Pollstar's John Gammon Passes

John Gammon, Pollstar’s UK/Europe Correspondent over the last two decades, has died. He had been fighting cancer.

Gammon covered stories that ranged from the innocuous to the extremely sensitive and was the first to break stories such as Lollapalooza’s entrance into Berlin.

He was passionate in getting to the root of the story, even if it may have ruffled some feathers. Gammon’s background includes a career as an agent at Cocorde Artistes International, a writer at Audience as well as managing acts like Katrina & The Waves and Kingmaker, the latter of whom could boast opening acts like Radiohead during its ’90s heyday.

A native and resident of Ely, Cambridgeshire, England, Gammon studied journalism at Harlow College. That education was put to use when Gammon was recruited by Pollstar to report from the International Live Music Conference on a one-off basis.

The response to his reportage was so overwhelming that Gammon became Pollstar’s longtime UK and Europe correspondent. His work anchored Pollstar’s International News pages until this week.

It is difficult to encapsulate 15 years of collaboration into a paragraph. The best we can do immediately is say farewell and acknowledge his contribution to not only the company, but the concert industry as well.

At press time many in the industry had offered their condolences, including Paradigm’s Steve Ferguson, who said Gammon introduced him to many cool acts that became his first clients.

AEG VP of communications Michael Roth “always found him to be fair, very talented, smart and truly professional. He was honest, trustworthy and someone who truly represented Pollstar, the music industry and journalists at the highest level.”

ILMC’s Terry McNally said, “I shall miss his blunt sense of humour and general love / hatred of the live industry.”

Kilimanjaro Live’s Stuart Galbraith added, “John was a true character and we will miss our regular banter with him.”

Others adding their condolences on Facebook included Baris Basaran of Turkey-based booking agency Pozitif, Peter Smidt, former Pollstar UK employee Charlie Presburg, Ruud Berends, Konstantin Polzovic and many others.