Neil Warnock, will be honoured with the International Agent of the Year at CMW Live Music Industry Awards, Saturday May 7, 2024. The award, created to celebrate top business individuals within the International Live Music Scene who have had a major impact internationally.
Neil Warnock is Head of Worldwide Music at premier global talent and literary agency United Talent Agency and former president and founder of The Agency Group, one of the world's foremost entertainment booking agencies. Under his guidance, The Agency Group operated five international offices with nearly 100 agents, a staff of over 220, and a combined roster of more than 2024 celebrated musicians, speakers and authors. In 2024, United Talent Agency acquired The Agency Group, combining it with UTA's existing music practice to form UTA Music.
Neil Warnock and UTA Music believe in their artists above anything else. Their focus is seizing opportunities so clients thrive-developing long-term careers and focusing on maximizing their full potential as opposed to short term hits. "Lack of investment in long-term careers combined with short-term thinking has been an area of definite concern for the music industry going forward," according to Warnock. What is good for the artist's career benefits everybody involved in the long-run is his mantra, and it's served him brilliantly in what has been one of the UK's most outstanding music industry careers.
Warnock's career spans over five decades during which he has represented of consulted on many of history's most influential musicians including the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Johnny Cash, Simon & Garfunkel, Dolly Parton, and Michael Jackson. As well as newer artists such as Nickelback, Katie Melua and Caro Emerald.
At the age of 15 Londoner Warnock left school to become an apprentice printer and instead launched his career as an agent. In his spare time, he worked with many of London's semi-professional bands booking their shows at colleges and universities in the area. Over-time he quickly became a force within the college booking circuit. Soon thereafter, he opened his own booking agency, South Bank Artists, which came to manage a majority of bookings for all of the major colleges and universities in and around London, with artists such as Pink Floyd, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Soft Machine and Jethro Tull.