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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 75.61.72.7 (talk) at 06:46, 7 April 2008 (→‎David Ferguson (impresario) | David Ferguson). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

David Ferguson (impresario) | David Ferguson

--October 1976, High Times Magazine..."Vaughn Bode: Death of the Cartoon Guru"; O'Neil, Denny, pg 61 - 63, 88 - 89, 92 - 94. Look for Cassandra quote

"David Ferguson's life story reads like an encyclopedia of the underground."

David Ferguson is an international outsider-culture impresario, activist and iconoclast. He has been referred to as “The West Coast Andy Warhol" and as the "Godfather of Punk"[1], due to his contribution to the West Coast punk music scene of the late 1970s, early 1980s, first, as a concert promoter, then as founder of America's first (****CITATION NEEDED - is it the first in U.S.*****) independent punk music label, CD Presents[2][3]. In addition to recording and promoting underground music artists, Ferguson played a major role in maintaining a music distribution system independent of that run by major music labels[3]. Starting in 2004, he began restoring the massive archives of his CD Presents label at George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch under the guidance of Grammy Award-winning engineer/mixer Leslie Ann Jones [3]. The restoration was completed in early 2008.

Ferguson founded and presently heads the Institute for Unpopular Culture (IFUC), a San Francisco-based alternative arts organization which continues Ferguson’s mission of discovering and nurturing artists whose work typically resists mainstream accommodation and commercial sensibilities. Recognizing his inclination for embracing the underdog and the over-the-top, the San Francisco Chronicle anointed Ferguson the "godfather of the unorthodox"[2] while the East Bay Express once commented, "Dave Ferguson's life story reads like an encyclopedia of the underground."[4] Recent projects of note undertaken by IFUC included promoting and exhibiting the art of a San Quentin-death row inmate [5][6]. Ferguson also oversees Big Sound, a film productions company which has begun a series of silent film renovation projects--the first of which, the legendary German silent film classic, Pandora's Box, Big Sound has scheduled for debut at the 2009 Berlin International Film Festival). In a career spanning nearly four decades, Ferguson has worked with an array of cultural visionaries and influential underground artists, among them Warhol [1], John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten)[2], Iggy Pop[2], the performance art group, The Cockettes[2][5], illustrator Vaughn Bode, and the New York graffiti artist and painter, Jean Michel Basquiat[1].

Early career

Student

In 1965, Ferguson enrolled at the University of Miami. The anti-war temper coursing through American universities during the 1960s agitated the growing anti-authoritarian streak in Ferguson that today still guides his personal politics.[3] His leadership role in on-campus protests eventually led to his expulsion from Miami University, but he did score his first public relations coup by bringing to speak at the campus in 1968.[1] Warhol’s largely unknown status outside New York worked to Ferguson’s advantage:

"The jock students at his college weren’t too hip to who Warhol was, so Ferguson had time to strike up a friendship. The relationship must have meant something, because some have called Ferguson the Andy Warhol of the west coast.” --New York Arts Magazine, “Basquiat’s Rediscovered Punk Art at Art Basel, Miami,” Angela Holm, 2008

Cockettes

Following his dismissal from Miami University, Ferguson relocated his progressive politics and pursuit of the outsider ethos to the hotbed of 1960s counterculture, San Francisco. In 1969, Ferguson met The Cockettes, a notorious performance troupe of psychedelic drag queens, dressed in full TS sequined regalia, on a beach north of San Francisco, while taking his garbage to a public trash cubicle [2]. Ferguson struck up a relationship with the group which hired him to produce a number of shows over the next three years. During that time, he also managed The Cockette's public relations, conducting a worldwide public relations campaign for the group. A syndicated Rex Reed article featuring a Cockette’s show in San Francisco triggered a media blitz (EXTERNAL LINKS) that transformed the group from local cult heroes into internationally renowned figures (most famous being future disco star, Sylvester, and Divine, who would go on to star in director John Waters' early films). The Cockettes augured the arrival of glam rock, helped advance the worldwide gay pride movement and, with their in-your-face performance and audience participation antics, the group became a major influence on punk music.

