MANAGEMENT

Rip It Up, Issue 79, 1 February 1984, Page 24

MANAGEMENT

About 12 months ago Dave Moule and Brian Richardson got talking about starting a professional, comprehensive artist management service the result was Harrington Ford and Associates.

The venture was made possible when Chappell Music Publishing got wind last year and offered the pair's proposed company the chance to take over its sheet music division in this country. This gave the enterprise a "backbone" and soon the reputations of the two men (Moule has been in the record industry for 12 years, the last six as promotions manager for RCA and Richardson has an impressive background in organising and promoting entertainment) were enough to attract a healthy stable of mainly country/MOR artists purely by word of mouth. "Many of the people who contacted us said this was the sort of thing they'd been looking for for

ages," Moule said. "They'd been doing a lot for themselves and they were sick of the phone going at home."

Richardson said the company was the first to encompass personal management, publicity and promotion and (through Chappell) offer publishing. The pair say the new service is not looking to gun down anyone else in the field. It was for this reason that they left pop-rock artists to the agencies handling them at present. They also hope to work with record companies, rather than against them. Harrington Ford and Co is situated on the top floor of the Polygram Records building, 77 Grafton Rd, ph 793-323. RB