ABSTRACT
The 1960s may have been the 'swinging sixties' for popular music, but for Ibbs and Tillett the decade would prove to be full of changes, not all of them wished for, and many of them of more significance than might have appeared to Emmie and her fellow Directors at the time. Because of the proliferation of agencies, Ibbs and Tillett was no longer quite the power it once was in the musical landscape. This despite the fact that, as a personality, Emmie was still held in awe by many artists beginning their careers, and it was still an agency on whose books most aspiring musicians wished to be included. Despite the ever-growing number of agencies, ironically brought about largely by the intransigence of Ibbs and Tillett, the agency was still the giant among them. The year 1956 had been its Golden Jubilee year and the pianist Gina Bachauer and her husband, the conductor Alec Sherman, organized a party for Emmie and the agency's staff on Saturday 2 June. As the firm's long-standing solicitor, Stanley Rubinstein, wrote to thank the Shermans, 'it was a charming gesture for I & T, and at the same time as one thought affectionately of Emmie, one also remembered John and Bobby with gratitude'. Telegrams of congratulation were received from Nancy Evans, Cyril Smith, Phyllis Sellick, and Ilona Kabos, while Lady Jessie Wood cabled her 'congratulations on keeping the flag flying in traditional manner'. With the best of intentions, the Honorary Secretary of the Edinburgh Choral Union seems to have got his facts wrong, when he wrote to Emmie on behalf of the choir to congratulate her (rather than the agency) on 'some fifty years' business life with the firm so very closely associated with your name, a very great achievement indeed, and one of which you must be very proud', whereas Emmie had been a young girl of 10 when it was formed back in 1906.
