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PREMIUM ›› VOL. 90 ›› MARCH 2007
ILMC 19: ‘Let’s
Work Together’
McGowan’s Musings:
Allan McGowan am@vip-booking.com
This is the time when the anagrams start
to run into each other, reeling from a
weekend in the bosom of the great and
the good of the live music industry in the
London hotel that has become the home
of the ILMC, SXSW beckons on the other
side of the Atlantic! There’s only a day in
between and a VIP Newsletter to complete! But if you’re reading this, then I must
have somehow managed to fit it all in, and
hopefully I’m on my second bloody mary
on the BA morning flight to Dallas!
ILMC 19 seems to be a testament to the
fact that the worldwide industry is growing, and reassuringly, that with all the
electronic means of communication now
available, the people that make up this industry still have the human urge to meet
and talk face to face, and to have FUN!
– very much a component of the Conference. ILMC 19 was a complete sell out – the
biggest gathering yet, and as you will see
from my resumé and from Manfred Tari’s
report much of worth came out of it. SXSW
has also grown – some say it is now too
big, so we shall see, and I will report in the
next issue of the News.
This is definitely the era of the come
back, even Rocky’s out there getting into
the ring again at 60+, what with Genesis,
The Police etc. I was startled to see a re-
Allan McGowan
port that at first seemed to indicate that
Michael Jackson was reforming! My first
thought was that the plastic had finally
lost shape and that everything was having
to be remoulded, till I realised that it was a
Jackson 5 come back tour that was on the
cards. Following Take That’s recent lightning sell out, George Michael, who hasn’t
been around for a while, is to be the first
performer to play the refurbished Wembley Stadium, he sold out his June 9 date
in hours on Thursday March 8, and may
well do a second concert. It seems there’s
hope for us all!
So, as I stare at another spread of barbecue,
which like the one in the bar yesterday,
declares itself, in only the way that bits of
dead animal and steaming beans can, ‘the
finest in Austin!’, you will all I hope sit comfortably and read the News!
This 19th ILMC sold out in advance at
its largest capacity yet, around 875
delegates started arriving in London
on the Wednesday prior to the Conference proper which ran over the
weekend of March 9-11. For the first
time showcases took place on the
Wednesday and Thursday nights and
an enthusiastic take up indicates that
these will become a regular part of the
ILMC programming.
This year the Conference took ‘transparency’ as its overall theme. Initially it
appears that this implied call for openness, clarity and, basically, honesty,
was intended to apply to the various
elements of the live industry in their
dealings with each other – what in
fact came across was a seemingly new
found willingness to take responsibility for a much matters of greater scope
than previously taken on board.
It seems to me that the relative stability and the undoubted prosperous
growth of the live sector has caused
many live music industry professionals to step back and consider their
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positions within THE MUSIC INDUSTRY: This
has perhaps come about through observation of the trials, tribulations and frankly,
the decline of other elements of the music
business, recording, distribution, retail etc.
After an initial period of schadenfreude, and
perhaps some gloating, comes the realisation that there is a necessary eco-structure,
and eventually the disappearance of certain
pillars and foundations will cause a generalised instability, producing knock on effects
that could affect the at present seemingly
rock steady live sector. The structures have
either to be repaired or rebuilt and it may
well fall to live to take a leading role in the
reconstruction.
A call to ‘work together’ went out from
many of the weekend’s meetings, ranging
from Harvey Goldsmith’s, as usual, forcefully delivered opinions, initially at the
Talking Shop where Carl Leighton Pope
played Devil’s Advocate on the dangers or
otherwise of secondary ticketing, calling for
more communication with audiences, also
reflected in Feargal Sharkey’s closing session on Sunday, to the discussion on a new
relationship between music publishers and
live, in which Marjanna Manders of Mojo
(NL), talked of the two areas having’ different interests but common goals’.
COLOPHON ››
A much broader spectrum of issues were
confronted than in previous years, new
technologies, including Second Life were
Carl Leighton-Pope
displayed and examined, the ignoring of
which arguably stopped the recording industry from arresting or at least slowing
their decline. A realisation that the live industry are co-stakeholders in the profitability of the brands also known as artists was
explored in the ‘Putting the ‘r’ into bands’
panel, and reviewed in the Sunday Supplement where new business models were proposed to service and finance the marketing
of these products. There is an awareness of
how vulnerable these brands based on the
well being and efficiency of individual humans are – one fall from a palm tree could
remove one of the most established ‘brands
from our stages and shelves!
This was a vibrant Conference full of realisation and a ready enthusiasm not previously
as obvious, to build a future on cooperation
– to work together!
VIP-News is published by:
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26 York Street
London W1U 6pZ
Managing Director:
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rd@vip-booking.com
General Manager:
Peter Briggs
pb@vip-booking.com
Writer and editorial:
Allan McGowan
am@vip-booking.com
Writer:
Manfred Tari
mt@vip-booking.com
For advertising enquiries pls. contact
Peter Briggs pb@vip-booking.com
or +44 870 755 0092
Lay-out:
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info@pekayegraphics.com
Martin Hopewell welcomes delegates at ILMC 19
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The Great Escape Festival
Written by Robert Adamik of Pop100.com , Manfred Tari mt@vip-booking.com and Peter Briggs pb@vip-booking.com
The Great Escape is on its way to become
one of the most promising showcase festivals in Europe. The second edition of the
event will again take place in Brighton and
is scheduled from May 17 to May 19. During the daytime a conference program will
be offered to serve professionals while the
night belongs to the artists and audience.
