Every high school has a long history of wannabe rock bands. Toronto’s East York high school in the 1960s was no different. A group called Misty Blue often played school dances. One guy, the bass player, made it big in the music business.
But not in the way you think.
Neill Dixon was no Paul McCartney, but he quickly recognized his natural flair for the business side of music. He became the de facto manager of his group. When he returned to his native England to go to school, he booked acts like Donovan and the group that would become Pink Floyd, to play at his arts college.
Back in Canada in 1967, Dixon opened a coffee house on Jarvis St. called Grumbles where he booked acts like Joni Mitchell, Ian & Sylvia, Gordon Lightfoot, Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf.
His music business apprenticeship continued with RCA Records in 1972, while he also booked acts for a club that had just been taken out of mothballs, the El Mocambo. While marketing and promoting for RCA and GRT Records, Dixon developed critical contacts with agents, managers and record companies. Soon he was an A & R manager, while booking acts at the Colonial, Le Coq d’Or and The Hook & Ladder.
He often crossed paths with a band manager named Steve Propas. They formed the Dixon-Propas marketing partnership in the 70s, an alignment of stars that was recognized in 2013 when the pair won the “Pioneer Award” from Music Managers Forum Canada for their groundbreaking work, which included producing innumerable concerts at the Ontario Place Forum.
One of the groups Dixon managed was Act 3, including young guitarist Rik Emmett. When a fledgling group from Mississauga poached Emmett from the band, Dixon-Propas ended up managing his new group through their first three records and their U.S. breakthrough.
“Triumph went from a bar band to an arena act in a very short period of time,” says Dixon. He had more than a little something to do with that. While Triumph was able to get a record contract stateside, other groups in the Dixon-Propas stable weren’t so fortunate.
That’s why they formed the prophetically-named and highly-successful “Solid Gold Records” which broke numerous Canadian bands in the U.S., such as Chilliwack.
In the early 80s, a weekly music tip sheet called The Record started an annual convention to build its circulation and credibility. Dixon’s company, Chart Toppers, was hired in 1983 to put it together. It was a match made in musical heaven.
Neill’s extensive network of contacts in all aspects of the business, his penchant for innovation and his ability to exploit emerging trends made him the perfect match for the job. Thirty-four years later, it’s now the industry powerhouse known as Canadian Music Week. Dixon became a partner two years after it began, swallowed the publication that initiated it in the early 90s, added the attached musical festival in 1991 and guided it safely through astounding changes that have transformed it – and the industry it serves – multiple times.
Like its patriarch, it has always been on the cutting edge. After almost three-and-a-half decades of producing the showcase – Canadian Music Week and Neill Dixon – are all but synonymous. As the record business morphed into the fragmented and downsized “music business” we see today, Dixon never forgot one simple fact: it’s ultimately “all about the song.”
“Bands can always tell if you’re just a guy in a suit or if you’re on their side,” he says. “I think I’ve been successful because I have an artist’s mentality.” An artist’s mentality and natural business acumen will get you a lot of things, including a nameplate on Mississauga’s Music Walk of Fame.