John Woodruff

OAM
Born
John Philip Woodruff
Occupations
  • Talent manager
  • record label owner
  • music magazine owner
Years active1973–2018

John Philip Woodruff OAM is an Australian former talent manager, record label owner and music magazine owner. He managed Flowers/Icehouse, the Angels, Diesel, Baby Animals and Savage Garden. He combined with fellow managers to found Dirty Pool as a booking agency and management company in 1978. Woodruff established a magazine The Music Network in 1994. For his work in the local music industry he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the ARIA Music Awards of 2007. He was described by music journalist Christie Eliezer as one of seven movers and shakers of the Australian Music Industry in the book High Voltage Rock 'n' Roll (2007). On Australia Day (26 January) 2008, Woodruff was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for "service to the popular music industry, particularly as a manager, promoter and mentor of musical acts." He retired in December 2018 after selling his management company to Sony Music Australia.

Biography

John Philip Woodruff was a talent manager of two covers bands, Moonshine Jug and String Band[1][2] and Orange,[3][4] in Adelaide in the early 1970s, which eventually became the Angels and Cold Chisel, respectively.[5] He established the Sphere Organisation, which included a record label. Moonshine Jug and String Band issued a four-track extended play Keep You on the Move in mid-1973 and followed with a single "That's All Right for Me" (1974), both on his Sphere label.[1][6] Late in 1974 they changed their name to the Keystone Angels and released a single, "Keep On Dancin'" (1975), which was co-produced by Woodruff and the group.[1][7]

Woodruff and fellow managers, Ray Hearn, Richard McDonald and Rod Willis, founded Dirty Pool Live Presentation in Sydney in 1978 as a booking agency and management company.[8][9] Willis was now managing Cold Chisel and Hearn handled the Angels – both bands were concerned that various booking agencies were taking the lion's share of profits from their live music performances.[8][9] At that time "performers were only paid on a minimal fee basis and the venue promoter took most of the money".[10] McDonald recalled "There was no control over cover charges or promotion and, most important, no control of the marketing of the act."[9] Woodruff convinced Flowers (which became Icehouse) to join their roster and worked with their bass guitarist Keith Welsh, who had been doing their bookings.[8][9] He resumed management of the Angels and remained with them until the 1990s.[1][2]

From the mid-1980s he managed Johnny Diesel & the Injectors.[11] He helped form Baby Animals in 1989 after seeing lead singer Suze DeMarchi performing in London.[12] To concentrate on Baby Animals he had left the Angels and Johnny Diesel by 1992.[1][11] He was praised by Baby Animals' members Frank Celenza and Eddie Parise, who told The Canberra Times' Kean Wong that "Woodruff has played an instrumental role in all this success."[13] As the Australian representative for Imago Records he had signed Baby Animals for international releases.[13]

Woodruff co-created a music magazine The Music Network in early 1994 with Welsh and music journalist Anthony O'Grady.[14][15][16] According to O'Grady, it started as "a tip sheet... to highlight records that are starting to work at radio and/or retail" before they appeared on the Australian Music Report or ARIA Charts.[16] At the end of 1994 he signed the pop duo Savage Garden to his management company JWM Productions after receiving their demo tape and negotiated a contract with Roadshow Music/Warner Music to record their material.[17][18][19] With his wife he took out a loan, using their home as collateral, to fund the recording of the group's debut single, "I Want You" (May 1996).[5] As co-chair of the Australian Music Managers Forum in April 1995 he alerted the local industry to the lack of copyright and transmission rights as the Internet expands, "music, film, articles, anything which is intellectual property needs another set of rules for protection".[20]

In February 1998 he provided a submission to the Australian federal government's inquiry into Copyright Amendment Bill (No. 2) 1997 with particular reference to parallel imports of Savage Garden material.[5] The group were the highest earning Australian entertainers for 1998 according to Adele Ferguson et al of Business Review Weekly at $35 million.[21] After Savage Garden disbanded in 2001 he continued managing the group's assets including their back catalogue.[22] His later clients included Evermore, the Butterfly Effect, Kisschasy and Small Mercies.[10]

For his work in the local music industry Woodruff was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the ARIA Music Awards of 2007.[10][23] Also in that year he was described in "Chapter 3" of music journalist Christie Eliezer's book High Voltage Rock 'n' Roll: The Movers and Shakers in the Australian Music Industry.[24][25] On Australia Day (26 January) 2008 he was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for "service to the popular music industry, particularly as a manager, promoter and mentor of musical acts."[26] He sold his interests in The Music Network in early 2009 and explained, "[it is] the right time to pass on the flame... into the hands of a company which sees itself as part of the music industry".[27][28] Woodruff retired in December 2018 after selling his management company and Savage Garden's back catalogue to Sony Music Australia.[22]

References

General

  • McFarlane, Ian (1999). "Whammo Homepage". Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop. St Leonards: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 1-86508-072-1. Archived from the original on 5 April 2004. Retrieved 22 December 2016. Note: Archived [on-line] copy has limited functionality.

