IQ118 preview

COMMENT AND COLUMNS

16

Venues: Our Cultural Hubs

Rebecca Kane Burton champions innovation as being key to meeting customer expectations across the venues and live entertainment industries

17

A Punch to the Gut

Jon Chapple writes about the experience of living – and working –with cancer 76

Members’ Noticeboard

The live industry in pics

What was your ILMC 35 highlight?

Cover photo: Måneskin performed at Forest National in Brussels on 3 March as part of their Loud Kids European tour © Fabio Germinario

TRADING PLACES

It was amazing to see so many of you at ILMC last month – more of you than ever before, actually, as the new hotel allowed us to invite a record-breaking 1,300 professionals to our annual gathering.

The bigger premises also allowed us to expand the conference programme, and judging by the numbers in the session spaces, that decision went down well, as more delegates than in ILMC’s history participated in our industry debates and discussions.

Everyone in the ILMC team left the Royal Lancaster Hotel feeling inspired and looking forward to the year ahead with a renewed sense of enthusiasm for what’s next at the International Live Music Conference. Planning is already afoot, so feel free to drop us a line at any time if you have suggestions for next year’s event.

Indeed, the switch to a new home has rubbed off elsewhere, and those of you who also attend the International Festival Forum, as the London summer turns to autumn, will also be treated to new surroundings when we relocate south of the River Thames to use the iconic OMEARA as our new base 26-28 September.

For anyone who missed out on ILMC this year – or for those who might just need a reminder – we’ve summarised some of the proceedings on page 18, while there’s more reportage and hundreds of photos on 35.ilmc.com.

Anyone fortunate enough to make it into the room for Ed Bicknell’s (Late) Breakfast Meeting experienced the legend that is Doc McGhee. And as 2023 marks 40 years since Doc unleashed McGhee Entertainment on Los Angeles, what better opportunity for us to relive his journey to the top (see page 30), while extracting some valuable advice and tips for others following their path in the business.

Also enjoying a landmark anniversary are the team at production specialists Ginger Owl, who have helped host some of the last decade’s most memorable live events (page 62).

Elsewhere, one group enjoying an extraordinary road to superstar status are Italian rockers Måneskin, whose current tour, Loud Kids, is selling out arenas across Europe (see page 52).

With the controversy over the use of artificial intelligence reaching governmental level, we take a look at ChatGPT and its potential impact on the live entertainment sector, while trying to differentiate between its adoption as a tool and the fear of robots taking over (page 48).

And on page 66, Adam Woods talks to some of the luminaries in Austria in this edition’s market report, pointing the spotlight at Graz for a special city focus.

And if you’re still in need of some inspiration, please read the comment article on page 17, written by our friend and former colleague, Jon Chapple, on the myriad challenges of living with cancer.

INDEX IN BRIEF

The concert business digest

U2 will launch the state-of-the-art MSG Sphere at The Venetian Las Vegas with a residency this autumn.

One man dies from a suspected drug overdose and 12 people require hospital treatment following Transmission Music Festival in Australia.

INmusic, Croatia’s biggest open-air music festival, pulls the plug on its 2023 edition due to a myriad of financial challenges.

British pop sensations S Club 7 will reunite for a UK and Ireland tour this year, to mark their 25th anniversary.

ASM Global partners on the development and operation of the proposed 17,000-seat GreenCity Arena in Virginia, planned to be the greenest venue in the US.

The owner of TEG reportedly plans to launch a sales process for the Australasian live entertainment powerhouse this April.

Solo Agency strikes a “groundbreaking deal” with an Isle of Wight biogas firm to generate more than 950,000 kWh of electricity using grass from the site.

The UK’s Musicians’ Union gives its backing to the Featured Artists Coalition’s 100% Venues initiative.

The Chicks announce a 37-date world tour, with dates in the UK, Europe, and North America.

Shares in CTS Eventim rise after the pan-European giant posts record results for its 2022 financial year.

“Scalpers” are responsible for 90% of tickets sold through Viagogo in New Zealand, a court has heard.

All Things Live acquires HES, one of the largest independent festival organisers in Norway.

Lorde and Sting become the latest artists to cancel or postpone concerts in New Zealand as the country is left reeling after Cyclone Gabrielle.

Bastille and Clean Bandit are set to headline Hideaway, a new 20,000-capacity festival in Essex, UK.

K-pop powerhouse SM Entertainment sees profits soar 70% thanks to the return of concerts and live events, as controversy grows over its “hostile takeover” by rival HYBE.

Guns N’ Roses unveil details of their 2023 world tour, produced by Live Nation, that will touch down in the Middle East, Europe, and North America.

TEG appoints Timothy Ho as managing director of the company’s Asia business, replacing veteran Brendon Bainbridge.

Ben Lovett’s TVG Hospitality confirms the acquisition of Birmingham, Alabama live music venue, Saturn.

Live Nation chief Michael Rapino says “all signs” are pointing towards another record year for the promoter.

Beckie Sugden joins Creative Artists Agency (CAA) as an agent in the company’s music touring department.

André Béchir will operate a new company under the Eventim Live umbrella in collaboration with Swiss-French promoter TAKK.

The final volume of three inquiries into the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing concludes that security services missed a “significant” opportunity to take action that could have prevented the attack.

The ABBA Voyage virtual concert residency is set to tour the world after more than 1m tickets are sold for the production, which has been a sensation since debuting at London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in May 2022.

Primary Talent International returns to being an independent music talent agency following a management buyout.

Three people die and eight more are injured in a stampede following a concert at the Main Street Armory venue in Rochester, New York.

Live Nation, CAA, UTA, Wasserman Music, and WME are among more than 20 music organisations to come out in support of ticketing reforms.

Head in the Clouds Festival will debut in New York this spring, following successful editions in Los Angeles, Jakarta, and Manila.

TEG Live Europe announces a new one-day festival in Birmingham, UK, “celebrating diversity, inclusion, and gender balance.”

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US TICKETING DEBATE CONTINUES

US Senators have introduced new legislation that would eliminate “excessive” ticketing fees for concerts and other events.

Senators Richard Blumenthal and Sheldon Whitehouse announced the “Junk Fee Prevention Act” following calls from President Joe Biden during his State of the Union address. If passed, the new legislation would eliminate “excessive, hidden, and unnecessary fees” and “ensure transparency” by requiring the full price to be provided upfront.

“Consumers are charged hidden fees when purchasing everything from flights to concert tickets,” said Whitehouse. “Our Junk Fee Prevention Act would provide consumers with the transparency they deserve when making a purchase.”

Live Nation is also demanding ticketing reforms by launching the Fair Ticketing Act, backed by the likes of CAA, UTA, Wasserman Music, and WME. Among its calls are for all-in pricing across all ticketing marketplaces introduced nationally, so that fans know the full cost of a ticket plus fees right up front.

Ticketing fees were thrust back under the microscope after The Cure persuaded LN’s Ticketmaster business to offer partial refunds for “unduly high” ticketing fees charged in the Verified Fan sale for the band’s upcoming North American tour.

The Cure’s front man Robert Smith said he was “sickened” when ticketholders posted screenshots online showing some fees exceeding the cost of the tickets themselves. He later reported that, following a conversation with Ticketmaster, the firm had agreed to offer refunds of $5-10 per ticket.

“Ticketmaster have agreed with us that many of the fees being charged are unduly high, and as a gesture of goodwill have offered a $10 per ticket refund to all Verified Fan accounts for lowest ticket price transactions and a $5 per ticket refund to all Verified Fan accounts for all other ticket price transactions,” said Smith.

The British legends begin their first full-scale US and Canada run since 2016 at New Orleans’ Smoothie King Center on 10 May. The 30-date tour is due to wrap up at the Miami-Dade Arena in Florida on 1 July.

The group have made tickets for shows nontransferable where possible, in an effort to clamp down on touting. In addition, they say that “apart from a few Hollywood Bowl charity seats, there will be no ‘platinum’ or ‘dynamically priced’ tickets” sold.

35 MOVES VENUE, SELLS OUT

Having moved venue for the first time in over 20 years, the 35th edition of ILMC was officially a sellout.

The conference welcomed more than 1,300 delegates from over 60 countries to London’s five-star Royal Lancaster Hotel from 28 February to 3 March. Headline attractions included a Hot Seat keynote with futurist Gerd Leonhard, a (Late) Breakfast Meeting conversation between Ed Bicknell and legendary KISS manager Doc McGhee, and a Futures Forum interview with Wasserman Music’s Marty Diamond, conducted by BBC Radio 1’s Abbie McCarthy.

CAA’s Maria May hosted the traditional Open Forum session, which included panelists Obi Asika (UTA, John Meglen (AEG Presents/Concerts West), Tara Richardson (Q Prime) and Herman Schueremans (Live Nation Belgium) and covered everything from dynamic pricing to redistributing wealth.

Other guest speakers included Melvin Benn (Festival Republic), John Boyle (ASM Global), Jessica Koravos (Oak View Group), Phil Rodriguez (Move Concerts), and Mark Davyd (Music Venue Trust), while an all-female Dragons’ Den saw Lucy Noble (AEG Presents), Jacqueline Zich (DEAG), and Jolanda Jansen (The Ahoy) sit down for an up-close conversation with host Marie Lindqvist (ASM Global).

This year also saw ILMC’s first ever central London showcase, London Calling, take place across four intimate Soho venues, featuring some of Europe’s most talked about emerging artists.

And the Oscars of the live music industry, The Arthur Awards, returned as The ILMC Gala Fiesta & Arturo Awards, reflecting this year’s focus on the Latin live music market.

PRIMARY TALENT RETURNS TO INDEPENDENCE

Primary Talent International is returning to being an independent music talent agency following a management buyout.

Primary was sold to ICM Partners in 2020, which was subsequently acquired by CAA. The deal to re-establish Primary’s independent status was led by managing partner and CEO Matt Bates along with former ICM founding partner and COO Rick Levy, who will continue to act as a senior advisor to Primary.

“The pandemic changed the landscape of the music touring business, and we felt it was beneficial to return to our roots as the UK’s largest independent music talent agency,” says Bates. “Adding to the strength and experience of the original Primary agent team, we are excited to bring aboard the next generation of talented agents to join as founding partners. In this new incarnation, Primary will be even better positioned to support the evolving careers of our artists and guide them wherever needed.”

Under the new set-up, Bates will oversee all aspects of the agency and serve as managing partner and CEO. Agent Ben Winchester will continue to serve as a board member along with Bates and Levy.

The UK-based booking agency, whose roster includes almost 460 clients including The 1975, The Cure, Lana Del Rey, Noel Gallagher, Jack Harlow, alt-J, Dropkick Murphys, and Patti Smith, will continue to operate from London, while maintaining a presence in Los Angeles and New York.

The agency has also elevated current Primary agents Laetitia Descouens, Sally Dunstone, Martje Kremers, and Ed Sellers, to partner status. They will be joined by veteran agent Simon Clarkson, who will be based in Los Angeles.

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HERE

NEW SIGNINGS & NEW MUSIC

Tracking the acts that have found representation at booking agencies around the world.

LANTERNS ON THE LAKE

(IK)

HOTTEST NEW ACTS

APRIL 2023

Tyneside’s Lanterns on the Lake return in 2023 with their much-anticipated album, Versions of Us – their fifth studio album, following 2020’s Mercury-nominated Spook the Herd. Mixed by the band’s guitarist, Paul Gregory, in his bedroom, Versions of Us is the band’s most cohesive and concise record yet, with its pervading sense of empowerment encapsulated in Hazel Wilde’s startling vocal performances.

Given some of its themes, a biting irony is found in an entire previous version of the record being discarded. Despite the difficulties in its genesis, Versions of Us is the most empowering album yet from the band. In exploring whether we can change fate or are doomed to repeat the same mistakes in life, this powerful collection of songs ultimately alights on hope.

PREDICTIONS FOR MAY

AGENT Rob Gibbs | Progressive Artists

In January 2022, I was diagnosed with stage-four bowel cancer. The news, delivered by a dispassionate, if broadly sympathetic, oncologist was nevertheless a punch to the gut (pun intended) the likes of which I’d never before experienced. Nor had I expected to at 32 – an age where I had finally ceased to care what people thought of me, where I was happy in work, (relatively) materially successful, and starting to think about family life and home ownership beyond a pokey one-bedroom flat. Attempting to stifle tears following the appointment, one thought persisted in my mind above all others, despite my family’s protestations to the contrary: my life is over, and I’d better make the best of what’s left.

As I write this, I’ve had five rounds of radio therapy, 14 rounds of chemotherapy, and one major surgery, which removed half of my liver – and I’m still no nearer to being cured (they call it “remission” in cancer speak). I feel terrible more than half the time – tired and nauseous from the chemo, and in pain from the cancer itself. But I also don’t feel like I have no life left to live and nothing more to offer, and I hope the story of my journey since then can offer some help to anyone going through something similar.

Keep working – when you can

When I received my diagnosis, I was three months into a new job, having moved into tech/live events PR as an account manager after a decade as a journalist. Not ideal timing –trying to learn a new set of skills and get a handle on a new industry is challenging even when you’re not being pumped full of toxic chemicals, and I suspect there have been plenty of times when my current boss (shout-out to the amazing Alexis Lipoff of 3WM Communications) regretted taking me on.

With the exception of a few weeks off after the liver op, I’ve done my best to carry on working as normal – from my desk, my bed, hooked up to a drip in the chemo ward – and nearly 18 months later I’m still in a job. I can’t emphasise enough how important it is to still feel ‘useful’, earning a steady wage even as your body is letting you down, and I’ll be eternally grateful to Alexis for allowing me to continue working at my own pace (slowly) and still feeling an important part of the team.

Accept help

As my sister is fond of telling me, “It takes a village,” and this becomes your new reality when living with cancer. Friends and family take on a new importance when you find yourself struggling to cook dinner, wash yourself, or get around. I found it difficult at first, but if people offer to help, let them – even if it’s just a lift to the shops or to wash your clothes. When you have cancer, you simply can’t do all the things you used to do, and it’s a lot less stressful to simply accept assistance rather than trying to resist it.

Be sure also to see if you’re entitled to any kind of government benefits – I now have a disabled badge for my car, allowing me to park anywhere when I don’t feel up to walking.

Be patient

Everyone reacts differently to finding out you are ill. Before judging people’s responses – some will be completely over the top; others will barely register – try to remember the shock you felt when you first heard the news. There’s no ‘standard’ way to react, so be patient with others; in general, they only want the best for you.

Live your life

Shortly after my diagnosis, a nurse told me to keep doing the things I love: “Don’t just be a person who has cancer.” This is great advice. It would be only too easy to curl up and give up on the things you used to enjoy in the face of such life-changing news. So, I still go to gigs, eat in restaurants, drink nice wine (now my liver has grown back), play video games, and slog away at the book I started back in UK lockdown #3.

Every day is a challenge, but with the support of those around me – and what I believe they call a ‘positive mental attitude’ (i.e., the blind faith that I’m going to get better, no matter what) – I’m doing my best to live my life as normally (and for as long) as possible. Wish me luck.

If you want to talk about anything I’ve raised in this piece or simply get in touch, you can email me anytime at jonchapple@gmail.com.

Jon Chapple is IQ’s former news editor

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“A punch to the gut the likes of which I’d never before experienced”

Jon Chapple | 3WM Communications

35’s Super Spa-rtners

WRAPPING UP ILMC 35

LMC

With more space for meetings and catch ups than ever before and a sold-out crowd of 1,350 in attendance, the mood throughout the Royal Lancaster Hotel for ILMC 35 was superb.

This year’s event saw members travel to London from 61 international markets, as well as 500 professionals from across the UK business.

Keynotes took place with legendary artist manager Doc McGhee, renowned booking agent Marty Diamond, and futurologist Gerd Leonhard, while 150 speakers populated discussions on topics ranging from venues, marketing, and booking agencies, to geopolitics, sustainability, and ticketing.

But as ever, it was the activity outside of the main conference schedule that defined the edition, and with the new London Calling showcase event, The Arthurs, various tournaments, competitions, and happy hours, it was a social affair and one of our best editions yet.

ILMC took place in a new hotel this year - The Royal Lancaster London - our first move after 20+ years at the Royal Garden. And with daylight in the panel rooms and more meeting space than ever throughout the hotel, it proved to be a popular move. As with any new venue, there's always room for improvement, and the ILMC team came away fired up about future editions and how we can make 2024 our best yet.

We'll be announcing next year's dates in the coming months, but ILMC 35 is going to be a tough one to beat. And if the positivity in the conference sessions and beyond showed anything, it's that the business is now fully past the pandemic, and the global community of music professionals is fully back to doing what they love best.

TUESDAY 28 FEBRUARY

The official pre-day to ILMC kicking off was busier than ever this year with various private company and association meetings packing out rooms throughout the hotel and surrounding venues.

The 15th edition of the Green Events & Innovations Conference (GEI) was a sold-out success with a packed agenda featuring more than 40 expert speakers, innovators, and industry leaders in the global live music, sport, and event sectors.

As usual, GEI tackled the critical sustainability issues, as well as addressing the difficult questions and providing insight and best-practice tips to make impactful change in the year ahead. Setting the tone for the day, Boom Festival’s Artur Mendes told the Adapting to a New Climate panel, “We won’t work with brands or policy makers who aren’t aligned with our values.” Those sentiments were echoed by Mark Stevenson (CUR8), while highlighting the key facts in Carbon Offsets: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly , stating that “Any new fossil fuel exploration is a gun held to

humanity’s head.”

AGF and YOUROPE used the forum to launched their European Green Festival Roadmap 2030, while the Switching on Your Audience – Creative Climate Communication discussion saw Hannah Cox (betternotstop) declaring, “If you're running a festival, that is your values being shown to the world, and you have to stand up for what you believe in.”

Five years on from the initial Greener Tour panel, John Robb led a discussion on the practicalities of trying to change the touring model, while events beyond fossil fuels and circularity were also hot topics. Elsewhere, Andy Cato (Wildfarmed / Groove Armada) and Dale Vince (Ecotricity) debated sustainable produce during Food: Back to the Future, with Cato noting, “Not only can we grow enough food to feed people, we can grow enough food to nourish people.”

A packed day of inspiring insight and conversation concluded with the Brian Eno and Jacob Collier keynote exploring Music as a Social Synchroniser , where Collier told delegates, “Things become possible as you start doing them.”

GEI closed with the 16th edition of the International AGF Awards celebrating the most innovative and worthy events, venues, organisations, and individuals from worldwide events over the last 12 months.

GEI delegates were also an integral part of Mind,Body &SpiritsOpeningParty , hosted by Live Nation, which gave the Royal Lancaster a shock introduction to ILMC members' love of a social, with 600 or so descending on the bar shortly after 5.30pm.

With the vast majority of ILMC delegates having picked up their conference passes, Tuesday felt like a full conference day, even before the official programming kicked off the following day.

WEDNESDAY 1 MARCH

ILMC 35's panels kicked off with the traditional Open Forum session, with this year’s host, Maria May from CAA, addressing a swathe of issues while looking back on a monumental year for live music around the world.

May noted various statistics about the growth of the business in 2022, including the fact that ticket prices for Pollstar’s top 100 tours had increased by more than 10%, before posing a question to her guests about whether those biggest-selling productions should be doing anything to support the grassroots side of the business.

