Vince Power

John Vincent Power CBE (29 April 1947 – 9 March 2024) was an Irish music venue and festival owner, and the founder of Mean Fiddler who lived and operated mainly in London.

Biography John Vincent Power was born in Kilmacthomas, County Waterford on 29 April 1947, one of eleven children. Power had enrolled to go to his local agricultural college at 16, instead he took the boat to Britain and travelled to Hemel Hempstead where his aunt lived. He found work at Woolworths but became homesick and returned home to Ireland. A few months later, returning with a friend, he arrived in Kilburn, London during 1963, the time known as the Swinging Sixties, a decade that saw an estimated 100,000 Irish people, travel to Britain seeking employment.

Power worked in various manual labour jobs before his move into the demolition of tenement slums, where he often came upon abandoned second hand furniture and identified an opportunity that he could profit from. He branched out into house clearance, his flair for advertising helped give him regular sales and turnover of stock. His several shops by now, were stocked with affordable and used furniture for a ready market in North West London. The success of the businesses and the income they generated allowed him to also pursue his main passion, music, more specifically country & western music.

A trip to Tennessee triggered his desire to bring the sound of Nashville to London, prompting Power to acquire and open the original Mean Fiddler, his first country and western club, which opened in 1982, within a former boxing gym in Harlesden. It soon became a key music venue attracting up and coming talent, Irish music and country stars. It was there that his music empire was founded and was soon expanded to eight major music festivals, 14 live music venues and a string of successful nightclubs and restaurants, once valued at £60 million.

In December 1996, Power opened a bar on Kilburn High Road. Initially known as Zincbar and Zn, it had to change its name after Terence Conran won a trademark case. His nearby Power's Bar, a pub and music venue, was managed by his son until it closed in September 2013 after 18 years.

Between 2001 and 2005, Power saw a significant share dilution of his holding in MFG, in return for him receiving payments of at least £13m. By May 2021, he had bought and become involved in the running of Dingwalls in Camden using his management vehicle PowerHaus. He died on 9 March 2024, at the age of 76.

Festivals Power helped popularise festivals in the UK through the rise of Reading, Leeds, The Phoenix, The Fleadh, Madstock, and numerous other one offs including the first Sex Pistols re-union in Finsbury Park. Kent Police and artists who appeared at that years Hop Farm Festival, including Primal Scream, Suede and Peter Gabriel were not paid, with the festival's debts totalling more than £4.8 million.

July 2018 saw the launch of Power's new festival Feis, held at the Liverpool Pier Head. Billed as the city's "largest celebration of Irish artists", the line-up included musicians such as Van Morrison, The Chieftains, Imelda May and Shane MacGowan.

Festivals Below is a list of some of the festivals Power was involved in running, with Mean Fiddler or as a standalone promoter. Reading, Leeds Glastonbury Phoenix Festival Hop Farm Music Festival Benicàssim Tribal Gathering Homelands Feis Liverpool Fleadh (London, Chicago, San Jose, Boston, New York, Glasgow, Ireland, San Francisco) Madstock, Finsbury Park Big Love Gig on the Green, Glasgow NASS (National Adventure Sports Show) Jam in the Park

Charitable work Power was involved in a number of charitable organisations, particularly Cradle, a Bosnian Children's Charity.