Rick Rogers

Biography

Popular music, the music business, enterprise and entrepreneurship. Rick is senior lecturer in music at Falmouth, teaching mainly within the field of popular music, but contributing to all areas of the music programme. After a successful career in the music industry as manager to bands including The Damned, The Specials and The Soup Dragons, Rick was appointed business fellow in music at Falmouth, while still based at the Dartington Campus. As part of this role, he ran Dartington Recordings and South West Recordings; both stepping stone labels for South West based musicians that commercially released one-off singles. He also mentored young musicians and music businesses across the South West region of the UK and has presented seminars on the music business across the region. After co-devising the BA(Hons) Popular Music course for Falmouth, Rick transferred from his business fellow role to join the academic team in 2009. Since then, he has developed modules on the Popular Music course, specialising in the delivery of teaching concerned with all aspects of the music industry and artist development. Rick has also been responsible for spearheading numerous strategic links between the University and industry partners. Our partnership with the Sony A&R Academy is just one example of this. Rick continues to be active in the commercial music business and currently runs a new artist management and consultancy business, DLR Management, along with Dennis Smith (Sawmills Studio/ Muse) and Liam Smith (Dangerous Management, a Producer management company) and Tech developer.

Research Interest

Rick Rogers started his career in the music industry with his own PR company Trigger in the late 1970s, guiding the early campaigns for both Stiff and Chiswick Records. He quickly expanded in to management with The Damned and launched the career of The Specials, taking responsibility for running Two Tone Records with their astonishing succession of top ten hits. He then went on to manage the careers of several successful bands including The Fun Boy Three, The Soup Dragons and Right Said Fred. He also spent time as the Marketing Manager of Big Life Records and masterminded the campaign for De La Soul's platinum selling debut '3 Feet High and Rising'. Rick was also at the front of the Comedy Boom for several years, bringing into the UK and promoting top American stand ups such as Bill Hicks, Steven Wright, Emo Phillips, Sandra Bernhart and Dave Chapelle.