The conference program features a “Music in Media Day“ and a “Music Ally Digital Day“. Amongst others Tim Westergren
(Founder of Pandora), Barney Wragg (Global Head of Digital, EMI Music) and Charles
Caldas (CEO, Merlin) will discuss the latest
and forthcoming digital evolutions and
their effect on the music business.
The Great Escape offers the chance to
see the “next big thing” in advance,
when 180+ bands from all over the world
play at 20 different venues. Acts already
confirmed show an impressive line up including The Magic Numbers, The Rakes,
Daniel Benjamin, Jack Penate, Gallows,
The Hours, Polarkreis 18, Ali love, Children Collide, My Device, The Envy Corps,
Frank Turner, The Immediate, Indigo
Moss, The Noisettes, Oh No Ono, The
Whip and many more hotly tipped artists
for 2007.
The first Great Escape Festival took place
in 2006 and was a huge success in terms
of showcasing export ready bands. Success stories from last years festival bill
booked by Martin Elbourne and the Barfly Bookings Team include: The Fratellis
who’s debut album went to No 2 in September and is now platinum, The Kooks
who have now achieved over one million
album sales in the UK, The Feeling now
with multi platinum sales in the UK. International acts like Metric (CAN), You
Say Party We Say Die! (CAN), Holy Fuck
(CAN), Disco Ensemble (FIN), Scissors for
Lefty (USA) Tapes N Tapes (USA), Spleen
United (DK) Spinto Band (US) and Howling Bells (AUS) all saw their UK profiles
significantly enhanced following their
Great Escape shows in 2006.
»Stefan Reichmann of Haldern
Open Air is assembling a
German delegation to join The
Great Escape«
2007’s Great Escape Festival plans to be
bigger and better. With Brighton’s larger
capacity venues on board for year two it
has been possible to book even bigger
bands than last year, enabling even more
music fans to share in the experience.
These venues include The Corn Exchange
and The Pavilion Theatre.
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The Great Escape
Currently Stefan Reichmann of Haldern
Open Air is assembling a German delegation to join The Great Escape.
Tickets for the event are now on sale and
are expected to sell fast. Early Bird tickets
can be purchased at http://www.escapegreat.com/tickets/ or by calling the ticket
hotline on +44 (0)8700 600 100. . A threeday ticket for the concerts cost £35 while
the professional registration to join the
“Music in Media Day” and “Music Ally Digital Day” is £150.
For more information visit the The Great
Escape homepage:
www.escapegreat.com
VIP- News - M a r c h 2 0 0 7
DF Concerts Wins SECC Promoter of the Year
Allan McGowan am@vip-booking.com
DF Concerts, Scotland’s biggest promoter,
has won the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC) Promoter of the
Year award.
The SECC staged 90 concerts in 2006 with
Glasgow-based DF Concerts promoting more than any other company at the
venue, including sell-out performances
from Muse, Kaiser Chiefs and Kasabian. To
mark the achievement the Company, also
responsible for the T-in the-Park Festival,
was presented with an acre of sustainable woodland in the Caledonian Forest
as part of the SECC’s commitment to the
environment.
European promoter Live Nation came in
second, presenting shows with acts such
as Guns N Roses, Dame Shirley Bassey and
Iron Maiden.
DF’s unusual and unique award was chosen
by the SECC in support of the Dundreggan Wild Forest Project, managed by Scottish charity Trees For Life. The restoration
project supports th e protection and expansion of natural woodland in the Dundreggan Estate, which is part of the Caledonian Forest. The project aims to restore the
forest to 600 square miles of the Highlands,
West of Inverness.
Morag Lawson, director of events and exhibitions at SECC said: “DF concerts brought
a fantastic selection of high-profile concerts
to the SECC in 2006 and we are delighted to
present them with this award. We chose to
SECC promoter of the year
purchase an acre of natural woodland on
behalf of DF concerts, making them Founding Sponsors of the Dundreggan Wild Forest
Project. The award presented a great opportunity for the SECC to support a local environmental project, whilst recognising the huge
contribution that DF Concerts has made to
live entertainment in the last twelve months.”
Venture Capitalists Back New Festival
Allan McGowan am@vip-booking.com
What is believed to be the UK’s first listed
fund designed to invest exclusively in live
events has launched its first major project;
Creative industries finance house Ingenious
Media is backing a festival near Liverpool
which will feature Keane and The Who.
The first Knowsley Hall Music Festival is
hoping that there is still enough demand
in what many see as an the already overcrowded outdoor music season to attract
80,000 people to the ancestral home of the
Earls of Derby during June.
»We’ll be looking to get in on
events that have the ability to
run every year and build up a
capital value«
- Duncan Reid
The event is being funded by a £50m fund,
which Ingenious is raising through listed
venture capital trusts. The company, founded by Patrick McKenna who previously ran
theatre impresario Andrew Lloyd Webber’s
Really Useful Group, intends to use the
funds to back a series of new trade fairs,
sports contests, conferences and theatre
productions.
The long term Ingenious plan is to create
franchises which could be sold on after a
also acted as sole corporate finance adviser on Robbie Williams’s £80m four-album
contract with EMI.
five-year period. Commercial director Duncan Reid said: “We’ll be looking to get in on
events that have the ability to run every year
and build up a capital value. Festivals and exhibitions are areas which we think have got a
lot of potential.”
Former chief executive of the Earls Court
and Olympia Conference Centre and Birmingham’s NEC, Andrew Morris, has been
recruited as a director of the two live events
trusts.
Ingenious will contribute a third of the
Knowsley Hall costs, with Cream Holdings
and Loud Sound Events, fronting the rest.
