Meet Frontier Touring's Andy Purcell

Join us for a new series where we will catch up with a different member of the Mushroom family and learn more about their role, how they got here, what their day-to-day involves and more.

Tell us about your team and your current position

Hello! I'm one of four Frontier Touring Communications Directors, within the M+C (Marketing + Communications) department. We're a team of 18 across Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland, the backbone of publicity, promotions, communications, partnerships, marketing, digital and social, on the live/touring side of the Mushroom Group!

Tell us about your journey. How did you get to your current position at the Mushroom Group?

In April, I celebrated 10 years with Frontier/Mushroom and 30 years in the music industry! Mushroom turns 50 this year too, so feeling proud to have played a small 10 year part in those 50 epic years founded by the great Michael Gudinski, with Matt Gudinski (Michael’s son) now continuing the family legacy (and smashing it!!) as the CEO of the Mushroom Group, overseeing over 250 staff and two dozen companies.

I started in music retail at Tumut Music Centre in 93' before making the big move to Sydney, working at Brashs then Mall Music (both music retail stores at Warringah Mall, Brookvale on Sydney's Northern Beaches), before various sales positions at BMG Australia in North Sydney. From there; EMI Music in the Promotions & Publicity team for 7 years before starting at Mushroom Group in 2013, also within the Promotions department, initially working across both label and touring. From late 2019, working solely for Frontier Touring.

What does a typical day-to-day entail?

I can confidently say each day is completely different to the next and often full of unexpected curveballs! A typical day-to-day as a M+C Project/Communications Lead on your assigned tours, includes media release writing, planning tour announcement rollouts with the team, pitching artist interviews with media, publicity plans, chasing artist interview time (quite often across various international time zones), on-ground media interview schedules with artists, media invites and guest lists, connecting media/artist interviews, attending and escorting photographers/TV crews at shows, maintaining an ever-changing media database, collating media coverage - all across a broad range of artist genres/tours. Often weeks/months are spent setting up a tour, so come tour announce day, seeing mass media coverage and awareness for the tour you're working on resulting in strong ticket sales is very rewarding.

What would you like to see the Frontier team at the Mushroom Group achieve in the next five years?

Frontier is currently the #1 AU/NZ promoter and #5 globally for Q1 of 2023 so would be pretty damn epic to see us peak within the top #3 globally within the next 5 years. MG would be mighty proud!

Tell us about the best thing about working within your team at the Mushroom Group?

The shared passion and vibe for all that we do... and do so well! Working in such a fast paced department, it requires a switched on team, willing to go the extra mile for any challenges thrown our way and changes (often very last minute) when setting up a tour announce right through to when a show or tour may need to be unexpectedly rescheduled or cancelled. Plenty of practice with that during the COVID years. And having formed many strong friendships with team mates over the years, knowing they’ll be family for life.

Do you have any tips on how to thrive working in the Marketing + Communications team within in the live music and entertainment industry?

A positive energy, problem solver and capacity to adapt to a fast-paced workload and ever-changing media landscape! And to be a lover of live music!

What has been a major highlight in your career so far?

Prior to working at Mushroom and having constantly nagged Reegan Stark (my now #boss of ten years!) with Kylie questions and ticket buys over the years, to now having worked on Kylie’s Kiss Me Once and Golden tours (with Reegan), is a major highlight to say the least. 13 year-old me would have pinched himself seeing his name in the Golden tour program, something I only ever dreamt off at every one of the 58!! times I’ve seen Kylie live.

Ready for Kylie’s next tour thanks!

What's the piece of advice you've learnt along the way?

'Don't fuck it up!' from Michael Gudinski.

Lastly, if someone was looking to apply for a role within your team at the Mushroom Group, what qualities do you think would make them a good fit?  

MG was always about bringing THE VIBE so that’s definitely a, if not, THE #1 quality! A good work ethic and the ability to adapt to change in the fast-paced live touring world are fundamental qualities too. Oh, and the ability to manage the various systems and software programs used to make the highly successful Frontier wheel turn!