“Tony has long been one of the UK’s foremost record promoters and undoubtedly one of the best U2 has had the pleasure of working with. It was in those crucial formative years that we were grateful of the passionate belief Tony showed in the band and for the personal and professional relationship that was built. It was also pleasing to see the hugely successful career he built off the back of the work he did with U2 and the caliber of acts he continued to work with.”
Paul McGuinness
Manager, U2
“Tony has seen more of the music industry from the inside than almost anyone else I know. Working for various record companies, his own promotions business and in artist management has given him a deep insight in to the machinations of the music business. His success stories are many but just ask any member of U2 about Tony and they will tell you of the crucial role he played in getting them heard around the UK. More than this though, he is a man who loves music and it is that, which has driven him more than anything else.”
Mark Radcliffe
BBC Radio 2 Presenter and Author
“Tony Michaelides’ reputation was unrivalled within the industry as the UK’s leading independent regional promotion person. It is also worth mentioning that in our professional relationship Tony and his team never came out of the Top 3 promotion companies in the whole country. He just about invented regional promotion and if that is too large a claim he certainly ‘professionalized’ it in a way many would come to emulate. There can no more sincere flattery that that. Simply put…Tony Michaelides- a UK promotion legend!”
Dave Shack
Vice President BMG International (UK)
“I have always found Tony’s ability in getting to the right people something that money can’t buy. It’s these relationships that he has formed over a quite outstanding career that set him apart from the competition. I have in my management capacity, worked with many press and promotion people over the years but rarely found a person that has inspired my complete trust and respect, someone able to absorb and deliver both a creative and innovative approach to a project. Tony Michaelides is in a class of his own.”
Jon Webster
Former Managing Director of Virgin Records and CEO Music Manager’s Forum
“Tony has been one of the most talented, remarkable and personable people I have ever encountered. He is an individual of exceptional capabilities and a unique player in the field of regional promotion”
Michael Lippman
Manager of Matchbox Twenty, George Michael
“In over 30 years working at the highest level, Tony Michaelides has ranked as one of the finest promotional people ever. Tony invented the concept of regional promotion that equated the power of music and the quality of voice for hip labels and their talented new artists while doing imaginative and successful work in the heartland when all music companies clung to the London media. I was so pleased he wrote a book so someone would now have to edit him!”
Ray Cooper
Zama Management, Former President Virgin Records US
“Tony Michaelides is a legend. Tony gave me my first job in the music industry and he’ll always be a legend to me. His enthusiasm for plugging and life in general is contagious and reading his stories kept me entertained from cover to cover!”
Estelle Wilkinson
Manager, Coldplay 2002 -2006
“Tony has taken the lessons learned from a lifetime inside the rock machine and constructed a new way of fine tuning business practice. The stars he has worked with can now be your inspirational motivators.”
Colin Sommerville
Journalist Scotland On Sunday, Presenter BBC Radio Scotland
“What I like best of all is Tony’s sheer, unadulterated bloody minded love of music of music and life, which comes across with gusto. And also his constant thankfulness for being able to live out a hobby for a career.”
Mark Hodkinson
The London Times
“We have been delighted to be able to use the experience and expertise of Tony Michaelides as one of our Cultural Industry Business advisors. Over the years he was able to help many young people who were setting out in new careers by imparting his wealth of knowledge and experience accumulated over a lifetime working in the field of PR. The feedback we have had from clients has always been very positive.”
Doreen Phelan
Manager of The Manchester Business Consortium
“Tony has taken his unique ability to look in retrospect at his experience from the music industry and create practical business lessons that can applied by any entrepreneur or corporate leader. He explains the lessons in a way that not only resonates with today’s business challenges. But is a storyteller whose vignettes you will not soon forget.”
Thomas W Nash
Chairman and CEO Xalles Ltd.
“I’ve always admired Tony’s drive and passion for music and the music business. If they had a motivation Olympics he’d take the gold every time!”
Pete Reeves
Writer/Broadcaster
“I was responsible for facilitating Master classes covering all aspects of the music business, delivered by known experienced professionals. Tony Michaelides was one of our most experienced consultants and lectured at many of those Master classes annually which we found to be some of the most popular events on our schedule. Tony in his other capacity was also a member of the Music Industry advisory board, a panel made up of industry practitioners responsible for advising on the funding of worthwhile projects in the creative industries”
Stuart Worthington
Project Manager and Head of Training and Education for The Music Manager’s Forum
“I was the founder of Stiff Records in the UK in the 1970’s where I first worked with Tony Michaelides with my acts Elvis Costello and Madness both of whom became multi platinum selling acts. Tony is a unique promotions person and certainly one of the finest I ever had the pleasure of working with.”
Dave Robinson
Founder of Stiff Records and former Managing Director of Island Records
“I only wish we could all have a tiny Tony around to whisper in our ears some of his inspirational stories to remind us not to take ourselves, in the Land of Corporate quite so seriously. We could learn a valuable lesson from his experience of the last 30 years. We could realize that making decisions on instinct and trusting our innate ability can sometimes be far more lucrative. Never has the time been so right for riding Tony’s mantra on how to harness the wave and win.”
Avril Somerville
Management and Training Specialist
“Getting involved with Tony is a life lesson full of coaching with enthusiasm, humor, and passion for bringing people success.”
David Penn
University Dean and Professor of Business and Psychology, former Fortune 500 executive, and international, award-winning museum CEO