Starting life as a Liverpool nightclub 10
years ago, Cream introduced the annual
Creamfields festival, eventually expanding
the brand to Ibiza and South America.
The live events and music funds are designed to attract wealthy private investors,
because they qualify for income tax relief
for shareholders who remain on board for
at least five years.
The live music industry, in the UK and Ireland at least, has always complained about
the investments advantages that existed
for the film industry before tax loopholes
which attracted high net-worth individuals into film finance were closed by the UK
Treasury last year, Ingenious was a major
source of funding for the UK film industry
could this expertise be transferred to create
a new future for live music projects?
The Company has raised a number of
funds to invest in the media and entertainment sectors, providing the money
to market and distribute albums by Travis,
Peter Gabriel and The Prodigy. Ingenious
Knowsley Hall
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The Police Sell
Out in US and
Announce
European Dates
Allan McGowan am@vip-booking.com
The Police
It seems that audiences have been waiting for The Police reunion tour: The
band’s first tour for more than twenty
years begins May 28 in Vancouver. The
trio sold out their June US shows in Denver, Seattle, Oakland (48,000 tickets),
New Jersey and Los Angeles (52,000),
with second shows added for Denver
and Seattle in (June 6-7). Toronto on
July 22-23 sees a return to Canada, with
a second Montreal show selling out
quickly (July 25-26), The second part of
the North American tour starts on November 8, again in Toronto.
The European late summer early autumn
tour of indoor arenas and outdoor stadiums begins on Aug. 29 in Stockholm,
with another 13 shows so far confirmed.
Additional dates in Italy, Switzerland,
Belgium, and Denmark are in planning,
according to the band’s Web site.
UK Government Urged to take
Action on Ticket Touts
Allan McGowan am@vip-booking.com
Last week MP John Robertson told the
House of Commons that some websites offered tickets for the new Take
That tour for twice face value before
they even went on sale, all 370,000
tickets for Take That’s UK tour sold
out in just three hours. Unauthorised
agencies are offering them for sale for
inflated prices, while more than 5,000
were listed on auction site eBay on the
Monday following their sell out on the
previous Thursday.
“Is it not time the government did something about this ticket touting and
make sure the people that do it end up
in jails?” he said. The government has
condemned touting - but refused to
make it illegal.
»Members of the public,
where it is fair, want the
facility to be able to sell on
tickets themselves«
- Shaun Woodward
Other popular gigs and festivals are
also in high demand, with festivals in-
cluding T in the Park and Glastonbury
taking their own measures to try to cut
down on touting. Pete Wishart MP, a
former member of rock group Runrig,
asked: “Why is it being left to the music
industry to try and address this problem? “Surely the government should be
doing more to protect music fans from
this touting.” reative Industries Minister Shaun Woodward responded that
ticket touting as “a very serious issue”
and the government was working with
the industry and the public “to achieve
a clampdown”. But calls for touting to
be outlawed have been rebuffed. Mr
Woodward said fans did not want the
government to “over-intervene”. “Members of the public, where it is fair, want the
facility to be able to sell on tickets themselves,” he said. “We condemn the practice where it’s wrong but it’s also important to get a grip on how proportionate
this is because it is only a minority who do
this - albeit a minority we condemn.”
The members of the Executive Committee representing the ticketing in-
The Police’s European tour dates:
Aug. 29: Stockholm (Globe)
Sept. 4: Birmingham, England (NIA)
Sept. 8: London
(Twickenham Stadium)
Sept. 11: Hamburg (AOL Arena)
Sept. 13: Amsterdam (Arena)
Sept. 16: Prague (Sazka Arena)
Sept. 19: Vienna (Stadthalle)
Sept. 22: Munich (Olympiastadion)
Sept. 27: Barcelona (Olympic Stadium)
Sept. 29: Paris (Stade de France)
Oct. 13: Dusseldorf, Germany
(LTU Arena)
Oct. 15: Manchester, England
(MEN Arena)
Oct. 19: Cardiff, Wales
(Millennium Stadium)
Minister of creativ industries Shaun Woodward
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VIP- News - M a r c h 2 0 0 7
dustry were left disappointed by their last
meeting with the Secretary of State, Tessa
Jowells. The follow up press statement issued by Rob Ballantine of SJM Concerts, declared: “We welcome the Secretary of State’s
statement that she is against the resale of tickets by touts. Yet after a long process she was
not able to explain what action the Government proposes to take to help stamp out the
problem. Whilst this is frustrating, the Secretary of State has asked for further evidence on
key issues and promised that the Government
will come to a final decision in the coming
weeks. We will provide that evidence. The next
few weeks are critical to our industry as they
will determine whether the Government has
decided to side with the touts or to intervene
to protect fans and the long-term health of the
concert, theatre and sport sectors .In summary
we’ve not got very far. Clearly Tessa doesn’t like
the murky world of Touting but she can’t seem
to decide what to do about it. Our intention is
to shame their continued fence sitting.”
TicketExchange system In London on 09
March 2007 – Wembley Arena today announced that Ticketmaster, launched its
new TicketExchange system for the venue.
Consumers who purchase tickets through
Ticketmaster will now be able to resell tickets for sold out Wembley Arena events that
they are unable to attend. The first event
to offer this new service to ticket holders is
Shakira on 18 March.
TicketExchange:
TicketExchange is presented as a safe, secure and legitimate alternative to the unauthorised secondary ticketing market.
Using TicketExchange at Ticketmaster.
co.uk buyers select the ticket(s) they want
based on price and seat location. The sale
is completed through the Ticketmaster
system with no risk to the buyer – hopefully removing need for ticket buyers to coordinate delivery from anonymous sellers,
and buyers are assured that the tickets are
legitimate and valid for entry. Only tickets
originally purchased through the Ticketmaster system are eligible for resale and
those tickets may be resold at face value.
