One of the highest-ranking female executives working in the concert promotion business today, Canada’s Debra Rathwell is the New York-based executive vice-president of global touring and talent at AEG Presents, the second-largest promoter in the world. She recently oversaw the top-grossing tour of all time, Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour. She spoke to The Globe and Mail in advance of her keynote appearance in Toronto at the industry convention Canadian Music Week, June 5-10.
There was a time in my life when I needed to rent a room while living in Ottawa. I was finishing at Carleton University. I tore a little piece of paper off a bulletin board, as we used to do in the olden days. I ended up living with a poet, Cyndela Whitney. She was active in the music community, and I was fascinated by this. Harvey was operating the Treble Clef retail music stores and the concert company, Bass Clef.He was a sweetheart, and still is.
We were partners with Michael Cohl and Concert Productions International in Toronto. And there was a little company, Perryscope Concerts, in Vancouver. It enabled us to promote from one coast to another. The hardest thing for us was to get American artists to come to Canada, because we had a devalued Canadian currency against the U.S. dollar.Donald didn’t have the appetite to move outside the country. Michael Cohl did.
Michael was upsetting the old world order, but there’s context to that. Bill Graham liked things just the way they were. Michael showed artists like the Rolling Stones that there was another way of doing things. And he was right.If you go back in the time machine, we used to have a few club dates and more arena dates. In Montreal, we used to budget our club losses, because you couldn’t make any money on them. Now the paradigm is upside down. Everybody is building smaller rooms.That’s it.