Farewell to A Beautiful Soul, Warren Costello

The passing of Warren Costello, one of the talented, certainly one of the nicest people behind the scenes in the music Australia, is an incredibly sad shock to everyone who knew him.

We knew Warren was sick, we knew how sick he was, but you never wanted to think the inevitable when you heard the initial news.

For me it is very personal. Warren was one of the first people to reach out to me when my wife Ros O’Gorman passed away 4 years ago yesterday. His support then was comforting as was the support of many of my close friends. At times like these, we all need a shoulder and Warren was there.

I first met Warren when I was a young kid working in radio at 2ST on the South Coast of New South Wales. He was not long into the industry as well, working at Festival Records in Sydney but we had an instant friendship. We each went along a parallel career, which lead us both to Melbourne. I turned up at EON-FM, he turned up at Mushroom, and at Mushroom he created a legendary label in Liberation.

Warren was always that smiling face at any gig we were together at. That incredible history between us was unbreakable. We would argue over many facets of the biz over our years but the underlining respect for each other’s opinion was unbreakable. We remained friends of 40+ years regardless of our difference of opinions. I remember a furious phone call from him one day after a discussion I had with one of the artists. It didn’t matter. There was too much common ground to ever tear us apart.

And with Warren’s passing, so to has a part of the music industry. Warren Costello recognized the real talent, not the manufactured bullshit of pop stars today. He appreciated the art. He saw the core of creativity.

A piece of all of us goes with Warren today. Warren Costello was one person I truly respected and I will miss him dearly.

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