Sting saluted former-A&M Records executive, Bob Garcia, who died of natural causes at his home in Tujunga, California on April 26th — just a week before his 82nd birthday. Variety reported that Garcia, who joined A&M in 1968 as a biography writer, rose to the ranks of the label's prestigious director of artist relations.
Until his exit in 1997, Garcia was the point man for such heavyweights as the Police and Sting, Joe Cocker, Peter Frampton, Styx, Squeeze, Joe Jackson, Bryan Adams, Supertramp, Blues Traveler, Janet Jackson, Sheryl Crow, — among many, many others. Upon his departure, Garcia served as the West Coast president of the Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences.
Sting posted a tribute to Bob Garcia, which reads:
'Uncle Bob' we used to call him. Uncle Bob was our concierge, our mentor, our protector, our confidante, and we were always assured of a warm welcome there, laced with a liberal dose of his mordant wit. You could talk film, theatre, books and music with Bob and behind the humor of those twinkling eyes, you had a sense that he’d seen and heard everything and yet, like a true sage, had reserved judgement.
He could be laconic and cryptic just as he could be compassionate and fulsome, but always equally amused by both the blandishments and trials of 'the life,' and nothing seemed to faze him. He was, and to me still is, the presiding spirit of that magical lot on La Brea. He will always be there for me, as he was in life.
Police guitarist Andy Summers recently released his acclaimed documentary, called Can’t Stand Losing You: Surviving The Police. He told us admitted to us that he was never happy with the way the band was marketed back in the 1980's, and didn't feel it accurately portrayed what the band was really about: “I always felt somewhat disappointed by the way we were represented in posters and album covers and stuff. I never thought they were hip enough. They were always, for me, too commercial and too pop. I would have gone much darker and stranger if I had my way. So, I always felt, like, a dissonance between that — but of course, it worked.”