Lecture agency

During his tenure as the Cockette’s public relations coordinator, he partnered with muse and former Gram Parsons confidant Margaret Fisher to form the David Ferguson Lecture Agency [7]. Over the ensuing 5 years, Ferguson arranged college lecture tours for some of the most sought-after luminaries in progressive politics and the counter-culture movement. His clients included Elaine Brown (Black Panther Party), Jerry Mander (Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television), Ernest Callenbach (Ecotopia), Malvina Reynolds, JoAnn Little, Paul Krassner (The Realist), Stewart Brand (Whole Earth Catalog), Michael McClure (Beat Generation poet), Carlo Prescott (who worked with Philip Zimbardo, on the Stanford prison experiment), and Trina Robbins. Ferguson also scheduled lecture activities for the influential underground artist and cartoonist Vaughn Bode. He then managed Bode's career for a time, representing him in negotiations for the animated movie, Wizards, inspired in large part by Cheech Wizard, perhaps Bode's best-known illustrated character. The visual design of the movie also borrowed liberally from Bode's work, generating claims of plagiarism directed at Wizards director, Ralph Bakshi. Ferguson, himself, was represented in Bode's cartoons as Rumplebucks, Cheech Wizard's manager, a lizard with an ever-present dollar sign above his head. Bode dedicated his final cartoon, which appeared in National Lampoon, to Ferguson.[8]

Ferguson folded his lecture business in 1976. He sought a new direction in his professional--but something that he hoped would recapture the off-kilter, helter-skelter, performance-based unpredictability that characterized The Cockettes.

Prelude to punk

That new thing turned out to be punk music. During the second half of the 1970s, San Francisco was a conduit in an underground music scene often thought of as the pre-cursor to punk and the hardcore offshoot that would later rage up and down the West Coast. Crossing paths with a music before the word ‘punk’ had even entered the cultural lexicon, Ferguson found the DIY tangibles of the music and its live performance thrilling, as he did the ethos of defiance that permeated the whole of the punk community.

From a practical standpoint, Ferguson’s discovery of this new musical genre provided opportunities to renew the concert production skills he once mastered while producing some of The Cockettes’ live performances. But a philosophical awakening also occurred for Ferguson when, in the 1976, he moved to Los Angeles and befriended legendary producer, engineer and Sound Factory co-founder, Gary Kellgren. Throughout the 1960s, Kellgren revolutionized record engineering techniques and processes. He also is credited with creating the prototype of the modern studio, transforming the typical utilitarian recording setting into the luxurious, amenity-stocked quasi-living rooms found today[CHRIS STONE]. Kellgren was Ferguson's mentor until his death in 1977 and, more than anyone, encouraged Ferguson to devote his energies to concert promotion. Most importantly, Kellgren's mentorship imbued Ferguson with an understanding of music's potential to galvanize sweeping cultural change--a philosophical underpinning that, at once, confirmed Ferguson's innate inclination to challenge the status quo and also broadened that perspective to consider and cultivate expressions of discontent beyond that of conventional political protest.

In the mid-to-late 1970s, Ferguson produced and promoted shows for Sylvester, The New York Dolls, The Tubes and Holly Woodlawn ("Holly" of Lou Reed's Walk on the Wild Side fame and one of Andy Warhol's Superstars). Iggy Pop's 1975 San Francisco appearance, produced by Ferguson, is regarded as the Bay Area's first punk concert [2]. Ferguson would later manage underground music groups, including the Penelope Houston-fronted San Francisco band, The Avengers, which opened for the Sex Pistols during their infamous final concert at San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom [3] in 1978. Both as a manager and producer, Ferguson reaped dividends from his heavy personal investment in the relationships he established with his artists, a mentor-protoge model that drew inspiration from the generosity Gary Kellman had once bestowed upon him. It was also while managing, producing shows and, later, records that Ferguson came to understand first hand the stranglehold major record labels held on both recording opportunities and record distribution.[9] Confronting that domination head on registered a quixotic, David-vs-Goliath allure which, for Ferguson, harkened back to the anti-authoritarian crusading endemic to the Vietnam protests and The Cockettes live shows. Ferguson decided to start his own label.

