Power 50 - #32: Damian Costin

While the 123 Agency is regularly kept busy throughout the year repping many tours (it turns five in 2018), there is one artist that would have kept Director Damian Costin and the 123 Agency team working a capacity throughout the entire past 12 months: Tash Sultana.

Her meteoric rise has continued unabated. She starred at Laneway 2017, Groovin The Moo and pretty much every other festival of the year, did her own series of sold out shows in April (including five full houses at 170 Russell in Melbourne and three at the Metro in Sydney), then had a massive homecoming tour at the end of the year, which included breaking the attendance record for Margaret Court Arena in Melbourne. And that’s just in Australia, not to mention the overseas success she’s had.

But it wasn’t all about Sultana, Costin’s whole roster shone throughout the year in their own ways. The Pierce Brothers not only did their regular endless run of shows, but also notched up successful UK and Europe festival appearances in front of tens of thousands of punters.

Ocean Alley went on their biggest Australian tour to date (selling out shows along the way), Gold Class had a successful album launch tour and Kingswood seemingly never left the road off the back of their After Hours album release. There were plenty of new additions to the 123 roster throughout 2017, including highly fancied acts such as Dear Seattle, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, Wharves, IV League and hardcore act Bare Bones who just proved themselves to be a stadium-ready force on the Rise Against tour.

Costin also expanded beyond 123 Agency, joining with entertainment lawyer Lilit Chakman to be a Co-Executive Director with her of Creative Entertainment Agency, procuring celebrity talent for events, activations or campaigns. And, maybe, the most exciting industry movement for Costin saw him reunite with former Motor Ace bandmate Patrick Robertson and play their debut live gig with new musical project Nighthawk, the first time the two had performed together in over a decade.