The owner of a Midland record label has finally cracked America, and believes Birmingham’s rock and pop heritage played a huge part in his success.

Gotham Records, part of Barry Tomes Media Group, has signed a £30,000 contract to provide public relations support for a US music TV show, won a lucrative sponsorship deal from a US popcorn brand and has signed several rising American artists – all within a year of opening a Los Angeles office.

Mr Tomes, who founded his firm 40 years ago and worked with the likes of Lulu and Alvin Stardust, said his Birmingham roots played a major role in landing the deals, as the city’s rock credentials are well known on the west coast of the US.

After winning the contract to promote NBC‘s The Jimmy Lloyd Songwriter Showcase – he brought the programme to the Midlands to film an episode at Birmingham Library Theatre and managed to get local band Super6 – which is signed to Gotham – on the show.

He said: “Birmingham is the heart of rock and roll, and the Americans love it. Led Zeppelin, Ozzy Osbourne, Judas Priest – they love them.

“And they love the fact my company is from Birmingham, rather than London.”

He added: “We went over to America last March and met with someone from NBC and I was talking about Birmingham, and reeled off 30 names of artists from the city, and he was astonished.

“Americans tend to think everything from the UK is from London but I encouraged them to come over to see Birmingham and they did – with some filming at the library.

“In LA Birmingham and its history are loved. The Osbournes has helped, but Roy Wood is still worshipped there, and ELO.”

Mr Tomes, who is originally from Northfield, was previously a tour manager for Lulu and has represented the likes of Right Said Fred and Brotherhood of Man over the years.

He has been helped by UK Trade and Investment in the West Midlands, which supported a visit to the South by South West music festival in Texas last March, which played a major part in his success.

UKTI then supported him on a mission to Hollywood in April last year where he met 230 key US music supervisors and visited the NBC Universal Television studios and the Disney/ABC offices.

While there he struck a sponsorship deal with popcorn brand Oogies which led to a contract with The Jimmy Lloyd Songwriter Showcase, that highlights young talent in the US.

He has since signed a contract to provide public relations for another US music show called Real Music Live, and the company will be representing British Music Week in San Francisco this May.

Mr Tomes said the US now accounts for 30 per cent of the company’s turnover and expects this to rise to around 70 per cent by the end of this year.

He said interest from the other side of the Atlantic has been helped by his views on the music business. Income from singles and licensing fees – traditionally the way record companies make money – have become even more obsolete there than in the UK, and he has embraced the challenge the likes of iTunes has set by focusing more on public relations and branding.

Now his income also comes from promotional deals and by selling music into television programmes.

Paul Meikle of UKTI said more firms could trade off the nation’s rich pop heritage abroad.

“The UK music industry has a reputation for originality and quality which makes it an extremely marketable product for overseas markets such as the US, Japan and China,” he added.