History
The Early Years
The Terrible Teens
Moving South for College & A Brief Career in Fine Stones
Entering Organised Crime--The Music Industry
Staring a Quarter Century in Australia
He Dies And Is Reborn
He Dies And Is Reborn
As he gathered up new clients and jetted around the world, he became a workaholic and slept only a few hours a night. He paid little attention to his health, drank cognac and smoked. Sooner or later he was going to crash and it came at age 36 with a massive coronary and cardiac arrest.
One of his clients was Divinyls' manager Vince Lovegrove whose wife had contracted AIDS along with his son Troy. Like many of Vince's close friends, Phil knew he needed money and time to care for both of them. He had another client, the Pro-Image Group, which was a video production company looking for a major project. He put them together with an idea of doing a doco on the last months of Vince's wife's life and the project 'Suzi's Story' started first as a proposal and a few hours of shooting to a full blown TV doco which ended up bringing the nation to tears and affecting the world. Tripp didn't direct or produce, he appeared in it and tried to help promote it to overseas markets along with producers Pro-Image. A series of long haul flights and worsening health finally felled him.
He made it to hospital just before going into arrest and as fate would have it, one of the doctors from Suzi's Story was working the ER for a friend that morning and managed to revive Phil after seeing him on a crash cart after he's been given up on by staff. With one huge jolt, he was brought back and this changed Phil's life. Told he might need a bypass or transplant and might be in bed for six months, Phil agonised in the ICU for two days and came up with the only idea he thought could work if he was semi-incapacitated. He'd use that little computer and modem in bed to create a music industry directory both in print and online. He figured that the stress of doing PR would kill him, so he chose a most unlikely idea which has had a growth and lifespan over 20 years.
He was out of hospital in under a week, didn't require further care and with two staff, focused on this one crazy idea. At the time, he was a consultant to the Australian Trade Commission for exporting music on the AUSTRADE Rock Committee with other luminaries. It was proposed that he create this directory as a free, advertising-supported biannual book with an online set of listings accessible on the Entertainment Systems International music industry bulletin board system. If AUSTRADE put up $10,000 for the research and compiling, Tripp would guarantee the ad sales that would permit printing and publication.
Only problem was that all of Phil's industry mates reckoned it wouldn't work. Because he had fought the major multinational record companies and power structure as a journalist, they felt that long memories would drive long knives. No one would advertise, they reasoned. No one would pay up front. A free directory was doomed. They gave every reason why it wouldn't work.
Phil was depressed for a day and then suddenly realised, of course they think it will fail! They're Australians and chopping poppies was a national curse. In fact, he was guaranteed an instant success if all his mates predicted failure. So for 20 years, over $15 million in income, over 40 editions and parallel businesses being formed to feed from the contacts and resources the AustralAsian Music Industry Directory has amassed, IMMEDIA! diversified and thrived over two decades while the music industry strived to survive.
In those 20 years, Phil has represented the New Music Seminar for five years, MIDEM for a decade and South by Southwest for six years in the territories of Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii. A music business books operation has over 50 titles for sale through the Directory and online. The AustralAsian Music Business Conference started in 2003 and there have been eight biennial events with over 50 speakers and 600 registrants--the next one being August 20-22 2009. IMMEDIA! launched an online music business website in 1995 on the Internet which is TheMusic.com.au featuring news, views, charts, how-to articles and much more.
Though Tripp retired from PR in 2008 and plans to sell his companies and be out of the music business by the time he turns 60, he and partner Lisa Treen created Australia's first free, cross-pet magazine in 2004--the glossy tabloid-sized Urban Animal--which has become the country's most successful and respected consumer pet publication.
As he heads towards retirement, he's not giving up on writing. As you'll see, he's reinvigorated his travel writing and also plans to write a book following the highly successful "When The Writ Hits The Fan" which he published with co-writer Phil Dwyer.
But for now, he is still working the day job but taking a lot of time to travel, laying in hammocks on exotic islands or freezing in the winter snows of the Grand Canyon.
His travel articles are appearing with regularity in the Sunday Telegraph and other News Ltd newspapers around Australia, many of which are being added to this site as links or PDFs.
