The King Eddy is pleased to announce Rich Taylor as its first Talent Buyer since closing in 2004.
Taylor joins the King Eddy with diverse experience behind-the-scenes of the Canadian music industry. Most recently, Taylor operated as Gladeye, and independent concert promotion agency he founded in 2014.
Gladeye operated in Toronto’s independent and DIY scene, regularly representing local and touring talent. Most notably, Gladeye presented the Native North America Gathering, the largest gathering to date of the Grammy nominated compilation, Native North America Volume One.
In addition to talent acquisition, Taylor has technical and production experience with Toronto’s Aga Khan Museum and New Constellations, a touring festival focused on bridging the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Canadians. He is also the co-founder of Saskatoon’s MoSo Festival, an independent music festival known for innovative artists from across the country and around the world.
“It is exciting and intimidating. I know that many music fans in Calgary have a deep, historical connection to the King Eddy story,” says Taylor. “My goal is to offer that same strong experience to a new audience by offering wide range of programming. Guests will see familiar names they know and love alongside performers that will surprise them and expose them to genres they had not considered before.”
Taylor’s vision is to transition the King Eddy from a blues-only venue to a multi-genre hub for live music, while paying tribute the venue’s history and devoted fans. In addition to blues, the King Eddy will host electronic, folk, country, rock, rap, punk, jazz, classical and many other genres of music programming.
Taylor will present the reopened King Eddy’s first headliner to the stage at the public reopening on July 20.
About the King Eddy
Located at Studio Bell, home of the National Music Centre, the historic King Edward Hotel spanned more than 100 years in Calgary and was a destination for travelers, settlers, musicians, music fans, and citizens from all walks of life. The hotel was one of the first built in Calgary along 9 Avenue SE in 1905. From the early 1980s until it closed in 2003, the “Eddy” had a respected local, national and international reputation for great live music and was affectionately known as “Calgary’s Home of the Blues.” This legacy of great live music and atmosphere in an authentic setting contributed to the Eddy being recognized as an important piece of Calgary’s music history, which continues to this day
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