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Gatfield departs Sony Music
By Chris Cooke | Published on Thursday 27 February 2014
So the top man at Sony Music UK has gone rather suddenly. I mean, did you see it coming? I didn’t see it coming. CMU Editor Andy Malt did write on our office whiteboard the other day, “I bet Nick Gatfield makes a sudden exit from Sony Music this week”, but I got distracted by the much more important news, scribbled alongside it, that One Direction weren’t splitting – so anyway that’s a thing.
One time Island Records exec Gatfield, of course, earned the admiration of all in the record business as “the guy who had to explain A&R to the Terra Firma twonks who screwed up EMI”, him spending over two years with the British major during “the troubles”. He then popped up in a senior role at Sony Music UK in 2011, before becoming the British division’s CEO in July that year after the also sudden departure of his predecessor Ged Doherty.
Confirming Gatfield’s exit last night, a Sony spokesman told Music Week: “It was an amicable decision for Nick to leave the company at this time. We wish him the best in his future endeavours”. It’s thought that long-term Sony exec Nicola Tuer, basically Gatfield’s deputy, will step in to the top role on an interim basis until a full-time replacement is found.
