Robert Stigwood - Career Setback and The Don Arden Incident

Career Setback and The Don Arden Incident

For a few years Stigwood was highly successful, but according to Napier-Bell, he lived extravagantly. The small percentages he received from EMI for his recordings meant that he was largely dependent on agency and management commissions to maintain his cash flow, and gradually his company funds dwindled. Stigwood also promoted pop concerts "as a quick way to make a buck" and balance the books during slow periods. He specialised in summer seaside promotions, which were sometimes highly profitable, but were also notoriously variable in their returns since they depended on the erratic English weather.

Stigwood received criticism within the industry when he over-hyped and mis-managed his latest new pop hopeful, an Anglo-Indian singer called Simon Scott. His heavy-handed promotion included sending out plaster busts of Simon Scott as a promotional gimmick. However, although Simon Scott finally scored a hit, the venture cost Stigwood a great deal of money which he could not afford to lose.

In January 1965 Stigwood promoted a package tour headlined by 'difficult' rock'n'roll legend Chuck Berry (who famously always demanded payment in cash, up-front) supported by the Five Dimensions, Simon Scott. Winston G., The Graham Bond Organization (with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker), Long John Baldry, and The Moody Blues with guitarist Mike Patto as compère. The tour was poorly attended and adding to his woes, support act the Moody Blues pulled out unexpectedly when the tour reached Manchester (their single Go Now had just gone to no. 1) and Stigwood had to negotiate with the band to get them back as part of the package.

Stigwood's finances ran out halfway through the Berry tour and he called in the receivers, owing £40,000 to his creditors. EMI offered to bail him out, but he refused because he was anxious to get out of the unfavourable deal he had with the company. He fought valiantly to maintain the illusion that he had kept his personal wealth intact, although in reality he was flat broke. But, according to Simon Napier-Bell, Stigwood managed to fool enough people to keep his creditors at bay while he re-established himself. Within two years, the crisis was over.

Stigwood's aggressive style and his drive to expand his interests occasionally brought him into conflict with other entrepreneurs. Stigwood is the subject of one of the most famous stories in British showbiz, a fabled altercation between himself and Don Arden. During 1966 one of Stigwood's staff made the mistake of discussing a possible change of management with of one of Arden's top acts, The Small Faces. Not surprisingly, Arden took exception to this, and in spite of the fact that Stigwood had never met the group personally, Arden decided to pay him a visit with some of his minders, to teach him a lesson:

Don Arden: "I had to stop these overtures - and quickly. I contacted two well-muscled friends and hired two more equally huge toughs. And we went along to nail this impressario to his chair with fright. There was a large ornate ashtray on his desk. I picked it up and smashed it down with such force that the desk cracked - giving a good impression of a man wild with rage. My friends and I had carefully rehearsed our next move. I pretended to go berserk, lifted the impressario bodily from his chair, dragged him on to the balcony and held him so he was looking down to the pavement four floors below. I asked my friends if I should drop him or forgive him. In unison they shouted: ‘Drop him’. He went rigid with shock and I thought he might have a heart attack. Immediately, I dragged him back into the room and warned him never to interfere with my groups again."