MUSIC INDUSTRY PEOPLE - AUSTRALIA
Michael Browning began his career in Melbourne during the mid-1960's. He opened one of Australia's first discotheques Sebastian's Penthouse, located on Beaconsfield Parade, St Kilda Beach and was ranked as one of Australia's leading venues of the day at the epicentre of Sixties fashion and music.
This led him to establish his own booking agency called Australian Entertainment Exchange, which represented the some of the top Melbourne 'underground' rock bands. This in turn led him into artist management and a string of successful management deals with acts including Python Lee Jackson, Doug Parkinson In Focus and Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs.
In the early Seventies Browning partnered with Michael Gudinski to form the top booking agency of the day, Consolidated Rock. It became the first national agency when it took over Phillip Jacobsen's Let It Be agency, which handled two of the top bands of the day, Daddy Cool and Spectrum. After ConRock folded in 1973 Browning managed Melbourne's Hard Rock Cafe and it was here on 16 October 1974 that he met AC/DC. Only weeks earlier the band had sacked their lead singer Dave Evans and recruited former Valentines vocalist Bon Scott. In November they parted ways with their first manager Dennis Laughlin, signed Browning as their new manager and relocated to Melbourne. Working in concert with Albert Productions' Ted Albert, Harry Vanda and George Young Young, Browning succeeded in taking AC/DC to great heights in Australia and then established them in the UK and signed them to the international deal with Atlantic Records which eventually broke them worldwide.
In 1979 Browning relinquished his management and AC/DC signed with Peter Mensch of the powerful New York-based Leber and Krebs organization. Browning returned to Australia to establish Deluxe Records and a publishing company, a move prompted by a comment from a friend, Clive Calder, owner of Zomba/Jive Records, who had told him: "Copyrights dont call you in the middle of the night and tell you the truck has broken down!" Deluxe's first signing to the label was Sydney indie trio The Numbers, followed by WA's The Dugites and then INXS. Deluxe released the first two INXS LPs before the group moved to WEA.
Browning spent the first half of the 1980's living and working in Los Angeles. He returned to Sydney in 1987 to manage Noiseworks. He is currently in partnership in the 301 Records label with Tom Misner, owner of the multinational SAE Colleges (School of Audio Engineering) and 301 Studios (Sydney, Byron Bay, Cologne and Stockholm).
Browning is the owner of Rust in Avalon. Rust commenced trading in October 2006 and soon became an Avalon institution, Michael and Elizabeth Browning source furniture, homewares, gifts and objects of art from all corners of the world, all chosen for their beauty, uniqueness and enduring appeal.
Sourced from: http://www.pittwater.nsw.gov.au/enliven/about/the_team/katherine_corbett2
LINKS:
- Michael Browning page on Milesago - http://www.milesago.com/industry/browning-michael.htm
Parent Category Page Links: | Music Industry People - Australia |
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