Pegi Cecconi was regarded considerably and vast in the songs sector as the ‘Queen of Almost everything.’Handout
Eleven years ago, the Canadian rock band Hurry was inducted into the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame at a star-studded ceremony in Los Angeles. Within the Nokia Theatre, at the table closest to the phase, sat Pegi Cecconi and the other executives of Toronto-primarily based SRO Management Inc. and Anthem Amusement Group, who experienced seemed following the band’s affairs because the 1970s. The night was a crowning achievement for all concerned.
To assist celebrate the situation, Hurry producer Nick Raskulinecz and Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins of Foo Fighters executed the colossal Rush music 2112 even though dressed in the notorious white kimono robes of Rush’s regrettable wardrobe previous. The seem of Ms. Cecconi’s cackle rose higher than the efficiency.
At the immediately after-party, Ms. Cecconi was continue to laughing. Hearing her, Mr. Grohl, a verified rock star, approached her. “It was you,” he claimed, miffed. “I heard your laugh all the way via the effectiveness.” To which she replied, “What did you anticipate? You have been sporting a kimono and you looked ridiculous.”
If Mr. Grohl was expecting embarrassment or contrition from Ms. Cecconi, he evidently did not know a issue about her.
“She did not apologize,” explained colleague Meg Symsyk. “In reality, she doubled down.”
Ms. Cecconi, the loyal, domineering, Nicorette-chewing and iconically cackling vice-president of SRO/Anthem, died on March 28. She experienced from a neurological affliction called progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), and chose a medically assisted loss of life. She was 70.
The native of South Porcupine, Ont., was a meticulous dealmaker with a mama bear’s perception of protectionism when it arrived to the artists she represented and fought for. A songs publishing pro, she plowed by 80-website page organization contracts like they had been Harlequin Romance novels, and inspected artist royalty statements forensically.
As for her savvy at negotiations, if one particular gave her an inch, she would gladly acquire it if just one did not give her the inch, she pushed until finally she got it.
“She was the sort of human being who didn’t mince terms and didn’t endure fools, and so evidently oozed integrity,” claimed former Billboard journal government editor Bill Werde. “So, if she took a glow to you, it was validating.”
The audacious dynamo was acknowledged far and broad in the tunes field as the “Queen of Every thing,” with an additional expletive right before “everything.” The self-appointed title was on her organization card.
“She was fearless in each and every capacity, and she experienced the most significant heart you could consider,” stated Ray Danniels, the extended-time manager for Hurry and the president and chief government officer of SRO/Anthem. He hired her in 1973.
While frequently related with Hurry, Ms. Cecconi also worked with Max Webster, Steven Webpage, Ian Thomas, Lawrence Gowan, Tea Party and additional.
In addition to her prolonged stint with SRO and its recording label arm Anthem, Ms. Cecconi served on the board of administrators of sector organizations which includes the Canadian Impartial Music Affiliation (CIMA), the Canadian Musical Replica Rights Agency (CMRRA) and the Foundation Aiding Canadian Expertise on Recordings (Component).
“I was usually concerned in boards, and my philosophy is artists very first,” she explained in 2021. “It does not issue, the relaxation of us. With no a tune or devoid of a overall performance, we obtained absolutely nothing.”
From still left to suitable, Alex Lifeson, Scott McFadyen, Sam Dunn, Pegi Cecconi, John Virant, and Geddy Lee go to the Rush: Outside of The Lighted Stage premiere through the 9th Yearly Tribeca Film Festival at the School of Visual Arts Theater on April 24, 2010, in New York City.Brian Killian/Getty Visuals
She also served on the board of the U.S.-primarily based Expert Association of Licensed New music Merchandisers. When she commenced her occupation, the merchandising of artist T-shirts and posters was the Wild West sector of the marketplace, significantly abroad.
“The bootleg merchandisers in the United Kingdom have been notorious and violently protective of their turf,” said Hurry guitarist Alex Lifeson. “Peg fulfilled a group of them in a pub and drank every single a person of them beneath the table. Right after that a deal was designed and there was a newfound respect for her from these fellas.”
On the individual facet, Ms. Cecconi was an acerbic quipster in the design of television’s Choose Judy, of whom she was a devoted supporter. She was not substantially for the slopes, but was an après-ski enthusiast. For enterprise as perfectly as satisfaction, she was a world traveller who gobbled up repeated flyer factors as if they had been Tic Tacs.
Late in Ms. Cecconi’s vocation, the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences honoured her with the Walt Grealis Distinctive Achievement Award, supplied annually at the Juno Awards ceremony for contributions to the expansion of the Canadian audio field.
She is 1 of only four females who has been granted that recognition in the 40-yr background of the award. A trailblazing existence in a male-dominated sector, Ms. Cecconi the moment quipped, “Feminists believe in equality. I do not. Girls are improved.”
She mentored women generously, but desired to be around the fellas. They were the kinds making the discounts.
“Peg had an innate potential to be tricky when negotiating with men, and still they continue to wished to go out and have a drink with her just after,” claimed Ms. Symsyk, a former SRO/Anthem government and recent president and CEO of Variable mentored by Ms. Cecconi. “She fought them but created them chuckle, and brought about them to cave.”
Base line, claims Ms. Symsyk: “She obtained business finished.”
