PERSONALITIES: Tiff Rockin’ LIst Work
WHAT DO a list manager and punk rocker have in common? Nerve. So says Tom McCulloh, a.k.a. Tommy Frenzy of the late ’70s-early ’80s punk band Tuff Darts. “I can stand in a room with 3,000 people and not have trouble talking because I’ve performed in front of that many people,” he points out.
McCulloh is vice president at The Listworks Corp., Pleasantville, NY. But in 1979, he was lead singer and guitarist for Tuff Darts, which signed with the Sire/Warner Bros. Records label.
The group did well (their big hit was “Your Love Is Like Nuclear Waste”), selling 50,000 records. McCulloh played on stage with Mick Jagger and Pete Townshend. The fast success went to his head, though, and led him to break off and form another band, Big Spender. Still, money was a problem.
In the mid-’80s, friends suggested he take a day job in the list industry – and the rest is history. McCulloh enjoys his second career and says it has enhanced his ongoing musical interest.
He’s selling his new CD, “Businessman,” on his Web site (www.tommyfrenzy.com). He’s researching insert programs and collecting a database of buyers. And he’s earned enough from online sales to record his next CD.
“At one point I had the brass ring,” McCulloh reflects. “But I was 23 years old…I didn’t treat music as a business, and everything fell apart for me and I was forced to get a real job. Now I’m a businessman, so the business part won’t fall apart.”
