Tarquin Gotch

Tarquin Gotch is a British entertainment industry executive, having worked in the music and later on in film business since the late 1970s. Music Gotch started his career in London as a tour manager for the band Alphalpha and singer Clive Sarstedt. He then became a music publisher at Pendulum Music with acts like Tony Ashton. Gotch then joined Arista Records as an A&R executive, signing groups like Secret Affair. Clive Davis soon made Gotch head of A&R where, as well as overseeing Simple Minds and the Thompson Twins, he signed The Stray Cats, The Beat, Elaine Paige, Fela Kuti and Rowan Atkinson. He produced Atkinson's first live album and was the first to produce a film of Rowan's live show. From Arista, Gotch moved to WEA where he signed The Associates. He also transitioned American acts such as Prince, Madonna, Shalamar to the UK. In the mid-1980s, Gotch moved to management and built up a stable of acts including The Beat, Stephen Duffy, The Dream Academy, Hugh Harris, General Public and XTC. Since most of these acts sold especially well in the US, he found himself frequently in Los Angeles and it was there that, through his friend Kelly Le Brock, he met the director and writer John Hughes. For the next seven years he continued to manage but also to music supervise most of John Hughes' films. These included Some Kind of Wonderful, She's Having a Baby, Uncle Buck, Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Gotch also supervised music for the first few episodes of the TV series The Wonder Years. He also added some American acts to the management roster, including Roger McGuinn and The Horse Flies.