Blue Raincoat Chrysalis Group has strengthened its senior team with the appointment of John Leahy to the newly created position of SVP Marketing and Strategy. Leahy has a long history in the British music biz working with artists including Robbie Williams, Pink Floyd and Noel Gallagher.
In his new role, Leahy will report directly to CEO Jeremy Lascelles and begins the job immediately.
He will work across the entirety of the Blue Raincoat Chrysalis Group including artist management, publishing, catalogue and new frontline releases, leading on all areas of marketing.
In addition, he will bring with him artists Steve Mason and She Drew The Gun as well as The Mysterines (co managed with Alfie Skelly) and continue to manage them as part of Blue Raincoat Artists.
“John provides us with the missing link in the Blue Raincoat set up—an experienced and hugely successful marketing mastermind, who is equally at home putting together a strategy for a new front line release as he is in finding ways of extracting value and opportunities from our great catalog,” Lascelles said.
“As an added bonus he brings with him in a management capacity three fantastic artists who will all be a welcome addition to Blue Raincoat Artists. And, for a Manchester United fan, he is actually a great bloke.”
Leahy has come full circle—he started his career in music and marketing at Chrysalis, before becoming a product manager at Parlophone in 1995. After a 12-year stint at the company, during which time he moved to the EMI label, he oversaw the meteoric success of Williams alongside campaigns from Pink Floyd, Doves and Kate Bush. From there, he joined Domino Records as General Manager, running successful campaigns for Franz Ferdinand, Last Shadow Puppets and Wild Beasts.
He then moved to Polydor Records as Marketing Director, leading on major campaigns for Lady Gaga, Eminem, The Maccabees and Snow Patrol. In 2010 he joined Ignition Records, taking on marketing responsibilities for Noel Gallagher, who achieved three #1 albums, The Stereophonics, who also scored a #1 album, and others including Primal Scream, Courteeners and The Coral.
