Miles Copeland III
 |
This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (June 2010) |
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.
Contents |
[edit] Career
Miles was born in London, England, to Miles Axe Copeland, Jr., a CIA officer from Birmingham, Alabama, United States, 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 was with Wishbone Ash.
In 1974, he founded the management agency and record label BTM (for British Talent Management), and signed a number of progressive rock acts such as Renaissance and his brother Stewart's band Curved Air. In the summer of 1975, he organised a multi-band tour of European music festivals, Star-Trucking, which featured several BTM bands as well as Soft Machine, the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Lou Reed. But Reed's failure to appear at any of the shows and a litany of logistical issues resulted in significant losses.[1] In 1976, BTM closed down.
The failure of BTM coincided with the beginnings of the Punk/New Wave movement in the UK, and led him to help start Illegal Records, Deptford Fun City Records, New Bristol Records[2] and sign The Cortinas to Step Forward Records[3] in 1977.
In 1978 he would be instrumental in getting his brother Stewart's new band, The Police, signed to a major record deal,[4] and in fact managed Sting, another member of The Police, for many years. Miles also managed Squeeze, Climax Blues Band and Wishbone Ash.
In 1979 Miles created I.R.S. Records through a deal with A&M Records. He signed Gary Numan and the groups The Alarm, The Go-Go's & R.E.M. In January 1988 he created an all-instrumental imprint under I.R.S. called No Speak Records. 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.
[edit] Personal life
Copeland is a libertarian,[5] and has strong anti-corporate beliefs.[5]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Sutcliffe, Phil & Fielder, Hugh (1981). L'Historia Bandido. London and New York: Proteus Books. ISBN 0-906071-66-6. Pages 15-16.
- ^ The Pigs and New Bristol Records ”Punk77.co.uk”
- ^ Step Forward Records beginnings and discography ”VinylNet.co.uk”
- ^ Sutcliffe, Phil & Fielder, Hugh (1981). L'Historia Bandido. London and New York: Proteus Books. ISBN 0-906071-66-6. Page 57.
- ^ a b http://books.google.com/books?id=ODs8IEzC4Z0C&pg=PA152&dq=libertarian&hl=en&sa=X&ei=9ygkT-uJJIPnsQLXiNGMAg&ved=0CDkQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=libertarian&f=false
[edit] External links
- www.milescopeland.com
- [1] Transcript of Miles Copeland III on Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher
