The Power 50: Gregg Donovan & Stuart MacQueen

Stuart MacQueen was a music journalist, band manager, and studio and audio engineer in the early ‘90s before joining Krell Records as General Manager. In 2000, MacQueen joined Shock Records as Director of A&R. MacQueen has been a board member for AIR (Australian Independent Record Labels Association) and is a Director for the Robert Stigwood Fellowship program. 

Gregg Donovan spent several years working as a promoter before hitting the road with acts like The Beastie Boys, Muse, The Happy Mondays and more as a tour manager and promoter rep. In 2001, he launched artist management company Step2 Artist Management. He was a founding member of Association of Artist Managers (AAM) and has served on the board for MusicNSW. MacQueen and Donovan joined forces in 2007, with Step2 Artist Management becoming Wonderlick Entertainment.

Wonderlick’s involvement across management, label and publishing certainly kept Gregg Donovan and Stuart MacQueen busy throughout 2019. 

Successes for the year included Holy Holy’s album My Own Pool Of Light which picked up an ARIA Award nomination for Best Rock Album, was nominated for triple j’s Album Of The Year, had two singles feature on the Hottest 100 (Teach Me About Dying at #50 and Maybe You Know at #61), and hit Gold for their track True Lovers (it's since gone Platinum in 2020). Amy Shark picked up the APRA Award for Song Of The Year with I Said Hi, as well as scoring four ARIA Award nominations, completed a huge Australian tour, went Platinum on her 2018 breakthrough album Love Monster, and collaborated with artists like The Chainsmokers and Ed Sheeran.

Boy & Bear made their return after an extended hiatus due to illness, leading to an ARIA Albums Chart top 10 debut with Suck On Light and a triple j Feature Album spot, while Airbourne released their album Boneshaker, debuting within the top 20 on the ARIA Albums Chart. 

Montaigne announced in December she would be vying to represent Australia at Eurovision (claiming the spot following Eurovision - Australia Decides in February) as well as releasing her second album, while Grinspoon sold out their Chemical Hearts tour, Clews were selected as a BBC Next Wave artist and Jess Day joined the Wonderlick roster.

"To see the successful return of Boy & Bear after the incredibly challenging health problems Dave has faced is something that has been quite special for all of us at Wonderlick, and of course the continuing Amy Shark juggernaut is a constant source of pride for our company." - SM

"I was really proud to see Grinspoon go out on the road and do their biggest tour ever after all these years. Seeing them sell out venues like the Hordern Pavilion and Newcastle Entertainment Centre was a real pleasure. I feel honoured to work with all the artists we do." - GM