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BE PART OF THE LEGACY

TAMPA BAY • FEBRUARY 23-24 2026

This FINAL encore experience will be unlike any other. Because like everything we do, it's been "reimagined" from beginning to end. It's not a virtual or hybrid event. It's not a conference. It's not a seminar, a workshop, a meeting, or a symposium. And it's not your typical run-of-the-mill everyday event crammed with stages, keynote speeches, team-building exercises, PowerPoint presentations, and all the other conventional humdrum. Because it's up close & personal by design. Where conversation trumps presentation. And where authentic connection runs deep.

Heroes

For over fifty years David Bowie has taught us many things, about fashion, the birth of Ziggy Stardust, and about being innovative. He told us to dance and he told us he was afraid of Americans. He told us to turn and face the change but most of all he told us we could be heroes. If just for one day. And David Bowie knows because David Bowie had heroes too, he had people that inspired him when he was growing up. Maybe he didn’t want to be them but he certainly wanted some of what they had. He wanted to be recognized and appreciated for what he did. He wanted us to pay attention and he made us sit up.

Who at some stage in their life wasn’t affected growing up with people like that around you? We were all kindred spirits, we had heroes and our heroes had heroes too. And if we had some for a day we had others for eternity.

But most of all we had them. When I wrote my book it occurred to me, what would it be like if you had never had them to miss them? I honestly can’t imagine that, I don’t know where my path would have led me because so much of my life was shaped around the people and the music and the people who shared the same liking of music.

And what about the rest of you? Did you have heroes when you were young, did you have people who made a difference to your life? Did they inspire you, did they make you want to be better at what you did? I’m inspired by the words some of the people I admire have said over the years. I remember  Bruce Springsteen saying that when he was young he loved Elvis Presley and it inspired him to want to be a musician. But he also said that wasn’t enough, if he was going to do this he wanted to be GREAT at it, he wanted to be the best. He didn’t just aspire to be Elvis, he wanted to be even better than Elvis. While Bruce built an irrefutable career off of the back of his inspiration that itself acted as a catalyst for me. The time came for me to explore ‘the artist,’ to look back at what I saw to be the ingredients of greatness, and to see them develop into what they became. For the most part, I was impressed, mighty impressed and I saw it as the perfect time to inspire others about what the meaning of greatness is.

Today everyone wants to teach everyone else how to be a RockStar. Next, we’ll be having RockStar webinars. Real Rock Stars deserve their rightful recognition because they have earned it and it should not be by people who think they know. How could you teach someone to drive a car if you’ve never sat behind the wheel yourself? Being a true Rockstar isn’t a course you teach, it’s a lesson in greatness. And being around those people it’s easy to see how the effect rubs off on others. Greatness is everlasting, it’s not a passing fad. It’s about creating a legacy.

David Bowie told us then that we could be heroes. He was just making us aware of what we could achieve. He was never our teacher, always our muse. Even as his life was drawing to a close he prepared for his death and made it a celebration of his life.

His swan song was to leave us with a magnificent final album, a testament to his resilience. His work wasn’t done and completing the album was his farewell gift to us.

I thought David Bowie was deserving of my first post by way of an introduction. There will be more to come but for now, there’s an overwhelming desire to reach for that album that opened my eyes to a truly unique artist. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars could have been released fifty years ago or fifty years from now and it would still sound just as good. That in itself is a unique achievement.

And as he told us….. ‘I don’t know where I’ll be going from here but I do know it won’t be boring.

Tony Michaelides
Tony Michaelideshttps://tonymichaelides.com/
With an irrefutable reputation achieved over fifty-plus years working with a stellar cast of clients which included U2, The Stone Roses, David Bowie, New Order, The Police, Depeche Mode, Simply Red, Bob Marley, Massive Attack, REM, Matchbox Twenty, The Pixies, Elvis Costello, Genesis, Johnny Cash, Whitney Houston, Annie Lennox, Tom Petty, Peter Gabriel…..and many more, it is not for nothing that U2’s manager, Paul McGuinness, has said, “Tony Michaelides has long been one of the UK’s foremost record promoters and undoubtedly one of the best that U2 have had the pleasure of working with.” Tony is acknowledged by both the artists he has nurtured and by his peers for the wealth of experience he has gained through an illustrious career that spanned more than three decades. His first foray into the music industry began in 1974 working as a sales representative for Transatlantic Records before he took on a similar role at ABC Records. In 1978 he made the move to Island Records and worked in their promotion department. Tony set up his own promotions company, TMP. His first two clients naturally, were Island and A and M Records. Over the next 25 years, TMP became one of the most highly respected and successful promotion companies in the UK. During that time, in 1984 Tony was invited to replace Mark Radcliffe on one of the UK’s most popular radio stations, Piccadilly/Key 103 and for the next 12 years presented his own music program, ‘The Last Radio Program,’ which was a Sony nomination for ‘Best local radio show.’ As his operation expanded TMP undertook all regional promotion activities at Factory Records and over the next 10 years worked with Joy Division, New Order, Happy Mondays, James, etc. During that time Mute Records also approached him to handle their artists which included Depeche Mode and Erasure. 1997 marked a personal highlight in Tony’s career when he was asked to be the publicist for David Bowie’s ‘Earthling Tour,’ responsible for all press, radio, and television. The following year TMP expanded its operations into working with more American clients, most notably Lippman Entertainment, one of the world’s most successful management companies, and the opportunity to work with multi-platinum act, Matchbox Twenty. They also became the UK consultants to Warner Chappell’s LA office and Atlantic Records in New York. In 2004 Tony was granted a Green Card as an “Alien of Extraordinary Ability,” for services to the music and arts, an accolade awarded to a small percentage of people who have reached ‘The Pinnacle of Excellence in the Field of Endeavor.’

DO YOU HAVE THE "WRITE" STUFF? If you’re ready to share your wisdom of experience, we’re ready to share it with our massive global audience – by giving you the opportunity to become a published Contributor on our award-winning Site with (your own byline). And who knows? – it may be your first step in discovering your “hidden Hemmingway”. LEARN MORE HERE


2 CONVERSATIONS

  1. Tony, I love this story. I spent from 16 to 21 on the road playing music and my heroes were the Allman Brothers Band, and Johnny Cash. My tried-and-true heroes were, Hemingway,
    John Steinbeck, Henery David Thoreau and life’s many troubadours. Thank you for a reminder to believe in our heroes. My biggest hero was my dad, The Quiet Man…

  2. What a wonderful introductory post, Tony ~ Welcome!! Love this statement, “Being a true Rockstar isn’t a course you teach, it’s a lesson in greatness.” It’s so true that these days everyone wants to teach and yet the true lessons come with BEING fully who we are – sharing our ‘greatness’ by sharing ourselves, our gifts, the expressions that desire to be created through us as only we can express. Those who become ‘heroes’ are often those who remind us to be true to our own uniqueness by mirroring how to do that through their own lives. BEing the example. 😉

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