The board of Downtown Music Holdings is exploring the sale of the nearly 20-year-old music company in part because the family of its longtime supporter, the late Sir Douglas Myers, is considering closing its stake. But who was Douglas Myers and how did he get involved with Downtown?
Before Myers' investment in what was then known as Downtown Records helped propel Gnarls Barkley's 2006 hit “Crazy” to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and earn the duo a Grammy nomination for record of the year, he was the heir of one from Australia. the most successful brewing dynasties.
Myers was a fourth-generation brewer and a descendant of Polish Jewish immigrants to New Zealand. In 1965, he joined the brewing company that would become Lion Nathan and eventually spent about 15 years there as MD, CEO and eventually president, a position he rose to in 1997, according to his 2007 biography The Myers by Michael Bassett and Paul Goldsmith. In 1998, Myers sold the majority of Lion Nathan's stock to Japan's Kirin Brewery Company.
In retirement, Myers turned to philanthropy and some alternative investments, including, 69, Downtown.
The success of Gnarls Barkley's led to Douglas attending the 2007 Grammys, where he saw the duo, which consisted of Cee Lo Green and Danger Mouse, pick up two awards: Best Urban/Alternative Performance for “Crazy” and Best alternative music album for Elsewhere, St. In a subsequent interview on the New Zealand Evening News SundayDouglas described feeling overwhelmed.
“It's none of my business,” Douglas said, describing the event as “amazing. Lionel Richie was there, Tony Bennett, Sting was there… Beyoncé was there.”
Myers reportedly invested in Downtown because of his son Campbell Myerslove for music. Campbell Myers later served as Downtown's director of business development for a year from 2009-2010, according to his LinkedIn profile, and most recently founded and served as co-CEO of CreateMe, a tech-focused apparel maker with based in San Francisco.
Douglas died in 2017 after a long battle with cancer.
