- Chris Gilbey
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Chris Gilbey Born Christopher John Gilbey
13 May 1946
Islington, UKResidence Berry, Australia Nationality Australian Chris Gilbey OAM (born 13 May 1946 in Islington, UK) is an Australian entrepreneur and music industry identity. He has helped shape the careers of artists such as INXS, Tommy Emmanuel, Keith Urban, The Church, The Saints, AC/DC and Stevie Wright. He has also authored two books, and founded, co-founded and/or held leadership positions with a range of businesses, charities and non-government organisations.
After leaving the music industry he became a successful entrepreneur in the technology sector of business working closely with people who created technologies rather than music, with the belief that as time went by and music became controlled by big business, technology represented the bleeding edge of creativity.
Contents
Early years
Chris Gilbey was born at Whittington Hospital in North London.
He attended Tollington Boys High.
Chris was a member of Kate, a pop group signed to CBS Records in the UK. He co-wrote several singles by the band including their first single, "Strange Girl", which was a Melody Maker "record of the week".[1]
Gilbey migrated to Australia in November 1972.
Music industry history
Gilbey joined the Australian music label Albert Productions in 1973, where he began as A&R manager and held various marketing and management positions. At Alberts, Gilbey was deeply involved in the promotion of AC/DC,[2] including the band's controversial radio advertisements and album covers. Gilbey's production credits with Alberts include Grahame Lowndes' "Survival's A Song", SJC Powell's "Celestial Madness" and Bartholomew John's "Someone". Gilbey also produced the single "Show and Tell" by Bobbi Marchini.
After leaving Alberts, Gilbey managed the seminal Australian punk band The Saints, moving with the band to the UK.[3]
In 1979, Gilbey returned to Australia to become Managing Director of ATV Northern Songs. He signed a number of artists in Australia and was also instrumental in helping a number of Australian songwriters who had moved overseas including Steve Kipner. He established a joint venture with EMI Records reactivating the Parlophone label as the imprint for the records that he produced. Among the artists that he signed during this period was The Church.[4] He produced their first hit single, "The Unguarded Moment".
Gilbey left ATV Northern Songs at the time that the company was acquired by Robert Holmes a Court, and established a venture with MCA Music. During the next eleven years Gilbey built one of the most successful independent publishing companies in Australia and signed writers such as Allan Caswell, INXS, Noiseworks, Peter Blakeley, Tommy Emmanuel, Sharon O'Neill, Shona Laing, Don Spencer, as well as producing hit records with The Sunnyboys and Doug Mulray.
Subsequent to this, Gilbey became the Senior Executive VP of BMG Records in Australia, and led the development of one of the first transactional web sites as well as the development of the enhanced CD.[5]
In 1978, Gilbey, Peter Hebbes, Ross Barlow and Jack Argent launched The Golden Stave Luncheon. 187 members of Australia's music industry attended the first charity event at Sydney's Sebel Townhouse in 1978.[6] Gilbey became the founding chairman of the Golden Stave Foundation.
Gilbey was the founding chairman of Export Music Australia. He received the Order of Australia (O.A.M.) (1992)[7] for his contribution to the music industry and charity.
Publishing history
In 1999, Bantam published Chris Gilbey's "How To Survive The Y2K Crisis In Australia".[8]
In 2000, Seven Stories Press published Chris Gilbey's "MP3 And The Infinite Digital Jukebox".[9]
Business history
In 2001 Gilbey appointed as to the post of CEO of Lake Technology, an ASX-listed company with a focus on Digital Signal Processing. He led the company until its sale through a friendly takeover to Dolby Laboratories in 2005. [10] After the sale, he consulted to Dolby's Consumer Division on global consumer strategy for two years.
Gilbey and Dr Silvia Pfeiffer founded Vquence, a video metrics and semantic research business.[11] Gilbey stepped down as CEO in October 2007.
In 2007, Gilbey, Karl Rodrigues and Bruce Marshall founded Gilbey, Rodrigues and Marshall. The business uses the principles of crowd psychology to interpret online social networks.[12]
In 2009 Gilbey started consulting to the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science based at the University of Wollongong to help build a path to commercialization of certain energy capture and conversion assets that utilize nanotechnology.[13]
In 2010 Gilbey started teaching a course in the Arts Faculty of the University of Wollongong that set up small groups of high achieving digital communications students to work with outside organizations as a virtual digital communications consultancy. This course enables students to transition from academia into the real world of business. He has been asked to reprise the course (DIGC302) in 2011.[14]
Gilbey currently works with ACES developing commercialization strategy in the field of medical bionics as well as providing strategic marketing and branding advice to a number of enterprises.
References
- ^ http://www.perceptric.com/2007/10/22/strange-girl-kate/
- ^ No Nonsense AC/DC Webzine - Interview With Chris Gilbey Interview with Chris Gilbey,
- ^ The Saints A Salutary Tale
- ^ http://www.shadowcabinet.net/archive/intrview/8100road.htm
- ^ http://books.google.com.au/books?id=5QsEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA76&lpg=PA76&dq=chris+gilbey+bmg+records&source=bl&ots=p492cyP9WU&sig=2nFmunfrAR-rAOejYuQQO7YSSDI&hl=en&ei=GWxITpDxFNDymAXArJz6Bg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CEMQ6AEwBTgU#v=onepage&q=chris%20gilbey%20bmg%20records&f=false
- ^ History
- ^ "Chris Gilbey OAM". [1] Australian Honours Database
- ^ How To Survive The Y2K Crisis in Australia
- ^ MP3 And The Infinite Digital Jukebox
- ^ http://investor.dolby.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=155993
- ^ History of Vquence
- ^ Gilbey, Rodrigues and Marshall
- ^ http://www.electromaterials.edu.au/content/groups/public/@web/@sci/@ipri/documents/doc/uow102618.pdf
- ^ https://sols.uow.edu.au/sid/CAL.USER_SUBJECTINFO_SCREEN?p_faccde=11&p_depabb=SSMC&p_subcode=DIGC302&p_cal_subject_id=135572&p_year=2011&p_cal_type=U&p_cal_types=UP&p_breadcrumb_type=1
Categories:- 1946 births
- Living people
- AC/DC
- Australian businesspeople
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