Graeme Nesbitt

Graeme Nesbitt
Born November 27, 1950
Auckland, New Zealand
Died May 14, 2000 (aged 49)
Kuala Lumpur
Occupation music, arts & radio promoter, academic
Years active 1960s - 2000

Graeme John Nesbitt (27 November 1950 – 14 May 2000) was a music, arts and radio promoter from New Zealand.

Biography

Nesbitt made an immense contribution to the New Zealand music industry. He was instrumental in starting and furthering the careers of such well known New Zealand entertainers as Jenny Morris, Dragon and the magician Tim Woon.[1]

Graeme was responsible for the establishment of the New Zealand Festival of the Arts, Wellington's Summer City Program, New Zealand Music Awards, New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame and several other major events.

In 1972 Nesbitt was appointed as the first Director of the New Zealand Students Arts Council.[2] In the same year he took a management role with the band Mammal and they released the album "Beware the Man" with poet Sam Hunt.[3]

In 1974 Graeme became the manager of the band Dragon and they released their acclaimed album 'Universal Radio'.[4]

Over the 80's, Graeme was hired as the promo manager at Radio Windy and also did a stint at 2ZB Wellington. In the early 90's, he was back in the Radio game with working as ZMFM / 91ZM Wellington as the Promotions Manager.

References

  1. ↑ published The Evening Post, Thursday 25 May 2000
  2. ↑ "The major step occurred in 1972 when Student Teacher Organisations took a greater role in the decision making of the Council, and accordingly the name was changed to the New Zealand Students Arts Council. In 1972 a part-time director, Graeme Nesbitt, was appointed..." - http://library.vuw.ac.nz/jcbr/findingaids/description.php?p=nzsac
  3. ↑ He has befriended Backhouse and he introduced Sam to the other members of Mammal. The result of this meeting led to a series of varsity concerts featuring Mammal with Sam Hunt as guest. Initially Sam would read poems between sets, but this evolved into concerts with poetry with musical accompaniment. These concerts were so successful that the concept was captured on record and an album was released before the end of 1972. The album was called "Beware The Man" and released as Sam Hunt and Mammal. Also an EP came out called "Sandshoe Shuffle (Selections From Beware The Man)". - http://www.sergent.com.au/music/mammal.html
  4. ↑ In February 1974, after winning the Auckland Festival's all-day Rock Marathon, Dragon acquired a manager, Graeme Nesbitt, and signed with Vertigo Records. "We recorded our first album, Universal Radio (Vertigo 6360902 [N.Z.])," said Todd Hunter - http://www.chuckthewriter.com/dragon.html