Paul Piticco
Paul Piticco | |
|---|---|
| Born | Paul Piticco 7 March 1969 Brisbane, Australia |
| Nationality | Australian |
Paul Piticco (born 7 March 1969) is an Australian music and hospitality entrepreneur, and was placed at number 11 in The Australian newspaper's 2012 "Top 50" list of influential Australians in the "Arts" field, In addition to appearing several times in the Top 5 AMID Power 50. His company Secret Service operates in three areas - artist management, public relations services and digital marketing services—and is notable for managing Australian band Powderfinger and organising the Splendour In The Grass and Falls Music and Arts Festival Annually. He is also Managing Director of Dew Process Recordings and Create-Control and in addition to the above Paul Piticco also now works in the Bar and Restaurant space with his first bar The Gresham being awarded 2015/2016 Australian Bar of the Year.
Early life and education
Piticco was born an only child to Fernando and Carmel Piticco at the Royal Brisbane Women’s Hospital in Brisbane, Australia. Piticco's Father was an Italian immigrant who had relocated to Australia at a young age and founded a construction business in Brisbane. Piticco's mother was employed part-time in nursing and education. Piticco provided an insight into the influence of his parents in a 2014 interview, explaining that his father encouraged him to learn from mistakes while his mother spoke of the importance of living a life that brought one happiness.[2]
Piticco attended Petrie Terrace State School while growing up in the inner-west Brisbane suburb of Paddington. Piticco later attended Kelvin Grove State High.
Career
After leaving high school, Piticco started working with his father at the family construction business, which also involved his uncle, but he was not suited to the role: "I didn’t want to work a manual job, grinding it out in the sun like my dad. I knew that I wanted something different". Piticco moved onto employment as a steel salesperson for Australia's Boral Limited company. It was during this period that Piticco was asked to manage Powderfinger, as he was friends with the band members—at the time, the band had not achieved popular success and was not earning a living from music. Powderfinger guitarist Ian Haug recalled in a 2014 interview:
He [Piticco] knew nothing about the music industry; we gave him an opportunity because we could see something in him ... We needed a "bad cop", and he was a good bad cop. We didn’t want to be the ones ringing up bikers saying "pay us our money". He had to be the tough guy. And Piticco’s a pretty tough name.
Following Piticco's acceptance of the offer, the band sought the assistance of a lawyer to devise a management contract that determined a six-way split for any money that was earned by Powderfinger beyond the actual songwriting—the band continued working with Piticco after the contract lapsed, but did not bother to create another contract, and this arrangement lasted for the majority of Powderfinger's 20-year career.
Although Powderfinger continued as a band for a prolonged period of time before substantial money was earned. As of July 2014, Piticco is involved with numerous businesses in the Australian music and hospitality industry:
• Founder and owner of the Secret Service music company that consists of: Secret Service Public Relations, Secret Service Artist Management and Secret Service Digital.
• Co-founder and co-owner of Secret Sounds Touring, co-promoter of Splendour in the Grass music festival and co-promoter of the Falls Festival music festival.
• Founder and managing director of Dew Process and Create/Control, two independent record labels.
• Co-founder and co-owner of The Gresham Bar, Popolo restaurant and Heya bar all of which are located in Brisbane, Australia.
Piticco entered the hospitality industry in 2011, with the opening of the Popolo restaurant followed by the Gresham Bar and most recently Heya Bar. Piticco explained in 2014 that he had wanted to expand his business portfolio in this manner for many years, and also provided insight into the way in which he views hospitality in relation to music:
The chef is the artist, the restaurateur is the producer ... The chef serves up his works; the producer critiques them, works out which ones are going to be the hits, which ones will pad out the menu. Instead of listening, you taste. The ambience is the marketing and packaging—the visual representation—but the real thing that makes a successful restaurant is the food. It’s just as it is in the music industry: a lot of bad bands have an image, but the songs are really the meat of the proposition.
Secret Service Artists Management
As of July 2014, Secret Service Artist Management manages four Australian musical acts: Bernard Fanning, The Grates, Powderfinger and Mosman Alder. The company previously managed Magic Dirt, Yves Klein Blue, Dan Brodie, Turtlebox and Not From There.
Secret Sounds Connect
Secret Sounds Connect, co-founded by Piticco with his partners Jessica Ducrou and Kristy Rosser, is Australia’s leading music & entertainment rights and experiential agency. Secret Sounds are the exclusive commercial rights agents for Australia's top festivals including Splendour in the Grass; St Jerome's Laneway Festival; Falls Festival; Fuzzy Events (Listen Out, Harbourlife, Field Day); and Southbound.
