Michael Chugg was born in 1947 and his career as a promoter started early in his hometown of Launceston, Tasmania, where he ran dances and managed local bands. The first gig he organised was for his cycling club in Launceston, at the age of 15. With a taste of the promoting game, Chugg moved to Melbourne a few years later, in the late 60s, to work with Consolidated Rock Agency with Michael Gudinski and Michael Browning, eventually opening and running the company's Sydney office. In the early 70s Chugg formed a relationship with Philip Jacobsen, which continued in the mid 70s when the two joined Premier Artists, Gudinski's local booking agency.
Chugg created Premier's Sydney office, under the name of the Harbour Agency, and split his time between the being the Director of the agency, managing a number of Australia acts such as Kevin Borich and Richard Clapton and working as a tour coordinator with Paul Dainty on his big arena tours. This schedule of juggling gigs lasted through to the early 80s. In 1979, after a short but exciting trip to London, Chugg returned to Australia to start his own touring company with Michael Gudinski. Borrowing Ian Copeland's business name, The Frontier Touring Company was born; its first two tours close to Copeland's heart - Squeeze and The Police.
In the early 80s Chugg decided to focus his energy on the Frontier Touring Company, and gave up his management pursuits despite international success with acts such at The Church and The Sunnyboys. The Frontier Touring Company grew rapidly and while in the role of General Manager, Chugg organised and promoted a raft of tours by artists as diverse as The Police, Frank Sinatra, Liza Minnelli and Sammy Davis, Jr, R.E.M., Bon Jovi, Kylie Minogue, Elton John, Billy Joel, Madonna's "Girlie" tour, Sting, John Fogerty, Guns N' Roses, Red Hot Chili Peppers, KISS, Pearl Jam, Tom Jones and The Cure.
In 1999, after more than two decades with the company he co-founded, Chugg decided to leave Frontier and go out his own. He did so by starting the company Michael Chugg Entertainment.
The history of Chugg Entertainment begins in 2000 when, after 25 successful years with Frontier Touring Company (the organisation he co-founded in the mid 1970s), Michael Chugg left to form his own entertainment company: Michael Chugg Entertainment (MCE). In its first year of operation, MCE produced and promoted 19 national tours featuring international artists and 5 national tours featuring Australian artists. Amongst the many successful endeavours of 2000, a highlight for Chugg was co-producing the opening and closing ceremonies of the Paralympic Games in Sydney, with the result being an incredible series of sell-out performances. Chugg was also responsible for coordinating the live entertainment for the athletes in the Olympic Village.
The impact of the company on Australia's live music industry did not go unnoticed, and MCE was awarded Performance Magazine's 'International Promoter of the Year' in 2000.
In 2001 MCE continued to expand on the success of its inaugural year, promoting tours by some of the biggest acts in popular music; from MxPx (US) and Fantomas (US) to Bob Dylan (US) and Robbie Williams (UK). The accolades continued to roll in along with the tours, and Michael Chugg was the recipient of Pollstar's 'International Promoter of the Year' award for 2001.
2002 saw several successful tours, from the sold out Elton John (UK) tour to the Red Hot Chili Peppers (US), George Clinton (US), Chris Isaak (US) and No Doubt (US). During this same year Michael Chugg Entertainment, in conjunction with Billy Thorpe and Amanda Pelman, was responsible for creating the Long Way To The Top stage show based on the record-breaking television documentary of the same name. With 28 of Australia's brightest stars from the 50s, 60s and 70s, Long Way To The Top played to nearly a quarter-of-a-million Australians and was hailed as one of the biggest tours of the year as well as becoming a multi-platinum DVD and CD.
2002 also marked the return of the internationally renowned Vans Warped Tour, featuring acts such as Pennywise (US), Guttermouth (US), MxPx (US), The Vandals (US) and many more across three stages.
To top off an already spectacular year for the company, the Australian Live Music Awards named MCE the 'Best Promoter of the Year' for the second consecutive year.
