Avildsen was the original director for both Serpico ( 1973 ) and Saturday Night Fever ( 1977 ), but was fired over disputes with producers Martin Bregman and Robert Stigwood, respectively.

* February 24 – The Bee Gees sign a management contract with Robert Stigwood.

In 1968, they recorded " First of May " with lead vocals by Barry, The flip side of the song was " Lamplight " on which Robin Gibb sang the lead, Bee Gees manager Robert Stigwood chose " First of May " to be the A-side, No other songs released on the album Odessa, and Robin quit the group.

Baverstock also found the group an agent, John Gunnel, who had previously worked with the entertainment entrepreneur Robert Stigwood.

In 1971 Elliman moved to New York City for the Broadway production of Jesus Christ, Superstar, where she met her first husband, Bill Oakes, who worked with Robert Stigwood as President of RSO Records.

Stigwood asked Leyton if he could also sing, leading to a series of auditions with various recording companies ; he was turned down by all of their A & R representatives, but Joe Meek, unfazed by Leyton's initial lack of singing experience, was impressed by the young actor's good looks.

Stigwood was evidently becoming dissatified with Meek's eccentric recording style and insisted that " Lonely City " be recorded at a commercial studio.

According to Tony Kent ( Meek's personal assistant at the time ), the session took place at London's IBC studios ; largely at Meek's suggestion, and at which Meek was present but with Stigwood assuming the rôle of dominant co-producer.

In late 1961 Stigwood had made a record production deal with Sir Joseph Lockwood, managing director of EMI, who proved to be the crucial link between the record company and the budding entrepreneur, just as Lockwood had been in the 1950s for Larry Parnes, and just as he would be a couple of years later for Brian Epstein and The Beatles.

Other artists Stigwood signed to a management / recording deal included Mike Sarne, whose Meek-produced " Come Outside " charted in 1962, and another Meek protégé, Mike Berry, who had scored a hit with the Geoff Goddard-penned " Tribute To Buddy Holly ".

He loved its trickery and tease, and the apparent ease with which money could be made ... And what made Robert Stigwood different from his predecessors is that he expanded laterally.

1 ) and Stigwood had to negotiate with the band to get them back as part of the package.

Not surprisingly, Arden took exception to this, and in spite of the fact that Stigwood had never met the group personally, Arden decided to pay him a visit with some of his minders, to teach him a lesson:

The band recorded for Columbia ( the EMI label ) and the French Barclay Records, with one of its first releases being co-produced by Stigwood and Vicki Wickham.

He maintained a connection with Stigwood, performing in the London productions of Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar and Grease, and he played the sadistic Cousin Kevin in Stigwood's film version of The Who's Tommy.

Stigwood signed a much more advantageous deal with Polydor, with high percentages and substantial funding for his recording costs.

On 13 January 1967 Stigwood signed a deal with his friend and colleague Brian Epstein to merge their two companies.

He was keen to reduce his involvement in NEMS Enterprises, the company he had founded in 1963, so he decided to strike a deal with Stigwood.

Why Epstein decided to merge with Stigwood is uncertain.

There had been numerous other offers made for NEMS over the previous couple of years and Epstein is reported to have turned down more than one multi-million-dollar offer from American interests, so it is unlikely that he chose to become a partner with Stigwood simply for financial reasons.

Gunby says that Epstein told Derek Taylor that the merger with Stigwood would bring new talent into the fold and would strengthen the operation.

" Epstein himself soon found himself at odds with his new partner — he was reportedly unhappy about Stigwood's spending, was upset by Stigwood renting a yacht for The Bee Gees, and was also angered by Stigwood's unilateral decision to send Alastair Taylor to America on a business trip, a plan Epstein overruled.

Stigwood had just begun his eleven-month perio with NEMS, and the boys ' father Hugh Gibb had already sent an LP and acetates of their demo recordings to Stigwood in an effort to sign the group to NEMS.

However, during this period Stigwood had another pop flop when he tried to promote a singer called ' Oscar '.

Stigwood wanted to remove dialogue scenes to include more music, so that the soundtrack could be expanded to a double album, but director Allan Moyle refused to make the cuts, so Stigwood fired Moyle ( who didn't make another film for ten years ) and made the cuts himself.

Stigwood wanted the film to be another Saturday Night Fever and insisted that the soundtrack be a double album to make the film more commercially viable.

Freddie Gershon was an entertainment attorney, lecturer in entertainment law, published author of Sweetie, Baby, Cookie, Honey, a hugely successful roman a clef novel about the music industry of 1960s thru 1980s, and former COO of the Stigwood Group of companies and current co-owner ( with Sir Cameron Mackintosh ) of and CEO Chairman of Music Theatre International, largest secondary rights of dramatic performing rights organizations in the world.

British acts had conventionally covered US hits after they had become successful there, but Stigwood began making regular trips to America to find new releases he thought had potential, and then rushing out UK covers by his acts before the originals hit the American charts.

Stigwood became extremely successful because of his control over all almost every facet of the business of his recording artists — agency, management, production, publishing and concert promotion.

For a few years Stigwood was highly successful, but according to Napier-Bell, he lived extravagantly.

Later Stigwood produced stage versions of his other successful film musicals, Saturday Night Fever and Grease.

Happily Clapton eventually kicked his habit, and Stigwood took him back to Miami, where he recorded his very successful ' comeback ' album 461 Ocean Boulevard ( 1974 ), which included his US # 1 hit version of Bob Marley's " I Shot The Sheriff ".

Grease 2 was produced by Allan Carr and Robert Stigwood, and directed and choreographed by Patricia Birch, who also choreographed the first film.

The film was eventually produced by R & R Films, a production company owned by Robert Stigwood and media proprietor Rupert Murdoch.

The same year, he had a cameo as Edna in the Robert Stigwood musical film Sgt.

Stigwood moved into film and TV production in the early 1970s.

With his music ventures in the doldrums, Stigwood expanded into film production in the early 1970s with great success.

Soon after Grease, Stigwood made one of the biggest miscalculations of his career with the musical film extravaganza Sgt.

Other notable films produced by Stigwood include The Fan ( 1980 ), Grease 2, Peter Weir's well received Gallipoli ( 1981 ), produced under the R & R Films banner, and the 1997 Golden Globe Awards best film winner, Evita, starring Madonna.

Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles ( 1978 ) Released in conjunction with the Robert Stigwood film production by that name.

Demi Moore and Bruce Willis purchased the apartment in 1987 from Robert Stigwood, a noted music and film producer.

The term " Velvet Mafia " was first used in an article in the " Top of the Pop " column in the entertainment section of the Sunday New York Daily News in the 1970s by journalist Steven Gaines to describe the executives at the Robert Stigwood Organization, a British film and record company.

The film was produced by Robert Stigwood, founder of RSO Records, who had earlier produced Saturday Night Fever.

Edwards had never written a script for a film, but had impressed Stigwood with musical analysis he'd written for The New York Times.

In 1971, Gershon became counsel to The Robert Stigwood Group Ltd. and represented them on landmark concert tours, including the Broadway production and film Jesus Christ Superstar as well as Blind Faith, Derek & the Dominoes, Eric Clapton, The Bee Gees and the financing of Tommy the film.