Honour Roll Award - LORNE SAIFER

Inducted by Burton Cummings

With over 50 years of career milestones, Lorne Saifer has signed many eminent contemporary pop artists, managed cultural icons, and been hailed as one of the most innovative artist managers in music.

With a soul anchored in his hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Lorne is known throughout the entertainment world for being tenacious, focused, and instinctively creative.

He’s respected as an entrepreneur who champions his artists. He both anticipates and overcomes challenges and is someone with a strategic sense of the entertainment business’ real world .

Lorne Saifer’s rise in the music business got off to an early start. His first management client at age 15 was Neil Young and the Squires, followed by several other notable Winnipeg bands including the Mongrels and Haymarket Riot. He produced records and wrote songs with local acts that became hits in Canada, promoted live shows, and co-owned a music publishing company with the Guess Who’s Randy Bachman.

In the early ’70s, Lorne became convinced that his future was in Los Angeles. He  started  at CBS Records as director of A&R, and then was promoted to VP of A&R. He not only signed  such artists as Bill Withers, Heart, Burton Cummings, Ringo Starr, Joan Baez , among  others, but also worked with several artists on their career breakthrough recordings, including with Billy Joel on his 1974 classic album “Piano Man,” and Boz Scaggs on his 1976 album blockbuster, “Silk Degrees.”

After Lorne left CBS, he returned to artist management with several partners, overseeing the careers of such stellar artists as Prince, Rod Stewart, Simple Minds, the Bangles, Toni Braxton, and Burton Cummings.

The clearest measure of this soft-spoken Canadian and one of the boldest strokes of his career, is that he masterminded the solo career breakthrough of his Winnipeg school friend Burton Cummings. Cummings is recognized as one of the most highly acclaimed rock stars of contemporary music. He has continued to manage Burton Cummings’ soaring career as Burton tours worldwide both with his extraordinary band, and also performing his acclaimed one man show, “Up Close and Alone”. In addition, he has been instrumental in the administration of Lionel Richie’s music publishing catalog.

He also put together the reunion of Burton’s former band the Guess Who’s “Running Back Thru Canada,” a mega-successful cross-Canada and America tour that resulted in a live TV special, as well as a double gold album, and also several successful tours with his former band-mate, Randy Bachman as the Bachman-Cummings Band.

Lorne Saifer has established a long and successful career, a reputation based on loyalty, vision, execution, integrity and is always looking to the future.

Banner Year Award - TONY SAL & THE WEEKEND

Inducted by Randy Lennox