UK - We are sad to announce the death of Mick McManus, who has died at the age of 73. Although he left the sound and lighting industry many years ago, Mick was among the founding fathers of what became known as the disco industry, during his time as a director of pyro and effects giants, Le Maitre.
Jerry Gilbert writes, “An outrageous, larger than life character Mick generally kept the first generation of disco troops upbeat with his non-stop volley of jokes.
Like so many, Mick started as a DJ with Roger Squire’s agency, where he was booked out as ‘Barry Martin’ to avoid confusion with the popular wrestler of the same name. He first came into contact with sound and light manufacturers during his time at Wing Disco Centre in Bromley, the popular retailer.
He also ran Croydon-based Tulip Music with his colleague and lifelong friend Rick Wilson. In 1977 Wilson started Le Maitre with Martin Blake and soon McManus entered the fold. “We started getting more professional and eventually it came to a showdown,” remembers Wilson. “I threatened to leave if Mick wasn’t offered a partnership.”
Mick’s easy charm helped Le Maitre develop export markets for its various portfolios, and as a consummate entertainer, he made a massive impression wherever he went around the world.
My first memory was when he sashayed into the Bloomsbury Crest Hotel on the opening day of the BADEM show in 1980 as part of Rick and Maxine Wilson’s wedding party clad in top hat and tails, Mick being best man. I was running the adjacent stand and when we learned we would be virtual guests at what was essentially a wedding reception, our faces were a picture.
If during its Wild West days the disco industry was a farrago of the louche and lush - then Mick was at the head of the pack. It astonished many people when he suddenly announced he was leaving the industry to enter the world of landscape gardening. Everyone thought he was joking but he was for real (although he never truly let it go).
Not for nothing were Rick and Mick known as the dangerous brothers. On one memorable, side-splitting 45-minute car ride from Bologna Airport to the SIB Show in Rimini around 1985 I swear I have never ached so much as they riffed off each other ... the animals that burst through my rib cage.
The industry, I am certain, will line up to pay tribute to a man who managed to combine consummate professionalism with high octane entertainment during disco’s earliest days and beyond.”
Those who knew Mick and who wish to attend his funeral are invited to do so. Details of the service are:
Friday 19th July 2024 at 12pm
St Edmund's Church, 20 Village Way, Beckenham, Kent, BR3 3NP
A website dedicated to his memory and fundraising for the British Heart Foundation can be found here: https://michaeljohn-mcmanus.muchloved.com/
