Monotone's Gary Walker

What was the first concert you ever attended?

I’d been to smaller punk shows in my early teens, but seeing a classic run of shows at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, U.K. in the early ‘80s—Echo & the Bunnymen, Killing Joke, The Dead Kennedys, Bauhaus, The Cramps, The Pogues, Sisters of Mercy—made me hungry to move to London and immerse myself in music culture.

Name a manager not in your company whom you admire.

I never met him, but the late Rob Gretton, who managed Joy Division and New Order, is an inspirational figure.

You’re made czar of the concert industry. What’s the first thing you’d change?

I like the idea of a levy on tickets to large-scale concerts that gets funneled into grass-roots venues. But perhaps the ticket companies should pay the levy rather than the consumer.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

The late Tim Carr was the closest I had to a mentor. When I was obsessed with the sound of a record, he taught me to focus on how I felt about the song, and, when choosing to work with an artist, he’d tell me to question how hungry they are for success and whether they would do what it took to get there.