Mrs Casey Music…. a brief history

Mrs Casey Music (MCM) was created in 1971 by Steve Heap as a music agency to help sort gigs for bands and musicians.  The demand for artists was coming from clubs, societies, parent teacher associations and all manner of organisations looking to stage concerts, dances, fetes, festivals and carnivals.

From there MCM developed into a promotion company, festival organiser and conference planner.

We handled everything from booking and programming appropriate artists (by Alan Bearman, our Artistic Director), through planning infrastructure and on to staffing and managing events of all shapes and sizes.

We started a record label – Mrs Casey Records (MCR), to help promote up and coming new acts and further developed to release the first albums of Eliza Carthy and Nancy Kerr, Ruth Notman, Tyde, Merry Hell and Banter.

At the loss of our good friend and human activist Roy Bailey we produced a celebratory 4CD Box Set of his work from 1969-2016.

Our catalogue is not the biggest in the world but is well focussed and still available.

In 1987 we started The Association of Festival Organisers (AFO), and Steve held the role of General Secretary for 38 years.  In 2024 Steve commenced his retirement by merging the AFO membership into The Association of Independent Festivals (AIF), run by John Rostron CEO.

In the early 2000’s, Steve collaborated with several activists in the outdoor events industry to form the Events Industry Forum (EIF), which he chaired from 2004 to 2026.

The EIF handles the revision and publishing of The Purple Guide to Health and Safety at outdoor events, a worldwide recognised ‘Bible’ for events industry guidance. 

Steve’s full retirement is likely to come in 2026. Then Mrs Casey Music will continue to act as a consultant to the industry, a record producer and sales point (see Mrs Casey Records).  And along with being a visiting lecturer at Event Courses in several universities, Steve will always be available to pass on a vast amount of knowledge and experience gathered over the years.

In advising HM Government and several music related organisations he wishes to unload as much information as possible to help and encourage the people and the industry that has provided him with a ‘career’. 

Contact Steve – sh@mrscasey.co.uk or Tel: 07836 212899.