Christopher BarrettMarshall Arts founder Barrie Marshall has been presented with the National Arenas Association’s (NAA) Outstanding Contribution award.
Marshall, who founded Marshall Arts in 1976, has worked with P!NK since 2002, Paul McCartney since his 1989/90 world tour, and has also promoted a remarkable number of A-list artists including Elton John, George Michael, Tina Turner, Taylor Swift, Celine Dion, Cher, Whitney Houston, Lionel Richie, Sade, Stevie Wonder and Bon Jovi.
NAA chair and OVO Arena Wembley VP/GM said, “As the figurehead of Marshall Arts, Barrie and his team have become almost as legendary as many of the acts they represent and have been a consistent and welcome supporter of the UK’s arena business for many years. We’re so pleased to be able to present this well-deserved award to such an industry icon.”
On receiving the award from P!NK, and Scottish Event Campus director of live entertainment, Debbie McWilliams, Marshall said, “It was an incredible surprise to receive this very prestigious award and so nice that Alecia [P!NK] would take the time to present it to me. My thanks to John Drury, Debbie McWilliams and the members of the NAA.
“My first arena show was at Wembley with the Commodores in 1979 – having at that time been ‘interviewed’ by Mr. John Evans, who ran the arena, to make sure our company was suitable and honourable enough to hire the venue! We followed that in 1980 with a very memorable week of ‘Wonder At Wembley’ with Stevie – and it has been such an honour to work with so many talented artists and fellow promoters across the decades at so many tremendous arenas. A true privilege for which I am extremely grateful.
The NAA Outstanding Contribution award has been selected and presented annually by the NAA members since 2009 to recognise those who have gone above and beyond in their venue and/or industry at that time. Previous winners of the award are David Vickers (2009), Danny Betesh (2010), Paul Latham (2011), Simon Moran (2012), Phil McIntyre (2013), Geoff Huckstep (2014), Pete Wilson & Dennis Arnold (2015), Matt Wooliscroft (2016), Anne-Marie Harwood (2017), Phil Bowdery (2018), Annette Robinson (2019), Lucy Noble (2020), Chris York (2021), Greg Parmley (2022).