By all accounts, the tavern owner’s daughter was a tricky cookie and could make a level with a aptitude for the extraordinary. When Accurate North Records’ Bernie Finkelstein poached her assistant for a greater posture with his label, Ms. Cecconi despatched a dead fish to his office environment, à la The Godfather.
“She was difficult, but it was performed in terrific humour,” Mr. Finkelstein reported. “I considered it was wonderful. That was Pegi.”
In her very last days, she fulfilled with mates, together with Geddy Lee and Mr. Lifeson of Hurry.
“She experienced been a portion of our crew and our family without end,” said Mr. Lifeson. “We were being allotted an hour with her, but she granted us an more 15 minutes. Right after 75 minutes, she quickly mentioned, ‘Now, get out of listed here.’ We acquired up and left. That’s the way she was.”
Margaret Anne Cecconi was the fourth boy or girl of 5 born to Tony Cecconi and Cora Cecconi (née Amadio) in the Northern Ontario gold-mining town of South Porcupine, on Jan. 10, 1954. The spot was so tiny that Ms. Cecconi was South Porcupine’s New Year’s child nine times right after the point.
Her father and his brother owned the Empress Tavern, designed by their Italian immigrant moms and dads who arrived to Canada by means of Halifax, landing in the early 1900s with almost nothing additional than a cedar upper body and $50.
As a tyke, Ms. Cecconi was rambunctious. Her father called her “Tiger,” and her mom dressed her in a crimson snowsuit so the little one could very easily be discovered when she collapsed fatigued in a snowbank.
At Roland Michener Secondary School, as what was termed a “social convener” at the time, she hired bands for university dances. A person of the reserving agents who termed was Mr. Danniels, who pitched the fledgling rock trio Rush as leisure. The teenaged Ms. Cecconi turned the give down, reasoning that for the exact same selling price he was charging for Hurry she could retain the services of a four-piece band rather.
“That was the early indicator that this kid was nobody’s idiot,” Mr. Danniels mentioned. “Whatever she could put on her facet of the equation when it arrived to the negotiation, she was really capable of carrying out.”
Right after high faculty, in 1972 she thumbed her way to Toronto and uncovered get the job done at the talent booking company Strategy 376. In her text, “I experienced to dress like a hooker to get hired for the work.”
She identified achievements speedily. As a rookie booking agent, she was paid $60 a 7 days. With fee, even so, she was getting in six periods that substantially.
When Ms. Cecconi to start with applied for a task at SRO Administration, Mr. Danniels didn’t have a placement for her. But soon after using be aware of her get the job done at Idea 376 for a yr, he created a position for her at SRO. “I considered, ‘I gotta get this kid.’ She was a pressure of mother nature that I had not noticed right before.”
In accordance to Sheila Posner, a bookkeeper at SRO/Anthem, Ms. Cecconi was activity for everything, which include joining her at a Female Guide outing. “I invited Pegi to Camp Ma-Kee-Wa, and the ladies cherished her for the reason that she swore like a trucker,” Ms. Posner recalled.
At SRO/Anthem she rose by the ranks to come to be VP company affairs and Mr. Danniels’s correct-hand female. She appreciated a stage of autonomy – her mandate was to do what she desired, as extensive as it built funds.
One particular of her career highlights was the 1981 comedy album The Great White North by Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas (in character as SCTV’s beer-consuming hosers, the brothers Bob and Doug McKenzie). The low-finances album she spearheaded manufactured a Canadian cultural splash, gained a Juno Award, marketed around one particular million copies in North America and gained a Grammy nomination.
She won her have Juno awards as an govt producer for the Rush live performance DVDs Hurry In Rio and Beyond the Lighted Phase, and was particularly protective of Rush’s brand when it arrived to licensing discounts. “Pegi was the individual to pitch to,” Ms. Symsyk said. “Only if you got previous her did any proposal make it to Ray and the band.”
There was a sure appeal to her brusque method. “I would be updating her on the phone and she would get started yelling, ‘My ears are getting way too sizzling,’ and she would just cling up,” Ms. Symsyk reported.
Shut pal Cindy Zaplachinski was a youthful organization affairs person with Polygram when she initial encountered Ms. Cecconi. “Because I was on the label aspect, we have been purely natural enemies. We were owning intense negotiations around the cell phone, and she hung up on me far more than the moment. But then she instantly referred to as back again, and we produced options for supper.”
A two-time cancer survivor, Ms. Cecconi faced her ailments with grit and perseverance. At the once-a-year Midem music festival and boozy field shindig in Cannes, France, she informed Billboard’s Mr. Werde she experienced most cancers. “I cried a bit,” he recalled. “But then she reported, ‘Don’t you dare not have a pleasurable evening.’”
She was identified with PSP in 2022. Ms. Cecconi is survived by daughters, Toni Wales and Kate Wales sister, Elaine (Beatle) Cecconi and brother, Jack Cecconi. She is predeceased by her spouse, Doug Wales.
There will be non-public gatherings of buddies and loved ones, as for every Ms. Cecconi’s specific wishes, at the Purple Barn, Cambridge, Ont. the Arctic Watershed, around Timmins, Ont. and Badalucco, Italy. “As always,” reported her sister, “Pegi has the very last term.”
You can come across far more obituaries from The Globe and Mail right here.
Editor’s be aware: Hurry producer Nick Raskulinecz – not Pat Smear of Foo Fighters – carried out the tune 2112 with Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins when Hurry was inducted into the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame. This model has been corrected.