One of the UK’s best known music impresarios has finally repaid a mortgage he took out more than 20 years ago to save his business following a local jazz club’s collapse.
Jim Simpson, now aged 85, is the original manager of Black Sabbath and still runs the annual Birmingham Jazz & Blues Festival via Big Bear Music, his record and bookings company.
He said Big Bear Music was owed more than £50,000 when the Ronnie Scott’s franchise club on Birmingham’s Broad Street went under in 2001.
Big Bear Music had been retained by the local Ronnie Scott’s for nearly ten years from its opening in October 1991 to handle its bookings of bands and musicians, and to take care of its marketing.
The independent record company, founded by Simpson in 1968, is based in offices at Quayside Tower on Broad Street.
Mr Simpson said: “Ronnie Scott’s owed us £52,000 when they went bust in 2001, including payments to our artists who had already played at the club and not been paid.
“So I took out a mortgage of £55,000 on my own house, having previously paid off the mortgage 14 years before.
“The loan was to enable Big Bear to keep going and to help the jazz festival to survive. How else could I have gotten the money together other than by re-mortgaging my house?
“Happily, we have just made the last of the mortgage repayments this month.”
Jim said it had been difficult to predict the collapse of Ronnie Scott’s, which resulted in the “disastrous” loss suffered by Big Bear.
He added: “We never quite thought that it would go under, even though the signs were there.
“It was still getting high-end acts like George Melly and attracting good audiences virtually right up until the end.”
Big Bear Music had recorded several live albums over the year at Ronnie Scott’s, which was a popular venue for top acts from America and around the UK to perform in.
Westside BID recently reported that Big Bear had uncovered a box of unsold t-shirts promoting a music event at Ronnie Scott’s in September 1994.
Jim added: “We’ve already managed to sell several of the t-shirts, so you could say that’s the first payback we’ve had since Ronnie Scott’s went bust and I had to re-mortgage my house to keep Big Bear and the Jazz & Blues Festival going.”
Visit bigbearmusic.com for more information.
