The Frontier Touring Company
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| Frontier Touring | |
| Tour promoter | |
| Industry | Music & Entertainment |
| Founded | November 1979 |
| Founder |
Michael Gudinski Philip Jacobsen Michael Chugg |
| Headquarters | Melbourne, Australia |
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Area served
|
Australia & New Zealand |
| Website | www |
The Frontier Touring Company (t/a Frontier Touring) is one of Australia and New Zealand's largest concert promoters. The company was formed in November 1979 by Michael Gudinski as one of the first Mushroom Group ventures, with eight music industry partners; Gudinski has stayed at the helm since. The company's first tour was in 1980 and in the decades since has toured over five hundred acts. In 2013 according to Pollstar, the industry's trade publication, the company was listed as No. 1 Australasian Concert Promoter and at No. 20, internationally.
The company originated after Michael Chugg, a freelance tour co-ordinator with Paul Dainty, visited the United Kingdom, when he was taken by Kevin Borich to see a performance of The Police in London. Upon return to Australia, Chugg was unable to convince Dainty to back a local national tour by The Police, which led to Chugg forming a partnership with Michael Gudinski, his former boss at Consolidated Rock Agency.
The Frontier Touring Company was founded in November 1979 by Gudinski, together with Chugg, Phil Jacobsen – a "financial expert and artist manager", Ray Evans, Sam Righi "operations manager of Harbour Booking Agency", Frank Stivala "operations manager of Premier Artists",Glenn Wheatley, Robbie Williams and Steve Wright. When Wheatley and Wright wanted to concentrate on promoting Little River Band in the United States, the other partners bought out their share. In the mid 1980s Williams left the company after falling out with Righi. Gudinski was the face of the Frontier Touring Company, due to his profile with his other business ventures; whilst Chugg was the company's general manager, and Jacobsen was the financial director.
The first tour arranged by Frontier was the UK Squeeze in January 1980, which was followed a month later by The Police, the latter of which remain on Frontier’s roster until this day. The next year Frontier arranged Gary Numan's first Australian tour and a second tour by The Police. In October 1980 Chugg justified the promotion of overseas artists by his company when describing how "[i]t's given work to local bands who play the support spots, and also to rock-'n'-roll service industries who have become incredibly proficient in the last couple of years". In August 1981 Glenn A. Baker of Billboard described how the company was "building fringe acts and bringing them up slowly".
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