Miles Copeland III

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. (December 2007)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

For his musician father, see Miles Copeland, Jr..

Miles Axe Copeland III (born May 2, 1944) is an American entertainment executive, best known for founding I.R.S. Records. His brother, Stewart Copeland was part of the pop-rock trio The Police, which Miles managed. Another brother, Ian Copeland, was a successful booking agent who described much of the New Wave adventures of Miles, Stewart and himself in his book, Wild Thing.

[edit] Career

Miles was born in London, England to Miles Axe Copeland, Jr., a CIA officer from Birmingham, Alabama, and Scottish Lorraine Adie, who was in British intelligence. Due to Miles Jr.'s profession, the family moved throughout the Middle East, in particular Syria, Egypt, and Lebanon. As a result, Miles and his brothers became fluent in Arabic.

Miles began attending college at Birmingham-Southern College in 1962. He graduated with a B.A. degree in 1966 and attended the American University of Beirut, where he earned his M.A. in Economics by 1969. By then, he had already promoted his first concert. Moving back to England, Miles became involved in the music industry, focusing on promotion and management of several bands, his first major success being twin-guitar legends Wishbone Ash.

He founded the record label BTM, and signed a number of progressive rock acts such as Renaissance and his brother Stewart's band Curved Air.

He created a European music festival, Startrucking, which featured several of Miles' bands as well as Tina Turner and Lou Reed. This lost money and BTM closed down as a result.

He would be instrumental in getting his brother Stewart's band, The Police, signed to a major record deal. Miles also managed Squeeze.

After so much proven success, Miles created I.R.S. Records through a deal with A&M Records. He signed such groups as R.E.M.,The Go-Go's, and latterly, British artists; The Alarm and Gary Numan. Miles managed Sting, another member of The Police, for many successful years.

Reaching beyond the music branch of entertainment, Miles became involved in music videos, feature films, and other multimedia projects. He later became interested in world music genres and focused some of his products and attention on exposure of it.

Miles married Adriana Corajoria, an artist and model from Argentina, in 1989. Together, they had three children: Miles Axe IV, Aeson Armstrong, and Axton Emerson.