Colleen Ironside set for posthumous honour

Trailblazing promoter Colleen Ironside will be posthumously honoured at the upcoming 2023 APRA Music Awards, it has been announced.

Ironside and Men at Work singer-songwriter Colin Hay will be recognised with the Ted Albert Award for Outstanding Services to Australian Music at the 27 April ceremony at ICC Sydney.

Ironside, who died in Thailand aged 69 last July, was MD of Hong Kong-based pan-Asian touring and event promotion company Live Limited.

“We are very proud to salute two uniquely Australian music industry figures, the late Colleen Ironside, and Colin Hay who both honed their talent and started careers at home, which sent them out into the international scene and onto huge success,” says APRA AMCOS CEO Dean Ormston.

“Colleen championed Australian songwriters and artists and created live music pathways into Asia with a business acumen that was years ahead of her peers”

“Colleen championed Australian songwriters and artists and created live music pathways into Asia with a business acumen that was years ahead of her peers. Colin is a songwriter of the highest level and with the biggest heart, whose songs continue to connect and hit #1 on the charts. We look forward to honouring them with the Ted Albert Award at this year’s APRA Music Awards,”

Ironside began her career with the Harbour Agency in Sydney, before branching out with her own booking agency APA, promoting clients such as INXS, Ratcat, Jenny Morris, Wendy Matthews, James Reyne and Def FX.

In 1994, Frontier Touring hired her as head of its Asia division, where she managed tours by the likes of Pearl Jam, REM and Tom Jones. In 1999, she set up Live Limited and toured the Rolling Stones, Elton John, David Bowie, Sting and countless other music heavyweights.

In 2005 she was appointed SVP of bookings for Live Nation in Pan-Asia, where she worked for five years before reviving Live Limited, promoting Janet Jackson in Hong Kong, Bruno Mars in Malaysia and Bob Dylan in Hong Kong and Vietnam.

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