Festivals and Touring
Secret Sounds Touring
Secret Sounds promotes the tours of several international artists in Australia, including The Strokes, Mumford & Sons, London Grammar, Foster The People, James Blake, Mark Ronson, The Flaming Lips, Blur and many more. In 2007, Piticco co-promoted the "Across the Great Divide Tour", a tour headlined by popular Australian bands, Powderfinger and Silverchair. The carbon neutral tour promoted reconciliation in Australia and contributed to the reduction of the 17-year gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-indigenous Australians.[1]
In 2010, Piticco co-promoted the farewell tour of Powderfinger that signified the completion of the band's career. The "Sunsets Farewell Tour" consisted of performances in 34 cities and towns around Australia, after 300,000 tickets were sold. Pittico was also a producer for the band's final commercial DVD, Sunsets Farewell Tour, directed by Gregor Jordan.[2] The farewell tour eventually grossed A$30 million.[3]
Splendour In The Grass
Secret Service, along with Byron Bay's Village Sounds, are the co-promoters of Splendour in the Grass, a live music festival held annually in Byron Bay, New South Wales, Australia, since 2001. The festival was temporarily held in Queensland, Australia for a number of years and eventually returned to Byron Bay.
Piticco and asscociates purchased a site in the North Byron Parklands to secure a permanent location for the festival prior to the 2013 edition. North Byron Parklands is to be used three times a year for music-related events, including the New Year's Eve Falls Festival event.
Falls Music and Arts Festival
In September 2012, Piticco announced he would become co-promoter, alongside fellow Splendour in the Grass colleague Jessica Ducrou, of the Falls Music and Arts Festival Event. The announcement came shortly after the resignation of previous staff members Naomi Daly and Carmella Morgan. Ducrou explained in 2014: "Paul and I have done all sorts of glamorous jobs – directing traffic, picking up garbage ... He’s [Piticco] really positive, he mucks in. He has no airs and graces. He’ll do whatever is required" [3]
Record labels
Dew Process Recordings
In 2002, Piticco started Dew Process, an independent record label based in Brisbane, Australia. Dew Process' roster includes London Grammar, Bernard Fanning, Mumford & Sons, James Vincent McMorrow, Sarah Blasko, The Living End, The Hives,The Grates, Bluejuice, The Panics, Jebediah, Last Dinosaurs, Art of Sleeping, Whitley, Kingswood, Seeker Lover Keeper, Little May, Tkay Maidza and more. As of July 2014, the label's main revenue source is album sales. In addition to the label, Dew Process Publishing was founded in 2008 and represents the publishing copyrights of Powderfinger, Art Of Sleeping, Last Dinosaurs and more.
Create/Control
In 2012, Piticco launched his new record label, Create/Control. This label operates by a different business model from that of normal recording companies in the respect that full creative control and A&R funding is left to the artist. Create/Control in turn puts a greater emphasis on distribution, marketing and publicity. Create /Control is also the Australian Distributer of both the Mute Records and Downtown Records catalogues
Hospitality
Popolo Italian Kitchen & Bar
Piticco opened the restaurant and bar Popolo in South Bank, Brisbane in 2011 following his life long passion for Italian food. The name means "people" in Italian. Piticco's business partners are his close friends, restauranteur Andrew Baturo, Brian Quinn and Denis Sheahan, Powderfinger’s former tour manager.
The Gresham Bar
The Gresham Bar venue was opened in Brisbane's Queen Street in late 2013. The building in which the bar is located was initially designed for the Queensland National Bank in 1881, and was completed by Queensland Colonial Architect Francis Drummond Greville Stanley in 1885. In 2015, The Gresham Bar was the recipient of several coveted hospitality awards: Australian ‘Bar of the Year’; Qld ‘Bar of the Year’ both awarded at the Australian Bar Awards and Gourmet Travellers’ “Bar of the Year’.
Heya Bar
Heya opened its doors in early 2015 and is the 3rd venture to be added to the hospitality portfolio by Piticco and his business partmers Baturo, Sheahan and Quinn. Named after the Japanese word for "room", Heya’s edgy poster-plastered interiors are inspired by South East Asian street markets and the alleyways and bars of Golden Gai in Tokyo's Shinjuku district. The idea of this haven in Fortitude Valley took shape as the owners, were wandering through the back alleys of the Golden Gai in Shinjuku, Tokyo, where little bars, each with their own house speciality, line the passageways.
Personal life
Piticco lives with his partner of 15 years, Lisa Wickbold, and their children. In 2014, Piticco shared his outlook on his life and career:
I’ve always had this theory that stems from my mum ... Whether you’re a chimney sweep, a brain surgeon or a band manager, if you’re good at what you do, the rest takes care of itself. I just like having the opportunity to make a living out of music, for myself and others, and along the way make a whole bunch of people happy by enriching their lives in some way. And to get paid for it? That’s fucking awesome![3]
See also
References
- ^ "ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE". QPAC. Queensland Performing Arts Centre. 2010. Retrieved 24 September 2012.
- ^ "Powderfinger: Sunsets Farewell Tour". Letterboxd. Letterboxd Limited. 2014. Retrieved 27 July 2014.
- ^ a b c Andrew McMillen (20 July 2014). "Qweekend story: 'The Grass Is Greener: Paul Piticco', July 2014". Andrew McMillen. Andrew McMillen. Retrieved 27 July 2014.