Runway Artists Hires Steve Backman In The UK

Steve Backman.
 – Steve Backman.
Joins Runway Artists from Primary Talent in the UK.

London-based Runway Artists announced the appointment of Steve Backman, who joins the independent booking agency from Primary Talent in the UK.

Backman, who worked for Primary Talent for the past 19 years, brings with him a roster including And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, Emmy The Great, Gabriella Cilmi, DJ Steve Lamacq, The Bootleg Beatles, The Mission, Art School Girlfriend, Odina, Cattle & Cane and The KVB.
Runway Artists was set up by former ATC Live agent Matt Hanner in the spring of 2020. 
Said Hanner, “It’s great that an agent of Steve’s pedigree had enough belief in what I’d started to want to come on board. We have a shared ethos and approach to the way we work with our artists and I think we will benefit from working together.”
Backman added, “It’s a chance for me to put my knowledge to something new, fresh and exciting that we have control of. We are the masters of our own destiny and that is really freeing.”
Runway Artists also represents Mercury Prize-shortlisted Lanterns On The Lake as well as The Futureheads, Sleeper, I See Rivers, Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, Highasakite, Black Belt Eagle Scout and Wyldest, among others.
It was one of the first new agencies to launch in a time of unprecedented upheaval for the live industry against the backdrop of coronavirus.
Hanner commented on the many major agents, who went independent over the past 12 months: “There are some big players in [the independent agency world] now, and there is a lot more scope to shake things up and work in a slightly different way,” he observed. 
And Hanner

Matt Hanner.
 – Matt Hanner.
Founder of Runway Artists.

continued, “We have the freedom to push into areas where we might be able to offer more for our acts and benefit them in the long term. 

“Different artists want different things from their careers, and we’re committed to delivering whatever it is they are trying to achieve, rather than feel we have to push every act into trying to fill arenas.”
Having secured anonymous financial backing for the business, Hanner is hopeful of bringing in additional new recruits in the not-too-distant future.
 “It feels like a really exciting time to be putting a new company together. This is a serious proposition. We are ambitious and we are looking to grow over time,” Hanner concludes.