Not a household name but Robert was the man synonymous with the late Seventies due to all the music he helped promote, produce and proliferate. The most famous act he managed was the Bee Gees yet he was also involved with Cream, David Bowie and Eric Clapton. Practically every kid I knew then had a copy of the soundtracks to Saturday Night Fever and/or Grease which was on his record label RSO. No surprise he was a producer for both films.
I couldn’t find any mention of his brief control over the Beatles’ catalog because Stigwood’s empire began to crumble after the Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band flopped in theaters. How else would he pull of using that music? I watched it in the last several years. It’s not terrible, I think audiences found the style puzzling and jarring in 1978. Few were accustomed to nor ready to sit through an extended music video which is how I interpreted it. The Bee Gees performing wasn’t a completely dumb move because Barry Gibb was friends with John Lennon. Peter Frampton? He was the flavor-of-the-month then.
It’s nice to know Australia produced one media mogul who wasn’t an absolute piece of crap. Thanks for making the Seventies what they are today.