Specific

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 McFarlane, 'The Angels' entry. Archived from the original on 2 August 2004. Retrieved 24 November 2022.
  2. 1 2 Nimmervoll, Ed. "The Angels". Howlspace – The Living History of Our Music. White Room Electronic Publishing. Archived from the original on 28 July 2006. Retrieved 24 November 2022.
  3. ↑ McFarlane, 'Cold Chisel' entry. Archived from the original on 19 April 2004. Retrieved 24 November 2022.
  4. ↑ Nimmervoll, Ed. "Cold Chisel". Howlspace – The Living History of Our Music. White Room Electronic Publishing. Archived from the original on 28 July 2003. Retrieved 24 November 2022.
  5. 1 2 3 John Philip Woodruff, Managing Director, John Woodruff Management (13 February 1998). "Copyright Amendment Bill (No. 2) 1997" (PDF). Legal and Constitutional Legislation Committee Meeting. Commonwealth of Australia: Senate. pp. 152–159. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 June 2011. Retrieved 24 November 2022.
  6. ↑ Holmgren, Magnus; Senatore, Tony. "Moonshine Jug and String Band". Australian Rock Database. Archived from the original on 3 March 2004. Retrieved 24 November 2022.
  7. ↑ Holmgren, Magnus; Senatore, Tony. "The Keystone Angels". hem.passagen.se. Australian Rock Database (Magnus Holmgren). Archived from the original on 22 August 2003. Retrieved 26 December 2016.
  8. 1 2 3 Eliezer, Christie (9 November 2007). "Extracts from Christie Eliezer's High Voltage Rock 'n' Roll". In Music & Media. Archived from the original on 18 February 2009. Retrieved 24 November 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  9. 1 2 3 4 "Australian Rock Bands Play Dirty Pool to Advantage". The Canberra Times. Vol. 56, no. 16, 972. 17 March 1982. p. 23. Retrieved 24 November 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  10. 1 2 3 "ARIA Awards 2010 : News". Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). 12 July 2007. Archived from the original on 19 February 2011. Retrieved 30 November 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  11. 1 2 McFarlane, 'Diesel (aka Johnny Diesel, Mark Lizotte)' entry. Archived from the original on 3 August 2004. Retrieved 30 November 2022.
  12. ↑ Woodruff, John. "Interview John Woodruff" (PDF). Australian Independent Record Labels Association. p. 9. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 August 2009. Retrieved 30 November 2022.
  13. 1 2 Wong, Kean (11 June 1992). "Good Times: Kean Wong Talks to Baby Animals". The Canberra Times. Vol. 66, no. 20, 878. p. 17. Retrieved 30 November 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  14. ↑ Hewitt, Karen. "Vale Anthony O'Grady, Rock Journalist and Music Press Pioneer". National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA). Archived from the original on 16 November 2020. Retrieved 1 December 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  15. ↑ Brandle, Lars (21 December 2018). "Midnight Oil, Cold Chisel, John O'Donnell & More Remember RAM Founding Editor Anthony O'Grady". The Industry Observer. Retrieved 1 December 2022.
  16. 1 2 "Archives: Electronic Interviews". InMusic&Media. Archived from the original on 7 January 1997. Retrieved 1 December 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  17. ↑ McFarlane 'Savage Garden' entry. Archived from the original on 13 August 2004. Retrieved 1 December 2022.
  18. ↑ Nimmervoll, Ed. "Savage Garden". Howlspace – The Living History of Our Music. Archived from the original on 26 July 2012. Retrieved 1 December 2022.
  19. ↑ Stafford, Andrew; Woodruff, John (25 November 2003), John Woodruff Interviewed by Andrew Stafford, retrieved 1 December 2022
  20. ↑ MacDonald, Emma (27 April 1995). "Making a Stand on the Internet". The Canberra Times. Vol. 70, no. 21, 924. p. 3. Retrieved 1 December 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  21. ↑ Ferguson, Adele; Shoebridge, Neil; Watts, Tim; de Clercq, Kate (5 April 1999). "Cover Story Top 50 Entertainers – Part Four: The Top 10". Business Review Weekly. 21 (12). Archived from the original on 30 July 2003. Retrieved 1 December 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  22. 1 2 Brandle, Lars (6 December 2018). "Sony Music Acquires Savage Garden Catalogue, Reunites with John Woodruff". The Music Network. Retrieved 24 November 2022.
  23. ↑ "Winners by Award – Lifetime Achievement Awards". Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). Retrieved 28 December 2019.
  24. ↑ Eliezer, Christie (2007), "Chapter 3: John Woodruff, Talent Manager (The Angels), Music Publisher (Savage Garden) and Co-founder of the Dirty Pool Agency", High Voltage Rock 'n' Roll (1st ed.), Omnibus Press, ISBN 978-1-921029-26-4
  25. ↑ Eliezer, Christie (9 November 2007). "Extracts from Christie Eliezer's High Voltage Rock 'n' Roll". themusic.com.au. Archived from the original on 23 July 2008. Retrieved 4 October 2023 – via National Library of Australia. Note: Includes excerpt of "Chapter 3"
  26. ↑ "Award Extract – Australian Honours Search Facility". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 26 January 2008. Retrieved 24 November 2022.
  27. ↑ "The Music Network". Musicoz.org. Archived from the original on 2 July 2012. Retrieved 1 December 2022.
  28. ↑ "The Music Network Magazine Enters a New Era". APRA AMCOS. 13 January 2009. Archived from the original on 12 May 2012. Retrieved 1 December 2022.
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