Vale Phil Tripp

Digital pioneer dead at 75

Music industry publicist, former roadie, journalist and raconteur Phil Tripp, ‘the mouth from the south’ died in late February in a Coffs Harbour hospital, aged 75. Many industry identities paid tribute in the weeks since. He migrated from Georgia, USA in the early 1980s as a tour manager, and fast became a music industry guru.

Tripp was unique, and he did life his own way. I first met him when he publicised the first electronic mail service developed by International Management Communications which was introduced into Australia by David Mulholland. Subscribers accessed the system using a portable Radio Shack computer with a small liquid crystal display. Tripp was generous with his time explaining the setup to me.

His PR company IMMEDIA! established the Australasian Music Industry Directory in 1990 which for a decade was ‘the bible’ of contacts for everyone from record producers to musicians, venues and agents. Each six-monthly edition was larger than previous and Tripp would fax listing forms along with rules and anecdotes about how certain miscreants were blackballed.

The directory was a huge undertaking with a staff of half a dozen working from a Chippendale terrace, led by Tripp and his wife Lisa Treen (RIP). Several Dobermans were on the team, and eventually Tripp took on an exotic parrot called Jackson as his retirement buddy.

He was part of the music industry and at war with other parts of it; running exposes on the Australian Record Industry Association over record pricing, leading to government intervention.

IMMEDIA! ran press campaigns for the highest bidder, with Tripp often touted as a music industry commentator and guru – because he was. He knew the value of a dollar, especially someone else’s. He charged like a wounded steer.

In the early days of CX Magazine he was an invaluable ally, offering critiques and criticism which were always taken on board. His feuds were legendary. After a punch up during the Australian Made concert, he went on the blackest of blacklists maintained by Jands Production Services founder Eric Robinson (RIP), when Tripp reported the assailant (not Robinson) to the police.

“That punch up during Australian Made was at the Rockmans Regency with me”, tour manager Mark Pope told me recently. “Phil loved nothing better than poking the bear and he sure did that night!”

With the advent of digital, AMID wound down and was sold to a street press publisher at just the right time for Tripp to retire, but not before a PR stunt backfired when he reported an untruth about Glenn Wheatley, manager of John Farnham, who had just been released from serving jail time as a participant of the Project Wickenby tax fraud. The PR stunt went too far and drew condemnation from across the music industry, but true to form, Tripp was unrepentant.

Tripp was literally larger than life, and wore a Hawaiian shirt every day he lived. He established a Music Industry conference with ‘no free list, Julius’, always held at a music venue ‘on a contra deal’, and featuring his oversized presence on a huge throne like chair, centre stage. He was the Australian agent for South by Southwest, and was paid a fortune in commissions as he attracted hundreds of gullible musicians who paid through the nose to try for fortune in Austin.

I greatly admired Tripp and was slightly wary of him, watching how he made life hard for people he disliked. He taught me his famous legal strategy: “Joolius, here’s how you do it” he lectured when I called him in panic after being served with my first defamation writ. I’d screwed up a story about a music rag publisher called Noel Crabbe who thus had a reason to sue me. “Just send his lawyer a one sentence fax every few minutes. The guy will charge Crabbe a six minute block to read it, plus disbursements when he gets his bimbo to copy it”.

I followed his ‘system’ and have used it to this day to drive up costs against anyone sufficiently aggrieved against me to go legal. There were a few other tricks he taught me that I’d rather keep quiet. I really appreciated his wisdom, audacity and having lunch with him.

Tripp went too far protecting his beloved parrot Jackson from feral cats when he trapped and euthanised one, posting a picture on a Coffs Harbour Facebook page. Transpires the moggy was a beloved pet, and the PETA people called a fatwa on Tripp that ended with animal cruelty charges. He faced losing custody of Jackson, who survives him.

“I remember parking my van outside his office in Newtown and him trying move me on. His dogs had multiple daily personally addressed junk mail arrivals, as he’d submitted them as the residents of his house by name”, recalls sound guy Jim Voyager.

“The first day I met Phil back in the mid 80s he said he was going to die. Now some 40 years later he has gone and turned up his toes. Phil ever hopeful in those days for a sympathy screw and knowing that one day, surely his death would be imminent, never let the truth step aside for a good story. To this day the best advice Phil gave me (one I’ll take to my own grave) was ‘Cott, you gotta get the best lawyer, doctor, and accountant if you wanna live well’”, says former street press publisher Margaret Cott.

Band manager Rod Willis: “I recall sitting in a club lounge at Adelaide airport and noticed Phil come in. He sat down with me and we chatted wasting time before our flight to Sydney.”

“I don’t know why but I did ask if he was a member. He said no and produced a laminated card which if I recall, said something along the lines of member ‘International Travel Journalists Association’ I admired it and asked how long had he been a member. A smile took over Phil’s face as he replied, ‘amazing what you can do with a photo copier!’ Classic!”

Esteemed music journalist Christie Eliezer: “Trippy taught me how to laugh at idiots who tried to control the narrative by calling in their lawyers. It worked a treat the way it worked for you”.

Event supremo Simon Thewlis: “He was our publicist for the first two Australian Music Days.”

“When we did the big launch in the ballroom of the Sebel Townhouse, Phil convinced the Sebel to give us the room for free in return for leaving their logo on the lectern. I seem to remember that there was a song played on Triple J for a while back then – ‘Trippy Phil Tripp’. A young band had contacted Phil for advice.

Phil left a message on their answering machine giving the band the sort of very candid advice that only Phil could give. The band turned the answering machine recording into a song. It was very funny!”

Artist manager and former sound guy Mark Sydow: “(Tripp was) the ultimate hustler.

Claimed he’d got out of USA because he knew he wouldn’t survive many more coffee table coke races backstage when he was tour managing Rick James!”

Of late the guy lived large, ate well, spun his thousands of albums every day, and flipped his finger at a series of Coffs Harbour ‘political flunkies and wannabes’. We need more Tripps. Rest in peace, mate.

Enjoy more photos of Phil at philtripp.com/gallery