Having given up his native England in the 1980s, Barnaby Harrod enjoyed a successful decade in a punk band, before fate – and love – saw him pursuing a backstage role. Now celebrating 25 years of Mercury Wheels, he (with the guidance of wife, Elie) has become one of Spain’s top promoters. Gordon Masson discovers ten of the key lessons learned by Barnaby during his fascinating career.

Born in Cambridge, Barnaby Harrod spent his first four years in the northern English city of Newcastle before the family returned south to London, where he stayed until the age of nine. “We then moved to Oxford, but we moved back to London when I was 13, so I spent all my teenage years around Ladbroke Grove and Portobello Road,” he tells IQ.

And it was there where his love for music blossomed. “I was born in 1965, so I was 11 in 1976 when punk broke,” he says. “My uncle took me to see my first gig when I was 12: the Boomtown Rats, with Bob Geldof, and it was amazing. Just going to that one gig got me into music forever, and I started listening to the Ramones and the Sex Pistols and the Clash, as well as going to gigs in London, in 1977, 78, 79, as a teenager.”

While he wasn’t necessarily academic at school, Barnaby was a promising footballer, but punk rock soon took over his life.

“I got into the first 11 football team in my penultimate year, but in my final year, they put me back into the second 11 because by that time I was too much into music, having a drink down the pub, and enjoying myself.”

Always ahead of his time, Barnaby took a gap year when he left school. “I pulled on a backpack and went to South America – I was 18 – and I went to Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Chile. You couldn’t go to Argentina at that time if you were English because it was just after the Falklands War.” However, armed with the rudimentary Spanish he had learned at school, that adventurous trip planted a hispanophile seed, and on his return to the UK, he enrolled at University College London to study Modern Iberian Latin American Studies.

“I always felt like a tourist in France and Italy and Greece. But as soon as I got into Spain, I felt instantly at home”

Studies can map your path in life
“When we lived in Oxford, my mother always had lodgers. They were mostly students, but one of our lodgers – Philip Lloyd-Bostock – was a Spanish don, and he was the one who got me interested in Spanish. He was a wonderful man, and he inspired me to learn Spanish and read Spanish literature, which completely changed my life.”

In his second year at university, he completed a four-month exchange course in Córdoba. “I loved it, and I connected straightaway with the Spanish people. When I went on Interrail with my friends, I always felt like a tourist in France and Italy and Greece. But as soon as I got into Spain, I felt instantly at home. That’s been the way I felt about Spain from the very beginning.”

Disillusioned by university, Barnaby poured himself into music, joining a pub band in London called The Pleasure Splinters. “We never did anything, but I played bass and sang a bit of backing vocals. Then I joined another band, the Disco Dagos, where I played a bit of guitar, but they didn’t really come to anything either.”

But the pull of Spain was too much to ignore and because his birthday coincided with the running of the bulls in Pamplona, he decided that’s what he should do, having read about the event in Ernest Hemingway’s Fiesta.

Taking a risk can pay off immeasurably
Displaying the steely nerve that every promoter requires, he took £100 that his father had gifted him for his birthday and took a risk. “I went to the Golden Horseshoe Casino on Shaftesbury Avenue (London), played roulette, and walked out with £1,000. And the next morning, I went to a travel agent and bought a flight to Barcelona because that was the nearest place to Pamplona.”

Having met a couple of friendly Pamplona locals, he found himself staying in a flat overlooking part of the bull run. And then came the day when he joined the spectacle. “It was absolutely terrifying,” he states. “At the bottleneck that enters the bullring, I managed to catch my hand against a gate, and I snapped my little finger. So, a few hours later I was in hospital with my fractured finger while others were there, covered in blood,” he laughs. “But I had a wonderful time and at that point everything seemed a bit aimless in the UK, so I thought I’d try to move to Spain.”

“There’s not a single town in Spain we didn’t play – I remember going to places where they didn’t have tarmac roads and there would be donkeys tethered in the corner”

Ever practical, he returned to the UK to undertake a course teaching English as a foreign language, which was his only weapon when he relocated to Madrid in March 1989. “I actually thought of going to Barcelona, but I was friends with Robin Wills, who was the guitarist in a band called the Barracudas, and he told me that Madrid was more rock and roll – more nightlife, more bars, more fun, so I took his advice.”

