Sir Colin Southgate, Ex-Head Of EMI, Royal Opera House, Passes At 83

Former EMI Head Southgate Passes

Former EMI Chairman SIR COLIN SOUTHGATE, who was Chairman of EMI in the late '90s and ran the ROYAL OPERA HOUSE, passed at 83. 

After unsuccessfully trying to engineer a sale of EMI to a HOLLYWOOD entertainment company, SOUTHGATE was replaced by UNITED BISCUITS chief ERIC NICOLI in 1999 with a reported 800,000 pound pay off.  

At EMI, the famously fiery, hot-tempered SOUTHGATE realized the unwieldy company had to be broken up and sold,  understood swiftly that the company was a malfunctioning jigsaw that needed to be broken up and sold, but his repeated attempts to sell the company left it in a worse condition than before.

During his time there, SOUTHGATE oversaw the establishment of EMI GROUP PLC after the demerger from THORN and EMI RECORDS folded into CAPITOL and VIRGIN in the U.S.

SOUTHGATE also headed the ROYAL OPERA HOUSE, where he was installed by Prime Minister TONY BLAIR after a rival, TV boss GERRY ROBINSON, was met with opposition. SOUTHGATE's most significant contribution there was to ask his A&R chief at EMI, PETER ALWARD, to nominate a new music director in place of the retiring BERNARD HAITINK. He recommended a conductor at LA MONNAIE in BRUSSELS named ANTONIO PAPPANO, who remains music director at COVENT GARDEN to this day. 

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