Murray Thom Explained

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

Music

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.

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

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. 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.

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.

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

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

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

Notes and References

  1. News: Reid . Graham . 30 Dec 2002 . Kiwi singing all the way to the bank after Oprah plug . The New Zealand Herald .
  2. Web site: 2011-12-15 . THE GREAT AUSTRALIAN SONGBOOK (2011): Songs from the great southern land . 2023-11-08 . Elsewhere by Graham Reid . en.
  3. News: Sykes . Caitlin . 18 Nov 2015 . Small Business: Diversifying - Murray Thom and Tim Harper, Thom Productions . The New Zealand Herald .
  4. News: Reid . Graham . 9 Nov 2002 . Murray Thom: Mr SXS . The New Zealand Herald.
  5. News: de Silva . Zac . 15 July 2016 . Nurture Change business retreat: Taking chances with Murray Thom . Stuff.co.nz .
  6. News: 20 Nov 2019 . Soundtrack to my Life: Murray Thom . The New Zealand Herald . 22 Dec 2023.
  7. News: Adams . Christopher . 15 March 2010 . Doy plans to export piano hits to China . 22 Dec 2023 . The New Zealand Herald.
  8. News: Hunter . Ian . 27 Feb 2013 . Find your big business idea . Stuff.co.nz . 22 Dec 2023.
  9. Book: Thom, Murray . Eat, Drink and be Murray! . Thom Productions . 2019 . 9780473491192.
  10. Web site: Murray Thom Songs, Albums, Reviews, Bio & More . 2023-10-13 . AllMusic . en.
  11. Web site: Unmasked [sound recording] / Rob Guest. ]. 2023-12-22 . natlib.govt.nz.
  12. News: Karen . Kotze . 15 Jun 2009 . Love those Kiwi Songs . Stuff.co.nz.
  13. News: Gilchrist . Shane . 28 August 2010 . Join the chorus . The Otago Daily Times.
  14. News: Carter . Jim . 2 April 2015 . Neil Finn revives Anzac anthem . The New Zealand Herald . 22 Dec 2023.
  15. Web site: 2015-04-19 . Blue Smoke - Anzac Day 2015 . 2023-10-13 . GrownUps New Zealand . en-NZ.
  16. Web site: An Offering for such a time as this The Salvation Army . 2023-12-22 . www.salvationarmy.org.nz.
  17. News: 1 April 2022 . Be Curious with Glorious . Verve Magazine.
  18. Web site: Lexus Ambassadors Experience .
  19. News: Kiwi stars' major 'Offering' to The Salvation Army . The New Zealand Herald.
  20. Web site: Great New Zealand Cookbook . 2023-10-13 . Paper Plus.
  21. News: Murray Thom - The Great New Zealand Cookbook . Radio New Zealand .
  22. Web site: Winners by countries - Gourmand Awards 2015 . 2023-10-13 . www.cookbookfair.com.
  23. Book: Limited, Publishers Distribution . Great Australian Cook Book . 2015-01-01 . PQ BLACKWELL - CONSIGNMENT . 978-0-473-32062-1 . English.
  24. Book: Murphy, Toby . The Great South African Cookbook: The Food We Love from 67 of Our Finest Cooks, Chefs, Bakers, Farmers, Foragers and Local Food Heroes . 2019-06-01 . Blackwell and Ruth Limited . 978-1-928209-54-6 . English.
  25. Book: Sitwell, William . The Really Quite Good British Cookbook: The Food We Love from 100 of Our Best Chefs, Cooks, Bakers and Local Heroes . 2017-03-21 . Nourish . 2017 . 978-1-84899-328-0 . Sitwell . William . English.
  26. News: Adams . Tim . 21 May 2017 . Sir Peter Blake: 'All a country has is its culture; the rest is infrastructure' . The Guardian . 22 Dec 2023.
  27. Book: America The Great Cookbook . 2017-10-31 . Weldon Owen . 978-1-68188-282-6 . Yonan . Joe . English.
  28. News: Hosking . Mike . 22 November 2019 . Music businessman Murray Thom looks back on his career in new memoir . Newstalk ZB.
  29. News: Gladwell . Richard . 9 Oct 2005 . Laser Masters- Thom Wins, so does Orams . Sail World .

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