Springbok Radio shows with broadcasting greats such as David Gresham, Lance James, Clark Mackay and Danie Smuts. He remembers also having to play the commercials, recorded onto 78rpm vinyl discs, for these shows.
“Lance James played an incredible role in motivating me to do what I am doing today.
“He would always give me tickets for whatever shows came to Johannesburg, whether pop or Charles Aznavour or whatever, and he would insist that I go and see these. That gave me an incredible opportunity to experience so many different kinds of performers.”
He later produced Gresham’s “Top Twenty Show” before joining EMI Music where he was director for artists and recordings, and marketing.
“Although I was now working for a recording company, my passion was more on the live performances side,” says Quin.
EMI turned down his suggestion that the company start a live division promoting tours and concerts and become involved in the merchandising, saying “that’s not what recording companies do”.
Ironically, Quin says, as a result of the Internet’s impact on recorded music, today all recording companies want to get in on the live act, as that is where the money is now.
Then Quin made probably the smartest move of his career: he resigned from EMI and started his own management company. A number of artists such as Clegg and Elemental, whom he had managed at EMI, agreed to stay with him.
Having left EMI with inside knowledge of the music industry, he was able to negotiate better deals for his artists.
As the recording companies were “not happy with someone who had gone from their side to representing the artists against them”, the first 18 months on his own were very tough, he recalls. Quin was now marketing entire music careers of artists, from recording deals to marketing them to arranging live tours and more.
The first big show he did was with Clegg and his crossover band Savuka at the famous Market Theatre Warehouse in Johannesburg in the early 1980s, a time when political turmoil was on the rise in South Africa.
This was followed by a nationwide tour.
Meanwhile, Quin and Van Wyk, under the Big Concerts banner, continued to stage the Big Birthday Concerts with 40 000 strong mixed-race audiences to the considerable irritation of the government.
They then decided to stage what was billed the “Human Rainbow Concert” – something of a political statement, as Quin recalls – at Johannesburg’s Ellis Park rugby stadium, partnering with rugby boss, Louis Luyt.
The name for the concert was borrowed from the lyrics of a Clegg song. Clegg and his mixing of cultural influences, partnering with Zulu musicians, and his politically defiant lyrics, was no favourite of the government of the day.
And the racially mixed concerts that Quin and company were organising, did not go down well, either.
The government promptly banned the Human Rainbow Concert as an “illegal gathering”. This outraged Luyt as much as Quin and everyone else involved, causing Luyt to take up the cudgel for them against the government.
They went to court in what became a year-long battle and finally, upon appealing a judgement that had gone against them, they won their case and the Human Rainbow Concert went ahead in 1989 as a huge success.
The landmark judgement also meant that mixed-race concerts were allowed now in South Africa, ending the draconian permit system.
Isolation during the cultural boycott years and misconceptions that people in the industry abroad had about South Africa as a viable concert destination, made it difficult for Quin to break into the international scene at first, with the agents of artists not even taking his calls.
Then, after doing a presentation at the International Live Music Conference, Quin says perceptions changed and overseas agents began seeing them, resulting in a major live tour of South Africa by superstar, Chris de Burgh.
Then, as now, it was high-risk business, though. All financing had to come from own resources and sponsors, as banks are loathe to touch anything in the live music industry.
And these days, Quin says, the very big names are even higher risk for promoters, as these stars believe their names sell themselves and they are thus entitled to almost all the spoils, structuring deals so that all the benefits come to them and the risks go to the promoter.
After promoting some 100 acts together in what Quin says was “a great partnership”, he and Van Wyk eventually parted ways, Quin forming Real Concerts and Van Wyk continuing with Big Concerts.
According to Quin, between the two of them they cover the live concert scene in South Africa today, each focusing on a different area.
An American company approached Quin to put on a Mandela concert on Robben Island. But at an advanced stage, the Americans failed to come up with the financing and a very disappointed Quin cancelled.
However, this took him to London and after meetings with Jim Beach, manager of rock band Queen, Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics, entrepreneur Richard Branson and various artists, the concept of the Mandela 46664 Aids charity concerts became a reality.
Since then, there have been 46664 concerts in South Africa, Norway, London and New York, with one being planned for Madrid, Spain this year.
More recently, the indefatigable Quin has branched out into comedy with major comedy brands such as the Blacks Only Comedy Show, Heavyweight Comedy Jam, the King Size Comedy Shows and the 46664 It’s No Joke shows.
In addition, Quin entered the highly competitive dance music scene and is involved in theatre productions.
All of which makes one wonder who Bob Dylan had in mind when he penned the lyrics, “You’ll not see nothing like the mighty Quinn”!
Stef Terblanche
