Sony Music Australia’s Parade Management forms JV with Glenn Wheatley’s Talentworks

Sony Music Australia is drilling deeper into artist management, concerts promotion and live events through an initiative that brings together two of the Australian music industry’s top power players.

The music major’s Parade Management division has struck a joint venture with Glenn Wheatley’s Talentworks to create Talentworks Parade which, according to a statement, will manage artists and promote touring events among its long to-do list.

The deal was engineered by Denis Handlin, chairman & CEO, Australia & New Zealand and president, Asia, for Sony Music Entertainment, and his long-time friend Wheatley, who serves as managing director of Talentworks.  The combined roster represented by Talentworks and Parade for management include Sony Music recording artists John Farnham and Jessica Mauboy, Samantha Jade, Anthony Callea, Dami Im and Justice Crew, Adam Harvey and Stan Walker.

“We are delighted to join forces through Talentworks Parade with Glenn,” comments Handlin in a statement. “He is a real ideas man and is a leader in the management community in building artists’ careers, such as the legendary John Farnham. The combining both companies’ expertise “will add substantially to the opportunities for Australian artists.”

Adds Wheatley, “I am very proud to be able to bring our two companies together. Talentworks has had a long history of Artist Management and concert promotion in the music industry in Australia.”

A former bass player with The Masters Apprentices, Wheatley entered into the world of artist management, event management and promotiond with Talentworks, which he formed in 1982. He would go on to guide the careers of ARIA Hall of Famers Little River Band, John Farnham and Ross Wilson and homegrown hitmakers Australian Crawl, Pseudo Echo and Real Life. Wheatley himself was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1998 with as a member of the Masters Apprentices, which are best remembered for their enduring hit “Because I Love You”.

According to the blurb unveiling Talentworks Parade, the project will combine in the management of music artists, sporting personalities and media identities, in addition to signing and developing new artists and personalities. Also, the statement notes, Talentworks Parade will promote touring events, corporate performances, special event appearances, and develop merchandise, new media formats and other entertainment industry activities. Sony Music Australia has promoted or co-promoted various concert tours over recent years for Delta Goodrem, Human Nature, One Direction and others. Sony also toured the likes of Simon & Garfunkel through its Day 1 Entertainment concerts division, which launched  in 2009 but was later shelved.

Talentworks Parade’s senior team is Talentworks’ Glenn Wheatley and Parade /Sony Music’s Wayne Ringrow and Ken Outch and David Champion of Parade, the booking agency and artist management firm which was founded in 2007.

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.