Promoter Barrie Marshall honoured with NAA award

British promoting great Barrie Marshall has been honoured by the National Arenas Association (NAA) for his outstanding contribution to the UK’s live music scene.

Marshall, who founded Marshall Arts in 1976, has worked with P!nk since 2002 and Paul McCartney since his 1989/90 world tour, in addition to promoting iconic artists such as Elton John, George Michael, Tina Turner, Taylor Swift, Celine Dion, Cher, Whitney Houston, Lionel Richie, Sade, Joe Cocker and Stevie Wonder.

He was presented with the award by P!nk, real name Alecia Moore, and NAA steering group member Debbie McWilliams, director of live entertainment of the Scottish Event Campus (SEC).

“It was an incredible surprise to receive this very prestigious award and so nice that Alecia would take the time to present it to me. My thanks to John Drury, Debbie McWilliams and the members of the NAA,” says Marshall. “My first arena show was at Wembley with the Commodores in 1979 – having at that time been ‘interviewed’ by Mr John Evans, who ran the arena, to make sure our company was suitable and honourable enough to hire the venue!

“We followed that in 1980 with a very memorable week of ‘Wonder At Wembley’ with Stevie – and it has been such an honour to work with so many talented artists and fellow promoters across the decades at so many tremendous arenas. A true privilege for which I am extremely grateful.”

Marshall has also worked with the likes of Eurythmics, Rod Stewart, Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, Al Jarreau, Bryan Adams, Bon Jovi, Spice Girls, Amitabh Bachchan, The Highway Men, Moody Blues and John Denver in an illustrious 45-year career.

“We’re so pleased to be able to present this well-deserved award to such an industry icon”

“As the figurehead of Marshall Arts, Barrie and his team have become almost as legendary as many of the acts they represent and have been a consistent and welcome supporter of the UK’s arena business for many years,” says NAA chair John Drury, VP/general manager of OVO Arena Wembley. “We’re so pleased to be able to present this well-deserved award to such an industry icon. NAA members look forward to hosting many more Marshall Arts shows to come.”

The NAA Outstanding Contribution award has been selected and presented annually by the NAA members since 2009 to recognise those who have gone above and beyond in their venue and/or industry at that time.

Previous winners of the award are David Vickers (2009), Danny Betesh (2010), Paul Latham (2011), Simon Moran (2012), Phil McIntyre (2013), Geoff Huckstep (2014), Pete Wilson & Dennis Arnold (2015), Matt Wooliscroft (2016), Anne-Marie Harwood (2017), Phil Bowdery (2018), Annette Robinson (2019), Lucy Noble (2020), Chris York (2021), Greg Parmley (2022).

Established in 1991, the NAA brings together the UK and Ireland’s arena network promoting best practice and knowledge sharing between its members, serving as a forum for event and concert venue managers with a minimum seated capacity of 5,000.

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