S Club manager shoots up rich list

Music boss Simon Fuller has seen his fortune swell by £40m (€57.8m) in the past year, according to an annual rich list.

The manager turned media mogul – whose protégés S Club announced their split this week – is now worth £90m (€130m).

He is just ahead of Ozzy Osbourne in the list compiled for the Sunday Times, to be published this weekend.

The former Black Sabbath rocker turned fly-on-the-wall TV star is worth £85m (€123m) along with wife Sharon, double their total for the previous year.

Britain and Ireland’s wealthiest music star continues to be Paul McCartney who is £47m (€68m) richer in a year.

He is now worth £760m (€1.1bn), according to expert Philip Beresford who compiled the 2003 list.

The former Beatle had a hugely successful US tour in 2002 – last year’s biggest moneyspinner – and continued to rake in cash from his back catalogue.

His position next year looks fairly strong as he is still making a fortune with his first European tour in a decade.

McCartney's expanding stockpile has now pushed him into Britain’s top 30 wealthiest people for the first time. He has moved up from 34 to 29.

His nearest rival, impresario Lord Lloyd-Webber, is still way behind on £400m (€578m), down £20m (€29m) on his estimate for 2002.

Third-placed Cameron Mackintosh, the theatre producer, saw an even more dramatic fall from £400m (€578m) to £335m (€484.5m).

Beresford said: “Profits have fallen for both of them as a result of the West End slump.”

Fuller – whose charges S Club are thought to have made only around £500,000 (€723,000) each from their four-year careers – benefited largely from hit TV series Pop Idol.

As well as making money from the format of the talent show, which has now been sold around the world, his company also manages the careers of many of the Pop Idol contestants.

The ITV1 series has produced chart-topping acts such as Will Young, Gareth Gates and Darius Danesh. The manager – who heads the 19 Entertainment empire - gets a 20% cut of contestants’ earnings.

Fuller has now shot up 20 places in the music millionaire list to 21. And his boost in fortune sees him fly up a colossal 500 places in the overall Sunday Times Rich List, from 874 to 359.

Robbie Williams saw his riches almost double in a year, from £35m (€50.6m) to £68m (€98m). He is now worth more than George Michael, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, each worth £60m (€86.7m).

He has also overtaken Rod Stewart – again a £60m (€86.7m) rocker – whose ex-wife, Rachel Hunter, Williams was reported to be dating.