Indefatigable & Legendary: Michael Chugg Leads From Down Under

This year marks Michael Chugg’s 60th anniversary in the music business. As Pollstar’s 2024 Impact: Australia/New Zealand cover honoree, multi-Pollstar international promoter award winner and Down Under industry legend at the age of 77 has not slowed down a whit. This interview was sandwiched between a whirlwind trip through Nashville, London, Switzerland and the south of France.

In Nashville, Chugg attended the CMA festival and checked out 12 Aussie acts at Sounds Australia’s Aussie BBQ showcase at the 5 Spot.

Four of them – Casey Barnes, Lane Pittman, Amy Sheppard and the band Sheppard – are signed to Chugg and Andrew Stone’s management and label company Chugg Music.

Then it was off to British Summer Time Hyde Park to see, among others, Robbie Williams whom he successfully pushed to upgrade to stadiums last year, Morgan Wallen whom he introduced as an unknown five years ago at his CMC Rocks festival and who returned to headline in 2023 and Kylie Minogue whose tours he helmed at the start.

Joint Venture
For the last five years, Chugg’s diverse interests operate under a joint venture with Frontier Touring – a company he helped set up in 1979 with Michael Gudinski, who died in 2021.

But he left in 1999 to set up the festival and touring company Chugg Entertainment, with major wins with Bob Dylan (who never spoke a word to him throughout the tour except at the airport when he was leaving to say, “This is one of the best tours I’ve ever done. I’ll see you again,”) Coldplay, Elton John, Robbie Williams, AC/DC, Radiohead, Pearl Jam, Florence + The Machine and Dolly Parton, who sold 100,000 tickets returning after 20 years. More recently, MCE undertook the debut Australian visits by Hozier, Leon Bridges, The Internet, Jason Aldean, Florida Georgia Line and Clare Bowen.

“It’s been a busy 12 months,” said Chugg. “Fifteen stadium shows, 35 arena shows, 100 club shows in the JV with Frontier.

“Elton John did 50 shows on his farewell tour and sold a million,” Chugg says off the top of his head. “Robbie Williams had his second biggest tour here late last year. Bringing the Chicks back and selling 80,000 tickets was pretty special.”

Speaking of Frontier’s high ranking on Pollstar‘s 2024 Australia/New Zealand Top Promoters chart (at No. 2 with a gross of $97,930,410 and 1,024,688 tickets sold), he states categorically, “They are the best promoters in Australia. Every single person working there, from the youngest team member, care about the fans, they care about the acts. Everything is double-checked. There’s nothing more rewarding than having an act coming off stage and tell you it’s one of the best shows they’ve done.”

Country Factor
Country music festival CMC Rocks QLD also had its biggest year in Queensland, drawing 23,000. It injects A$14 million ($9.17 million) into the state economy, according to the government, which in March extended its stay in the state until 2026.

That just reconfirmed Chugg’s dominance in the genre. Australia is the world’s fastest-growing country market and is rated by Spotify as third largest-country music territory after the U.S. and Canada.

“The 18- to 30-year-olds are CMC’s biggest market,” Chugg recounted. “They come from all over the country. To see these kids in cowboy boots and hats singing along to every song is pretty special. It blows away the American bands, to come as unknowns and the kids are singing every song.”

Chugg set up CMC Rocks in 2008 with late promoter Rob Potts’s company, Entertainment Edge, using their contacts in Nashville to urge superstars like Alan Jackson, Tim McGraw, Brooks & Dunn, Faith Hill and Gary Allan to make their debuts at Willowbank Raceway, Ipswich, in Queensland.

“We were on the bus long before all this happened, and it’s great to be part of that,” Chugg noted.

Seven years ago after their CMC Rocks sets, Alan Jackson and Brooks & Dunn could successfully do a sideshow each in Sydney and Melbourne. Now, Combs and Wallen do up to four arenas in each city. CMC Rocks attracts managers, agents and promoters to look at local acts, with names such as Brad Cox, Casey Barnes and Travis Collins emerging in the current boom, and set their eyes on the world.

“We got a great lineup for 2025. People loving going to CMC Rocks. We care about the fans, we care about the acts, we spent a lot of money last year upgrading the site, and we doubled the size of the stage,” Chugg said. “We have 12,000 people camping, and the police security tell you they’re bored because they’re so well behaved.”

CMC Rocks, he emphasised, wouldn’t be the same without the services of festival director Jeremy Dylan, Frontier’s head of country music Georgie Luxton and Frontier’s COO Susan Heymann who book the talent, the recently retired Annie Phillips and new general manager Kat Holloway, and “the support” of Frontier Touring’s general counsel Jacqui Elmas, chief commercial officer Andrew Spence, communications director Nicole Stringer and CEO Dion Brant.

Promoter
Chugg’s career as a promoter began on March 16, 1964. Aged 16, and living in Launceston, Tasmania, the amateur cyclist organised a dance at the Trades Hall for the local cycling club. His father, a fireman, and his colleagues did security. The headliners were The Dominoes, Launceston’s biggest band.

About 300 people attended. Chugg made a profit of £80 and was hooked on organizing events. That night, he began managing one of the support bands and started touring major bands from the mainland.

His career took a short diversion when he became a radio sports broadcaster for horse races, trotting, greyhounds and football. He’d put some money on a greyhound on a game he called. Live on air he shouted, “Well, I’ll be *** it’s fallen over.” He and his possessions were thrown out on the street two hours later.

With his career path chosen for him, Chugg moved to Melbourne in 1967 and started working at the Australian Musicians Booking Organisation (AMBO). Another teen agent there was Michael Gudinski, who was to become a friend, partner and occasional competitor. When Gudinski started Consolidated Rock with future AC/DC manager Michael Browning, Chugg went with him, later running its Sydney office. When the company folded, he teamed up with another rising agent, Roger Davies, forming the Sunrise Agency. They had four of the biggest bands at the time: Daddy Cool, Sherbet, La De Das and Spectrum. Gudinski invited Chugg to join the new Premier Artists Agency.

The pair were part of a contingent that set up Frontier Touring in 1977, initially to bring in emerging British acts The Police, The Cure, Squeeze and Gary Numan. In 1983, Chugg launched the Narara festival on the New South Wales Central Coast, which in its first year drew 30,000 fans and grossed $1.5 million. In 1999, he moved on from Frontier to set up Michael Chugg Entertainment (MCE), and managed hit makers The Church, Jimmy & The Boys and The Sunnyboys.

Of Chugg Music’s current roster, pop band Sheppard are finalising a U.S. tour after selling out the East Coast run. Lime Cordiale have UK and European dates in the autumn, In August, the act’s third album, Enough Of The Sweet Talk, debuted at top spot on the ARIA Albums chart, the first Australian No. 1 overall since October 2023. Teenage Dads, with multiple tours of Europe, return to the U.S. September to November playing 40-plus club dates with indie pop project Dayglow.

Chugg, who was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in June 1998, was last year invited by the Australian government to join the Music Australia Council, which provides advice on investment, development and research.

A Chugg priority is to provide support for Australian acts break internationally to overcome the rising costs of exporting music, more data collection, encouraging the regional touring markets and developing behind-the-scenes training and skills.

“There’s an increased move to sending young managers to base themselves in an overseas music company to get a feel for how it’s done abroad, understand the culture and make contacts,” he said. “With a small population, it’s always hard to have a lot of expert people. But it’s certainly getting there.”