Gary Kurfirst

Manager, promoter, producer, publisher, label owner: born New York, 1947; married (one son, one daughter); died Nassau, the Bahamas 13 January 2009.

Longstanding manager of the Ramones, he was one of the people who made things that little bit easier for the notoriously moody quartet whose contribution to popular music was finally recognised when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.

He also looked after the groundbreaking bands Talking Heads, Blondie, & The B-52's. In addition he worked with, Jane's Addiction, artist 108706 of Garbage and the former Clash guitarist, Mick Jones, when he led Big Audio Dynamite. Although US-based, Kurfirst managed several British groups as well, including Eurythmics, the Waterboys, Angelfish, the Thompson Twins and Black Grape.

In a career lasting over 40 years and taking in concert promotion and music publishing as well as management, Kurfirst's biggest commercial success came at Radioactive when he discovered the angsty US band artist 137516 playing at CBGB's.