Dave Newton
OMC Management and Shifty Disco
Stumbling into the music business from a job behind the singles counter at the local Oxford Our Price store in 1987, Dave Newton set up a local music paper and a live music club night at the Jericho Tavern which ran for a couple of years until a newly-formed late-teenage four-piece showed up asking for a gig. Ride (as they were already known) took 12 months to go from playing that first gig to having their debut EP released (on Creation Records) and in the charts in January 1990 - by which time Dave was fully-installed as the band's manager.
A heady 6 years followed taking the band across the globe to over 2 million record sales in their short but perfectly-formed career. Dave still handles all the band's ongoing affairs and manages former lead singer/guitarist Mark Gardener whose debut solo album ‘These Beautiful Ghosts’ was released in 2006.
In 1995 Dave set up a local music office in Oxford out of which Shifty Disco Records was born in 1997. The label has just celebrated its 10th anniversary with Dave now as the only original team member still involved. Current bands on the label include The Race, My Device, Paperlung, Seagull Strange and The Unisex. Other businesses that have evolved out of this music office environment over the past 5 years include online shop OxfordMusic.Net and e-ticket company WeGotTickets.com - both of which Dave is a Director.
A fully-signed up member of the independent DIY ethos, Dave believes this will bring rewards in the afterlife.