Pioneer of insurance cover for entertainers and rock musicians
Willie Robertson, who has died of cancer aged 67, virtually single-handedly created insurance cover for entertainers in the 1970s, when he introduced non-appearance and equipment cover for rock'n'roll bands. With his partner Robert Taylor, he went on to create an international company ? Robertson Taylor ? that insured almost every big concert (including Michael Jackson's last series in 2009 at the O2 arena).
Robertson was born in Dorking and grew up in Surrey. His father was an insurance broker at Lloyd's of London. Robertson went to Harrow school, where he excelled at sports, then followed his father into insurance at Burton, Rowe & Viner. His immediate group of Harrow friends included David Enthoven and John Gaydon, who started managing rock bands when they left school. The company they founded, EG management, was one of the most successful of the 1970s, with a roster that included King Crimson, T Rex, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Roxy Music and Toyah Willcox.
In 1969, when King Crimson were about to go on tour, Enthoven rang Robertson ? by then working for the underwriters Eckersley Hicks ? to get their equipment covered, an unusual move in those days. After some shopping around, Robertson succeeded, and as more entertainment work came his way, left Eckersley Hicks, along with Taylor, to set up their own specialist firm.
Many of their transactions are now the stuff of music business legend. Robertson ? gregarious, outgoing, funny and a keen fan of doing business over lunch or dinner ? was naturally suited to dealing with fragile egos and towering demands. Little fazed him. Early clients were the Who ? acquired when their hellraising drummer Keith Moon challenged Robertson one night, in Tramp nightclub, to walk the length of diners' tables through their food. Robertson removed his shoes and socks, walked the walk, was banned from Tramp, but got the business.
Clients loved him because he was always there for them. When Rod Stewart dislocated a toe and cancelled a series of American dates, Robertson flew out on Concorde and persuaded the insurance company to pay up. When Pink Floyd floated a huge helium-filled pink pig over Battersea power station to shoot the cover of their 1977 album Animals, fortunately they had insured the session. The pig broke loose and was finally shot down by a farmer in Kent, but not before a pilot coming in to land had reported seeing a flying pig.
Robertson rarely got stressed by his work, although Taylor claims it turned his own hair white a long time ago. His usual battle cry was "you're covered" and Taylor recalls being phoned one night by Robertson announcing they were insuring Pope John Paul II's visit to Britain in 1982, even though the pontiff had recently survived an assassination attempt. Cover was duly found, as it was for the Three Tenors' 1998 Paris concert, which was insured for $18m. And when one rock-star manager quibbled over the sum required for the star's personal insurance, Robertson closed the deal when he replied: "If you bought a car, you'd buy a Rolls, not a Mini, wouldn't you?"
A gifted mimic, Robertson used his job to meet his lifelong hero, the comedian Tommy Cooper. When he arrived early one morning to arrange life insurance, Cooper already had a drink on the go and the thorny question of his daily intake arose. "Write down a bottle," Cooper suggested. Robertson queried over what period of time they should specify. "Before breakfast," replied Cooper. Robertson's impersonations of the comic, complete with fez, were brilliant.
Robertson lived his work; he was never off-duty, but was a loyal and close friend to his immediate circle, most of them dating back to schooldays. Like many busy people, he always took on more. In 1976 a chance meeting in a bar led to him becoming a founder member of the Nordoff Robbins music therapy charity. For many years, committee meetings were held in the boardroom of Mo�t & Chandon, with the champagne engendering a great spirit of "can do", and he even named his eldest daughter Saran after a favourite Mo�t vintage. At the annual music business convention, Midem, held in Cannes, France, Robertson would hire a boat on the jetty and run an open bar throughout the festival.
Robertson is survived by his wife, Angie, and three children, Saran, Sami and Max.
? William Wardel Robertson, insurance executive, born 8 June 1944; died 9 July 2011
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/jul/17/willie-robertson-obituary
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