I'm an absolute FMP newbie

I have a table called 'artists' and another called 'contacts'.

And I have a layout with a portal listing that artist's contacts

However.. In real life, each 'contact' can be linked to many 'artists'. E.G one guy might manage three bands

I would really appreciate any of you pointing me in the right direction of allowing a 'contact' to be linked to many 'artists'

 

You have a many-to many relationship between Artists and Contacts (many artists can have many contacts).  You need a join table Artist_Contact between them.

Artist::id >----< Artist_Contact::Artist ID
                  Artist_Contact::ContactID >------< Contact::ID

Make your portal based on Artist_Contact, and include the relevant fields from Contacts in the portal

That comment was clearer to me than anything I've read on Google about this today. I've done that but the portal is blank.

See if this helps:
http://fmforums.com/topic/50942-portal-grouping-problem/#comment-239210