Wills also put Barnaby in touch with a DJ called Kike Turmix. “He was also the singer for The Pleasure Fuckers. Through him, I became firm friends with the band’s two American guitarists – Norah Findlay and Mike Sobieski – and when they kicked the bassist out a few months later, they asked if I wanted to join the band.”

Barnaby’s first show took him back to a familiar setting. “It was in Pamplona, of all places, a year after I had run with the bulls, but this time playing in a punk band. It was wild.”

It’s possible to earn a living doing something you love
Touring extensively with the band across Spain and beyond, The Pleasure Fuckers started to build a fanbase, and what began as a part-time endeavour, soon became a full-time affair. “We made enough money to live on, and the whole thing lasted about ten years,” states Barnaby. “There’s not a single town in Spain we didn’t play – I remember going to places where they didn’t have tarmac roads and there would be donkeys tethered in the corner and stuff.”

The band also toured around Europe, but it’s a show in the United States that Barnaby proclaims as one of his onstage highlights. “The tour was a double bill with another punk band called Nashville Pussy, and we were in Seattle, which was really exciting because that’s where the Sub Pop label was, and we knew a lot of people from other bands who came along to see us. It wasn’t a huge venue, but still, it was sold out to 700 people, and we were headlining that night. It was just this amazing feeling of ‘We’ve done it – we’ve made it.’ And the next day we played Bend, Oregon with four people in the room…”

Another band highlight was in Spain at the inaugural Festimad festival in Madrid where The Pleasure Fuckers appeared on the same stage as Rancid and Rage Against the Machine. “We played at about eight o’clock in the evening, and I remember looking over to the left, and all the guys from Rancid were there, nodding their heads to the music. A couple of songs later, I looked over to the right, and all the guys from Rage Against the Machine were there, nodding their heads.

“Festimad followed closely by the the US tour were great. But they proved to be the zenith of our career, we just didn’t know it at that point.”

“I had to change my initial way of doing things – The Pleasure Fuckers way – into something more professional”

However, it was a show in Switzerland that would provide Barnaby with his biggest life-changing moment. “One of our promoters was called Elie Muñiz, and it was like Cupid had fired his arrow: we just fell in love. And when the tour ended two months later in October 1997, she moved to Madrid.”

Twenty-six years later, Cupid is still at work, while Elie and Barnaby’s son Zack (17) is studying for his international baccalaureate, ahead of plans to attend university in his father’s native England.

“When I met Barnaby I was working as a promoter for the Vendetta Agency in Switzerland,” says Elie. “In an extremely unprofessional manner, I decided to leave everything for the sexy bass player of the band I was promoting! And here we are twenty-five years later!”

Play to your strengths
While Elie knew how to promote shows and had developed relationships with agents in London, that world was a mystery to Barnaby.

“But I did know everyone at all the venues in Spain – literally everywhere up to 1,000 or 1,500-cap. So we decided to set up as promoters. Prior to that I had been doing a bit of tour managing and I realised that in a lot of cases a bit more professionalism was needed – I’d arrive at a venue and nothing had been prepped. In fact, often I’d get to the venue and there was no one there. It was chaos. And I thought to myself, ‘I could do this a lot better.’”

The very first tour came courtesy of Russell Warby, then at the Agency Group. “It was a band called Royal Trux – an alternative rock band from the US, who we did three shows with. I went up to San Sebastian to welcome them and then came down to Madrid, where we had about 200 people in a 300-cap venue, meaning we lost money. But it was a great way to start, although I didn’t really have an idea of what I was doing.

“I’d been used to touring with The Pleasure Fuckers where, literally, we’d sleep on the promoter’s floor. Obviously, I wasn’t gonna ask Royal Trux to stay on my floor, but I tried too hard – I booked a cool hotel in a Bohemian area of Madrid. But I quickly realised that the band just wanted a nice clean hotel with 24-hour reception. And so that began a very quick learning curve of how to deal with bands. I had to change my initial way of doing things – The Pleasure Fuckers way – into something more professional.”