Meanwhile Ticketmaster and Wembley
Arena announced the launch of their
Wembley Arena has also recently installed
AccessManager, Ticketmaster’s access con-
trol system, which works in tandem with
TicketExchange. This offers the ability to
scan bar-coded event tickets to validate
tickets in real time. The system deters
counterfeit tickets through its ability to
scan the unique barcode on the ticket and
deny access where appropriate. It also denies access to tickets that have been invalidated by being resold via the un-authorised secondary market against the terms
and conditions of sale.
Wembley Arena patrons are also now able
to download and print their own tickets,
with the introduction of Ticketmaster’s
TicketFast e-ticketing solution. Customers
can choose to print their tickets at home,
rather than waiting for them to be posted
or having to queue at the box office. The
unique barcode printed on the ticket is
scanned at the venue utilising Ticketmaster’s AccessManager technology. TicketFast tickets to sold out events may also
be exchanged on Ticketmaster’s TicketExchange.
Having the right tools for the job is often the key to success. Through our ongoing communication with key Live
Entertainment Industry Professionals, we have developed a range of services to meet the demands of agents, promoters, talent buyers, venue bookers etc. It’s no coincidence that we are now considered to be the No. 1 information
provider for this thriving industry.
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VIP-News
Written by our highly merited journalists, Allan McGowan and Manfred Tari, with over 50
years of experience between them in the Entertainment Industry, VIP-News brings the latest news and views directly to your computer
keeping you up to date at all times.
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VIP- News - M a r c h 2 0 0 7
Festivalguide.de reloaded
Written by Robert Adamik of Pop100.com and Manfred Tari mt@vip-booking.com
Festivalguide.de, the live music information online site from the German music
magazine Intro, undergoes a re-launch.
The bi-medial outlet offers facts, info and
news about all festivals across Europe. To
coincide with the start of the 2007 openair season, the website now has a brand
new look with additional features.
The freshly redesigned site puts its focus
on the music fan himself and therefore is
enriched with so called user-generated
features. Editor Boris Fust comments:
“The festivalguide user can make friends,
share news and arrange dates at music
events.” A special feature is the interactive
timetable, which easily shows which festivals users are going to”.
The print copy of the festivalguide magazine will be released on May 16 and
contains a fully packed DVD with videos
and specials about the 2007 festival artists and bands. The circulation is 250.000
distributed all over Germany with 50.000
including the DVD sold at 4.50 Euro per
copy, the remaining 200.000 copies are
distributed for free.
Festivalguide is the leading German festival service publication. But besides this
pole position the festivalguide-team
sets itself high standards: “We want to be
the Swiss pocket knife for all festival information”, as Boris Fust points out ambitiously.
Munich to host the MTV Europe Music Awards 2007
Written by Robert Adamik of Pop100.com and Manfred Tari mt@vip-booking.com
Germany will for the third time host the
annual MTV Europe Music Awards (EMAs):
The premiere of the EMAs took place in
Berlin in 1992, then 2001 saw the event
being hosted by Frankfurt, and now, on 1.
November 2007, the Bavarian state capital will be the destination for the international music stars.
Richard Godfrey, Executive Producer of
the EMAs, appreciates MTV’s decision for
choosing the Bavarian metropolis and
the OlympiaHalle, built for the Olympic
Games in 1972: “Munich is one of Europe’s
great cities and will make an outstanding
backdrop for the show. In OlympiaHalle, we
have one of the world’s best music venues
that is perfectly equipped to cater for the
technological demands of this global multiplatform event and will be a terrific setting
for the glittering line up of artists.”
Catherine Mühlemann, Manager Director of MTV Networks Central, refers to
the good experiences MTV has had with
German cities as venues for the multimedia awards, which are commercialised on
TV, Mobiles and the internet: “The MTV
Europe Music Awards has been staged in
Berlin and Frankfurt to much acclaim, and
we’re delighted that Munich now has the
opportunity to colour the event with its own
local culture and personality. Munich is an
eclectic city with strong music roots. The OlympiaHalle Arena has a stellar reputation
as a leading entertainment centre attracting some of the biggest names in music
– the perfect venue to welcome the EMAs to
Munich.”
In 2006 the Awards were held in Copenhagen, where show-host Justin Timberlake welcomed stars like Muse, Nelly
Furtado, Keane, Killers, P Diddy, Snoop
Dogg and Rihanna. The show was broadcasted live across Europe, Africa and the
Middle East and had a potential audience of more than 1.4 billion people in
179 countries.
Christian Ude, Lord Mayor of the City of
Munich, adds: “I relish the prospect of this
superlative musical event - an event that
is so highly regarded, especially by youngsters and young adults around the globe.
Munich will be an enthusiastic host to the
MTV Europe Music Awards 2007. This event
offers the city a tremendous opportunity to
share its youthful vigour and vibrancy with
the world.”
MTV
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ILMC 19
Manfred Tari mt@vip-booking.com
Here we go again. A simple conclusion
that speaks for the quality of this conference, once again the 19th edition of
the ILMC was unable to accommodate
the number of visitors who wanted to
join the annual gathering.
the organisers to wonderful headlines
and subtitles such as Pollstar’s ‘Cozy
Nostra’ Cyper Café, “Turf Wars” for the
Festival Forum and “The Italian Job II”
for the Sunday Dinner hosted by Barley
Arts.
