Thomas Black is a former

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...

executive and TV personality. He worked at

EMI Records EMI Records (formerly EMI Records Ltd.) is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British flagship label by the music company of the same name in 1972, and launched in January 1973 as the succ ...

Ireland as A&R director, where he signed artists like

Relish A relish is a cooked and pickled product made of chopped vegetables, fruits or herbs and is a food item typically used as a condiment to enhance a staple. Examples are chutneys and the North American relish, a pickled cucumber jam eaten with ho ...

Aslan Aslan () is a major character in C. S. Lewis's ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' series. Unlike any other character, he appears in all seven chronicles of the series. Aslan is depicted as a talking lion, and is described as the King of Beasts, the ...

Cathy Davey Catherine "Cathy" Davey (born 1979) is an Irish singer-songwriter. She has released one extended play, "Come Over" (2004), and four albums, '' Something Ilk'' (2004), ''Tales of Silversleeve'' (2007), '' The Nameless'' (2010) and ''New Forest'' ...

and

John Spillane John Spillane (born 1961) is a singer-songwriter from Cork, Ireland. Background Spillane grew up in the Cork suburb of Wilton, in a family of five boys. He was educated in Coláiste an Spioraid Naoimh, Bishopstown. Raised by his mother, she ...

. He previously worked for

Sony Records Sony Records was a record label founded by R&B duo Ike & Tina Turner in 1963. It was not affiliated with Sony Group Corporation. Ike Turner produced singles by members of the Kings of Rhythm and the Ikettes on Sony Records. Records on the label ...

in the same position, signing

The 4 of Us The 4 of Us are a rock band from Newry, County Down, Northern Ireland.(24 January 2003)The 4 of Us to play Dublin in March ''RTÉ.ie''(5 April 2003)Just the Four of Us '' Billboard'' Of the four founding members, only brothers Brendan and Dec ...

and

Cry Before Dawn Cry Before Dawn are a four-piece rock band originally hailing from Wexford in Ireland. They released several singles and two albums in the late 1980s and toured Ireland, UK and US. Lineup * Brendan Wade – vocals, acoustic guitar, uilleann ...

to the label. Black was one of the three judges on the TV talent show ''

You're a Star ''You're a Star'' is an Irish music competition series broadcast by RTÉ One from 2002 to 2008. Produced by the broadcaster and Screentime ShinAwiL, the series was similar to formats such as ''Idol'' and ''The X Factor''. For its first three se ...

'' where he discovered and championed Dublin band 21 DEMANDS who made Irish chart history by becoming the first unsigned artist to achieve a number one single, the band subsequently changed their name to

Kodaline Kodaline () are an Irish rock band. Originally known as 21 Demands, the band adopted their current name in 2012 to coincide with the changing of their music. The group comprises Steve Garrigan, Mark Prendergast, Vincent May and Jason Boland. Ga ...

, signing to Sony Records. Their debut album ''In a Perfect World'' went to No.1 in Ireland and number 3 in the UK charts in 2013. He also set up Ireland's only independent A&R consultancy service in 2004 working with unsigned and established artists, such as The Star Parade, who are seeking record and publishing deals as well as consulting for various UK and US record and publishing companies including Polydor Records, Sony Music Publishing, TV and radio including RTÉ and Newstalk. Alongside

Linda Martin Linda Martin (born 27 March 1952) is an Irish singer and television presenter. She is best known as the winner of the 1992 Eurovision Song Contest during which she represented Ireland with the song " Why Me?". She is also known within Irelan ...

and Brendan O'Connor, Black was one of the guests about to be interviewed by

Pat Kenny Patrick Kenny (born 29 January 1948) is an Irish broadcaster, who currently hosts the daily radio show ''The Pat Kenny Show'' on Newstalk and the current affairs show ''Pat Kenny Tonight'' on Virgin Media One. Prior to this, Kenny had a 41-yea ...

when Kenny famously came under attack from an intruder live on '' The Late Late Show''. Thomas Black produced a radio documentary for RTÉ

Doc on One The ''RTÉ Documentary on One'', or ''Doc on One'', is an anthology Radio documentary, documentary radio series broadcast by Irish public service broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann's RTÉ Radio 1, Radio 1 since the 1940s. Episodes are typic ...

series called '007 The Irish Connection'. This Documentary won a Gold award at the NewYorkFestivals.com Worlds Best radio awards in 2018

References

Living people Irish record producers Year of birth missing (living people) {{Ireland-music-bio-stub