Rick Palin

Rick Palin, head of Skyfire PR and Skyfire Records, passed away on 14th April 2022.

The former manager of Superfecta had a circuitous route into the music industry but was drawn into it, as most are, through a love of music. He was originally a lecturer of Psychology working in the US when he dipped his toe into being a radio DJ, having recognised that the Americans loved his accent. Then in 2008, his visa was revoked so he returned to the UK with the radio bug leading to him setting up Firebrand Radio.

Firebrand was the basis for a growing band of companies. Skyfire PR was first, where Palin wanted to demystify the world of music PR, as he said in 2019: “Essentially PR is a bit of a misleading use of terminology, what they should call it is what it really is, Sales & Marketing. At the end of the day you are looking to “sell” a product to a certain target market as in music to DJ’s and magazines so a very strong background in sales and marketing is virtually a pre-requisite for this job”

Skyfire Records and Skyfire Vintage came next, with Palin keen to differentiate the two: “Skyfire Records and Skyfire Vintage are two entirely different labels than most things seen out there at the moment. For starters both labels have full global physical and digital distribution through our partners. But the essential reason Skyfire Records was created was down to the fact that I work with a lot of up and coming bands as well as established ones and with the artist approaching distribution direct they are generally told to jog on. So as a pr client of Skyfire’s we offer distribution as part of the package, However, this is where is gets interesting we do not take a cut all the money from sales through distribution 100% of it goes directly back to the artist.

Skyfire Vintage on the other hand has been created to re-release albums that may have been passed over first time around because of either bad pr or dodgy record labels, so in essence it is a chance to relaunch albums that may have been missed first time around. Again, Vintage operates on the same prinicpals as Skyfire Records”

Palin was fundamental in starting the Cancer On The Rocks annual festival as well as guiding the careers of the likes of Superfecta and South Wales’ own The Autumn Killers through Skyfire Records. The Autumn Killers were quick to announce their sadness at the loss of one of their mentors, with the band saying on Twitter:

Rick was a great man, mentor to many and above all a music lover. He will be sadly missed and we send our condolences to his family and friends.