Vince Power, the legendary Irish impresario who founded the UK's Mean Fiddler Music Group, performed at many of Europe's top festivals and was made an honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his work in the live music industry, has died on Saturday (March 9). It was 76.
Power had the right name for the job. Born into a farming family in 1947 in County Waterford, Ireland, the concert promoter and venue manager founded MFMG in 1982, then a small country music venue in north-west London.
He moved to London at the age of 16 and initially entered the second-hand furniture business, but his love of music led him to invest in that derelict former alcohol club in Harlesden. Mean Fiddler was born and proved to be the platform from which he built an empire.
At its peak, the band included around 30 venues and events including the London Astoria, Jazz Cafe, Leeds and Reading festivals, the Fleadh festival and interest in Europe's biggest and best known annual festival, England's Glastonbury.
He sold his stake in MFMG in 2005 to Clear Channel, now Live Nation, and returned to the game with a new live entertainment venture, Vince Power Music Group, which initially included a portfolio of London live music venues, bars and nightclubs fun.
The following year, in 2006, Power was awarded a CBE for his “valuable contribution to music”.
Power returned to the festival business with the Day at the Hop Farm festival and showed considerable interest in Spain's Benicassim (Vince Power Music Group was hit by the global financial crisis and folded in 2010).
“I love organizing festivals,” he said Advertising sign in 2008. “It's a challenge again — and I'm not ready to get over it yet. With Mean Fiddler, we had a lot of things that we did – live music festivals, dance festivals, bars, tours – and when I sold out three years ago, it had reached the stage that it was huge. It was a [public limited company]this [had] £80 million [$158 million] [in revenue], and I missed the kind of contact I have now, the hands-on touch. I looked at the pension for about two weeks. [laughs] That didn't really work for me.”
Power is remembered as a man of music and a grave with a tough image, but in an interview with The Irish Timeshe described himself as a “lucky chancellor”.
Power never turned off the music, never forget his Irish roots. In recent years, it has produced the Liverpool Feis, billed as “the biggest celebration of Irish culture the city has ever seen”.
As news of his death spread, the music community paid their respects to the powerful Irish concert master. “I will miss you so much, my friend in music, in thought, in dreams,” writes Welsh singer-songwriter Cerys Matthews, co-founder of Catatonia. “I love you very much.”
Ireland's Imelda May wrote on social media: “So sorry to hear of the passing of the great Vince Power. I adored him. He took a chance on me early in my career when I needed it most. He was so important to Irish culture and community at home and in the UK. He will be greatly missed. Love to his family.”
Power is survived by his wife Sharon.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/concerts/vince-power-mean-fiddler-founder-dead-1235627646/