Having really enjoyed all of the more recent Stuart Coupe books I’ve read so far, including Saffron Incorporated (2025), Shake Some Action (2023), Paul Kelly (2021), Roadies (2020), and Gudinski (2015), I thought I’d reach a little further back to The Promoters (2003).
I mean, it covers a lot of similar territory to his later books and should have made an interesting comparison with Christie Eliezer’s High Voltage Rock ‘n’ Roll (2007).
It didn’t really work out that way.
In fairness, a lot has happened in 23 years, so it’s not surprising The Promoters comes across as dated, even more dated than HVR’n’R.
And it does have plenty of good rock music industry anecdotes, although a few too many come across as gossip and fail to deliver any great insights.
What surprised me was the clunky writing style, not at all the smooth narratives Coupe grew into, and the abundance – nay, SUPERabundance – of typos and weird formatting.
I should mention that I read this as an ebook and that may have accounted for the very distracting way that any sentence beginning with a quotation mark and a single letter (I or A) italicised that letter. And there were a LOT of those. I can only hope that was a digital quirk.
But that’s no excuse for the mis-spellings, missing words, lack of quotation marks, and grammatical errors. OK, no-one reads a rock music book expecting grand literature but I think basic literacy is not too much to ask.
I believe after this book, Coupe started his record shop and label Laughing Outlaw and his next book wasn’t until the aformentioned Gudinski bio 12 years later. Maybe that break stood him in good stead because he definitely came back a better writer.
So, some good stories about Chuggie, Gudinski, Paul Dainty, Michael Coppel, et al (and himself), but then most of them come up, better told, in Coupe’s later books.
I don’t really like writing negative reviews and usually just don’t review clunkers at all. But, in lieu of a warning sticker, I feel I should share my reaction to The Promoters. I hope Stuart will forgive me.
Not recommended unless you’re desperate.