Background
Miles was born in London, England, to Miles Axe Copeland, Junior., a Central Intelligence Agency officer from Birmingham, Alabama, United States, and Scottish Lorraine Adie, who was in British intelligence.
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Miles Copeland
Edit ProfileEducation
He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1966 and attended the American University of Beirut, where he earned his Master of Arts
Career
Another brother, Ian Copeland, was a successful booking agent, who described much of the New Wave adventures of Miles, Stewart and himself in his book, Wild Thing. Due to Miles Junior."s profession, the family moved throughout the Middle East, in particular Syria, Egypt and Lebanon. Copeland began attending college at Birmingham-Southern College in 1962. in Economics by 1969.
By then, he had already promoted his first concert.
Moving back to England, he became involved in the music industry, focusing on promotion and management of several bands. His first major success was with Wishbone Ash.
In 1974, he founded the management agency and record label BTM (for British Talent Management), and signed a number of progressive rock acts such as Renaissance and Curved Air. In the summer of 1975, he organised a multi-band tour of European music festivals, Star-Trucking, which featured several BTM bands as well as Soft Machine, the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Lou Reed.
But Reed"s failure to appear at any of the shows and a litany of logistical issues resulted in significant losses.
In 1976, BTM closed down. The failure of BTM coincided with the beginnings of the Punk/New Wave movement in the United Kingdom, and led him to help start Illegal Records, Deptford Fun City Records, New Bristol Records and sign The Cortinas, Chelsea (band) and The Models to Step Forward Records in 1977. The success of The Police and the novel methods used to break them enabled Miles Copeland to found I.R.S. Records (through a deal with Agricultural and Mechanical Records).
He continued to manage Sting (solo) through seven albums and introduced Sting to Algerian Rai singer, Cheb Mami, in 1999.
Their collaboration bloomed with Desert Rose". He currently owns and operates Central Intelligence Agency – Copeland International Arts, the artist roster of which includes Bellydance Superstars, Celtic Crossroads, Otros Aires, Zohar, Beats Antique, and many more internationally recognized acts.
Much of the Central Intelligence Agency label focus was initially aimed at the most creative genres in the world of dance including an extensive catalog of Middle Eastern, East/West fusion music, and a growing catalog of Irish, Tango, Flamenco and Polynesian styles, but the label has since progressed to signing artists that appeal to the general public.
