Ian Copeland
Ian Copeland | |
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Basic information | |
Birth name: | Ian Adie Copeland |
Birth date: | April 25, 1949 |
Origin: | Damascus, Syria |
Occupation(s): | Agent, Promoter |
Associated acts: | The Police, R.E.M., The Go-Go's, The B-52's, ... |
Official website: | www.backstagecafe.com (now defunct) |
Ian Adie Copeland (April 25, 1949 – May 23, 2006), brother of Miles Copeland III and Stewart Copeland, was a pioneering American music promoter and booking agent who helped launch the New Wave music movement in the United States.
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Biography
Ian Copeland was born in Damascus, Syria, the second of four children born to Miles Copeland Jr. and his wife Lorraine. After a wayward youth growing up in the Middle East, Copeland enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1967 and served with distinction in the Vietnam War.
Copeland began his career in the music industry with the help of his brother Miles, first as a tour manager for Wishbone Ash, and then as a booking agent in London at John Sherry Enterprises, where he discovered the Average White Band and other artists. In 1977, he moved to Macon, Georgia to work for the Paragon Agency. Ian and Miles developed a strategy of using small venues and clubs to break the British band Squeeze in the North American market, a formula they would repeat with other bands. Around this time he also aided his brother by helping write the lyrics of "Nothing Achieving". The song would become the B-side of The Police's first single, "Fall Out".
In August 1978 Copeland married Constance Walden of Macon, and they had two daughters (Chandra and Barbara) before divorcing in August 1990. Copeland's other romantic partners (and FBI clients) included Marianne Faithfull and his stepcousin Courteney Cox.
In 1979, Copeland founded Frontier Booking International (F.B.I.) in New York, a talent agency that represented many of the premier New Wave acts of the 1980s, including the B-52's, The Cure, The Police, Simple Minds, The English Beat, and The Go-Go's. The agency grew to include hundreds of diverse musical performers on its roster (the Buzzcocks, Nine Inch Nails, Concrete Blonde, Iggy Pop, General Public, Charlie Peacock, Let's Active, R.E.M., Sting, Morrissey), as well as representing actors. The music division of FBI was merged into InterTalent Agency in 1992, and Copeland moved to Los Angeles soon thereafter.
Copeland published an autobiography, Wild Thing, in 1995. In 1997 he opened the Backstage Café bar and restaurant in Beverly Hills. Ian was a regular contributor to the messageboard on the Backstage Cafe website, "Ask Uncle Ian," where he interacted with Police fans and friends worldwide. In 2004, he began managing a young punkrock trio by the name of "The Dares", which he had become excited about after hearing them perform in a Los Angeles club one night.
On 2006-05-23, Ian Copeland passed away from melanoma at the age of 57.
Awards, nominations and other notable achievements
This section needs more information.
See also
External links
- Ian Copeland @ MySpace
- Ian Copeland @ IMDB
References
- "Ian Copeland - Wikipedia." Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 27 Jan 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Copeland>