Brief History of Blue Tongue Management

The Lizard came from my childhood when I saved one of the creatures from a grass fire in suburban Adelaide. The Blue Tongue Lizard became embedded into my psyche and what ever direction my life was to take the Blue Tongue was there to stay.

I traveled my youth across Australia in its entirety from 1985 to 1995 gaining invaluable experience from this countries multitude of cultures, it's infinite events and festivals.

An opportunity presented itself in Lightning Ridge, the black opal capital of the world, to help create and co ordinate a three day multi cultural music and arts festival that portrayed the regions indigenous and ethnic transcultural values. Into the deep end I jumped.

I had absorbed concepts from Australia's many events but none more than The Byron Bay Music, Art and Film Festivals that ran in the early '90'S which I spent three seasons engulfed by  these events.

Mixing ideals from the various events I attended over the years with that which the people of Lightning Ridge had brought to the table a new event was created 'A Vivid Splash Of Colour' and 8 months later the circus came to town. Featuring bands and performers from the local region and across the country from many backgrounds, cultures and genre we broadcast the event via Com Rad Sat to the world of Community Radio.

And so in 1996 Blue Tongue Management was officially established for

Carnivale Lightning Ridge 'A Vivid Splash Of Colour'.

My business moved to Brisbane and continued with events including The Brisbane Bicycle Grand Prix on South Bank, the Marbourgh October Fest and I expanded into band management and tour logistics.

Late '99 I relocated to Sydney where, after a short contract with Carlton United Brewery during the 2000 Olympiad, Blue Tongue Management evolved into a national events, music management and tour logistics operation for the famous and the not so famous entertainers. This included some very exciting youth artists and a five year contract managing the business of The Original Angels Band (The Angels without Doc Neeson).  Blue Tongue Management oversaw all aspects of the bands rise that included national tour booking, budgets, logistics, business relationships, marketing and promotion, (Until Catherine Swinton came on board for publicity), web design and national tour management for 400+ shows.

Proudly, Catherine Swinton of Catalyst Public Relations and myself, together with the band did what the music industry said would never happen. We turned The Original Angels Band into a national success and paved the way for The Angels to reform in 2008.

Some of the Artists Blue Tongue Management has proudly worked alongside over the years

Ian Moss . Adrian Belew . Don Walker . The Screaming Jets . The Butterfly Effect

The Radiators . Rose Tattoo . Kevin Borich . Lucius Borich . The Backsliders

Phil Emmanuel . Red River . Phycho Zydeco . The Bondi Cigars . Chris E Thomas

GangAwry . Lil Fi & The Delta Rhythm Kings . Borne . Shadow Thieves

Enacio . The Brewster Brothers . Sam Joole . BB Steal . Battle Cat

Ghost Road . Darren Jack . Mitch Grainger . Kara Grainger

Blue Tongue Management - Darrel Baird - 0422 973 185