Legacy Award Honourees

2022

Brian Chater

Lifetime Achievement Award

Brian Chater’s contributions to the existence of a viable music industry in Canada, which continues to experience extraordinary chart and sales successes of its artists at home and abroad, lie unseen beneath the surface as part of the bedrock upon which a homegrown industry was built, in large part, through his persistent, informed and usually persuasive advocacy in helping to make sure creators are fairly paid for their work.

“Brian was on the front lines, fighting for Canadian songwriters, musicians, music publishers and producers for his entire career,” David Basskin, former President/CEO of CMRRA, declared shortly after Brian’s passing in September of 2013. “Without his efforts, Canada, and Canada’s music industry, would be much poorer.”  

Hall of Fame broadcaster Duff Roman, often sat across the table from Brian in arenas like the Copyright Board, Canadian Heritage and CRTC Hearings battling over contentious issues like Canadian Content, performance levies and Neighbouring Rights. Nonetheless, there was mutual respect and courtesy – and a lot got done over a beer at the end of the day. Roman recalled that during those times, if you listened closely to Brian, you could learn something. “His in-depth analysis for the FACTOR Annual Report of the Canadian music industry, and the global media factors that impacted it, was a detailed and thought-provoking masterpiece – widely quoted, and often plagiarized.” 

Brian grew up in New Malden, a suburb of London, England, and attended King’s College School in nearby Wimbledon. Along the way, the music industry beckoned, and abandoning further plans to continue his schooling at King’s College, London, he took a position at Burlington Music, a publishing division of Decca Records. He would subsequently join Mills Music, the company where a youthful Reginald Dwight (Sir Elton John) had worked as an office boy and written his first songs. By the mid-‘60s, Brian was back with Burlington Music who dispatched him to Montreal to run their Canadian division. It was here, in the late ‘60s, that he set out on his own, co-founding the publishing companies Summerlea Music (BMI) and Winterlea Music (CAPAC).  

In a May 1969 interview in Billboard, Brian shared his perspective on what challenges he expected to face in the coming years. “To me, the Canadian music market is just like a rerun,” he observed. “There is a close parallel to be drawn between Canada now and the U.K. market before The Beatles happened. I’ve fought all these battles before… radio stations not having faith and refusing to play domestic records.” 

Brian launched Much Productions and it subsidiary Much label for CHUM Ltd. in 1970. After Much ceased operations in 1974, he founded his new company, B.C. Music Management, before launching Avenue Road Music Group in 1981.  

In the late ‘70s, Brian relocated to Toronto and became President of A&M Records’ publishing division, Almo/Irving where notably he signed a youthful Bryan Adams and his songwriting partner Jim Vallance to a deal a year before the record division offered Adams a contract. 

By the early ‘80s, Brian was knee-deep in the hoopla at the advocacy forefront as a member of numerous boards and committees and as a Federal Task Force Co-Chair. By the early ‘80s, he was a Director of CMRRA and CMPA, for which he was President from 1983 to 1986, just prior to his 18-year run as President of CIRPA, now the Canadian Independent Music Association (CIMA). He was also a Director and Founder of the Foundation to Assist Canadian Talent on Records (FACTOR) and the Neighbouring Rights Collective of Canada (Re:Sound). 

A Tribute to Brian Chater

Marty Melhuish

Industry Builder Award

Marty Melhuish is a voracious reader, starting out with Enid Blyton, The Hardy Boys, Rupert Bear, The Dandy and Boy’s Own Annual. Over the years he has become a Charles Dickens aficionado and had his imagination at an early age fired up by the gripping tales spun by Rudyard Kipling. 

He grew up in the Cornish town of Penzance, the very same as in Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic operate, The Pirates of Penzance and it would instil in him a sense of history, tradition, naval lore and the legends of rum runners, pirates and its history dates back to medieval times when the locals wore animal skins and brandished rock axes and moved on to fishing, plundering and ended up becoming a watering hole for the rich and famous, and fans of the town’s ruby teams. 

He attended Withrow Public School in the Danforth and Broadview district, moving on to Charles R. Webster Public School in the Eglinton & Keele district. The latter was the alma mater for noted jazz critic and photographer Mark Miller and Michael Burke who would move to BC and create the Cordova Bay Ent. Group. 

His favourite subjects in school were math, art, phys ed, and social studies. His hobbies included collecting stamps, matchbooks and rocks.  

He had no formal journalism studies and was, at age 13, a pageboy at the Ontario Legislature. His first writing story was for the alt-press tabloid Tribal Village. 

He self-taught himself to play the guitar, has worked as a booking agent and talent manager. 

Inspired by the Brit music renaissance, heavily promoted in weekly tabloids such as NME and Melody Maker, he was drawn to writing about music, wrote for a couple of early editions of Moe Wortzman’s Beetle Magazine, then lost interest when he befriended imported Australian music journalist Ritchie Yorke. They hit it off and with Wilder Penfield, the help of entertainment lawyer Peter Steinmetz, and several others launched Rainbow Magazine and Grapevine. Martin went on to become Canadian editor of Billboard, a position previously held by Yorke who was also working at the Globe and Mail and for a time heard on the freeform CHUM-FM. 

Martin went from a gallop to a race, adding bylines credits in Performance, Amusement Business, Zoo World, Rolling Stone, and Modern Hi-Fi. The contributions earned him money, entry into a world of high-powered celebrities, and lots of free concert tickets, albums and occasional stereo systems which he would review. 

His ability to write fast, accurate prose and a natural ability to spin a story led to writing books, of which he now has over a dozen he has authored or co-authored since Rock Is My Life; This Is My Song: The Authorized Biography of Bachman-Turner Overdrive in the mid ‘70s. 

Martin’s house (actually it was Patsy Gallant’s but he rented it) in Montreal at 7 Burton was a mecca for musicians and music industry types, including Simon Fuller who went on to create American Idol and the Spice Girls (although the girls might argue the point). It became so popular as a hang-out for musicians and the like that the Montreal Gazette did a two-page spread on the house. Next door was political cartoonist Terry Mosher. 

Then there was a stint living in Nashville scripting and interviewing a who’s who of Country legends, one of whom was Patsy Cline’s widower-aptly named Charlie Dick. 

He currently lives in Tottenham, Ontario, perhaps so named after one of Martin’s once-favourite soccer teams. Laziness has never been a part of his life. He writes and researchers continuously and has somehow managed to marry his love of music and the odd quirks of musicians with his natural ability to write. He’s organized, his body of knowledge is immense and yet he has really never been acknowledged for the body of work he has written about Canada’s music scene, and never really cared to push the point to be acknowledged. He is very comfortable making his own choices, living his own life and working the hours he chooses. Travel has always been a balm, and trips to Scotland and the less populated landscapes in Britain fill him with joy and nourish his desire for pork pies, marzipan cakes and pickled onions.