Keith Harris OBE
Keith Harris began work in the record industry in 1974. The first record company for which he worked was a small independent UK label called Transatlantic Records. The label represented mainly British folk musicians but also distributed the Blue Note and Milestone Jazz labels. In 1976 he joined EMI Records where he initially worked for several in-house EMI labels in the promotions department. These labels included Rocket where he worked on the Elton John album ‘Blue Moves’, Fantasy, Ariola and EMI International. He then joined Motown which was an EMI licensed label. He worked for Motown for two years ending up as General Manager for the label. During his period at the label he worked with artists such as Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson, The Commodores, Rick James, The Supremes, Thelma Houston and Stevie Wonder. He left Motown in 1978 and moved to Los Angeles to work with Stevie Wonder and became Operations Manager for Stevie’s companies. On his return to the UK in 1982 he formed his own management company and has been involved in the management of various UK based artists since. He has managed Junior Giscombe, Junior Tucker, Paul Johnson, & Omar. Keith also managed the late Lynden David Hall.
Keith still represents Stevie Wonder, and was Tour Manager for his European tour in 2014.
He is a Consultant for Performer Affairs at PPL – www.ppluk.com.
He is a Senior Fellow of the University of Westminster School of music film and fashion where he has Lectured since 1993.
He is a former Chairman of the MMF the managers’ trade body – www.ukmmf.net.
He is the Chairman of Musictank – www.musictank.co.uk.
He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Westminster in November 2007 and an OBE in the 2015 Queen’s Birthday honours.
He received the Music Industry Champion Award at the Artists and Managers Awards Ceremony in 2014
He is a Trustee of the Universal Music UK Sound Foundation (formally known as EMI Music Foundation); The Midi Music Company and The British Music Experience.