http://members.ztod.com/stream.php?dvd_id=151&scene_id=1061&format_id=6

CD Presents

Concerts

Ferguson founded CD Presents, Ltd in 1979. The name refers to both Ferguson’s concert production company and, later, his recording label. In terms of live show recording, CD Presents quickly expanded beyond San Francisco to become the leading alternative music concert production company on the West Coast (**CITATION NEEDED**). Ferguson arranged shows in Los Angeles and San Francisco for Public Image Ltd. during PiL’s first two American tours, discovering by happenstance Los Lobos (known as "Los Plugz"), a then an up-and-coming, Tex-Mex and Rock-and-Roll hybrid, which opened for PiL at the raucous 1980 Los Angeles concert. [9][10] During the late 70s and early 80s, Ferguson would work with some of the most influential and memorable bands of the U.S. punk scene. CD Presents arranged shows for the The Weirdos, the Dils, The Germs and X. with the latter two bands featured in Penelope Spheeris's, The Decline of Western Civilization a landmark concert film the footage of which was shot at punk shows arranged and promoted by CD Presents. CD Presents also orchestrated and promoted New Wave 1980, the first ever punk music extravaganza that brought together punk acts from all over the West Coast, as far away as Vancouver. That show featured some of the best remembered and most influential acts on the alternative music scene, including D.O.A., X, The Weirdos and The Dils. “Ferguson...you stick with this punk rock," advised friend and New Wave 1980 attendee, Tom Waits. “it's gonna be big someday.”



Munoz, Matt. Leaders of the Pack. Mas Magazine, September 23, 2007.</ref>

Studio

  • David Fincher / director completed his audio post- production for following videos ( 1982 - 83). 1)public service tv spot or American Cancer Society (baby smoking in womb) 2)HBO special live concert from Univ of Ariz w/Rick Springfield 3) music video for Motels (early MTV)
  • NO FX - Two Hebs and a Bean. Recorded album in late 80s, early 90s at studio.
  • Kirk Hammett of Metallica produced Sea Hags, unreleased but scheduled for release under restoration of CD PResents catalog.

Label

With the dawn of the 1980s came the onset of the Reagan-era expansion of corporate business and marketing practices which began to homogenize the country’s artistic and entertainment landscapes. A growing discontent emerged among the more marginalized music scenes toward corporate music labels and the mainstream sensibilities they accommodated. These colluding and colliding sets of circumstances helped position CD Presents at the forefront of an especially prolific period of punk and alternative music output. The label’s reputation for producing outstanding recording sound quality, along with Ferguson’s growing profile as a maverick who welcomed riskier, commercially unwieldy music, appealed to an ever-growing cadre of alternative musicians and punk music artists. Eventually, the list of bands either recorded by CD Presents or distributed through his Buried Treasure division numbered close to 3,300 artists. At any given time, the CD Presents label recorded either in studio or in concert, The Avengers,Dead Kennedys, Black Flag w/ Henry Rollins, Bad Brains, Circle Jerks, Flipper, The Subhumans, D.O.A, Butthole Surfers, Tales of Terror, NOFX, T.S.O.L., Minutemen, MDC, Dirty Rotten Imbeciles (D.R.I.), Corrosion of Conformity, Naked Raygun, Mojo Nixon, The Adolescents, and The Dwarves. For The Offs First Record (1984), Ferguson hired Jean-Michel Basquiat to design what has become one of the iconic album covers of the punk rock era. [1]

Ferguson would eventually cluster a number of singles of CD Presents' bands and release them as Rat Music for Rat People compilations, Vol. 1 (1982), Vol. 2 (1984) and Vol. 3 (1987)--records that would have a major influence on the ensuing generation of American alternative musicians, one of whom was Nirvana's Kurt Cobain:

“In 1984 a friend of mine named Buzz Osborne (Melvins’ singer/guitarist gave me a couple of compilation tapes (Rat Music for Rat People Vol. I & II) with Black Flag and Flipper, everything, all the most popular punk rock bands, and I was completely blown away," remembered Cobain, in a 1996 interview. "I’d finally found my calling. That very same day, I cut my hair short. I would lip sync to those tapes—I played them every day—and it was the greatest thing.”

