English Cathy

Occasionally Girl Musician Online will run articles about non-musicians in the music industry whom we consider to be artists in their own right. The following article was written by one of our resident journalists Tina Alvarez and appeared in the July 1988 edition of Harmonium, a Tucson magazine.  The article is followed by an update to the present time.

From 60s mod to 80s VJ,
English Cathy IS rock'n'roll
BY TINA ALVAREZ

She  is perceptive, pretty and petite. She has more irons in  the  fire than any blacksmith could dream of handling with the  ease and dexterity that she masters. She is a person who is generous  with time she doesn't always have  and always is as  attentive  to the needs of her musicians as every musician would hope every manager would be.

She is Catherine Harris of the Pink Cadillac Cafe, Transatlantic  Management,  Misdirected,  and vj of the newly-aired "Desert  Rocks,"  a music video program broadcast Sunday evenings  on channel 18. If that isn't having irons in the fire, I don't know what is.

More commonly around town she is known as E.C. "I  moved to America in 1967 and met a girl named Cathy," E.C.  explained. "She became my best friend. We had been room-mates and when you have two Cathys  in the same house, I automatically became English Cathy and she's Tucson Cathy."

E.C.  is  one of the few women in the entertainment scene in  Tucson. She is concerned about riveting attention to local groups,  bands on tour and making Tucson a feasible watering hole for a variety of musicians.

E.C. first  came  to the United States twenty years ago. She  was  born in Nottingham,  England  during a  World War II blitz. "My  mum had to be rushed to the hospital in an ambulance and  there  were bombs going off,  it was foggy  and we barely made  it.  So that's how I came into the world," she revealed, laughing.

She became  involved  in the music business when she was 15  years old, working at a company where she was a social director  putting  on  dances.  She recalls  seeing  the Rolling Stones  perform at local pubs for free and tossing pennies into Brian Jones' hat, which he set down in front of the stage. "I  heard of them because I was a big Chuck Berry fan and someone  said  to me this band was playing Chuck Berry covers, rhythm  and  blues. So I went to see them and it was the Rolling  Stones,"  she explained. "I was working for Decca Records at the time and Decca signed the Rolling Stones."

While  living  in  England, E.C. had a varied background, to  put  it mildly. She campaigned for nuclear disarmament and went through a series of musical fads. "London  is  very much more into sub-cultures than here," she  noted. "I was a beatnik, then a teddy girl, then I became a  rocker, then I became a mod--and anyone that's seen Quadrophenia,  that's very,  very,  right on. Then I left London in 1967. London was really swinging. The 60s in London were incredible."

E.C.  admits that even as a little girl she had always  wanted  to  come to America to work in the music business. The place where she chose to relocate was Los Angeles. "When  I  came  to the West Coast there was a lot happening.  It  was a time of complete turmoil in America with Vietnam  and everything like that," she recalled. "I started managing  bands.  I didn't see myself as any different from anyone else  in the music business.  The fact that I was female never really meant anything. "Really  and truly," she continued, "in the early days in CA  it  was  an  acute advantage for me to be not only female, but  English  too.   I've been gone from CA for ten years now, but  when  I  go  back they know the nickname,  the accent.  I think it's an asset, I have to admit."

E.C.  said  she  seems to have been at the right place at the  right  time--the  early 60s in London, the late 60s/early 70s  in  LA.   She even booked Van Halen on an informal basis. She  sums  up  her  LA  days as having lived through an earthquake, Van Halen and a lot of rock'n'roll. During  this  period, Los Angeles was spawning performers like  Janis Joplin and the Doors. E.C. experienced the psychedelic  era  of the early 70s and by 1972 things started to die down.

Having  been to Tucson visiting friends, she decided to make the move here in the late70s. "When  I first came to Tucson in 1979, it was hopping. We had  the Hurricane -- we must never forget Pearl's, the mother of  punk - there was the Night Train,  it was quite an active club scene happening."

Despite  all  the fanfare of previous years, E.C. appears to  be content running the Tucson Entertainment Complex, which consists  of the Pink Cadillac Cafe, Transatlantic Management, and Misdirected. Pink Cadillac Cafe is an all-ages non-alcoholic  teenage nightclub that will be expanded into a 1950s soda fountain-style  restaurant. Transatlantic is a management company and Misdirected is a basic rock'n'roll store. "The  goal  of the Tucson Entertainment Center is to make Tucson  a viable force in the music business,"  she explained. "We  want to provide a fully comprehensive entertainment facility where people can came in and find management. We can provide them with what they need in terms of grooming and management." The  Pink  Cadillac  books  a number of bands and musical styles.  E.C. cites her personal favorites as Noiz Toyz, Faded Images and Extremities. "I  would  like  to have a club that caters to everybody, to  all  musical tastes," she stressed.  "I would like to have everyone in here from Brian Bromberg to UPS. I would like people to make this a stopping point When they're out on tour." With E.C. at the helm, It's only a matter of time.

1999
Due to zoning restrictions the Tucson Entertainment Center had to close their doors just before 1990.   The Pink Cadillac was a  teenage  nightclub  and  is  now  fondly  remembered  by  the slightly  over  thirty  crowd  in  Tucson  as  a  cutting  edge environment where one could catch at least four rock'n'roll bands on Friday night and then come back on Saturday night and blast out your ears in a Gothic discotheque.

Since closing T.E.C., English Cathy has concentrated solely on Transatlantic Management.   Formed in Los Angeles in the late sixties E.C. moved the company in 1980 to the serenity of the Sonoran  Desert  in  Tucson,  Arizona  and  has  no  intention  of leaving.

With over thirty years experience in the music business E.C. is always in demand receiving requests for representation from musicians far and wide. Representing artists from America and Europe she has produced six management sampler CDs in the past  several  years  traveling  thousands  of  miles  to  music conferences in America, England and Germany.

English  Cathy  is  the  co-organizer  of  "Regional  Roundup",  a music  showcase  held  yearly  for  the  past  twelve  years  in Austin,  Texas  at  the  South  By  Southwest  Music  and  Media Conference.     Sponsored  for  the  last  two  years  by  Subway Restaurants  "Regional  Roundup"  is  a  much  looked  forward  to event by conference goers and will expand to three nights in the new millennium.

Above and  beyond everything though  the goals  of the Tucson Entertainment Center still apply...to afford unsigned artists, (no matter where they are from), an opportunity to bring their music to the attention of media and record company personnel worldwide and to  advise, counsel  and protect those artists throughout their career.