Friday Open Thread | Remembering Those Lost in 2016: Robert Stigwood

Not everyone involved in the Arts is in front of the camera. There are those behind the scenes that work to bring that talent to the world.

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Robert Stigwood, Bee Gees Manager and Film Producer, Dead at 81

Impresario also served as the Who’s booking agent, managed Cream and Eric Clapton and produced ‘Grease’ and ‘Tommy’

By Daniel Kreps January 4, 2016

Robert Stigwood, manager of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame groups like Cream and the Bee Gees and producer of films like Saturday Night Fever and Grease, passed away. Stigwood was 81. Spencer Gibb, the son of Bee Gees’ Robin Gibb and Stigwood’s godson, was the first to confirm Stigwood’s death, Reuters reports. No cause of death was given.

“A creative genius with a very quick and dry wit, Robert was the driving force behind The Bee Gees career, as well as having discovered Cream, and subsequently managing Eric Clapton,” Gibb wrote on Facebook. “I would like to thank Robert for his kindness to me over the years as well as his mentorship to my family. ‘Stiggy,’ you will be missed.”

The Australian-born Stigwood started out in the music industry by forming a management company during the Swinging London scene, working with singer Joe Leyton and influential pop producer Joe Meek. After signing a production deal with EMI, poor business decisions – as well as a disastrous Chuck Berry tour that his company promoted – forced Stigwood to refocus on management. In 1966, Stigwood became the booking agent for an emerging act called the Who, who recorded their single “Substitute” on Stigwood’s Reaction Records.

Soon after, Stigwood found himself at the helm of a group comprised of members of two other bands he managed; Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker from the Graham Bond Organization and Eric Clapton from John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. Leveraging his power as the Who’s booking agent, Stigwood was able to promote his new band – Cream – setting them on their course to rock history. Stigwood would remain Clapton’s manager through Blind Faith, Derek & The Dominoes and the guitarist’s solo career.

In 1967, Stigwood also signed the Bee Gees, the result of the Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein passing along their demo tape to Stigwood, who was recruited to join Epstein’s North End Music Stores (NEMS) company. “I loved their composing,” Stigwood told Rolling Stone in 1977. “I also loved their harmony singing. It was unique, the sound they made; I suppose it was a sound only brothers could make.”

Stigwood signed the Bee Gees to a five-year contract, which kicked off with their breakout singles “New York Mining Disaster 1941” and “To Love Somebody.” Following Epstein’s death in 1967, Stigwood formed his own company – the Robert Stigwood Organisation (RSO) – that expanded its grasp to musical theater and, ultimately, film production. RSO did everything from bringing Broadway musicals like Hair and Pippin to London’s West End to releasing the soundtracks for The Empire Strikes Back and Fame on RSO Records.

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63 Responses to Friday Open Thread | Remembering Those Lost in 2016: Robert Stigwood

    • yahtzeebutterfly says:

      Bernie Sanders on “Racial Justice” (from his website):
      https://berniesanders.com/issues/racial-justice/

    • eliihass says:

      Color me largely unimpressed with Ta-Nehisi Coates who for a long time was the token blackface foil for the right-leaning, neo-conservative Atlantic and it’s dubious agenda – and those of its plutocratic benefactors and politico beneficiaries, which were always in direct opposition, and never in support of black folks or anything remotely beneficial to black people or the downtrodden or oppressed for that matter..

      Ta-Nehisi Coates might be the flavor of the month and churning out these missives that are now considered credible and of main-stream relevance and game-changing, but let’s never forget where each of these self-impressed opportunists started from, are coming from – or who signs their checks, and who they’re beholden to…and ultimately who’s perspectives and agenda they seek to support and advance..

  1. Ametia says:

    How Ted Cruz’s best friend drew him into Jamaican politics and business

    KINGSTON, Jamaica — The ambitious young men sat for hours at a restaurant here to map out plans for a business venture that could make them millions.

    In a group that included three Jamaican entrepreneurs, one participant seemed out of place — a 27-year-old former U.S. Supreme Court law clerk of Cuban descent who was visiting from Washington.

    Ted Cruz had been invited by his roommate from Princeton and Harvard Law, David Panton, who was eager for the group to win the rights to manage a new Caribbean-focused investment enterprise launched by one of the island’s most prominent executives.

