NICK STEWART
& ASSOCIATES LTD
NICK STEWART
Nick Stewart started at Island Records in August 1979, (coincidently the week that "Video Killed The Radio Star" by the Buggles became Island's first number one single). His first two signings were U2 and Killing Joke; his next two signings were the Thompson Twins and The Teardrop Explodes featuring a young Julian Cope. Sadly the founder, Chris Blackwell disliked the Thompson's Twins name so much that he tore the contract up in frustration and stopped the Teardrop Explodes deal going through only to sign Julian Cope, the enigmatic frontman four years later.
In the intervening 28 years Nick Stewart has worked alongside many great artists, in A&R, Marketing, Catalogue Exploitation and Management. It is a career that has embraced Island, Stiff, EG, where he had his first brush with management, looking after The Smiths, and then onto Polygram where he co-ordinated the re-issue of that company's entire catalogue from LP and cassette to CD in the early 90's. He re-issued and re-packaged catalogues of Elton John, Dire Straits, Big Country, Thin Lizzy, Rod Stewart, Dusty Springfield, Burt Bacharach, Squeeze and Dexy's Midnight Runners. He prepared and orchestrated highly successful TV campaigns for Burt Bacharach, Thin Lizzy, New Order, Happy Mondays, Grace Jones and Dusty Springfield. He launched a successful, bespoke compilation label, Debutante and was responsible for creating a highly successful line of own brand compilations and artist repertoire into Marks & Spencer's for the very first time. From a standing start from 1996 this became a £4m business within 18 months.
In 1998 he was appointed Senior Vice President of International A&R to BMG and within 9 months had scored 3 number one singles with Blondie's "Maria" and Lou Bega's "Mambo No 5", which he also placed with Channel 4's TV cricket coverage, before going onto remix Lonestar's country smash "Amazed" which resulted in them having a number 1 on the Billboard pop charts, the first country act to do so for 14 years.
It was during this time he launched his highly successful Captain America, Virgin Radio show, which ran on Sunday nights for four years. It became a focal point for American artists to promote their wares in the UK rivalling Bob Harris and Paul Gambaccini on Radio 2.
In 2005 he was invited to run Rhino UK the catalogue arm of Warner Music which brought him back into contact with his old friend and mentor, Irving Azoff and The Eagles.
In 2007 he was involved in setting up the phenomenally successful The Travelling Wilbury's re-issue which surprised the industry with its volume and overall success. Built around the sales spike of Father's Day, it created an industry benchmark.
In October 2007 he set up Nick Stewart & Associates, a consultancy which incorporates marketing, catalogue exploitation, publishing exploitation in synchs and licences, and management. The client list as at February 1st includes The Eagles, Don Henley, U2, Neil Diamond, Fremantle TV, the TV Show, Live From Abbey Road, and Sir Timothy Rice. Where the Artists are concerned, NS&A loyed by the managers to work closely with the record companies involved, ie Universal for U2 and The Eagles, Warners for The Eagles catalogue and Sony BMG for Neil Diamond.
NS&A is a small, intimate, bespoke company which delivers a highly personal service to the artists that are on their roster. There is experience alongside youth and innovation.
Our first major project was to oversee the first Eagles studio album for 28 years, "Long Road Out Of Eden" has now sold 2.2 million internationally and regarded as an extraordinary success. Followed by a two year programme of reissuing the U2 catalogue dealing with Universal and Principle Management, U2's management company and we also oversaw the UK and International release of Neil Diamond's Album 'Home Before Dark' which was released in 2008.