Vince Power, the veteran music promoter who died on Saturday aged 76, always made a point of refusing to wind down. Over the course of a career beginning with the opening of his first music venue the Mean Fiddler in 1982, an unglamorous but cosy Harlesden spot which hosted legends such as Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Eric Clapton and a pre-fame Pixies, he left an indelible mark on the music scene. He headed up some of the UK’s greatest festivals and venues, putting on shows with everyone from Paul McCartney to Van Morrison.
Well into his seventies, Power lived above another of his own venues, The Fiddler.
Vince Power’s impact on live music as we know it is hard to overstate
As recently as 2020, he made the decidedly bold step of buying up the iconic Camden venue Dingwalls — lockdowns be damned — and cheerfully insisted that, though the timing could have been better, “I couldn’t miss the opportunity.”
Once the head honcho of the powerhouse promoter Mean Fiddler, his live music empire included Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds, the Astoria, Hammersmith Apollo, The Garage, G-A-Y, Heaven and the Kentish Town Forum at its peak. From convincing New Order to headline an ailing Reading Festival in 1989 (transforming it into a major player on the festival calendar) to taking over the logistical reins of Glastonbury in 2001, right as the Worthy Farm festival was on the verge of losing its event licence, Power’s impact on live music as we know it is hard to overstate.
Though he sold off his stake in Mean Fiddler in 2005, he kept on searching out new opportunities, with mixed results: taking over the running of the Spanish festival Benicàssim, and setting up the eccentric anti-corporate festival Hop Farm.
With festival line-ups becoming increasingly samey, and small music venues across London closing down at an alarming rate, Power’s almost bullish optimism, fearlessness and unrelenting faith in live music will be missed.