With around 900 visitors from 50 countries the ILMC proved already in the first
open session that this conference has
become a global gathering for the live
music business. The “New Delegates Orientation Briefing” that took place at midday on Friday was hosted by Alia Dann
and Greg Parmely. During this session
Dann more or less got the crowd into
the ILMC mood at the snap of her fingers. She and Parmely explained what
this conference is all about and mentioned that one of the unique selling
points is the “Sense of humour” that has
become a trademark of the ILMC. When
Dann encouraged the audience to get
involved and to use the ILMC as a forum, the global relevance of the ILMC
was revealed. She simply asked the
participants to introduce themselves
and to tell the reason why they came
to ILMC. Dann was pretty demanding
and it quickly became apparent that
there were people in the room from
Shanghai, India, Japan, Spain, Israel, the
Netherlands, US and even three from
the UK.
The Flight Attendant’s Briefing on Friday
afternoon was held as usual by Martin
Hopewell. While explaining what the
delegates could expect he dedicated
the ILMC19 to Jim Aiken, Erik Thomsen,
Lesley Keith and Ian Copeland who sadly, all passed away last year, and hoped
that they had found a way to sneak
into the event, even if he was a bit concerned that they might not have paid
the registration fee.
Straight after this “The Talking Shop”
-another ILMC conference evergreen
with Carl Leighton Pope as chairman
followed.
The ILMC is known for keeping up some
traditions that make an entertaining
difference compared to so many other
industry events that are around these
days. The settings of the current and
past ILMCs over the years have been
designed and choreographed, dedicated to themes such as the “Olympics”,
to “Professor Hardnock’s Academy”, to
“Lord Of The Rings”, “James Bond”. This is
only one side of the humorous coin; the
other one is certainly the rhetorically
ambitioned long time speakers that
enrich the agenda with their comments
and contributions.
- Carl Leighton-Pope
The interior and the conference agenda
of this year’s edition were dedicated to
the Mafia. An inspiring analogy that led
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Leighton Pope is for many ILMC visitors
just another trademark of the conference agenda. He started straight away
with the fact that he was impressed
with the “correlation between the live
music industry and the mafia.” He furthermore concluded, “if the recording
industry is the old mafia, the live music
industry is the new gang.”
»Sixties touring sold records,
today records sell tickets«
Despite the fact that some visitors said
that Leighton Pope tends to repeat
himself over the years, it should also
be pointed out that Leighton Pope
opened up the ILMC agenda with some
new conclusions. He reflected on the
new situation of the entire music business and picked up on facts that echoed throughout many of the other
panel sessions. He put emphasis on
how quickly and rapidly the business
is changing. Leighton Pope is without a
doubt a contemporary witness and has
the historical knowledge when he concluded that “Sixties touring sold records,
today records sell tickets.”
Leighton Pope is known for packaging some of his statements into jokes.
VIP- News - M a r c h 2 0 0 7
Nevertheless his remarks that the ongoing
crisis of the record industry will have an
impact on the currently healthy and prospering live music business reveal a sort of
wisdom that is not often found in a business, that to a larger degree is historically
built on short sighted impresarios and ego
minded entrepreneurs.
When he said that it has to be the youngsters that will find the new Beatles or Rolling Stones he raised an issue that will become, in combination with the comedown
of the record industry, a challenge and a
threat for the heavy weights of the live
music industry. Leighton Pope even recommended that in terms of the suffering
record industry we “have to deal with the
willy’s of the IFPI, BPI, FBI and the CIA.”
After the panel one of the delegates
agreed on the forecast of Leighton Pope
and concluded that this development will
hit big concert companies even harder
than the smaller ones. His argument being that the big ones especially, will be hit
twice as hard by a likely turnover decline
as they have higher overhead costs than
smaller business units.
Another issue Leighton Pope addressed
was the successor problem in the live music business which led to a little discussion
with Harvey Goldsmith saying “The difference between Harvey and me is that Harvey
doesn’t know that he is done” and added
“the old days are gone.”
He furthermore referred to a meeting he
had with Harvey Goldsmith and Al Gore
(Oh yeah, we are doing some concerts.”),
and asked where the power is today concluding that “Live Nation is the power” and
wondered why it took the American agencies CAA and William Morris 30 years to
march into the European agency market,
This was contradicted by Ed Bicknell who
said it actually took the Americans just 3
months when they involved him. Somewhere in between he did not forget to
praise Dick Molenaar and Harald Grams
for their engagement in lobbying for tax
reductions and winning cases such as the
“Scorpio” one.
After 20 minutes Leighton Pope took his
jacket off to get even more passionate
on the evergreen theme of ticket touting.
While the ILMC crowd generally doesn’t
react any differently from record company
executives when they complain about MP3
files and illegal downloading, this peer
group reacts on the trigger word Ebay.
Leighton Pope mentioned the “human aspects” of punters that desperately struggle
to get hold of tickets to the sold out shows
of their beloved artists. He recommended
that we take a look at how airlines run their
ticketing policy, which in principal is based
on a sales strategy known as “yield man-
agement” whereby supply and demand is
dynamically served.
He also asked the auditorium rhetorically
“Is anybody suffering?” from ticket sales
on Ebay and then led the discussion to
the Achilles Heel of the live music business. When somebody said that the entire
live music business including everybody
along the food chain (including artists
and managers) should team up to legally
fight and forbid the business of auctioning tickets, it was Michael Chugg who said
“We never have been united.”
