Name Tom Watkins | Role Writer | |
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Tom Watkins is an English pop impresario, writer, composer, designer and fine art collector. With a background in art and design, Watkins set up the XL Design agency in the early 1980s and was responsible for designing record sleeves and music graphics of the period. Watkins moved into music management by the mid 1980s and managed the Pet Shop Boys, Bros and East 17 among others. Watkins has been described by Neil Tennant as "a big man with a loud voice", and by David Munns as "an unstoppable creative powerhouse".
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Tom watkins interview
Early life
Watkins was born Thomas Frederick Watkins on 21 September 1949 at St. Alfege's Hospital, Greenwich, London, the son of Patricia Daphne Diet and Frederick Joseph Watkins. He lived in Blackheath, London and was educated at Invicta Road School, Sherrington Road School and Raine's Foundation School in Tower Hamlets, London. Watkins later attended Sir John Cass Faculty of Art, Architecture and Design and went on to study art and design at London College of Furniture, London Metropolitan University.
Early career
After graduating from the London College of Furniture, Watkins worked as a designer for Terence Conran and Rodney Fitch. In the early 1980s Watkins and business partner, Royston Edwards set up the graphics/interior design company, XL Design with studios in Welbeck Street, London. David Smart joined the company after one year as co-partner.
Edwards, who had a background in magazine illustration and design worked predominantly in graphics. Smart, previously a book cover designer worked on record sleeve/ music graphic design while Watkins focused on interior design. Commissioned by Jill Sinclair and Trevor Horn, Watkins designed the interior of Sarm Studios in Notting Hill where ZTT Records was born.
Mark Farrow joined the company as a junior designer, his minimalist approach and a rigorous, highly precise attention to detail soon put him at the forefront of contemporary music graphic design. Farrow and the XL agency designed the minimalist Pet Shop Boys album covers including Please, Actually and Introspective.
The XL Design agency was responsible for creating some of the most iconic logos, music advertising graphics and record sleeve art of this period including those of Frankie Goes To Hollywood, OMD, Art of Noise, Wham! and Pet Shop Boys.
Music management
In the 1980s Watkins entered music management. He managed the Pet Shop Boys from 1984 to 1989, Bros from 1987 to 1991, and East 17 from 1992 to 1997. Watkins also worked with Grace Jones, Billie Piper, Art of Noise, Faith, Hope & Charity, 2wo Third3, Martine McCutcheon and North and South. Watkins was also a songwriter and music producer. He worked in collaboration with Nicky Graham under the deliberately confusing alias, The Brothers.
In 2000, Channel 4 produced Mr Rock ‘n’ Roll, a four-part documentary series looking at the lives and the careers of the most powerful, most outrageous and most astute managers in the history of Rock and Roll. The series featured the stories of Tom Watkins, Colonel Tom Parker, Don Arden and Peter Grant.
Design
Watkins is a fine art collector, specialising in works from the Memphis Group which was an influential Italian design and architecture movement of the 1980s. An admirer of Bauhaus-inspired constructions he designed and built The Big White House in Pett Level, East Sussex in 2004, which was featured in the Channel 4 Grand Designs television series. In 2006 Watkins received the Sussex Heritage Trust Award for The Big White House project.
Author
Published in July 2016, Watkins co-wrote with Matthew Lindsay his autobiography titled: Let's make Lots of Money: Secrets of a Rich, Fat, Gay, Lucky Bastard. In December 2016, the book was longlisted for the Penderyn Music Book Prize and in July 2017 the book was released in paperback under the title Let's make Lots of Money: My Life As The Biggest Man in Pop.