“If the band’s relaxed, then they’re more likely to have a great gig”

Showing musicians a bit of love pays dividends
Barnaby’s experience of life on the road proved invaluable. “I realised how important it was for the band to just feel at ease, so I’d make sure the backstage looked nice by bringing candles, nice food, and decent coffee so that it would smell good in the morning when people arrived. I’d basically go out of my way to make the tour manager and the band felt relaxed, because I knew how important that is, especially at smaller levels.

“When you’re touring in a van playing smaller capacity venues, you’re often far from home and missing your loved ones. And if you just feel a bit of love, then it can make such a difference for the whole day. If the band’s relaxed, then they’re more likely to have a great gig. So having done all that time on the road with The Pleasure Fuckers definitely stood me in good stead.”

That level of attention does not escape the talent. Rick Astley comments, “Working with Barnaby is truly amazing. He exudes professionalism and knows the business inside out, all whilst making it fun. He knows the best restaurants and wine in Spain, so who can’t love that?!”

Sharon Corr says, “I love working with Barnaby and Elie! They’re great people with an incredible knowledge and experience of the industry and music. We have become great friends over the years, and I always look forward to working with them, knowing that they pay great attention to all the details necessary for a great concert, venues, ticket sales, and a super show. Barnaby and Elie are fantastic at what they do!”

American quintet The National agree. “Barnaby has been a stalwart supporter of The National from our earliest days touring in Europe and has taken good care of us on stage and off,” the band say in a statement. “We look forward to more concerts together and seeing him standing backstage, sharp dressed as ever.”

Luck plays a major role in live music
Establishing the company and working with emerging talent saw Elie and Barnaby throwing themselves into Mercury Wheels with a passion that meant they were involved in the business 24/7 in those early days.

“The first act we had a hit with was Moby, who had just released Play. We got pretty lucky”

“The first act we had a hit with was Moby, who had just released Play,” Barnaby tells IQ. “We got pretty lucky. The agent was Ian Huffam, and for Mercury Wheels it was our first big international thing. Moby had been to Spain before, playing small venues like 300-capacity. But on the back of Play, we sold out a 1,200-cap club in Barcelona and about 1,800 in Madrid. But I was still green, so I’d be there to help with the load-in and the load-out because we didn’t have specific local production that we could rely on.

“In fact, we were still doing business via fax at that point. My friend, Mark Kitcatt, who ran Richard Branson’s Caroline imprint in Madrid was crucially benevolent as we started out and generously gave Elie and I some space in his warehouse. We had one computer between us, and we were surrounded by thousands of Prodigy records because The Fat of the Land was huge at the time.”

As the company’s reputation grew, Mercury Wheels were asked to help with booking the new Isladencanta Festival in Majorca. “Year one, we booked Ladytron and maybe one other band, and it all went so well that in the second year, we were asked if we could book the entire event. But then, of course, it went pear-shaped because the organiser didn’t have the money he said he did. But we’d booked it all, and we bought the Strokes for their first ever show in Spain through Russell Warby – he was always there and has been continually supportive to us. I remember Russell actually playing me one of their songs down the telephone, and we paid $1,000 because it was before the record was released. But then it blew up and we kept putting the Strokes higher and higher on the bill.”

Now a long-time agent at WME, Warby comments, “We first worked together on the mighty Royal Trux back in 1998, which only seems a minute ago. Barnaby is a lovely soul. His enthusiasm for music always shines through and he has great taste… in suits and literature, too.

“I remember telling him how much I enjoyed reading Laurie Lee’s As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning and that it made me want to walk across Spain. He told me he loved that book also… so much so that he was inspired to move to Spain and actually did!”

Fellow WME agent David Levy adds, “It’s as much a pleasure to do business with Barnaby today as it was when I first met him as a small independent promoter. Transferring to a larger company, he hasn’t lost any of his excitement to make things happen.

“Perhaps the act I’m most grateful for his work on is Rick Astley because when we first took Rick on, lots of promoters weren’t ready to look at him in a contemporary way, but Barnaby immediately understood what we were trying to do and was one of the first promoters to really support him.”

“Booking the Strokes was important for us, but behind the scenes, we were suffering immensely because the money wasn’t there”

And that respect extends across multiple agencies. Alice Hogg at ATV Live states, “I first met Barnaby a decade ago when I was a shiny new agent at UTA. He wanted to book one of my artists at a boutique festival I’d never heard of at the time, and I made him pay the full fee upfront as I didn’t trust him (not yet understanding Mercury Wheels was part of Live Nation and they were absolutely good for the cash.) Little did I know he’d turn out to be the most trustworthy of them all, and I’d end up working alongside him on global Live Nation tours one day.

