Aged 15, Don Gallacher was watching TV when on came The Beatles. From that day, Don knew what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. He formed a band with his school mates. Went professional. From that moment, Gallacher went on to do practically every job in the music business – from one side of the microphone as songwriter and artist through to the other – as recording engineer and producer. Then on to being a music publisher and record label owner Gallacher expanded into distribution, promotion and marketing, not to mention a little artist management (Don was the power behind the emergence of rock legend P.J. Harvey).
Don Gallacher then became well known as a legal and copyright consultant in the music and film industries, negotiating with film productions for use of his clients’ music.
Then, watching an American film on TV one day in 1983, the credits rolled and he saw the words ‘Music Supervisor’. Don thought ‘I could do that! Whatever ‘that’ is.’
Don was based in Soho London, the centre of the UK film industry. He knew a lot of film directors, producers etc., but not one of them had heard of the term Music Supervisor. So Don set about ‘inventing’ the job and trying to convince the industry that they needed his expertise. In 1988 he finally got a call from Granada Films who needed help with the Musicians’ Union. That was the beginning for Don, and the start of his long career.
Finishing up on an Irish / US co-production he got a call. It was the production supervisor in Hollywood. ‘Hi Don, just wanted to thank you for your deliverables. Excellent. Tell me, could you work on American movies?’ I said ‘Not that I want to talk myself out of work but don’t you have like a thousand music supervisors in ‘LA?’
‘Yes we do,’ she said, ‘But they don’t do what you do.’
‘What do I do?’
‘Everything!’ she said.
That is when Don found out that the job he had ‘invented’ was far more inclusive than the norm in Hollywood. That is why Don is always billed as a ‘full service music supervisor.’ In the 32 years since then, he has always delivered on time and never gone over budget.
Don has worked with:
Robert de Niro, Harvey Keitel & Geraldine Page Gabriel Byrne, Richard Harris & Samantha Morton John Lynch & Roger Daltrey Robert Lindsay & Molly Ringwald Michael Caine Gerard Butler & James Cosmo Luke Goss & Steven Berkoff Mena Suvari & Jack Huston Ray Winstone