    The idea was modeled after U.S. private equity companies that made fortunes by using investor dollars to remake underperforming companies. The Caribbean concept came with a twist — the investor dollars would be drawn in part from governments, including from the United States, leveraging funds intended to boost the developing world.

    It was an odd fit for Cruz, who as early as high school and college expressed a strong belief in limited government. But the plan held potential for big profits. And Cruz was welcomed by Panton’s fellow Jamaican partners as a skilled negotiator well suited to help hone their pitch for managing the new firm.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-ted-cruzs-best-friend-drew-him-into-jamaican-politics-and-business/2016/01/22/5bc43d90-bade-11e5-829c-26ffb874a18d_story.html?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_evening

  2. Ametia & Rikyrah, remember this?

    One day child, I won’t have to listen to your lies.
    On that day, I’ll be able to make up my own mind.
    You know, I think I done finally realized….yes I have…
    And now I think I can put you out of my life….

    OHIO PLAYERS!!!!

  3. Ametia says:

    Céline Dion Bids Farewell to Husband René Angélil at Montreal Funeral

    Céline Dion is coping with the loss of her beloved husband René Angélil, followed by the death of her brother just two days later. Click here for the full story, only in PEOPLE.

    Céline Dion said her final goodbyes to husband René Angélil Friday.

    Along with thousands of family, friends and fans, the singer honored her longtime manager and husband of 21 years at his 3 p.m. funeral in Montreal’s Notre-Dame Basilica, the same parish in which they got married in 1994.

    http://www.people.com/article/rene-angelil-funeral-montreal-celine-dion

  4. Some people really deserve this…

    Slap

  5. Roland Martin Destroys Stacey Dash: ‘Don’t Make an Ass Outta Yourself, Lookin’ Like a Damn Fool’.

  6. Ametia says:

    Spike Lee revisits young Michael Jackson in ‘From Motown to Off the Wall’
    Elysa Gardner, USA TODAY 2:23 p.m. EST January 20, 2016

    Off the Wall — the subject of a new Spike Lee documentary — introduced Michael Jackson, at this point signed to Epic, as a creatively autonomous artist whose charisma could attract wide audiences. With the war between rock and disco still raging, dance-friendly classics Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough and Rock With You reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100.

    http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2016/01/20/spike-lee-revisits-young-michael-jackson-off-the-wall/78946242/

  7. rikyrah says:

    BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

    https://youtu.be/OGxjq03UXvQ

  8. Liza says:

    Some folks never seem to learn when not to say what they really think.

    ICYMI: Charlotte Rampling says the call for #Oscars diversity is "racist against whites": https://t.co/3JLGuzYYWp pic.twitter.com/lhIgnwqw50— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) January 22, 2016

    //platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    • Liza says:

      Just hide his Viagra.

    • eliihass says:

      This month, Lena Dunham, wearing a red, white and blue sweater dress with the word “Hillary” emblazoned across the chest, told voters how Hillary Clinton had overcome sexism in her political career.

      “The way she has been treated is just more evidence of the fact that our country has so much hatred toward successful women,” Ms. Dunham, the creator and star of the HBO series “Girls,” said at a Clinton campaign event in Manchester, N.H.

      But at an Upper East Side dinner party a few months back, Ms. Dunham expressed more conflicted feelings. She told the guests at the Park Avenue apartment of Richard Plepler, the chief executive of HBO, that she was disturbed by how, in the 1990s, the Clintons and their allies discredited women who said they had had sexual encounters with or been sexually assaulted by former President Bill Clinton.

      The conversation, relayed by several people with knowledge of the discussion who would speak about it only anonymously, captures the deeper debate unfolding among liberal-leaning women about how to reconcile Mrs. Clinton’s leadership on women’s issues with her past involvement in her husband’s efforts to fend off accusations of sexual misconduct. The issue emerged last month when Mrs. Clinton accused the Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump of having a “penchant for sexism” and he in turn accused her of hypocrisy, given her husband’s treatment of women.

      But the resurfacing of the scandals of the 1990s has brought about a rethinking among some feminists about how prominent women stood by Mr. Clinton and disparaged his accusers after the “bimbo eruptions,” as a close aide to the Clintons, Betsey Wright, famously called the claims of affairs and sexual assault against Mr. Clinton in his 1992 campaign.

