A high flying chief executive of companies across the UK, Europe and America has been elected chairman of Marlborough’s International Jazz Festival in a shake-up of its top team.
Graham Rivers (pictured) has taken over from Susie Fisher, who has held the post for the past three years, to keep it one beat ahead and ensure its future in the tough economic times facing the country.
He is a 60-year-old former executive at board level with sales and marketing expertise in a career with international technology and management service companies dating back to 1975, who describes himself as “allegedly retired.”
And in an exclusive interview with Marlborough News Online he praised Nick Fogg, the festival’s founder, and declared: “What he created has endured and evolved where others have fallen by the wayside.”
“Marlborough itself is a world known brand and identity which can be built up further through the web, social and digital media to reach an even bigger audience and attract more visitors to the event.”
Guitar-playing Mr Rivers, who lives in Chiseldon, added: “What I hope I can bring to the party is the experience and understanding I have gained and an affinity with music and entertainment from what I have been doing in recent years. And that will help to develop what is a very successful event anyway.”
“I want to bring a little more experience and time to help the festival move on in the tough economic times ahead. And I am looking forward to it.”
Paying tribute to Susie Fisher, Nick Fogg, twice Marlborough’s mayor, who was elected festival organiser, said: “Susie has done a great job as chairman.”
“She has led a disparate team of individuals with aplomb and good humour and has always ensured that the numbers match — a vital task in a festival where the finances can easily run out of control.”
“It’s good that she’s staying on the committee with a special role relating to sponsorship. We need her experience and abilities.”
And after the executive reshuffle on Tuesday, Susie, who followed Brian Ashley as chairman after serving on the executive for more than six years, said: “During these last three years we have successfully put together a strong volunteer committee that has vastly improved the overall organization and operation of the Festival.”
“After three years as chairman, I feel it is time to step aside so someone with new ideas and different skills can step in. I am certain we have found that person in Graham Rivers. I love Marlborough and the Jazz Festival and have volunteered to continue working on the committee in whatever capacity they feel I can be helpful.”
“As a charity, sponsorship is very important and I’m starting there.”
Despite his peripatetic career, Mr Rivers, who was born in Hilperton, near Trowbridge, has maintained a home for 18 years in Chiseldon for his wife and only daughter, who now lives in Canada.
He describes his music interests as catholic, including classical and opera, but has a special liking for traditional jazz. “If I’ve really got a sweet spot, it’s the blues,” he revealed. “I played the guitar badly and used to play the clarinet as a kid.”
“With the guitar I can sit and strum quite happily to myself. And I find that quite soothing and enjoyable according to what the frustrations of the day may have been.”
He has concerns about the way jazz is defined, Amy Winehouse, classified as a jazz singer but seen by young people as a pop entertainer.
“There is a question of understanding what an amazing performer she was, a question of definition,” he pointed out. “The trouble with the entertainment business is that it is sold as a commercial product when, in fact, it is something very special.”
“In some ways perhaps that’s because, if you look through any dictionary of quotations, music appears so many times and is usually linked either to a romantic engagement or to some form of inspiration.”
“So dear old Shakespeare is quoted so very many times – ‘If music be the food of love play’ but not the rest of the quotation, ‘Give me excess of it; that surfeiting, the appetite may sicken, and so die’.”
“What I chuckle about is Samuel Pepys. One of his diary entries said, ‘Music and women – two things I cannot but give way to, whatever my business…’.”
Nevertheless, the sharp end of the economy remains in his sights.
“What has happened in the broadest sense is the creation of an excess of debt,” he said. “We all get overweight, so we’ve got to slim down, we’ve all go on diet and we will come through the recession OK.”
“We have to recognise too that money is tight for people as we continue to build on what the Jazz Festival is all about, which is delivering a fantastic array of music and bands to people at a very fair price and with open access to everyone.”