Paragon Booking Agency

Paragon Booking Agency was a musical talent management company based in Macon, Georgia, United States. It was one of the largest booking agencies in the Southeast. In the late 1970s, Ian Copeland, a music promoter, and Bill Berry, future member of R.E.M., worked for the company.

History

Paragon took advantage of the success of Capricorn Records,{{Cite news , last=Sweeting , first=Adam , date=2006-05-30 , title=Ian Copeland , url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/may/31/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries2 , access-date=2024-07-01 , work=The Guardian , language=en-GB , issn=0261-3077 which was founded in Macon, Georgia, in 1969 by Phil Walden and Frank Fenter.{{Cite web , title=Paragon Booking Agency Historical Marker , url=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=186845 , access-date=2024-07-01 , website=www.hmdb.org , language=en Alex Hodges, who founded Paragon, met Walden at Mercer University. Hodges saw new wave music arriving and said, according to Mike Mills, future bassist with R.E.M., 'We don't have anybody here who understands that. Find my somebody that knows this stuff.'" It is believed that Buck Williams found Ian Copeland, who was managing bands in the United Kingdom at the time.{{Cite AV media , url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRfhX-XAIiY , title=Mike Mills: The Story Of R.E.M. , date=2024-06-14 , last=Rick Beato , access-date=2024-07-01 , via=YouTube After joining Paragon in 1977,{{Cite book , last=Campion , first=Chris , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8H3uEAAAQBAJ&dq=Paragon+booking+agency+macon+georgia&pg=PT106 , title=Walking on the Moon: The Untold Story of the Police and the Rise of New Wave Rock , date=2010-01-07 , publisher=Turner Publishing Company , isbn=978-0-470-62783-9 , language=en Copeland arranged to have Squeeze tour the U.S. by booking them into small venues, with the hope of word-of-mouth doing the leg work for their popularity. He did the same for the B-52s and the Police, for which his brother Stewart was the drummer.

Artists represented by Paragon included the Allman Brothers Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Charlie Daniels Band. They also booked shows for the Climax Blues Band, who were managed by his other brother, Miles.

In the late 1970s, Bill Berry, later the drummer with R.E.M., became employed by Paragon as a gopher.

Copeland and Berry left Paragon in 1979; Copeland to form Frontier Booking International (F.B.I.) with Buck Williams and Berry to move to Athens, Georgia, to begin at the University of Georgia.

The company's office was at 560 Arlington Place in Macon. A plaque on the building denotes it as the "booking agency for R.E.M., the Police, the B-52s and other New Wave bands. The former home of Bill Berry and Mike Mills, next door at 572 Arlington Place, also has a plaque.

Personnel

Rodgers Redding, brother of Otis, ran the company's rhythm and blues department, while John Huie, a Davidson College alumni, ran the college-music division of Paragon.{{Cite magazine , last=Waddell , first=Ray , date=2005-12-02 , title=CAA Ups Music Agents , url=https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/caa-ups-music-agents-1402451/ , access-date=2024-07-01 , magazine=Billboard , language=en-US

References

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Companies based in Macon, Georgia
American talent agents
1970s establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)