      Even some Democrats who participated in the effort to discredit the women acknowledge privately that today, when Mrs. Clinton and other women have pleaded with the authorities on college campuses and in workplaces to take any allegation of sexual assault and sexual harassment seriously, such a campaign to attack the women’s character would be unacceptable.

      “We have to destroy her story,” Mrs. Clinton said in 1991 of Connie Hamzy, one of the first women to come forward during her husband’s first presidential campaign, according to George Stephanopoulos, a former Clinton administration aide who described the events in his memoir, “All Too Human.” (Three people signed sworn affidavits saying Ms. Hamzy’s story was false.)

      Over the years, the Clinton effort to cast doubt on the women included using words like “floozy,” “bimbo” and “stalker,” and raising questions about their motives. James Carville, a longtime strategist for Mr. Clinton, was especially cutting in attacking Ms. Flowers. “If you drag a hundred-dollar bill through a trailer park, you never know what you’ll find,” Mr. Carville said of Ms. Flowers. (Mr. Carville has maintained that earlier reports indicating that he had made the remark about Paula Jones, another Clinton accuser, were incorrect.)

      Alexis Isabel Moncada, the 17-year-old founder of Feminist Culture, a popular blog, was not old enough to remember the 1990s, but lately she and her thousands of young female readers have heard a lot about the scandals.

      “I heard he sexually harassed people and she worked to cover it up,” Ms. Moncada said of Mr. and Mrs. Clinton. “A lot of girls in my age group are huge feminists, and we don’t react well to that.”

      A warning Mr. Trump issued to Mrs. Clinton on Twitter — “Be careful Hillary as you play the war on women or women being degraded card” — initially grabbed attention last month. Then, Ms. Jones, who had accused Mr. Clinton of exposing himself while she was an Arkansas state employee, and Juanita Broaddrick, an Arkansas nursing home executive who alleged that Mr. Clinton sexually assaulted her in 1978 when he was attorney general of Arkansas, re-emerged in the news media.

      By reminding voters about the jarring terms that Mr. Clinton and his advisers used to describe these women, Mr. Trump has sought to diminish one of Mrs. Clinton’s biggest strengths: her commitment to helping women.

      Mr. Trump’s attacks make Mrs. Clinton look less like “a strong, self-actualized feminist leader who women can proudly get behind,” Ms. Weiner added, and more “like a craven opportunist, and an apologist for a predator.”

      Many of Mrs. Clinton’s supporters say it is the ultimate act of sexism to hold her culpable for her husband’s transgressions. “Show me the wife who, when she finds out her husband is having an affair with a much younger woman, says, ‘Oh, I feel such sisterhood with her,’” said Katha Pollitt, a feminist poet and columnist for The Nation.

      http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/21/us/politics/90s-scandals-threaten-to-erode-hillary-clintons-strength-with-women.html?_r=0

  9. Happy Birthday to Marilyn Mosby! 3Chics loves you! Wishing you the best birthday EVER!

    Happy Birthday2

  10. rikyrah says:

    From Luvvie about Flint:
    About Flint’s Water Crisis, the Human Rights Debacle and the Poster of Lies

    Awesomely Luvvie — January 19, 2016

    What is happening in Flint, Michigan right now is systemic genocide, and the victims are people of color and poor people. The city’s population is 60% Black and 42% of the residents live below the poverty line. They are being poisoned with lead-tainted water that is coming out of their faucets, and it is from the willful neglect of those charged with running the city and the governor of Michigan, Rick Snyder.

    Long story short (TL:DR): Governor Snyder wanted to save money, so he decided to stop having Detroit water be the supplier for tap water in Flint. Instead, he felt that the very polluted Flint River would be good enough for the residents, in spite of the fact that the water is so full of lead, if you reach into it, you’d pull out a box of number 2 pencils. And probably a scantron attached for good measure. That was in 2014.

  11. rikyrah says:

    Happy Belated Birthday to Ms. Dolly Parton.

    Always respected Ms. Parton because she understood clearly the BUSINESS of show and worked the hell out of it.

    When The Bodyguard came out and the Soundtrack broke all records…they went to Dolly Parton and asked if she was offended by Whitney’s cover being such a big hit..

    She was like, ‘child no…I get happy everytime I go to mailbox lately and see those checks…’

    BWA HA HA HA HA H HA HA HA

  12. rikyrah says:

    PHUCK.OUTTA.HERE.