--Kurt Cobain, Guitar World (1996)

The roster of CD Presents artists also included songwriters, bands and performers that strayed outside the U.S. punk and alternative music genres. The label signed Billy Bragg in 1984, helping the UK songwriter gain an American audience by releasing his first two albums ( Life's a Riot (Spy vs. Spy) and Brewing Up with Billy Bragg) in the U.S. In 1987, CD Presents released Hysterie, compilation of recordings 1976-1986, a compilation of songs by the avant-garde musician, poet and actress, Lydia Lunch. Pioneering electronica acts also recorded under Ferguson's label, such as Tuxedo Moon, Minimal Man, and MOEV. Even artists who eventually became known for having a more conventional rock sound cut their teeth at CD Presents: R.E.M and Chris Isaak, for example, recorded their first demos at the CD presents studio in San Francisco. [3]

Distribution

As with CD Presents, Ferguson built his distribution company, Buried Treasure Inc., from the ground up, calling upon the promotion talents and network of contacts he cultivated in his previous incarnations in the arts and entertainment industry. Many such contacts headed independent record labels themselves. When, in the mid-1980s, major record labels began clamping down on illegal importing and squeezing out legal independent distribution channels, the overall indie record industry fell into crisis. Ferguson moved in to assist in 1987. Under his Buried Treasure Distribution division, he distributed the record catalogs of nearly 100 labels. Newer labels, too, such as Wax Trax! Records, first gained traction in the industry by turning to Buried Treasure, which became Wax Trax's first distributor west of the Rockies. Buried Treasure also distributed various singles from pre- Nevermind Nirvana, delivered records for the labels TVT Records (Nine Inch Nails) and Sub Pop, and distributed product for Epitaph Records, culminating with The Offspring's 1994 breakout album Smash, which sold 16 million copies (the highest-selling independent album of all-time) and, for the first time, established independent distribution as a commercially lucrative business[3].

As did Courtney Love and Faith No More's Roddy Bottum and Jim Martin, all of whom worked at CD Presents while pursuing their dreams of music stardom, Fat Mike of NOFX fame also worked under Ferguson's tutelage, with Mike working at Buried Treasure. When Fat Mike soon after started his own label, Fat Wreck Chords, he fashioned his business model practices after those of Ferguson, even paying homage to his former boss when he released the CD compilation, Fat Music for Fat People, a play on the Rat Music records produced by CD Presents.

Institute For Unpopular Culture (IFUC)

Ferguson founded the Institute For Unpopular Culture in 1989 which carries on in a nonprofit vehicle the same goals Ferguson championed in the more business-oriented framework of CD Presents [2]. IFUC has achieved national recognition and has long been highly regarded within the San Francisco arts community for its commitment to alternative arts and its ability to mobilize financial and network support for non-profit artistic expression[11][12][13] Ferguson's and IFUC's stated mission is to discover and mentor outsider artists and creative people by assisting with public relations, business, counseling, opportunities, access to equipment, sponsoring with grants and funding for their projects[2][14]. Since its founding the Institute has supported and been associated with alternative artists such Obie-award winning performance artist Holly Hughes [15][12], environmental activist Julia Butterfly Hill, and graffiti superstar Barry McGee (aka "Twist")[3]. IFUC also launched The Punk Rock Orchestra,[16][17]--a 50-plus member collaboration which recasts punk songs (some composed by punk groups which recorded years before on Ferguson's CD Presents label) in an orchestral format. The orchestra has been featured on NPR and CBS Radio's The Osgood File. It was voted San Francisco's Best Local Band in 2005 by readers of both the SF Weekly and San Francisco Bay Guardian weekly newspapers [18]. IFUC's sponsorship of William Noguera, an artist who painstakingly crafts photorealistic paintings with thousands of drops of paint, has garnered public attention and triggered controversy given that Noguera has been for 18 years on death row at California's San Quentin State Prison [5].

