Granted, he was a bit of a thug, but he got the job done...
Peter James "G" Grant (5 April 1935 – 21 November 1995) was an English music manager. Grant managed the popular English bands the Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin, and Bad Company, among others, and was also a record executive for Swan Song Records. Grant has been described as "one of the shrewdest and most ruthless managers in rock history".[1] He is widely credited with improving pay and conditions for musicians in dealings with concert promoters.[2]
t is doubtful whether Led Zeppelin would have been as successful without Grant as their manager.[2][9] He negotiated the group's sizeable five-year record contract with Atlantic Records, and his business philosophy would eventually pay off for the label. Grant strongly believed that bands could make more money, and have more artistic merit, by focusing their efforts on albums rather than singles. Live performances were deemed more important than television appearances – if one wanted to see Led Zeppelin, one had to experience their performances in person.[2][10]
Led Zeppelin's particular success in the United States can partly be credited to Grant's keen sense of US audiences and the vast underground movement that was sweeping the country.[11] It was his sound knowledge of the American touring scene that thrust Led Zeppelin into the forefront of the burgeoning American rock market, and under his stewardship the great majority of Led Zeppelin concerts were performed in the United States, resulting in massive profits for the group.[2] He ensured that the vast bulk of ticket profits wound up in the hands of the band rather than in the hands of promoters and booking agents.,[12] and is reported to have secured 90% of gate money from concerts performed by the band,[1] an unprecedented feat. By taking this approach he set a new standard for artist management, "single-handedly pioneer[ing] the shift of power from the agents and promoters to the artists and management themselves."[2]
Grant's determination to protect the financial interests of Led Zeppelin was also reflected by the sometimes extraordinary measures he took to combat the practice of unauthorized live bootleg recordings. He is reported to have personally visited record stores in London that were selling Led Zeppelin bootlegs and demanded all copies be handed over. He also monitored the crowd at Led Zeppelin concerts in order to locate anything which resembled bootleg recording equipment. At one concert at Vancouver in 1971 he saw what he thought was such equipment on the floor of the venue and ensured that it was destroyed, only to later learn that it was a noise pollution unit being operated by city officials to test the volume of the concert.[13] On another occasion, at the Bath Festival in 1970, he personally threw a bucket of water over unauthorised recording equipment.[9][14] Grant's famous dressing room scene in the film The Song Remains the Same, where he demands an explanation from concert staff about the sale of illegal posters, was typical of his no-nonsense dealings with people who tried to profit at the band's expense.
Grant is also recognised for the complete and unwavering faith that he placed in Led Zeppelin.[2][15] Unlike some other managers of the era, he never compromised his clients by exploiting them for short-term profit, instead always putting their interests first, and being a manager that split the profits five ways, between Grant and the other members of the band.[5] This was demonstrated by his decision to never release the popular songs from Led Zeppelin's albums as singles in the UK, out of respect for the band's desire to develop the concept of album-oriented rock.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Grant_%28music_manager%29
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