EXCLUSIVE: Read An Extract From Aus Music Industry Legend's New Book

Chapter 26 - Giving

IN 1976, the music industry worldwide was doing very well and nowhere was doing better than London. Sales of vinyl and cassettes were still increasing, and promoters were seeking ever larger concert spaces to accommodate ever bigger audiences. It was time for some new adventures.

In this vein, musicians and managers across the industry in the United Kingdom formed the Silver Clef, which started off as a lunch club and became a major charity. It presented its first award for outstanding achievement in music to The Who. Silver Clef’s second objective was to raise money for children’s charities, of which Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy was the first and continues to be a major beneficiary.

Two expat Australian music publishers who were aware of the Silver Clef decided to adopt the idea for Sydney, and so in 1979 the Golden Stave was born and the first funds were raised. Throughout the 1980s, what became known as “the longest lunch of the year” thrived, earning increasing amounts from annual ticket sales and an auction, but by 1990 the organising committee felt that the Stave needed greater flexibility and transparency, and it was decided to set up a trust called the Golden Stave Foundation. Its objectives would be to provide funds to tax-deductible gift recipients whose aims were to help people, children in particular, with physical, mental and emotional problems. 

I first became involved at the 1988 lunch when I was asked to supervise the money collected from the raffles, auctions and donations, which I did in a draughty corridor at the back of the Four Seasons Hotel, assisted by a great bunch of wheelchair-bound men from Paraquad, for whom we were fundraising. In 1990, I was asked by the new trustees, of whom Barry Chapman was the chairman, to sort out the trust deed and get the endorsement of the Charities Commission which would lead to the necessary exemptions from tax. I was then appointed secretary to the trust, responsible for the accounting records and preparation of financial statements. Jean was by now familiar with MYOB and she kept the books for the next ten years. At each event Ron Welsh and Tim Denny from APRA helped me to collect and count the money raised before a Brinks armoured van arrived to pick it up.

During that decade support for the Golden Stave and its income grew, but each year the net amount distributable was limited to between three hundred and four hundred thousand dollars because we could only cater for about five hundred people at the fundraiser. So in 1998 we moved it to the Sydney Entertainment Centre, wined and dined one thousand guests – and raised and distributed five hundred and fifty-five thousand dollars. For several years afterwards the event continued to grow and the funds kept pouring in, but more recently, no doubt coinciding with the contraction of the traditional music industry, the proceeds from the lunch have greatly diminished.

I left the Golden Stave around the year 2000, but it had been a great experience – and it led me on to Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy. 

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This is an extract from Nick Of Time: My Life And Career, All On The Record by Nick Hampton (Origin, RRP $29.95), which is out October 1; head here for more info and details on a pre-release offer available that includes a donation from each direct sale of the book to Support Act.