Harvey Goldsmith

Career

Born on 4 March 1946 to a Jewish family in Edgware, Middlesex, Goldsmith started out as a pharmacy student in Brighton, East Sussex where he founded Club 66, a successful weekly student live music venue and organized larger events at the Brighton Metropole. By the end of that decade Goldsmith had created rock music events, such as the Crystal Palace Garden Parties. A decade later the concerts had moved to larger stadiums and had established Wembley Stadium as a major venue for the top artists of the world. In 1975, he was the promoter behind the Loftus Road Concert at Queens Park Rangers' Stadium for Yes, when they were touring their Relayer album.

During 1978 Goldsmith promoted the first major global TV event, The Concerts for Kampuchea, at Hammersmith Odeon, London, featuring artists including Paul McCartney, Queen and The Who. The event raised over $2 million from worldwide sales.

In 1985, Goldsmith organised Live Aid with Bob Geldof which became a £140 million fundraising venture within ten weeks. Live Aid was the first ever "Global Juke Box" featuring two simultaneous concerts, at Wembley Stadium in the UK and JFK Stadium in the US, with over sixty countries showing the seventeen-hour event live on television.

Following the success of Live Aid, Goldsmith became involved with concerts in aid of human rights, including a worldwide Amnesty Tour. He joined The Prince's Trust in 1982 and produced the first Prince's Trust Rock Gala. Goldsmith then became a member of The Prince's Trust Board and Vice Chairman of Prince's Trust Trading Ltd.

In 1986, he promoted Luciano Pavarotti at Wembley Arena. Because of Goldsmith's expertise in staging charity events, his company Harvey Goldsmith Artiste Management productions was brought in as executive producers of the 1990 live performance of Pink Floyd's The Wall, from Berlin. Due to the success of these concerts, Pavrotti agreed to perform at a free concert in Hyde Park, which was organised by Goldsmith in 1991. This concert was part of Pavarotti's 30th anniversary celebrations and attracted 125,000 people.

In 1992 Goldsmith organized The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert to increase AIDS awareness and this was a live TV success. In the same year he became chairman of the first National Music Day, which was instigated to promote the importance of music in UK. Goldsmith arranged a programme of fifteen-hundred musical events nationwide, covering all musical styles. Goldsmith persuaded Pavarotti to return and perform again in UK at the Leeds Castle in Kent during 1993. In 1994 under the auspices of HRH The Prince of Wales and President Havel of the Czech Republic, Goldsmith was appointed Executive Producer of The Prague Heritage Fund Gala Classical Concert. This concert featured Sir Georg Solti, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Murray Perahia also Gabriela Beňačková and was televised worldwide.

In 1994 Goldsmith started to work with Cirque du Soleil. This has been one of the most successful shows to perform in the UK, returning to London's Royal Albert Hall on a regular basis. The show was seen by around 183,000 people and sells in the region of 98% of tickets. In 2005 Goldsmith managed the show in London, Birmingham and Manchester. This marked the first time in Europe for having three different productions in the same country. He continues to promotes this show. Between 1996 and 1998 Goldsmith oversaw spectacular productions of the Lord of the Dance musical, which featured Michael Flatley in the leading role. he also promoted Pavarotti for a fourth time, in Manchester during 1997.

In October 2002 Goldsmith promoted Bruce Springsteen at Wembley Arena. Tickets for this show sold out in forty minutes, making it one of his most successful promotions. This was followed by three sellout stadium shows in May 2003. In November 2006 Goldsmith produced the UK Arena dates of Springsteen's sell-out tour with the Seeger Sessions band.

In January 2006 Goldsmith was awarded the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres from the French Minister of Culture. He presented the dance spectacular The Merchants of Bollywood, the first ever Bollywood production to tour straight from Film City in Mumbai. The show toured the UK and opened at the Hammersmith Apollo in London on 21 December 2006. Goldsmith was honoured with the 15th Music Industry Trust's Award in October 2006, one of the highest accolades to be awarded in the music industry, in recognition of his contribution to the music industry. In the same year, Midem honoured The Live Aid founders and Live 8 producers Goldsmith, Bob Geldof and John Kennedy OBE, with the Midem Personality of the Year Award, which was awarded in recognition of their outstanding work in bringing the music industry together to help alleviate poverty and famine in Africa. It was the first time in the seventeen-year history of Midem, that this accolade was awarded to more than one person. In the Queen's Birthday Honours 2007 Goldsmith was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his work in the entertainment industry. In the same year he promoted a six-month European tour of The Merchants of Bollywood.