»If the cat shit gets bigger than
the cat, get rid of the cat«
- Doc McGhee
A simple sentence but right on the point
bearing in mind that the live music business is, in comparison to the record industry, lousily organized. There is no IFLI
(International Federation of Live Music
Industry) such as IFPI. Even if there was,
compared to the record industry, the live
music industry is still in the stone age
when in comes to lobbying and reaching
agreements on a common agenda that
could be taken seriously by high ranking
decision makers in Brussels, Washington
or elsewhere. However, Leighton Pope
ended up by predicting that sooner or later The Entertainment Media Conglomerates will take over the live music business
anyway.
The Talking Shop led directly into something the ILMC is very good at: the celebration of Barry Dickens’ 60th birthday, one of
the few members of this relatively young
business that grew up in an entertainment
dynasty. His father Percy Dickens being
the founder of the NME, Dickens himself
moved into the business working with
acts such as The Who, The Nice with Keith
Emerson, Jimi Hendrix and The Cream and
therewith pioneered the fundamentals of
this business. The audience learnt that ITB
according to an assumption of Chris Evans
actually stands for “Income To Barry” and
that it started already in 1976 when he
met Rod MacSween. A wonderful tribute
film was screened, showing global live
music players advising the fictional band
Sex & Free Beer on who might be the best
European agent for them.
There was an abundance of very worthwhile panels during this year’s ILMC but
Ed Bicknell shared a hilarious breakfast with Doc McGhee
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VIP- News - M a r c h 2 0 0 7
due to limited space in this newsletter
and the fact that it was impossible to visit
them all we can only mention a synopsis
of them.
The Sponsorship Panel on Saturday was
packed and revealed interesting topics that
as well as being touched upon by Leighton
Pope in the Talking Shop also came up in
several other panels as well. Natasha Kizzie
of IE Music explained that they witnessed
an increase of international campaigns.
A campaign for Smirnoff took place in 36
countries and one for Hennessey in eight
countries. Nuala Donnely of O2 explained
the wide range of branding opportunities
the telco company undertakes from the O2
Arena, O2 branded concerts and grass roots
sponsoring. Actually Telco companies are
the ones that exploit the sponsor engagements in multiple ways - from exclusive
pre-ticket sales for customers, downloading of concert recordings and user generated content measures surrounding events
or bluecasts of information - these are the
companies that combine and utilize data
and visitors of events in a way that nobody
would have thought of 5 years ago.
However, practically speaking, sponsoring
is in some cases becoming more complicated. IE Music for instance is checking
every single venue as local sponsors could
cause difficulties for branding measures
on pan European campaigns. Also a great
deal of annoyance can be caused when a
tour and a venue become by sheer coincidence a battlefield of the grand Coca Cola
– Pepsi War. Somebody else asked where
the win-win situation occurs on a tour
such as Robbie Williams, when the artist
is sponsored by T-Mobile, the show takes
place in a O2 venue and the local promoter
is sponsored by Orange?
A diplomatic answer from the podium on
this subject was “it’s more that the people are seeing the advertisement than the
event.” Other issues raised were “Who owns
the customer data?” and that the common
agreement that sponsoring should be
based on “trust, information and transparency.” Indeed sponsoring in the live
music business is quite young compared
to business fields such as bakeries and
butchers. It’s about the “match with consumer behaviour” and “to deliver value to
customers.” In the summary the panellists
concluded that the relationships between
the different industries will get better in
the future and that artists won’t rely less
on traditional business models because of
sponsorships.
While the Sponsorship Panel was going on, the environmental debate Green
Room with “Cleaning Up Our Act” was unfortunately less attended. Nevertheless
the panel itself was a good one and some
of the topics mentioned in this debate
popped up one day later in the Festival
Forum debate. The rate of convergence for
this year’s conference edition was higher
than before and underlined what kind of
amendments the live music business is
currently undergoing.
One example was mentioned in the Festival Forum. While the media partners for
Glastonbury are the BBC, The Guardian,
Orange and the music magazine Q, we
are now seeing a competitive element
tackling the framework of media partnerships. When it comes to the whole new online and mobile media exploitation, all of
sudden all involved media partners want
more or less the same exclusive rights as
digital benefits for their media coverage
of the festival. Looking back to the sponsor panel there are easily common topics
to be identified. Green topics were also
discussed during the Festival Forum and
as a constructive solution, the idea was
born that the Yourope Green N’ Clean activities might work more closely together
with www.agreenerfestival.com and that
a databank should be set up containing
addresses of companies and organisations
that help to run festivals in a more environmentally friendly way.
Rikke Oxner from Roskilde Festival suggested having a green label for festivals
and she also asked for more British festivals to join the Green N’ Clean measure of
Yourope. But as mentioned earlier it will
probably take time before the live music
business identifies shared goals that lead
to this industry acting together and being
united on issues they all have in common.
Another good example of convergence
was the panel “Sunday Supplement” on
Sunday midday hosted by no one less than
Martin Hopewell handing over the stage to Carl Leighton-Pope and his talking shop
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VIP- News - M a r c h 2 0 0 7
our very own Mr Allan McGowan. With
the subtitle “Financial Pages” in mind, it’s
clear why Henning Toegel asked “Why do
we need investors when we could keep the
profit for ourselves?” It was Leighton Pope
again who answered this question properly when he said, “we need the expertise of
the other parties!”
»It’s your job to read the
contract«
- Sarah Waddington
Nick Hobbs and Peter Elliott chaired the
Booking Ring “Wise Guys Go Straight”.
While Hobbs directed the panel a bit
more actively than Elliot, it was a remarkable panel that handled tiresome issues
and concerns such as insurance and legal
issues in a very informative and appropriate manner. Although statements such as
“It’s your job to read the contract” by Sarah
Waddington aren’t that mind refreshing it
is good advice that everybody should take
seriously. Although we’ve all heard it before, that agents occasionally do not like
to sign contracts, everybody could imagine what Hobbs meant in terms of insurance issues when he asked “Can we mention the B-word? B as in Babyshambles”.