    It was the EMERGENCY MANAGER THAT HE CHOSE that cut off the water.

    It was the EMERGENCY MANAGER THAT HE CHOSE that SOLD the Plan B for Flint.

    …………………………………………

    jasoncherkis ‏@jasoncherkis 2h2 hours ago
    Gov. Snyder: “and unfortunately we have this terrible tragedy because of some career civil service experts.” #FlintWaterCrisis

    jasoncherkis ‏@jasoncherkis 2h2 hours ago
    On Morning Joe, Snyder blames “culture of government” for water crisis in Flint.

    jasoncherkis ‏@jasoncherkis 2h2 hours ago
    On Morning Joe, Michigan governor throwing career government workers under the bus.

    • Ametia says:

      Just posted on Snyder thread.

    • Liza says:

      The water in the Flint River was not fit for human consumption. Period.

      Undoubtedly, the guilty ones will try to point fingers elsewhere. But as I’ve said before, the elephants in their rooms are the water itself. What is most relevant here is what happened PRIOR to the decision to switch Flint’s potable water source. What have they got to back up that decision? Water treatment is science, but it ain’t rocket science, and every water agency in this country knows how to do it. Every water agency knows what is required by their own regulatory agencies at the regional, state, and federal levels. So, what was behind this decision?

  13. rikyrah says:

    Latest polls in Iowa point to striking scenario
    01/22/16 08:00 AM—UPDATED 01/22/16 08:14 AM
    By Steve Benen
    With just 10 days remaining until the Iowa caucuses, four statewide polls have been released over the last 24 hours, which help cast the Republican race in a striking new light. Let’s take a look at the surveys’ findings, focusing only on the three most competitive candidates.

    Loras College: (1) Donald Trump: 26%; (2) Ted Cruz: 25%; (3) Marco Rubio: 13%

    Monmouth College/KBUR: (1) Ted Cruz: 27%; (2) Donald Trump: 25%; (3) Marco Rubio: 9%

    CNN: (1) Donald Trump: 37%; (2) Ted Cruz: 26%; (3) Marco Rubio: 14%

    Emerson College: (1) Donald Trump: 33%; (2) Ted Cruz: 23%; (3) Marco Rubio: 14%

    By mid-December, it appeared that Ted Cruz had not only caught up to Trump in the Hawkeye State, but was actually in the driver’s seat. There were multiple reports that that the first presidential nominating contest was “Cruz’s to lose.”

    And while that may yet prove to be true, the Texas senator’s position has slipped as Feb. 1 has grown closer. Of the four polls released yesterday, Cruz narrowly leads in one and trails by double digits in two others.

  14. rikyrah says:

    You can’t be a ‘natural born citizen’ of two different countries.

    You can be a citizens of two different countries.

    But, not a ‘natural born’ citizen.

    Rafael is a ‘natural born’ citizen of Canada, which is how he got citizenship without either of his parents being Canadian.

    He is an American Citizen.

    He is NOT a ‘ natural born’ American Citizen.

    https://twitter.com/JoaquinCastrotx/status/690018610572558336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

  15. rikyrah says:

    For those in the eye of the storm, please stay safe. Respect the elements. Pace yourself if you are shoveling. Don’t wait until it’s over to begin shoveling.

  16. rikyrah says:

    Good Morning, Everyone :)

  17. Ametia says:

    UH HUH

    Law
    California Cops Frustrated With ‘Catch-And-Release’ Crime-Fighting
    Updated January 22, 2016·8:06 AM ET

    An experiment has been underway in California since November 2014, when voters approved Proposition 47: put fewer lawbreakers in jail without increasing crime. The measure converted a list of non-violent felonies into misdemeanors, which translated into little or no jail time for crimes such as low-value theft and possession of hard drugs.

    Police didn’t like Prop 47 when it was on the ballot, and now many are convinced they were right to oppose it.

    In Huntington Beach, a seaside city in Orange County, Officer Brad Smith says Prop 47 means more drug addicts are out, living on the street. He pulls his patrol car up behind a case in point — a silver Volvo that serves as the home of two young heroin addicts. The officer seems to have a cordial relationship with them, even though he arrested them a few weeks earlier.

    “We found heroin in the car,” Smith says. “We also found stolen property from three or four victims.”

    AUDIO:

    http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=463210910&m=463929617

  18. Ametia says:

    TGIF, Everyone!

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