Meet the godmother of Australian rock
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Rock family … Malcolm Young and Fifa Riccobono have been close since the early 1970s as he formed AC/DC. Picture: Supplied
Source: Supplied
WHEN you discover Fifa Riccobono’s family hailed from Sicily, her de facto title as the godmother of the Australian music industry makes even more sense.
The formidable first female CEO of a record label has nurtured the careers of legends from AC/DC to John Paul Young and protected their interests with an iron fist in a velvet glove.
The humble woman who has worked for the iconic Albert Music for four decades will finally get her due on Tuesday night at the APRA Awards when she receives the Ted Albert Award for Outstanding Services to Australian Music, named after the man who gave her start in the business.
Riccobono has always been reticent to sing her own praises, preferring the spotlight remain firmly trained on the rock stars and songwriters she represented.
She started at the company straight out of business college, firstly working as a secretary to the Professional Manager Henry Adler.
The young woman reared on her father’s classical music obsession would sit outside his office as he played piano all day, checking the sheet music which was the stock in trade of then J. Albert and Sons.
“I’d sit there listening to him play standards like On The Sunny Side Of The Street and Somewhere Over The Rainbow. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven working for a company where a man could play piano all day and get paid for it,” she says.
After four years with Adler, and a six-month break to visit the Sicilian homeland with her family, she returned to take on a promotions role, taking new singles to radio stations and organising everything from interviews and photo shoots to album artwork.
“I’d say the first song I took to radio was Ted Mulry’s Falling In Love Again (1971),” she says.
“I remember going to see him do his first show at Selinas (Coogee Bay Hotel) and there were three people — me and two of my friends.”
Best bosses … Riccobono with George Young (left) and Harry Vanda (right) with Albert Music supremo, the late Ted Albert in background. Picture: Supplied
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The duties of this dedicated plugger grew when her boss Ted Albert enticed his Easybeats mates George Young and Harry Vanda back to Australia in 1973 to become in-house producers and songwriters.
The Vanda & Young team ushered in a golden era for Australian rock, helming hits for George’s younger brother Angus and Malcolm and their band AC/DC as well as JPY, Mulry, Rose Tattoo, Cheetah and The Angels.
She would make them tea and coffee every morning and they would ask her to come into the studio and listen to their new songs. She watched them write down potential song titles in notebooks and pick one to match with a riff or a melody they had just written. It was like watching a magician devise a trick.
Legends reunite … Riccobono with the Easybeats at their 1986 reunion. Picture: Supplied
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“In a year and a half, I think we had 10 hit singles, it was intense, record after record after record. AC/DC did three albums in 18 months and at the same time Stevie Wright did two albums,” she says.
“And George and Harry were also writing for other pop artists, Johnny Young, Ray Burgess. There was something new to work on every day and the buzz in that place was phenomenal.”
Riccobono would eventually become label manager and then A & R (artist and repertoire) manager, who work directly with the singers and bands on every facet of their career.
Alberts was a family business in more than name. George Young would host parties and dinners at his Burwood home in Sydney’s home where Riccobono became close to all of the brothers and their sister Margaret. Her assistant Linda would eventually marry Malcolm.
Fifa and her family would spend most New Year’s Eve’s at a Young family party for more than 25 years.
Rock hard … Riccobono went to every gig AC/DC played and here watches Angus Young in action. Picture: Supplied
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Mother hen … Riccobono checks on her charges AC/DC during a photo shoot. Picture: Supplied / Fifa Riccobono
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“I felt very close to the family, I have always loved them. I remember thinking when the boys came into the studio to start recording with Harry and George how cocky they were. I went to every show the guys did in Sydney for years, three to five a week,” she says.
“Same with JPY and Ted Mulry; whoever was working in town, I would be there. And never missed one day’s work because of a gig, even if I saw the sun rise. I wasn’t a big drinker.”
The woman with music running through her veins became particularly fond of AC/DC’s larrikin frontman Bon Scott. That’s not to say she isn’t close to the man who has been on the mic since 1980, Brian Johnson.
“Bon was incredibly special. To look at him, you would probably want to cross the street. to talk to him, you fell in love with him instantly. he was the most charming person you could come across,” she says.
“I remember my mum coming into the office, a little Sicilian widow and here’s Bon, teeth missing, tattoos and he picks up her hand and kisses her hand saying ‘I am so pleased to meet you’ and mum thought he was so sweet.”
Men with front … Riccobono was fond of Bon Scott but also adored his replacement Brian Johnson. Picture: Supplied
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A rare woman in a man’s world, it would seem inevitable that Riccobono would the subject of romantic overtures from her charges.
She laughs and reveals there was only one occasion.
“I picked up Bon at the airport and was taking him to his hotel, the Hyatt Kingsgate. He had bought this very expensive bottle of Scotch, this was 1976 and it was about $ 100, so that was a lot of money and I wasn’t earning that in a month,” she says.
“I went up to the room with him and he threw himself on the bed and said ‘Let’s have a drink’. I insisted he keep the bottle for a special occasion and he said ‘This is a special occasion.’ He looked over at me, I looked at him, we shared this look and I said ‘We better go’ and we left. That’s about the closest we came. It would never had happened because I knew I couldn’t have worked with them if I had a relationship with them.”
Friends for life … Harry Vanda and John Paul Young with the woman who helped steer their careers. Picture: Renee Nowytarger
Source: News Corp Australia
Decades before wildly successful rock stars were surrounded by a retinue of security, it fell to their managers and label bosses to protect them from fans.
It is a miracle Riccobono wasn’t trampled by the tempestuous teens during the John Paul Young’s heyday when he was Australia’s King Of Pop.
“I used to get strife for being the person who wedged themself in between the artist and the girls. Some of them were hysterical. I would physically put myself in the way,” she says.
“And there would be young girls sneaking into the studio while I was in my office and I would have mothers calling asking ‘Is my daughter in there?’ I would go into the studio and have a look around then tell them they needed to leave now and be somewhere else before their mothers found out.”
Ended in tears … Riccobono with Evie legend Stevie Wright. Picture: Supplied
Source: Supplied
But not all of her artists would thrive. Riccobono says the saddest episode in her career came when drug addiction halted Stevie Wright’s ascent to international stardom after the release of the epic Evie.
“He hit his stride, his vocals were amazing, he was great in the Easybeats but now he really had something when he came out with Evie, we were all beside ourselves. To have radio play an 11 minute song, we were so shocked,” she says.
“He had hit the big time again, was being set up internationally and Chuggy (veteran promoter Michael Chugg) was managing him at the time but then he slipped back into his old ways.”
receiving the award named after her mentor means everything to Riccobono who remains a consultant for the company and runs her own publishing label.
“The thing about Ted was he brought out the very best in you. He had a vision that he wanted Australian music to be comparable to anything internationally. We always felt we were part of the world,” she said.
The 2015 APRA Music Awards are held in Sydney on Tuesday.