In May and June 2008 Goldsmith brought Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band back to the UK. They played at Manchester Old Trafford Stadium, London Emirates Stadium and Cardiff Millennium Stadium. This was the first concert ever held at the Emirates Football Stadium. In October 2008 Goldsmith produced ‘Salute Petra’, the official tribute concert to the life of Luciano Pavarotti held in Petra, Jordan under the patronage of HRH Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein. The tribute featured artists from the world of opera such as Angela Gheorghiu, Andrea Bocelli, José Carreras, Plácido Domingo, and pop artists such as Sting, Zucchero, Laura Pausini and many more. The concert was filmed and made into a DVD, whose sales raised money for the UN Fund for Refugees. In November 2008 Goldsmith was honoured with the Armand de Brignac VIP Award from Classic Rock Magazine and he also picked up the award for Event of the Year for the Led Zeppelin concert at the O2 Arena in honour of Ahmet Ertegun. In December 2008 Goldsmith took over the management of Jeff Beck after the two saw each other at the Classic Rock awards where they were both collecting awards.

The National Outdoor Events Association presented Goldsmith with the Lifetime Achievement Award from The Outdoor Events Industry in February 2009. The British Music Experience opened at the O2 Arena in March 2009 and Goldsmith is Chairman of the Foundation and Chairman of the Board. The BME is a registered charity and is the UK’s museum of music history, with the purpose to advance the education and appreciation of the art, history and science of music in Britain. It helped over 14,000 students in the last year and administered over £140,000 in education grants for the local community. In September 2009 Goldsmith produced the Tower Festival in the Tower of London which ran for 10 days and weeks later ‘Last Night of the Poms’ starring Dame Edna and Sir Les Patterson went on tour around the UK reviving the hit show from 28 years ago. Before the year was out, Goldsmith produced Andrea Bocelli’s UK tour in conjunction with Kilimanjaro, and also produced the first tour by Yusuf (formerly known as Cat Stevens) for nearly thirty years. The tour ended with a night at the Royal Albert Hall, which featured a preview section of Yusuf’s new musical ‘Moonshadow’.

2010 saw the release of Jeff Beck’s first studio album in over six years, released on Rhino. In support of this album, entitled ‘Emotion & Commotion’ Beck embarked on a tour of Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, USA and Europe. Goldsmith also reassembled legendary rock band Faces to perform a handful of UK dates. In April 2010 Goldsmith was honoured with the International Music Person of The Year for his outstanding contributions to the Music Industry at the Musexpo by the City of West Hollywood.

Goldsmith promoted a concert at the beginning of 2011 for the charity Killing Cancer with a lineup of artists including Richard Ashcroft, Bryan Adams, Jeff Beck, Debbie Harry and The Who. In February 2011 Goldsmith produced ‘City Rocks’, which was in support of the Lord Mayor's Appeal, attended by The Rt Hon, The Lord Mayor of London, Alderman Michael Bear and the Lady Mayoress, Barbara Bear. City Rocks was the first major rock concert to be held in the City of London. In recognition of his outstanding contribution to the institution’s music education, Goldsmith was awarded an honorary fellowship from Ravensbourne, the university sector college innovating in digital media and design in September 2011. Goldsmith chaired the judges panel for the Editorial Intelligence Awards in October 2011 and became a board member. The Lord Mayor of London honoured Goldsmith with The Freedom of the City in November 2011. In December 2011, Goldsmith became Event 100 Club’s most influential person in the events business. He was also chairman of Ignite in 2011.

As part of HM The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations in May 2012, Goldsmith received The Diamond Award for his contribution to The Arts.

July 2012, The University of Brighton presented Goldsmith with an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Arts.

In August 2014, Goldsmith was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.

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