Roger Grierson
editRoger Grierson is a walking musical encyclopaedia.
Born in Auckland New Zealand, The eldest child of mixed race parents, one Australian , one New Zealander, Roger attended St Kentigern College in Auckland, New Zealand between 1962 and 1969. Regular travel abroad saw he and his family move to Fiji in 1969 before returning to Australia in 1970 where he commenced boarding school at The Scots College, from which he was gleefully expelled in 1972. Swift negotiations on the part of his parents saw him continue as a day pupil (on probation) at the College until 1974.
Eager to travel abroad, in 1975 Roger headed to London and Egypt to live but found himself lured back to Sydney in 1976 to work at White Light Records. Soon afterwards he formed the iconic punk band 'The Thought Criminals'.
In 1978, Roger started Doublethink Records to record local Australian bands including 'Singles' 'Rejex', and 'Suicide Squad'. In 1980 he started GREEN Records with Stuart Coupe and together they released records by 'Tactics', 'Allniters', 'Lime Spiders', 'Spy V Spy', 'Do Re Mi', 'Dropbears', 'Beasts of Bourbon'[1], 'New Christs' and 'The Johnnys'[2], Roger producing the first 'Beasts of Bourbon' record 'The Axeman's Jazz'.
An abundance of enthusiasm for local music soon saw Roger managing 'The Allniters' 'Tactics' and 'Spy v Spy' in 1981. During this period he was the distribution manager for iconic music company Larrikin , in 1983 he took on 'The Johnnys', and in 1985 'The Wreckery'; the junk rock elite outfit spawned by a couple of ex Bad Seeds.
Iin 1987 Roger started promoting Australian tours for acts signed to the legendary New Zealand label, Flying Nun Records[3]. These acts include 'The Bats', 'The Chills', 'StraightJacket Fits' and 'JPS experience'. In 1988 he started managing 'The Go Betweens' and 'Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds'.
In 1989 he toured 'Tackhead', 'Public Image Ltd', 'Pop Will Eat Itself'[4] and began managing bands such as 'The Hummingbirds' and 'Tall Tales and True'. At this time he also formed Lost in Music publishing and signed 'Tex Perkins'[5], 'Rebeccas Empire', 'Caligula', 'Dave Graney', 'Clouds', 'Falling Joys', 'Crystal Set' and 'Kim Salmon' to name but a few.
In 1990 he toured 'Pop Will Eat Itself', 'Buzzcocks', 'Jesus Jones', 'the Fall', 'Norman Cook/ Beats International'. 1991 saw more touring with 'PWEI', 'Jesus Jones', 'Neds Atomic Dustbin', 'The Godfathers', 'Dread Zeppelin', and 'Mojo Nixon'. In 1983 Roger was involved in the ‘Dead Kennedys’[6] tour in 1986, with ‘The Gun Club’[7] and in 1989 with ‘Sonic Youth’ and ‘Dinosaur Jr.’
In 1992 Roger moved the 'Lost in Music' catalogue to Polygram Music Publishing and became Managing Director of the now defunct Polygram Music Australia, a position he retained until 1997. During his time at the helm of Polygram Music, he signed 'The Cruel Sea', 'David Hirschfelder', the 'LennOno catalogue', 'Leonard Cohen', 'Died Pretty'[8], 'Nick Cave', [9]'Powderfinger'[10], 'The Fauves' and 'The Go Betweens'[11] (to name a few).
In 1998 Grierson became Chairman of Festival Records [12] and Festival Music publishing, working closely with James Murdoch[13]. Under Griersons' stewardship, Festival Records acquired Michael Gudinski's 51% share of Mushroom Records to become Festival Mushroom Records in 1999.
It was during this period he met Matt Lovell[14], producer, engineer and mixer who was working at the legendary Festival Studios from 1994 until 1999. The two formed a close bond that was to be rekindled almost a decade later.
In 2001, Roger was promoted to Senior Vice President for Newscorp Music, continuing his existing role but now also supervising Mushroom UK and Rawkus [15]and was proud to oversee the Festival 50th anniversary in 2002.
In 2002 Roger retired. Despite this, in 2006 he proceeded to reform 'The Thought Criminals', and in 2007 formed the 'UnTh!nkables' with Phillip Judd from Split Enz[16]. It was around this time that he went into partnership with Matt Lovell to create Lovells Lager[17]. Lovells Lager is beer with charisma and the beer of choice for any self respecting music lover.