Michael Gudinski is one of Australian music industry’s most legendary figures. His many business interests reflect the multiple facets of his personality, his talents and the vibrant world in which he works. Michael Solomon Gudinski was born in 1952 to Russian immigrants who had arrived in Australia in 1948. Educated at Melbourne High School and Mount Scopus College, he was still in his teens when he began promoting rock dances around Melbourne. A move into music agency work in the late 1960s led to the establishment of the Consolidated Rock artist agency and the music magazine Daily Planet.

In 1972 Gudinski and business partner Ray Evans staged, managed and booked the entertainment for the history-making inaugural Sunbury Festival. In the same year he founded Mushroom Music, which is now the country’s principal independent music publishing house, and Mushroom Records, which became Australia’s largest independent label.

Mushroom’s first release was a triple-disc of the 1973 Sunbury Festival, but it was the 1975 release of Skyhooks’ debut LP that established it as a major label: Living in the 70s became the biggest-selling Australian LP released up to that time. Gudinski’s next important signing was the expatriate New Zealand band Split Enz. Their 1980 album True Colours and the hit single ‘I Got You’ were huge successes.

The Frontier Touring Company, founded by Gudinski in 1979, has twice been voted the ‘No 1 International Touring Company in the World’. The company has toured some of the world’s finest artists, including Billy Joel, Green Day, Kings Of Leon, Leonard Cohen, Black Eyed Peas, Kylie Minogue and many more.

Consolidated Rock eventually evolved into Premier Artists Talent (Melbourne) and the Harbour Agency (Sydney); now the largest talent booking organisation in the country, they represent the cream of Australian live music.

Australian Tour Merchandising (ATM), which Gudinski established in 1983, has grown into the principal live music merchandising company in Australia. ATM represents many major international merchandising companies and nurtures relationships with emerging and independent artists.

In recent years Gudinski sold Mushroom Records and established a dynamic new label, Liberation, in 2000. Among Liberation’s local roster are a broad range of Artists including Jimmy Barnes, Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson, Josh Pyke, Liam Finn, The Temper Trap, Bliss N Eso, Archie Roach, Troy Cassar-Daley, Kate Alexa (Gudinski’s daughter) and many internationals including Dizzee Rascal, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Kaiser Chiefs and Simply Red.

Mushroom Music remains the principal independent publishing company in Australia representing some of the leading independent publishers from America and Europe. Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jack Johnson, White Stripes, Eskimo Joe, The Temper Trap, Neil Finn, Tim Finn, 2009 APRA winners Faker and many more.

In addition to his ARIA Hall of Fame Industry Lifetime Achievement Award, Gudinski received the prestigious Ted Albert Award for Outstanding Services to Australian Music at the 1998 APRA (The Australian Performing Rights Association) Awards. In 1999 the Australian Marketing Institute awarded him The Sir Charles McGrath Australian Marketer of the Year Award, their highest accolade for personal achievement. In 2003 he received the ILMC Bottle Award, the equivalent to a lifetime achievement award, at the International Live Music Conference.

In 2006 Gudinski was made a Member of the Order of Australia ‘for service to the entertainment industry through the promotion of Australian music recording artists, as an advocate for young people in the music industry, and to the community.’ He was also listed among The Bulletin’s ‘100 Most Influential Australians”.

Gudinski continues to work with enormous enthusiasm across all facets of his companies. He can often be found trekking from pub gig to entertainment centre, in Australia and abroad, looking for the next big thing to come under the banner of The Mushroom Group of Companies.