“Every call I’ve ever had with Barnaby (even when it’s bad news), I’ve put the phone down smiling. He’s a pleasure to do business with and a great friend.”

ATC Live founder Alex Bruford recalls his first encounter with Barnaby, vividly. “It was at the Moby Dick in Madrid. We were outside the venue, and he walked up in his trademark suit and shades, looking far cooler than anyone in the band. To this day, he still looks cooler than the bands! My artists love hanging out with Barnaby in Madrid – it’s almost always a tour highlight.

Bruford adds, “Barnaby is a brilliant and mercurial promoter, often coming up with unique plans to launch tours and always bringing his incredible sales analysis and projections to the table. He’s been an absolute rock for me, hugely supportive of myself and ATC Live since my first day as an agent. On top of that, he’s taken me for some of the most enjoyable meals in my life, and I consider him a true friend.”

Business partners can make or break you
“Booking the Strokes was important for us, but behind the scenes, we were suffering immensely because the money wasn’t there. So, in 2001, through no fault of our own, we went bankrupt, even though we’d booked an amazing bill for Isladencanta, including Goldfrapp and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion.”

That episode resulted in Mercury Wheels having to take out a loan to get back on its feet. “You learn who to go into business with,” notes Barnaby, but on the back of that lesson, he and Elie secured a partner to take care of the financial side of things and were able to keep working with Isladencanta with great success.

“Ed [Sheeran] gave Mercury Wheels our first arena show. And then he gave us our first stadium show”

“The following year, we had Oasis and the Libertines. And then we did one more edition with Iggy Pop and Supergrass, but the cops came in and closed it down at midnight because there was a new government in Majorca that didn’t want to do the festival because they were getting pressure from the people who ran the island’s nightclubs. That was the end of it. In a way, I was happy to get out, but when I think about who we booked, it was pretty amazing, even though it was like walking on a knife edge the whole time. And it obviously helped give us credibility with the agents and allowed us to start doing bigger shows.”

With the confidence of the agents growing, Barnaby had a discussion with then Free Trade employee Jon Ollier about a young act he was working with called Ed Sheeran. “We talked about going to the Apollo in Barcelona, which was 1,000-cap, but it did not happen on that tour because they had to change the routing or something. But on Ed’s next tour, we did a 4,500-cap Sant Jordi Club in Barcelona, and the cut-down arena in Madrid, which we started at 5,000-cap and went right through to 8,000 or 9,000.

“Ed Sheeran remains the only person to have played the three venues in the San Jordi complex in succession. First the Sant Jordi Club, then the Arena which is 17,000-capacity, and then the stadium, which is 54,000, stepping up on each consecutive tour. But the confidence was always there because on that first visit, Mark Friend, Ed’s tour manager, said to me, ‘Next time, we’ll be playing the arena.’ So we went to look at the arena. And when Ed played the arena on the following tour, Mark said, ‘Next time, we’ll go to the stadium,’ so we went to look at that, too. And it happened.

“Ed gave Mercury Wheels our first arena show. And then he gave us our first stadium show.”

It’s possible to be independent and benefit from corporate assistance
Having made a big impression on the Spanish live music market, it was only a matter of time before the corporate giants made an approach, and in 2014, Live Nation Spain chairman Pino Sagliocco invited Barnaby for lunch. “He asked me if I’d ever thought about becoming part of a bigger company. I was unsure, but he said, ‘This is your chance. The train’s come into the station, but it’s only here once, and it’s not going to stay forever.’ So, we negotiated and eventually we reached an agreement that was good for all of us. And we officially linked up with Live Nation in 2015.”

Unlike other LN deals, the corporate parent did not acquire Mercury Wheels, however. “They never bought us,” explains Barnaby. “We’re under their umbrella, and we work within the structure of Live Nation, but we’re still independent. I always think of it as like one of those sub labels that are under the major record labels but who have their own independence within the major.”

