Murray Thom

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Murray Neville Thom (born 19 July 1957) is a New Zealand businessman and music producer. He is best known for his collaboration with pianist Carl Doy, which resulted in their Together 10-CD collection being featured as one of Oprah's Favorite Things of 2002.[1] Locally, his production company, Thom Productions is best known for the 12x platinum[2] Great New Zealand Songbook and The Great New Zealand Cookbook, which have also been released in numerous versions for other countries.[3]

Career[edit]

Music[edit]

Thom joined CBS Records International as a sales representative in 1979. He was appointed Managing Director of CBS in 1981, at that time the youngest CBS managing director in the world.[4] Thom left the corporate life to establish his own business[5] in 1986.[4]

He signed New Zealand recording artist Dave Dobbyn[6] who had featured on the Footrot Flats album and together they produced the Loyal album.[4]

Thom discovered pianist Carl Doy playing in the lobby of an Auckland hotel in 1987 and together they produced their first album Piano By Candlelight in 1987.[4] They have produced a number of recordings specifically for China.[7] In the USA, the Together collaboration with Doy was packaged into a 10 CD and book collection,[8] which Oprah featured on her show as one of Oprah's Favorite Things of 2002.[1]

In 1996 after seeing Rob Guest performing in the leading role of Jean Valjean in Les Misérables,[9] Thom signed Guest to a recording contract.[10] Guest's album Unmasked was released in 1997 by Thom.[11]

Thom was the creator and executive producer of The Great New Zealand Songbook released in 2009.[12] The album went on to become certified 12x platinum.[13] Thom followed up with The Great Australian Songbook released in 2011.[3]

Thom collaborated with Neil Finn to re-record the war song "Blue Smoke",[14] which was released on Anzac Day 2015, with proceeds going to the Returned Services Association.[15]

In 2019 Thom and Tim Harper produced The Offering Project,[16] which was a collaboration between twelve New Zealand recording artists and twelve of New Zealand visual artists.[17] The concept was to record well known gospel hymns that were also interpreted by visual artists,[18] with all the proceeds going to the work of the Salvation Army in New Zealand.[19]

Books[edit]

Following the release of The Great Australian Songbook, Thom produced The Great New Zealand Cookbook[20] – instead of 40 recording artists writing their lyrics, this was 80 cooks, chefs and bakers handwriting their recipes.[21] The book won the 2015 Gourmand World Cookbook award for ‘Best Easy Recipes’.[22]

Further publications were produced including The Great Australian Cookbook (2016),[23] The Great South African Cookbook (2016),[24] The Really Quite Good British Cookbook (2017),[25] with front cover art by Sir Peter Blake,[26] and America The Great Cookbook (2017).[27]

Thom released his memoir Eat, Drink & Be Murray in 2019.[28]

Personal life[edit]

Thom's hobby is sailing and in 2005 won the World Laser Master Championships in Fortaleza, Brazil.[29]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Reid, Graham (30 December 2002). "Kiwi singing all the way to the bank after Oprah plug". The New Zealand Herald.
  2. ^ "THE GREAT AUSTRALIAN SONGBOOK (2011): Songs from the great southern land". Elsewhere by Graham Reid. 15 December 2011. Retrieved 8 November 2023.
  3. ^ a b Sykes, Caitlin (18 November 2015). "Small Business: Diversifying - Murray Thom and Tim Harper, Thom Productions". The New Zealand Herald.
  4. ^ a b c d Reid, Graham (9 November 2002). "Murray Thom: Mr SXS". The New Zealand Herald.
  5. ^ de Silva, Zac (15 July 2016). "Nurture Change business retreat: Taking chances with Murray Thom". Stuff.co.nz.
  6. ^ "Soundtrack to my Life: Murray Thom". The New Zealand Herald. 20 November 2019. Retrieved 22 December 2023.
  7. ^ Adams, Christopher (15 March 2010). "Doy plans to export piano hits to China". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 22 December 2023.
  8. ^ Hunter, Ian (27 February 2013). "Find your big business idea". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 22 December 2023.
  9. ^ Thom, Murray (2019). Eat, Drink and be Murray!. Thom Productions. ISBN 9780473491192.
  10. ^ "Murray Thom Songs, Albums, Reviews, Bio & More". AllMusic. Retrieved 13 October 2023.
  11. ^ "Unmasked [sound recording] / Rob Guest". natlib.govt.nz. Retrieved 22 December 2023.
  12. ^ Karen, Kotze (15 June 2009). "Love those Kiwi Songs". Stuff.co.nz.
  13. ^ Gilchrist, Shane (28 August 2010). "Join the chorus". The Otago Daily Times.
  14. ^ Carter, Jim (2 April 2015). "Neil Finn revives Anzac anthem". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 22 December 2023.
  15. ^ "Blue Smoke - Anzac Day 2015". GrownUps New Zealand. 19 April 2015. Retrieved 13 October 2023.
  16. ^ "An Offering for such a time as this | The Salvation Army". www.salvationarmy.org.nz. Retrieved 22 December 2023.
  17. ^ "Be Curious with Glorious". Verve Magazine. 1 April 2022.
  18. ^ "Lexus Ambassadors Experience".
  19. ^ "Kiwi stars' major 'Offering' to The Salvation Army". The New Zealand Herald.
  20. ^ "Great New Zealand Cookbook". Paper Plus. Retrieved 13 October 2023.
  21. ^ "Murray Thom - The Great New Zealand Cookbook". Radio New Zealand.
  22. ^ "Winners by countries - Gourmand Awards 2015". www.cookbookfair.com. Retrieved 13 October 2023.
  23. ^ Limited, Publishers Distribution (1 January 2015). Great Australian Cook Book. PQ BLACKWELL - CONSIGNMENT. ISBN 978-0-473-32062-1.
  24. ^ Murphy, Toby (1 June 2019). The Great South African Cookbook: The Food We Love from 67 of Our Finest Cooks, Chefs, Bakers, Farmers, Foragers and Local Food Heroes. Blackwell and Ruth Limited. ISBN 978-1-928209-54-6.
  25. ^ Sitwell, William (21 March 2017). Sitwell, William (ed.). The Really Quite Good British Cookbook: The Food We Love from 100 of Our Best Chefs, Cooks, Bakers and Local Heroes. Nourish. ISBN 978-1-84899-328-0.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  26. ^ Adams, Tim (21 May 2017). "Sir Peter Blake: 'All a country has is its culture; the rest is infrastructure'". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 December 2023.
  27. ^ Yonan, Joe, ed. (31 October 2017). America The Great Cookbook. Weldon Owen. ISBN 978-1-68188-282-6.
  28. ^ Hosking, Mike (22 November 2019). "Music businessman Murray Thom looks back on his career in new memoir". Newstalk ZB.
  29. ^ Gladwell, Richard (9 October 2005). "Laser Masters- Thom Wins, so does Orams". Sail World.
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