LAS VEGAS – The Parnelli Board of Advisors announced that Mark “Springo” Spring, production manager for Paul McCartney and other top artists, will receive the Parnelli Lifetime Achievement Award. The 19th annual Parnelli Awards ceremony returns to the Hilton in Anaheim, CA on Jan. 17, 2020, during Winter NAMM.
“Springo’s name has come up again and again as he is one of the most respected and admired guys in this business,” said Parnelli Awards executive producer Terry Lowe. “He’s worked side by side with an elite group of people who are really founders of this concert touring industry, several of whom have received this honor before him, including Gerry Stickells, Chris Lamb, Richard Fernandez, and Jake Berry. This honor is long overdue.”
Spring grew up in the Boston suburb of Needham, MA and was one of seven children. His father was an electrician, and the basics he learned from his dad led to an after-school job at the production/staging company Capron, which served New England. The skills he developed there were formidable, as Cal State University of Long Beach gave him a scholarship. He would graduate with a degree in Technical Theater, but not before summers had him back in Boston doing more work, developing more live event skills. He would meet another future legend in the business, Dale “Opie” Skjerseth, and together they went out on what would be Spring’s first tour, Sha Na Na. After college, he ended up at Showlites under another Parnelli Lifetime honoree, Eric Pearce.
From then, Spring worked with a stunning variety of acts: Spice Girls, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Metallica, Ricky Martin, Steve Perry, Bob Dylan, Seal, Def Leppard and George Michael, among others. Since 2002, he’s been production manager on all of Sir Paul McCartney’s tours, including the current “Freshen Up” world tour that began last fall and visits North American venues starting May 23 in New Orleans.
“Mark has always been willing to do whatever was needed to be done in order to make things go smoothly for the performance,” said Richard Fernandez, formerly with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and currently with Jeff Lynne. Fernandez, who received the Parnelli Lifetime Achievement award in 2016, first worked with Spring when Spring was stage manager for a Bob Dylan/Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers tour in 1986. “His intelligence and attention to detail are two traits that make Mark an extremely good production manager,” Fernandez said, of Spring. “He is also one of the funniest people that I know.”
“I am privileged to be in with such an amazing group of people,” Spring said. He will receive the Parnelli Lifetime Award at the 19th annual gala Jan. 17, 2020 at the Hilton Hotel at the Anaheim Convention Center, as part of the NAMM Convention, “NAMM Live.”
For more information, go to www.parnelliawards.com.
