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Renowned consultant Ed Grossman passes, aged 73

Ed Grossman, a renowned tax consultant to international touring artists, has passed away at the age of 73.

The London-born veteran was due to start chemotherapy for lung cancer this week but passed away suddenly yesterday morning (30 May).

Grossman’s employer at Brackman Chopra chartered accountants, Sunil Chopra, told IQ that he is “devastated and in shock”.

The pair started working together 33 years ago when they launched the music tax department at MGR chartered accountants in 1989.

Chopra left MGR to start his current company and Grossman joined him in 2015, clocking in seven years as a consult before his death.

“He is my adopted father,” Chopra tells IQ. “I am what I am in the music industry because of him. He taught me everything. He was the kind of guy you could go to with any problems – business or personal. He was the most genuine person I have ever known.

“I am what I am in the music industry because of him”

“Even if you have an argument, that doesn’t mean he’s thinking ill of you.He’s just having an argument because he wants to put a point across because he believes that he’s helping. He always wanted to help the clients. He brought life to the office – it is very quiet now.”

Martin Hopewell, founder of the International Live Music Conference (ILMC), also paid tribute to Grossman: “The ILMC just lost one of it’s longest-standing and best-loved members: the conference’s #1 food critic, poser of the most challenging, left-field questions and lover of a quick nap during the annual ‘autopsy’ session. He will be massively missed – the place just won’t be the same without him.”

Lionel Martin, a former business partner of Grossman, added: “[Grossman] was difficult to live with and difficult to live without but life will definitely involve less laughter without him in it.”

Martin says he first met Grossman in 1971, when he joined an accountancy firm in Oxford Circus called Goodman Myers Smith.

“The firm acted for the Rolling Stones and many other artists in the music industry,” Martin tells IQ. “At that time the newly moneyed industry was struggling to ‘work out the rules’. There were few better than Eddie to sort out the financial mess bands were making for themselves and I guess he went some way to teaching me and others how to do that.”

The pair left the firm by the mid-’70s and started our own firm called Grant Martin Grossman. “We were quite anti-establishment and had a firm logo which was a picture of a bowler hat, umbrella and galoshes (what were we thinking of),” Martin tells IQ. “After a few years, we disbanded the firm and Eddie went to work for a firm called Mercers Bryant.”

“There were few better than Eddie to sort out the financial mess bands were making for themselves”

In 1980, Martin started his own firm, MGR (previously Martin Greene), and three years later invited Grossman to join the company.

“He immediately became an important partner, looking after bands like Madness, Thompson Twins etc,” Martin continues. “We delivered some excellent work to our artist clients for many years and Eddie was at the helm in many of those cases. In around 2003/2004 Eddie switched over to handing international touring work representing big US bands touring Europe.

“He was eccentric to say the least, his passion for and insistence upon perfect work often resulted in friction in relationships but people who had the patience and intelligence to ‘stay with him’ know they benefited in many ways from their relationship with him and will miss him greatly. There have been several professional advisers substantially involved in regularising a fast expanding and financially chaotic music industry and I would definitely include Eddie in that list.”

Elsewhere, Claudio Trotta of Barley Arts in Italy wrote on Facebook: “We had so many great times together. You were a great professional resource of live entertainment and such a funny, lovely and nice man. A great and unique character.”

Geoff Ellis of DF Concerts in Scotland added that the news of Grossman’s passing is “very sad”.

Ed Grossman is survived by his wife Penny Grossman and their daughter Beth.

 


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