Last but not least the Breakfast Meeting with Doc McGhee was another Ed
Bicknell session that cheered up the delegates’ moods instantly. Statements by
Doc McGhee such as “If the cat shit gets
bigger than the cat, get rid of the cat” is a vital lesson everybody could learn from. He
also made statements such as “You can’t
manufacture an artist” and predicted that
the major labels will be gone in 5 years
from now as they have “The lack of understanding of how to break an artist.”
things have changed in just two decades.
This is demonstrated by amongst others
things, the fact that Kate Hopewell is now
organising showcases for the ILMC.
However, not everything said at the
ILMC19 should be taken too seriously but
this conference once again passed a milestone and proved to be very informative
for everybody still curious enough and
open minded about the business they are
in.
Services Above And Beyond:
Stage Co
Unfortunately this article does not cover
all the topics discussed at the ILMC19.
But this year’s edition revealed and documented as never before how the convergence and transformation of the live music business proceeds. It could be said that
this business is stepping into a new era
and the 20th anniversary of this conference will certainly reveal how drastically
The Arthur Awards 2007
Second Least Offensiv Agent:
Emma banks
The Promoters Promoter:
Herman Schueremans
Least Painful Tour:
Robbie Williams
First Venue To Come Into Your Head:
Wembley, London
Tomorrow’s New Boss:
Toby Leighton-Pope
Plumber Of The Year:
Jake Berry
Liggers’ Favourite Festival:
Rock Werchter
Peter Elliot and Nick Hobbs at the head of the Booking Ring (to the left)
11
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VIP- News - M a r c h 2 0 0 7
GOSSIP ››
Ronni Didriksen rd@vip-booking.com
Things that make you laugh
ILMC 2007
ARTIST AVAILS ››
Alabama 3
Territory:
Period:
Agency:
Agent:
Phone:
E-mail:
Homepage:
A we ll
a
S a t u r t t e n de d e v
d ay n
e n t at
ig h t
I LMC
is
to m
I re al ly ha ve
t
lis
ia
eye sp ec
t h e Ja
ak e a ne w ap
m se s
B r it is
F io n a is
ir !
own ha
s io n
po in tmen t w
h and y
e s it s h
er
Worldwide
March 2007 Onwards
Value Added Talent
Dan Silver
+44 207 704 9720
dan@vathq.co.uk
www.vathq.co.uk
Happy Mondays
Territory:
Europe
Period:
June - September
Agency:
Surrounded by the Enemy
Agent:
Peter Nash
E-mail:
gnasher@helterskelter.co.uk
Kurt Elling
Territory:
Period:
Agency:
Agent:
Phone:
E-mail:
Homepage:
Europe
July & August 2007
Ted Kurland Associates
Sean Greene
+1 617 254 0007
sean@tedkurland.com
www.tedkurland.com
Mark Stewart and the Maffia
Territory:
Europe
Period:
April
Agency:
Paperclip Agency
Agent:
Rob Berends
Phone:
+31 24 323 9322
E-mail:
rob@paperclip-agency.com
Homepage: www.paperclip-agency.com
it h th e
Mothers Finest
Territory:
Europe
Period:
Summer Festivals 2007, October 2007
Agency:
Kultopolis GmbH
Agent:
Markus Sollner
Phone:
+49 (0) 6861 939980
E-mail:
booking@kultopolis.com
Homepage: www.kultopolis.com
O k ay g u
y
yo u r t o
s g iv e me
ugh e s t p
o s s ib le lo
ok!
- no t a ba d
Vic ky is fro m LP O
dre w
An
for
t
en
em
lac
rep
Yo u o n ly
b o ugh t
a d r in k
Slaves to Gravity
Territory:
UK based. Touring all territories
Period:
NOW: 21st Century
Agency:
ITB
Agent:
Steve Zapp
Phone:
+44 207 637 6979
E-mail:
steve@itb.co.uk
MORE ARTIST AVAILS ON:
WWW.VIP-BOOKING.COM
f o r yo u
rs e lf !
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POST YOUR ARTIST AVAILS ON:
WWW.VIP-BOOKING.COM
VIPNews
VIP- News
- A u-g M
u s ta2r0c0h
5 2007
NOTICE BOARD ››
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opinions about the many aspects of our industry. Contributions should be emailed to readerspage@vip-booking.com.
ROCKERS PROMISE NO MERCY
Alice Cooper, Motorhead & Joan Jett and the
Blackhearts Team up for UK tour
Rock fans are in for a unique treat this November when shock rock guru Alice Cooper
teams up with legendary British rock’n’roll
hellraisers Motorhead & loud leather lovin’
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts for a valuepacked 10-date UK tour which promises a
relentless, ear-splintering, deliciously dirty
rock’n’roll experience. Each legendary artist is a leader in their rock genre.
Alice Cooper, the original shock rocker, has
entertained, surprised and disturbed audiences for over 30 years, fusing Detroit glam
metal with theatrical performances. With
over 30 albums-worth of material to draw
from, these shows promise classic Cooper
at his menacing best. Of the tour Cooper
said, “Having toured with both Motörhead
and Joan Jett before, and had a great time,
we’re really looking forward to an all-out
high energy show every night. They just don’t
do tours like this anymore, but we’re going to
do it. This is like a ‘No Mercy’ tour, we’re not
showing any mercy to anyone.”
