The Rod Willis Story

Little Free Rock

Welcome to the Rod Willis Story

Rod was born in Sydney and educated at the prominent James Ruse Agricultural High School. His academic accomplishments are over shadowed by his Rugby skills. After leaving school Rod practiced a career in wool classing for a short time, as well as dabbling with local bands as a roadie.

1966
Rod left Australia for the UK where he lived for some time in Preston, Lancashire. Here he met and started working with a local band called Little Free Rock who were subsequently signed to Transatlantic Records based in London.

1969
Moved to London to work with Little Free Rock who release their first album.

1972.
Started working with a young heavy rock act from north London named UFO.

1974
Rod worked as tour manager or road manager for acts such as Fleetwood Mac, King Crimson, Jonathan Kelly's Outside and Emerson, Lake and Palmer . Around this time he began working with UK blues band Savoy Brown which took him to the US. During the period 1966 - 77, his profession enabled him to tour extensively throughout the USA and Europe gaining great practical experience in the international marketplace. Over this period Rod had also worked with numerous other bands such as Santana, Byrds, Roxy Music, and Rare Bird.

1977
Returned to Australia, becoming the Manager of a little known Adelaide band, Cold Chisel.

1978
Together with John Woodruff and Ray Hearn, Rod formed Dirty Pool Artist Management which would look after the careers of Cold Chisel, Angels, Icehouse and later, Johnny Diesel, Do Re Mi and Boom Crash Opera. This ground breaking agency / management company pioneered many trailblazing Australian music industry changes including live performance contracts, live performance door deals for bands, and innovative recording contracts. They were one of the first companies to sign international record deals for their artists. The Angels, Icehouse, Cold Chisel, Boom Crash Opera and Diesel all released albums internationally and toured the USA and Europe extensively. Dirty Pool was also responsible for breaking Simple Minds and XTC in Australia by bringing them over to support Icehouse in the early 80's.

1983
Cold Chisel broke up in 1983.

1985
Dirty Pool branched out into touring international acts in Australia. Rod headed up the promoting side of the company. From 85 - 87 Dirty Pool promoted tours for Paul Young, Stranglers, Howard Jones, Hooters, Allison Moyet and the Cult.

1987
Rod took over completely the personal management of Icehouse.

1988
Icehouse's highly successful album "Man Of Colours" was released. "Man of Colours" topped the charts in Australia with over 7 times platinum in sales, as well as spawning two top 10 singles in the US and Canada as well as charting very highly in Europe, in particular in Germany. The album went on to sell over 3.5 million albums worldwide.

1989
In October Dirty Pool closed their doors. Rod went out on his own setting up Rod Willis Management ,representing Icehouse, Catfish and the ongoing business interests of Cold Chisel who continued to sell huge amounts of back catalogue.

1988
During 1988 Rod was elected as a director of Export Music Australia (EMA), a body set up by the Music Industry and the Australian Government to investigate how to best foster the export of Australian music internationally.

1989
In 1989 he was invited on to the Advisory Board of the Australian Contemporary Music Institute (ACMI) which was based at the Northern Rivers University in Lismore. This body was responsible for assembling the first government endorsed Contemporary Music Education Coarse for TAFE colleges and high schools in Australia.

1992
In December 1992 Rod helped establish the managers asociation, AMMF. He was subsequently elected the inaugral co-chairman. The Australian Managers Forum (AMMF), is a body representing the majority of professional managers in this country and has direct ties to the International Managers Forum (IMF) in the UK and USA. Judge Mercy sign to Massive Records and release their debut album "Protocol so Holy".

1993
Rod was reelected co-chairman in 1993, and again in1994.
In October 1993 after 15 years of association, he parted company amicably with Icehouse. Also in October Rod was invited by the Australian Government's music advisory body MIAC, to be a member of their Export Focus Group to help prepare a report to the Federal Government aimed at identifying opportunities for the export of Australian music and to develop strategies to assist Australian Music Industry companies and performers in taking advantage of these opportunities.

1994
In his capacity as co-chairman of the A.M.M.F. he was elected to the board of the Phonographic Performance Co. of Aust. (P.P.C.A.).
Tex Perkins, Don Walker, and Charlie Owen release first album together.

1995
Rod Willis Management takes on a new act, Grinspoon. They eventually rise to become one of the top new acts in Australia.
Anti Anti sign to BMG Records and release their first EP on Ariola.

1997
Began to organise the reunion of Cold Chisel who had broken up in 1983. The band commence recording of a brand new studio album.

1998
Cold Chisel release their first album for 15 years titled "The Last Wave of Summer". The album debuts at number one, and goes on to sell in excess of double platinum in sales.
In November the band embark on an national tour . This tour is the biggest tour of 1998 for either an international or domestic artist .

1999
Cold Chisel continue touring in Australia. Young Sydney band Analog signed to BMG Records.

2000
Signed two new acts to BMG Music. Lavaland and a solo artist named Duncan James.

2001
Lavaland is recording their debut album, with a single out July 2001.
Also looking for deals for a couple of other acts as well.
Doing a new album with Don Walker. Also working on film and DVD on Cold Chisel.

Go to the Rod Willis Photo Gallery

Link to Cold Chisel and Don Walker. Contact Rod at e-mail: rodw@wr.com.au

Contact Peter at peter@illingworth70.freeserve.co.uk

Your comments and contact will be most welcome.

LFR Home The LFR Story LFR Photo Gallery LFR Links LFR Gig List LFR Artistes