Justin Herman Plaza. Beginning of anti-Iraq war movement. Part of DF's personal commitment to fulfilling responsibilities of IFUC. DF co-founded, United for Peace and Justice, and organized the first protest against Iraq war, 9/11/2002 (Bear Valley News). Assisted UPJ with public relations and gave guidance in terms of bringing in art and music into process.. Joe Mangrum was artist that IFUC gave grant to. One of the way that IFUC's artists use art to bring culture to political process involved. Go to Joe Mangrum's site for photos and media coverage of event (Justin Herman Plaza). DF ran into Richard Alpert (Babaramdas). T Leary's partner in Harvard LSD project

Tie in w/DF leading first ever Anti-Vietnam group in South Union of Students to End the War in Vietnam 1968 (NEED CITATION). Mentioned in one of the campus newspaper in which DF is in cartoon.

Black panther representation part of activism history.

SEE ALSO - United for Peace and Justice.

  • FIRST Assistant was ANN ARMSTRONG (Martha Stewart)
  • Kate Colby
  • Cassandra Richardson -- Put in next W. Noguera. Worked for Inst for 5 years before ecome art dealer representing work Noguera.

Big Sound

  • mission to recreate aesthetic of seeing films in art deco movie houses of 1920s w/live accompanying orchestras
  • first big project in SERIES is Pandora's Box.
  • BOX financed by Hugh M. Hefner


Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e Holm, Angela. Basquiat's Rediscovered Punk Art at Art Basel, Miami. NY Arts, March-April, 2008. Retrieved on April 3, 2008.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Martine, Lord. Ferguson finds unconventional fits him just right. San Francisco Chronicle, March 29, 2002. Retrieved on April 2,2008.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h David Ferguson Joins Subculture Books. Bear Valley News, March 28, 2008. Retrieved on April 3, 2008.
  4. ^ Kalem, Stefanie. Chamber Punk. East Bay Express, April 16, 2003.
  5. ^ a b c Lawrence, Ella. In Pen and Ink. SF Weekly, December 27, 2006. Retrieved on April 3, 2008
  6. ^ Visual Arts. San Francisco Chronicle, March 23, 2006. Retrieved on April 2, 2008,
  7. ^ Tudor, Silke. House of Tudor. SF Weekly, May 19, 2004. Retrieved on April 3, 2008
  8. ^ National Lampoon, February 1975, p. 92.
  9. ^ a b Jarrell, Joe. Putting Punk in its Place. San Francisco Chronicle, September 26, 2004.
  10. ^ Munoz, Matt. Leaders of the Pack. Bakotopia.com / Mas Magazine, September 23, 2007.
  11. ^ Voted Best Organization to Support Your Art. San Francisco Bay Guardian, July 29, 1998 [1]
  12. ^ a b Feinstein, Julie. Just Think SF Weekly, August 16, 2000. Retrieved April 4, 2008.
  13. ^ 2007 Masterminds. SF Weekly,
  14. ^ Institute for Unpopular Culture (IFUC).
  15. ^ Iorio, Paul. E-merging Arts. San Francisco Chronicle, August 19, 2000. Retrieved April 3, 2008.
  16. ^ Kalem, Stefanie. Chamber Punk. East Bay Express, April 16, 2003. Retrieved on April 3,2008.
  17. ^ Swan, Rachel. Outcast Orchestras. East Bay Express, [[June 11)), 2003. Retrieved April 3, 2008
  18. ^ Punk Rock Orchestra.

DISCOGRAPHY

See also

  • Cassandra's link

Misc

  1. NY Arts Basquiat Article
  2. Bear
  3. SF Chron 2002 (from website)
  4. SF Weekly (Noguera)
  5. EPK
  6. Holly Hughes SF Weekly, Aug 15 - 22, 2000 (or) SF Chron, Aug 19, 2000
  7. Bay Gaurdian, July 29, 1998
  8. SF Weekly May 19, 2004
  9. East Bay Express, Rachel Swan, June 11, 2003
  10. 7X7, July/August 2004

--After founding the locally based nonprofit Institute for Unpopular Culture, he’s now working on the release or re-release of 30 albums, including a live recording of SF band the Avengers opening for the Sex Pistols’ final Winterland show in 1978. The new compilation out this month from PRO, Weapons of Mass Deconstruction, is "a history of punk from 1977 to 1997".

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