Throughout the remainder of 2002 and into 2003 MCE presented tours by a veritable 'who's who' of popular music: Ray Charles (US); Carlos Santana (US); The Dixie Chicks (US); LeAnn Rimes (US); Keith Urban (Aus); Tina Arena (Aus), Sum 41 (Can), Eels (US); John Mayer (US); Coldplay (UK); A Perfect Circle (US); The Offspring (US); Radiohead (UK); Gomez (UK); and The Who (UK) all kept Australian audiences enthralled.
In early 2003, with a line-up that inarguably made it the year's must-see concert for music aficionados, Michael Chugg secured Bob Dylan (US), Ani DiFranco (US) and The Waifs (Aus) for the Perth Moonlight Music & Wine Festival. As if this wasn't enough, the end of 2003 saw Robbie Williams return to Australia with special guests Duran Duran, playing to 90,000 people in Sydney and 68,000 people in Melbourne; which at the time represented a sold-out, record attendance at Melbourne's Telstra Dome.
From 2003 to 2005, MCE also staged the successful Melbourne International Music and Blues Festival, held on the banks of the Yarra River in the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre and adjoining parklands, with 3 days of non-stop world class music and entertainment. Acts on the bill included Ray Charles (US) Bob Dyan (US), Wilson Picket (US), Vanessa Amorosi (Aus), Beth Orton (UK), Tony Joe White (US) and John Mayall (UK) among many others.
In 2004 and 2005 MCE continued to go from strength to strength with the first ever Australian Idol live tours, Damien Rice (Ire), Rufus Wainwright (Can), The Doors of the 21st Century (US), Bright Eyes (US), Mark Knopfler (UK) and R.E.M. (US), along with revisits from favourites such as Gomez (UK) and Australian darlings Tina Arena and Keith Urban.
2005 saw some major achievements for MCE, including the phenomenal charity event Wave Aid. Along with promoters Joe Segreto and Mark Pope, Chugg helped to stage one of the greatest music events the country had ever seen. Wave Aid brought together some of Australia's best artists including The John Butler Trio, Missy Higgins, The Finn Brothers, Silverchair, Powderfinger and a re-formed Midnight Oil. Held at the SCG on January 29th 2005, Wave Aid played to 50,000 people and raised over $2.3 Million dollars for the victims of the Boxing Day tsunami.
2005 also saw Michael Chugg Entertainment follow some exciting new paths, including becoming one of the major partners in the East Coast International Blues and Roots Music Festival. MCE's involvement helped to make the 2005, 5-day Bluesfest a complete sell-out: which at that stage was the most successful festival in the event's 16-year history.
At the 2005 Helpmann Awards, the East Coast International Blues and Roots Music Festival picked up the award for Best Festival. At the same awards night, Michael Chugg, along with Gary Van Egmond, received the award for Tour Of The Year for the highly successful Bette Midler "Kiss My Brass" spectacular which saw the Devine Miss M fill 10 arenas around the country.
Later in the year a new partnership with Backrow Productions (UK) tied Michael Chugg Entertainment to the hugely successful 10th Anniversary production of Dein Perry's Tap Dogs, and the relationship has opened the door to many exciting theatre opportunities.
Towards the end of 2005, having proven itself as an industry stalwart both internationally and locally, Michael Chugg Entertainment took another exciting turn with a rebranding exercise. With a name so prominent and recognisable in the industry, the company relaunched to become Chugg Entertainment.
2006 was a massive year for the company, with sell out shows for Jason Mraz (US), Korn (US), Sigur Ros (Iceland), Yellowcard (US) and once again seeing the East Coast International Blues and Roots Music Festival completely sell out. Further expanding Chugg Entertainment's interest in promoting festivals, March saw a new partnership with Lunatic Entertainment when a small patch of Sydney's CBD was transformed into a street party for indie music lovers, heralding Sydney's first ever St Jeromes Laneway Festival. The unique event featured a prestigious line up of international artists including Broken Social Scene (Can), Les Savy Fav (US) and The Posies (US) as well as local acts Faker and The Avalanches.
