Steve O'Rourke (1 October 1940 – October 30, 2003) became the manager of the influential British rock band Pink Floyd after the departure of Syd Barrett in 1968. O'Rourke remained manager of the band until his death, negotiating the band's split with bass player and song-writer Roger Waters.
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Life and Pink Floyd manager [link]
O'Rourke's father, Tommy O'Rourke, was a fisherman on the Aran Islands off the West of Ireland. He travelled to London for the premiere of the Robert Flaherty documentary film, Man of Aran, in which he appeared as a shark hunter. He settled in London, where Steve O'Rourke was born in the suburb of Willesden.[1]
O'Rourke trained as an accountant and went to work with Bryan Morrison Agency, which became a part of NEMS Enterprises, as a junior agent and book keeper.[1] Initially O'Rourke booked gigs for Pink Floyd, while the band was managed Peter Jenner and Andrew King. When Pink Floyd parted company with Syd Barrett in 1968, King and Jenner remained with Barrett, and O'Rourke took over managing the band.[1] In the early 1970s, O'Rourke left NEMS, and founded his own company, EMKA Productions, named after his first daughter Emma Kate. (O'Rourke subsequently fathered another daughter and three sons).[1]
During post-production of the film Pink Floyd—The Wall, he received a phone call in the office of Alan Parker, the film director. It was Roger Waters, telling him to meet him. On the way out, O'Rourke failed to see the closed glass doors, which he shattered. He was badly cut and concussed. When he opened his eyes, he saw Alan Parker's secretary Angie picking glass out of his face. He ended up marrying her. This was his second marriage, as he previously eloped with a lady simply named "Linda". Linda stood by both Steve and the band through their formative years. She has two daughters and a son (all with Steve), lives in Surrey, and is a therapist. He was a trustee of The Music Sound Foundation and of Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy.
O'Rourke suffered a stroke and died in Miami, Florida, USA, in 2003. His funeral service was held on 14 November 2003 at Chichester Cathedral in Sussex, England, where, as a tribute, Pink Floyd members David Gilmour, Richard Wright and Nick Mason performed together in public for the first time since October 1994. They played "Fat Old Sun" and "The Great Gig in the Sky", with Dick Parry playing the saxophone as he followed the coffin.
David Gilmour's 2006 solo album On an Island was dedicated to O'Rourke's memory (as well as memories of tour manager Tony Howard and arranger/orchestrator Michael Kamen). Nick Mason's book Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd was also dedicated to O'Rourke.
Racing career [link]
O'Rourke also built a highly successful parallel career as an enthusiastic gentleman racing driver - a lifelong passion which he shared with the Floyd's drummer Nick Mason and, to a lesser extent, with David Gilmour. He adored Historic racing with cars of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.
His ambition to compete at the Le Mans 24 Hours was realised in 1979 when he finished a creditable 12th in his Ferrari 512 BB. He returned to Le Mans in 1980, but after a tire exploded at nearly 200 mph (320 km/h) on the Mulsanne Straight, O'Rourke bought the spare tail of a retired sister Ferrari in the pit lane in order to finish. His car completed the race wearing green forward bodywork and a red tail.
In 1981 he founded EMKA Racing and began competition in a BMW M1 with Derek Bell. For Le Mans he was joined by David Hobbs and Eddie Jordan. O'Rourke left the circuit on the night of the race to oversee a Pink Floyd concert in London, then flew back the next morning and jumped straight into the car for another two-hour driving stint.
His team later became supported by Aston Martin and he assisted in the construction of a Group C sportscar for Le Mans in 1983. The car saw success by 1985, when it briefly led the 24-Hours in the hands of co-driver Tiff Needell and finished ahead of the works-backed Jaguars, to O'Rourke's great amusement. However, the team briefly folded as Aston Martin left the project.
In 1991 he and David Gilmour co-drove a Jaguar C-Type in the PanAmerican retro race through Mexico, surviving a dramatic crash with only a broken leg. The events were covered in La Carrera Panamericana—a film about the race, which included a soundtrack of previously released tracks and new tracks from Pink Floyd.