“The greatest thing about working within Live Nation is that they are incredibly hands-off. I’ve never been told not to do anything. The only directive is to try to make shows work”

Nevertheless, the benefits of that lunch with Sagliocco are obvious as the association with Live Nation enters its tenth year, and Barnaby admits that alongside Elie, Sagliocco has been one of his greatest mentors. “When we do the big stadium shows, there’s a lot of money involved, and there’s a lot of legal stuff with the contracts, the rental of the venues, the marketing, the security, etc. Live Nation’s managing director in Spain, Paco Martinez, runs an incredibly tight and efficient ship.

“Paco’s ability and speed with the numbers is second to none in the business, and Elie & I have learnt an incredible amount from him. So having that team of Live Nation behind you makes things a lot smoother.

“At the same time, because we maintain a level of independence, we can be very nimble and act quickly to jump onto new projects. The greatest thing about working within Live Nation is that they are incredibly hands-off. I’ve never been told not to do anything. The only directive is to try to make shows work.”

Music remains at the heart of everything
With a roster that includes burgeoning act Twenty One Pilots and superstar Dua Lipa, Mercury Wheels continues to get bigger and bigger. “It feels good,” says Barnaby. Indeed, recently he’s added a new axle to the company’s chassis.

“We’re doing comedy now,” he reports. “Five or six years ago, comedy in English wouldn’t have worked in Spain. But thanks to streaming networks and comedy series, English-speaking comics doing routines have become popular here. We did Ricky Gervais, which was a big test for us. When he came on stage in Barcelona and made his first joke, the whole place just cracked up, which was a massive relief. I spoke to Ricky about this, as we had an extra pop-up on Ticketmaster, warning people that the show is fully in English – no subtitles, no dubbing, you must understand it. And you had to tick that box to then be able to buy the ticket. But it works well, so being involved in comedy is very exciting.”

That new string to the bow should see Mercury Wheels promoting between 100 and 120 shows this year. “That’s everything from 200-capacity clubs up to 55,000-cap stadiums, which isn’t bad for a core team of seven people in the office – and sometimes also Pino [Sagliocco], who shares our space whenever he comes to Madrid. He’s an amazing man – very dynamic and engaging, like a rock star – and I’ve been immensely lucky and privileged to learn from him, because he has a very global overview of the business works.”

“It’s important that we all have ways to deal with stress, so I’ve been meditating for the last seven years”

Relying on healthy and happy colleagues has never been more important
With Elie and Barnaby investing heavily in Mercury Wheels’ staff, most of the team – Maria Gaudelia, Will Anderson, José Luis, and Ricard Rois – are long-term employees, as was Irene Garcia until very recently, before she moved over to Live Nation’s ticketing dept, while newer additions include Alexandra Karpova, and new canine colleague, Stan, who joins the incumbent pup, Pukki. “When I visited Live Nation in Los Angeles, there are people who walk dogs around the building, which just helps bring people’s stress levels down. There’s actually a Dog Nation programme within the company.”

A big believer in meditation, Barnaby has been on a number of ten-day silent retreats and takes part in weekly mindfulness sessions through the Mindful Nation programme. “It’s important that we all have ways to deal with stress, so I’ve been meditating for the last seven years,” he reveals. “It teaches me to be a witness to my thoughts rather than automatically engaging with every thought that pops into my head! I’m a big advocate of taking care of people’s mental health.”

The love for Barnaby within the Mercury Wheels operation is palpable. Colleague Will Anderson tells IQ, “I had recently moved from London to Madrid [in 2015] and was trying to figure out what the future held having spent ten years in A&R in the UK. As a fellow Englishman in Madrid with a love of music, we immediately hit it off.

“Barnaby was incredibly gracious and generous with his time, explaining how the industry worked in Spain and introducing me to other Spanish music industry contacts. In 2016, after a year or so working outside the music industry, I mentioned that I was keen to get back in, and he said there might be an opening at Mercury Wheels. I joined the company in 2017 and have had the huge pleasure of working with and learning from one of the very best since then.

“Barnaby has not only built Mercury Wheels into the incredible company it is today, but he has done it with humanity, humour, love, and respect for all those he works with, be they his colleagues at Mercury Wheels and Live Nation, artists, agents, managers, tour managers, production crew, or the bar-person at the local 200-cap venue. His love of live music remains undimmed, and you only had to see him pogo-ing to Noah and the Loners at ILMC’s recent London Calling showcase to see that love manifested in all its glory!”

