Stiggy

The Man behind the music and movies that defined a decade

In one fifteen-year period, from the late 1960s to the 1980s, Robert Stigwood rewrote the rules of the film and record industries, presiding over an empire that broke new ground in everything it did.

From the Bee Gees to John Travolta, The Who to Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Saturday Night Fever to Jesus Christ Superstar, Stigwood almost single-handedly defined our era. And yet this maestro of the zeitgeist preferred the shadows to the limelight. He was fond of saying, “artists sell records and films, not the people behind them.”

STIGGY is the story of the man behind the curtain.

An Aussie pretending to be British, a gay man pretending to be straight, Stigwood maintains a perfect poker face, intimidating his competitors and unsettling his friends. Stiggy’s instincts are lethal. At the height of the most decadent era in showbusiness, he uses every weapon at his disposal–some orthodox, most not–to clinch his position as top dog.

During the sexual revolution he helps to catalyze, Stigwood remains deeply closeted, guarding his identity with the controlled panache of 007, an elegant man behind the times—in both senses of the phrase.

STIGGY immerses us in a bygone era with the care and precision of The Crown. His constellation of mansions around the world plays host to a galaxy of movie stars, agents, rock’n’roll titans, Hollywood studio heads, and the inevitable dope dealers, wannabes, night crawlers, singers and actors—every single one a protégé. What sustains Stigwood through success and failure is an unshakable self-belief and astounding powers of persuasion. But the enormous pride that powers him through the 1960s and ‘70s proves to be his undoing in the ‘80s.

With the cutthroat machinations of Succession churning under a Bohemian Rhapsody veneer, STIGGY is a study in contrasts. Like its leading character, it is both radical and conservative, bold and reserved. It is the story of one of the most complex characters of the 20th century, a man whose life and work are more relevant than ever.