In 1991 he resurrected EMKA Racing and begin varied participation in the British GT Championship, BPR Global GT Series, and FIA GT Championship. He earned the British GT GT2 class drivers championship with co-driver Tim Sugden in 1997, then again in the GT1 class in 1998. However O'Rourke greatest racing success came while co-driving a second-hand McLaren F1 GTR at Le Mans with Tim Sugden and Bill Auberlen to finish fourth overall. Having saved money by refusing the costly update pack for the McLaren, O'Rourke typically spent as much again on a huge party for all concerned in the EMKA team's success.
From 2000 O'Rourke concentrated on the FIA GT Championship driving a until he was forced to retire from driving for health reasons; he then presided over the drivers Tim Sugden, Martin Short, and factory Porsche driver Emmanuel Collard as they won at Pergusa and Anderstorp. Porsche responded by offering racing assistance to the EMKA factory for the 2004 season, to the delight of O'Rourke.
O'Rourke's death soon after the end of the 2003 season led to EMKA Racing folding.
Other artists [link]
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Other artists managed by O'Rourke include
Footnotes [link]
- ^ a b c d "Steve O'Rourke obituary". Telegraph.co.uk. 5 November 2003. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1445913/Steve-ORourke.html. Retrieved 24 February 2012.
External links [link]
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Steve-O
Stephen Gilchrist Glover (born June 13, 1974), better known by his stage name Steve-O, is a British-born American stunt performer, comedian, clown, actor, producer, author, and television personality. His entertainment career is mostly centered on his performance stunts on the American TV series Jackass, its related movies, and its spin-off series Wildboyz.
Steve-O is known for his eccentric character. He has a number of tattoos, which he refers to as "dumb tattoos", including a "Your Name" written on his right buttock (in order to say "I got your name tattooed on my ass") and arguably his most memorable, a self-portrait which covers half of his back and sports the words "yeah dude, I rock!".
Early life
Steve-O was born in London, England. His mother, Donna Gay (née Wauthier), was Canadian, and his father, Richard Glover, was American. His paternal grandfather was English and his maternal step-grandfather was voice-over announcer Wayne Howell. His family was based in England for many years due to his father's presidency of the South American division of Pepsi-Cola. Childhood residencies include Canada, Brazil and Venezuela. He also lived in Darien, Connecticut, at the age of four, then Miami two years later. At age nine his family returned to London where Steve-O attended the American School in London in St. John's Wood for four years. Growing up, he was an avid Mötley Crüe fan. In 1987, Mötley Crüe was playing at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto where his family was living in at the time. He phoned every hotel within and outside the vicinity until he found the name that the band usually checked in under, manager Doc McGhee. He did not speak to Doc, but rather his brother Scott, but McGhee was so impressed with the resolve of Steve-O to meet Mötley Crüe that he brought him out for their show, let him meet them, and hang with them backstage, as told in Tommy Lee's autobiography.
Stevo
Stevo may refer to:
See also
9524 O'Rourke
9524 O'Rourke, provisionally designated 1981 EJ5, is a main-belt asteroid. It was discovered by Schelte J. Bus at the Siding Spring Observatory near Coonabarabran, New South Wales, Australia, on March 2, 1981.
It is named after Laurence O'Rourke, a researcher at the European Space Astronomy Centre in Madrid and SGS operations coordinator of the Rosetta mission.
See also
References
External links
O'Rourke
The O'Rourkes were the historic rulers of Breifne and later West Breifne until the 17th century.
O'Rourke may refer to several different people:
People
List of Major League Baseball players with unidentified given names
Forty-one individuals who played professional baseball at the major league level lack identified given names. Identification of players remains difficult due to a lack of information; a Brooklyn, New York directory, for instance, lists more than 30 men that could be the professional player "Stoddard". Possible mistakes in reading box scores from the 19th century could have also led to players without given names: "Eland", for example, could be another player from the Baltimore Marylands roster whose name was simply misread. Four of the 41, McBride, Stafford, Sterling, and Sweigert, were local players added to the Philadelphia Athletics team by manager Bill Sharsig for Philadelphia's last game of the season against the Syracuse Stars on October 12, 1890. Sterling pitched five innings for the Athletics and conceded 12 runs. McBride, Philadelphia's center fielder, and Stafford, the team's right fielder, both failed to reach base, but left fielder Sweigert reached base on a walk and stole a base. Society for American Baseball Research writer Bill Carle "doubt[s] we will ever be able to identify them".