Anderson adds, “It would be remiss not to mention Barnaby’s wife and business partner, Elie Muñiz, without whom, as Barnaby regularly acknowledges, Mercury Wheels would not function. It has been an absolute pleasure working with and learning from them both for the last seven years, and I can’t wait to see Barnaby pogo-ing his way through another punk show in another 25 years’ time!”

“I love discovering new talent, so I’ve got a lot of time for anyone who is out there doing that”

Talking of which, The Pleasure Fuckers will be playing a one-off reunion gig at Azkena Rock Festival in Vitoria, this June, marking 25 years since Barnaby’s last show with the band.

On a professional level, another event Barnaby is looking forward to is Vida Festival in July. “I’ve booked all the international acts onto Vida since its inception back in 2014,” he says. “It’s a gorgeous boutique festival that takes place in the grounds of a country house, 40 mins south of Barcelona. There are two main stages and several smaller stages in the woods including the boat stage where we had Spanish megastar Rosalia play an unforgettable sunset slot when she was just starting out.”

Among the acts Barnaby has managed to secure for this year are headliners M.I.A, James Blake, and Vance Joy. “The philosophy of the festival is to create an amazing experience for the festivalgoer, from the food area under fairy lights in the woods, to the amazing main stages and the world renowned Wild Side Zone,” he says.

“The creative brain behind the festival is the energetic and charismatic Dani Poveda, supported by the ultra efficient Xavi Carbonell.”

With a move to Live Nation’s offices in Madrid imminent, Barnaby is also relishing the creative opportunities this will bring to the Mercury Wheels team. “We’re a very close team and that’s partly because we work in an open office, so I’m really looking forward to the symbiosis that the new arrangement will give us. I personally cannot wait to work closer with Robert Grima, Nacho Córdoba, Daniel López, Julio Ebrat, and Johanna Llorente, while I’m super-impressed with the work that César Andión is doing to develop young Spanish acts.

“I love discovering new talent, so I’ve got a lot of time for anyone who is out there doing that. Ultimately, I’m a punk at heart, so I still love doing the 200-cap shows in the sweaty clubs, and I get as much of a kick out of doing the small shows as I do the giant ones.”

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IQ 126, the latest issue of the international live music industry’s favourite magazine, is available to read online now.

The April/May edition goes behind the scenes of The 1975’s Still… At Their Very Best tour, examines the rapid rise of country music around the world, and explores the difficulties facing the mid-tier of the live music touring business.

Elsewhere, the issue marks Mercury Wheels co-founder Barnaby Harrod’s 25 years as a promoter, dives into Switzerland’s thriving industry, and reports on the 36th edition of ILMC.

For this edition’s comments and columns, Pembe Tokluhan shares the inspiration behind launching a company that strives to increase representation of women, trans, and non-binary people working behind the scenes of live events.

In addition, creative comms guru Ella McWilliam (Full Fat) monitors the rapidly changing media landscape and provides tips on how festivals can entice Gen Z to become ticket-buying customers.

As always, the majority of the magazine’s content will appear online in some form in the next four weeks.

However, if you can’t wait for your fix of essential live music industry features, opinion and analysis, click here to subscribe to IQ from just £8 a month – or check out what you’re missing out on with the limited preview below:

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Dua Lipa sold more than 15,000 tickets in a single morning yesterday (6 December) when the Spanish leg of her Future Nostalgia European arena tour went on sale, according to promoter Mercury Wheels.

The Spanish dates, beginning at the 15,500-capacity WiZink Center in Madrid on 26 April, mark the start of the tour, which will visit more than 20 European cities before wrapping up at 3Arena in Dublin on 19 June.

In addition to WiZink Center, Lipa (pictured) will play the Palau Sant Jordi (17,000-cap.) in Barcelona two days later, on 28 April.

A share of all proceeds from tickets sold will go to Unicef and the Sunny Hill Foundation, set up by Dua and her father Dugi in Kosovo.

The Lipas were the keynote interviewees at the inaugural Futures Forum at ILMC this March, where they spoke about the foundation, Dua’s career so far and using Dua’s platform to help her fans and other young women.

Dua Lipa: ‘Women have to work harder to be heard’

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