In addition, Coldplay's mid-year tour saw 120,000 people snap up tickets to 10 sell-out arenas as well as setting a new attendance record of 12,490 at the Sydney Entertainment Centre.
In early March, Michael Chugg was awarded 'Promoter of the Year' at the International Live Music Conference awards in London. June too was a big month with Michael receiving the Gentleman Jack award at the 3rd Annual Jack Awards for his service to live music in Australia. In addition to this, at the 26th Golden Stave lunch, Michael was awarded the Nordoff Robins award in recognition of his outstanding achievements, contributions to the music industry and his charity work.
Building on an already outstanding reputation of producing quality events, in June, Chugg Entertainment announced the Robbie Williams tour for December 2006 and sold out an amazing 9 stadium shows nationwide just hours after releasing tickets.
Furthering the company's involvement in live theatre, Chugg Entertainment (in conjunction with Backrow Productions) were involved with the highly anticipated production of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert - The Musical which premiered worldwide in Sydney in October.
Chugg Entertainment closed 2006 in an even grander fashion with almost 500,000 Australians attending the Robbie Williams sell-out tour across the country, and almost 100,000 attending the Elton John 'Captain and the Kid' national tour.
2007 saw Chugg Entertainment involved in a number of special projects including the Australian leg of the worldwide Live Earth event, and continuing successes with the East and West Coast Blues & Roots Festivals, Point Nepean Music Festival and St Jeromes Laneway Festival, of which the East Coast Blues & Roots Festival was nominated for a 2007 Helpmann Award for Best Contemporary Music Festival.
After a hugely successful 11-month season in Sydney, selling more than 300,000 tickets and taking in excess of $25M at the box office, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert - The Musical took its humorous and heartfelt stage spectacular to the Regent Theatre in Melbourne. August 2007 saw one of contemporary music's most influential artists, music legend Bob Dylan and his band, doing a special tour of major arena shows across Australia and New Zealand. Closing a spectacular 2007 for Michael Chugg was Elton John's Rocket Man Solo Tour, which showcased the Knight and a piano and brought Elton's brilliance and 35 years of hit songs to highly anticipated shows at unique venues across the country, including a 20,000 capacity concert at Townsville's Dairy Farmers Stadium.
Chugg Entertainment has already completed 47 tours, and 10 successful festivals in 2008, including artists Keith Urban, John Fogerty (US), Santana (US), Feist (Can) and, for the first time to Australian shores, Sinead O'Connor (Ire). And to add an even bigger bang to 2008, Michael also managed to fit in time to win the coveted 'Bottle Award' at the International Live Music Conference in London, proving once again that Michael Chugg is indeed the leading promoter in Australia.
In 2008, Chugg Entertainment tours included Keith Urban, John Fogerty, Santana, Feist, Sinead O'Connor (Ire), Elton John’s first tour of Darwin, The Kooks, Jason Mraz, Newton Faulkner and Martha Wainwright. Michael Chugg also managed to fit in time to win the coveted 'Bottle Award' at the International Live Music Conference (ILMC) in London.
In January 2009, the St Jerome’s Laneway Festival expanded into five cities for the first time, proving Australia’s love for the boutique indie event.
In February Michael Chugg was honoured with yet another great industry award – taking home the Pollstar International Promoter of the Year award, beating out international heavyweights such as AEG Live and Live Nation.
Coldplay returned to Australia and New Zealand to play 13 massive shows to over 170,000 fans, as well as opening the Sydney Sound Relief charity concert before rushing to Acer Arena to play their own sold out show that night.
Sound Relief, a two-city charity concert event featuring Coldplay, Kings Of Leon, Midnight Oil, Crowded House, Icehouse, Taylor Swift and more, raised over $8 million for the Victorian Bushfire and QLD flood relief effort.
