Gary Kurfirst

Gary Kurfirst (8 July 1947 – 13 January 2009) was an American music promoter, producer, manager, publisher, and record label executive. Kurfirst founded Radioactive Records, whose acts included Live, Black Grape, Ramones, Big Audio Dynamite, Talking Heads, Eurythmics and Shirley Manson. He managed a variety of artists including Manson, Blondie, Tom Tom Club, the Ramones, Jean Beauvoir, Eurythmics, Bob Marley and the Wailers, Toots and the Maytals, and The B-52s.

Early years
Kurfirst was born in Forest Hills, Queens. He started promoting dances while he was still a student at Forest Hills High School in Queens. He rapidly moved on to organizing and promoting shows at the tennis stadium at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills and moving across the East River to promoting gigs in Manhattan. Kurfirst helped arrange the first East Coast performances of acts including Jimi Hendrix and The Who.

Career
He established the Village Theater in the East Village at Second Avenue at Sixth Street in 1967, which a year later became the Fillmore East under the management of promoter Bill Graham. In August 1968, Kurfist organized the New York Rock Festival at the Singer Bowl in Flushing Meadow Park, an open-air concert with 18,000 in attendance that featured performances by The Chambers Brothers, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and the Soft Machine. In his obituary, The New York Times credited Kurfirst's success at the New York Rock Festival with inspiring the creation of the Woodstock Festival in Bethel, New York in August 1969.

While negotiating a contract for the group Mountain in the late 1960s, Kurfirst developed a close relationship with Chris Blackwell, his counterpart at Island Records. Blackwell, quoted in Kurfirst's obituary in The New York Times, described him as "one of the first managers who basically built the rock business", stating that Kurfirst "stayed below the radar and once refused the cover of Rolling Stone because he felt it was not the right time for his band".

Kurfirst managed reggae artists The Wailers founder Peter Tosh and Toots & the Maytals. His reach spanned new wave, reggae, punk, rock and pop. His client list as manager included the Ramones, Blondie, Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club, the B-52's, Eurythmics, Jane's Addiction, Holly and the Italians and Shirley Manson (Angelfish).

Talking Heads
Gary Kurfirst began managing the Talking Heads in 1977 after attending their show at CBGB’s in New York. He remained their only manager. Talking Heads are an American new wave band formed in 1975 in New York City. The band was composed of David Byrne (lead vocals, guitar), Chris Frantz (drums), Tina Weymouth (bass) and Jerry Harrison (keyboards, guitar). Described as "one of the most critically acclaimed bands of the '80s," Talking Heads helped to pioneer new wave music by combining elements of punk, art rock, funk, and world music with an anxious yet clean-cut image.

Ramones
Gary Kurfirst took the helm as the Ramones manager in 1978 and remained their manager until after their final concert in 1996 at The Palace in Hollywood (show number 2,263 in their career). Johnny Ramone recalls his impression of Kurfirst in his autobiography, Commando, "'When I realized that we had to change managers and that our career was not taking off like we thought it should ... I pushed for Gary Kurfirst. He’d been managing the Talking Heads, and back in 1977 when they opened for us at the Orpheum in Boston, he made an impression on me. Arturo tried to give the Talking Heads less lights, and Kurfirst got on the case right away. There was a big argument over it, and I liked that he was sticking up for his band. I’d also known of Gary because as a kid, he lived across the street from me. I didn’t know him, but I knew his younger brother. In the sixties, Gary managed Leslie West and The Vagrants and promoted concerts at the Singer Bowl in Queens, like the Doors/Who show. He had a track record, and I was sort of impressed with him. It was a good change. Once we got Gary as manager, we started making more money.'"

Films
Kurfirst produced True Stories and Siesta and executive produced Stop Making Sense.

Death
Kurfirst died at age 61 on January 13, 2009, while he was vacationing in the Bahamas.