Motörhead, one of rock history’s most pivotal bands, have spent the last few decades
bringing the house down with their blister-
Full details are:
November 07
Tuesday 6th
Wednesday 7th
Friday 9th
Saturday 10th
Sunday 11th
Tuesday 13th
Wed 14th
Friday 16th
Saturday 17th
Sunday 18th
City
Sheffield
Glasgow
Newcastle
Birmingham
Nottingham
Brighton
Bournemouth
Cardiff
London
Manchester
ing, blitzkrieg punk-metal juggernaut of a
live show. The powerhouse trio of Lemmy
Kilmister (Bass and Vox), Phil Campbell
(guitar) and Mikkey Dee (drums) received
rave reviews across the board for their 18th
studio album, ‘Kiss Of Death’, released on
SPV Records in August 2006; “Back to their
remorseless best” said Uncut, “The Sound of
a band at the very top of their game” - Classic Rock, and The Telegraph “It’s enjoyably
visceral entertainment, particularly the epic
anthem ‘God Was Never On Your Side’.”
Joan Jett, known for her trailblazing as
the founder of the first all girl rock and roll
band, the Runaways, and as the founder of
the first successful woman-artist owned
record label, Blackheart Records, and then,
for her breakout of punk cult status with
her mega-hit “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” (as a
member of Joan Jett and the Blackhearts)
has enjoyed a long and illustrious career.
Her kick-ass blend of rock and roll and
punk features catchy riffs and stunning vocals and has given her 11 groundbreaking
Top 40 USA singles and 8 gold/platinum
albums. Her latest album, Sinner, was released in the US last year on her own Black-
Venue
Hallam Arena
SECC - hall 4 (standing only)
Metro Arena
NEC
Nottingham Arena
Brighton Centre
BIC
Cardiff Arena
Wembley
MEN Arena
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heart Records label to amazing critical and
retail success, and is set for release in the
UK soon. She first hit the UK as a teenager
when she led The Runaways and, in addition to her musical achievements, she has
also enjoyed success as an actress. Joan
says, “I am looking forward to returning to
England, where my post Runaways solo career started, and where I have unfortunately
not performed for a very long time. Alice and
Lemmy are singularly unique and talented
artists, who I count amongst my friends. Lemmy, in fact, was one of the very few people to
help me when I started recording and touring
in England, long ago.”
For interviews, more information, photos
and to arrange competitions please contact:
Sharon Chevin @ The Publicity Connection
Tel: (020) 8450 8882, Fax: (020) 8208 4219
email:
sharon@thepublicityconnection.com
website:
www.thepublicityconnection.com
www.alicecooper.com
www.joanjett.com and/or
www.blackheart.com
www.imotorhead.com
VIP-Booking ApS cannot be held responsible for loss or damages
incurred as a result of transactions with individuals or companies
through the notice board. We recommend all to make the necessary
enquiries before entering into any agreements.
VIP-Booking ApS may not, for reason of space, be able to post all
announcements received. Announcements should be emailed to
noticeboard@vip-booking.com, including name and email address.
Please shorten your message to the extent possible, to make room for
as many notices as possible.
VIP- News - M a r c h 2 0 0 7
MEMBER PRESENTATION ››
In this
this section
section we
we offer
offer members
members of
of VIP-Booking.com
VIP-Booking.com some
some space
space to
to present
present their
their company
company to
to VIP-News
VIP-News readers.
readers.
In
If
you
would
also
like
to
present
your
company
please
contact
Peter
Briggs
at
pb@vip-booking.com
If you would also like to present your company please contact Peter Briggs at pb@vip-booking.com
Godset
Godset is an old warehouse previously owned by the national railway company – DSB.
In front of the house lorries unloaded their freights and this was
then loaded into train waggons on the other side of the building.
In 1995 DSB moved this acitivity to Taulov – a surburb to Fredericia.
This made it possible for Kolding Kommune to buy the building.
Godset as we see it today contents of a live scene, a café, rehearsel
rooms, demo-studio, youthcouncil and a room for various NGO
�s. The reason for these activities was founded back in 1993 where
a local NGO called Rock’In House, was working for establishing
rehearsel rooms and a livescene in Kolding.
After proving to the local politicians their needs and desires a political compromise known as the ”Rock’In Chair settlement” was
approved in the city council. This settlement made it possible to
establish Godset aswell as the chair museum at Trapholt – so everybody was happy either if they wanted to sit and look or stand
and listen.
The Live Scene: The live scene is
equipped with state of the art
equipment – both in sound and
lights. The room contains space for
up to 700 standing people or 300
seated. All acitivity here is made
by various NGO’s – mostly rythmic
music organisations due to the fact
that rytmic music is the political
priority at the live scene. All together there is about 150 events
every year. The organisation KAF, which is an umbrella-organisation for all NGO’s with conection to Godset, made a contract
with Kolding Kommune making KAF the one organisation which
decides who is alloved to use the live scene. KAF is also in charge
of licens to sell beers and wine and therefor also takes care of administrative work concerning the live scene. KAF also has a businesscontract with Kolding Kommune which means that Kolding
Kommune provides KAF with assistance in connection with buying goods, preparing budgets and everything else concerning
administrative work.
About Our Company
VIP-Booking’s core product is the Internet’s oldest and largest database for the European Live Entertainment Industry www.vip-booking.com developed as a tool for industry professionals. Since it’s
launch in the year 2000, we have consistently offered our subscribers the very best in database services and now boast subscribers in
over 30 countries.
Today VIP-Booking offers a range of tools for the industry – including VIP-News, VIP-Booking, VIP-Book and VIP-Contract.
Please visit vip-booking.com for further information.
Your comments and suggestions are always appreciated.
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