Died On This Date (November 26, 2008) Rob Partridge / Publicist; Helped U2 Get Signed To Island Records
themusicsover Rob Partridge
June 2, 1948 – November 26, 2008
Rob Partridge was a UK music industry veteran who founded and ran the Coalition Group, a powerful management and PR firm. Partridge began his career in the mid ’70s when he worked as a journalist Music Week. By the late ’70s, he was the head of the publicity department at Island Records where he worked directly with such greats as Bob Marley, Marianne Faithfull, U2, Steve Winwood and Robert Palmer. He left Island in 1990 to form a PR firm which would eventually be called the Coalition Group after he opened a management division of the company. Over the years, Partridge represented the likes of Johnny Marr, Tom Waits, Bloc Party, and Billy Bragg. In recent years, Rob Partridge had been suffering from cancer. He died as a result of it at the age of 60.
Sure it was the House That Ruth Built and home to Major League Baseball’s New York Yankees, but the legendary Yankee Stadium was also the site of numerous concerts over its storied 85 years. The first concert ever held there was an R&B festival on June 21, 1969. It was hosted by the Isley Brothers and included Tina Turner, Moms Mabley, the Edwin Hawkins Singers, Brooklyn Bridge, and Patti Austin on the bill. On August 23, 1973, over 44,000 music fans converged on the site to experience one of the most culturally significant Latin music shows the US had ever seen. What started out as a promotional concert by local Latin label, Farina Records to showcase their up-and-coming artists, turned out to be a symbol of the importance of Latin culture in New York City and the foundation of a Latin pride movement. On June 22, 1990, Billy Joel brought his rock and roll show to the stadium. Joel’s “Live At Yankee Stadium” was released on video in 1990 and is considered by many to be his best live recording ever. 1992 saw U2 performing two sold-out concerts there, followed by two sold out Pink Floyd shows in 1994.
Luciano Pavarotti was an immensely popular operatic singer who successfully crossed over to pop music during the 1990s. In the early part of the decade, he joined Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras to perform and record as The Three Tenors. Their album together went on to become the biggest selling classical album in history. Over the years he has sung with such pop acts as U2, Vanessa Williams and Mercedes Sosa. He is the only opera singer to ever perform on Saturday Night Live. Pavarotti was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer while in the midst of his “farewell tour” of 2006. He died of the disease on September 6, 2007.