User:Rocksource Archive/sandbox

Bernard Doherty (born 3 October, 1949, Edgware, Essex,) is an English performing arts publicist. He is best-known for his work with mainstream rock artists and large events.

The client roster of his company, LD Communications, has included The Rolling Stones, Tina Turner, Paul McCartney, Rod Stewart - plus major music events including Live Aid, Live 8, The BRIT Awards, The Concert For Diana and the live music events for the London 2012 Olympic Games. Festivals and award events which he has represented include the Download, Hard Rock and Wireless Festivals plus the NME and Kerrang! Awards.

Career The son of a pair of dance instructors, Doherty began his music business career as a part-time enterprise in the mid-60s while still employed full-time as an apprentice at Marconi in Chelmsford. In the spring of 1967, for example, he ran a coach up to Finsbury Park Astoria in London to see the Stax-Volt Revue, filling the coach with his mod, music-loving friends. A frequent visitor to Soho's Marquee Club, he extended his activities to deejaying at Basildon Mecca twice a week, then moved to Copenhagen in 1968 to earn a living as a club deejay.

In the early 1970s, Doherty returned to London and secured a minor position with Island Records before becoming a tour manager for promoter Jo Lustig, working on tours for artists including Jethro Tull, The Chieftains and Richard And Linda Thompson. While employed by Lustig, Doherty also began to gain experience in press and promotions work, which enabled him to move in the late 70s to Joe Boyd's Hannibal Records as press officer.

In 1982 he accepted an offer of a job in the London office of the global PR firm of Rogers And Cowan where his first assignment involved PR-ing David Bowie's Let's Dance album, the accompanying Serious Moonlight tour and the movie Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence. Within months, Doherty was also looking after Paul McCartney and Rod Stewart, and added Tina Turner to his roster in 1985.

Doherty's reputation as an innovative PR was cemented when he was asked to take charge of media for Bob Geldof's massive Live Aid concert in 1985. Live Aid, a fund-raising event to alleviate African famine, has been described as 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. Live Aid also sparked Doherty's interest in handling major music-related events as well as individual clients.

A 1989 takeover by Shandwick shifted the focus of Rogers And Cowan away from music so Doherty left, taking with him clients including The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney and Tina Turner. Unwilling to head up his own independent PR company - he sees himself as a hands-on operator rather than a deskbound company boss - Doherty took his clients to Laister Dixon PR.

The next seven years at Laister Dixon found him looking after 19 consecutive BRIT Awards, three Monsters Of Rock festivals, Pavarotti In The Park and more.

LD Communications When Wendy Laister moved to New York in 1996 (where she now runs the management company Magus Entertainment), Doherty and another long-term member of the team, Claire Singers, bought the company and re-named it LD Communications.

IN March 2000, LD Promotions was set up to handle TV and radio promotions. http://www.musicweek.com/story.asp?storyCode=4832&sectioncode=1

LD Communications continues to represent acts including the Rolling Stones, Tina Turner, Bon Jovi, Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Mariah Carey, Jools Holland, M People and more, and Doherty has continued to shift the company focus increasingly towards events, which have included The Concert For Diana, the Q Awards, Live Earth, Party In The Park and the Download Festivals.

2012 saw Doherty boost his regular team of 12 up to nearer 60 as he co-ordinated BT London Live, three weeks of Olympic-themed musical festivities in Hyde Park and neighbouring Victoria Park with acts including Blur, New Order and The Specials.

Social life

He married fashion designer Anne Docherty, on April 7, 1989, in Eastwood Toll Registry Office, near Glasgow, Scotland. They live in Greenwich, London, and have one son, Sean.

Outside of work hours he relaxes by playing cricket with his local team, The Earlswood Strollers, and presents a regular Planet Rock radio show, List O Mania, which recently passed its 500th broadcast. He is a member of The Groucho Club.

Notes http://www.prweek.com/uk/news/110348/PROFILE-BERNARD-DOHERTY-LD-PUBLICITY---Doherty-moves-musicindustry-times---LD-Publicity-boss-Bernard-Doherty-rockingafter-20-years-music-PR/?DCMP=ILC-SEARCH  PR WEEK, 13 April 2001

http://www.ldcommunications.co.uk/ LD COMMUNICATIONS WEBSITE

References

External Links