Obi Asika from United Talent Agency noted that the year ahead was looking like it would be the strongest he’s ever had. When it comes to helping grassroots acts, he stated, “We have to be brave and inclusive if we want to have new headliners.”

Q Prime Management’s Tara Richardson agreed that perhaps stadiums could support grassroots venues through sponsorship or some other system. “The record labels and publishers develop talent, but the live side seems to be the only part that does not throw money back toward grassroots,” she observed.

Addressing the issue of spiralling costs, Herman Schueremans of Live Nation Belgium admitted that most people in the business had not expected such monumental rises. “You cannot avoid rising costs – you have to live with it and deal with it. It might mean we have to work harder but earn less. Making a profit is important, but it’s not the most important,” he noted. “The bottom line is that it’s a thing of give and take –listen to each other and be nicer to each other.”

Tackling the controversial topic of dynamic pricing, John Meglen from Concerts West suggested that blaming the ticketing system for any issues was a copout. “It’s up to us to set those business rules – we cannot be blaming the ticketing systems, he said. “We have an issue of pricing, and we have a resale issue. We need to make sure that the money [remains] in our business. If

we’re getting market value for our tickets, the artists are going to earn more, and it’s not someone outside [the] business making the money.”

Q Prime’s Richardson had a pragmatic idea on how the teams involved in tour planning could better handle the subject. “Maybe there needs to be a middle ground where we involve tour accountants before we route –and we have a plan A, plan B, and plan C for the tour and the production, depending on the ticket price,” she said.

The schedule included the introduction of ILMC's new Working Lunches concept, where delegates were able to participate in round table discussions while fuelling up for their afternoon activities.

Other Wednesday highlights included sessions on K-pop, a lively Festival Forum panel where opinions about corporate ownership versus indie events were debated, a Marketing 3.0 masterclass, a keynote by futurist, film maker and author Gerd Leonhard predicting the next decade for live music, and the first of the Latin Live panels, where luminaries from that region outlined the challenges and opportunities of touring the LatAm countries, as well as the wealth of talent that is now breaking internationally.

WME’s Happy Hour proved to be a popular gathering point for delegates as the conference sessions drew to a close, with hundreds then taking the opportunity to check out the new talent involved in the London Calling showcases in Soho (see page 28).

And for those returning from those club events, or simply getting back to the hotel after late dinners, Strangey’s Bar remained open late into the night, with IQ’s own Tom Brint refereeing The ‘Health Kick’ Table Football Tournament in which Miguel Aires and Vasco Ferreira from Faded, Portugal triumphed after a fierce battle.

THURSDAY 2 MARCH

Abusy Women in Live Morning Mixer delivered some early networking opportunities before Thursday's sessions saw the controversial topics of dynamic pricing and resale explored during a standing-room only ticketing panel on day two of ILMC.

While the panellists all reported that the start of 2023 was strong in terms of sales, Paul Newman of AXS Europe Ltd sounded one note of caution. “People are loading their credit cards, and there may come a stage when that finishes, and they can do no more. So, are we loading everything towards the start of the year and then it’s going to slow down?” he posed.

Noting that there are increasing efforts to clamp down on touts, session chair Jessica Koravos of Oak View Group International steered the conversation toward dynamic pricing.

Andrew Parsons from Ticketmaster stated that market-based pricing was just part of the arsenal in the company’s toolkit that it can offer artists and managers. He continued, “There are other approaches to locking down tickets more effectively, such as blocking transfers… Our perspective is to have the ability to provide everyone with [the] full array of tools.”

Marcia Titley from Eventim Norway & Sweden reported that her company also has the ability to price based on demand, “But not every market is ready for dynamic pricing.” She added, “The question we pose to the artist is ‘what are you trying to achieve?’, because there are other ways to increase revenue without annoying the fan.”

On other measures to beat the touts, Noel Edwards from The Ticket Factory opined, “As an industry, it’s maybe worth waiting for [governmental] change,

because if they are not listening to us when we’re shouting, then maybe we should bide our time.”

Thursday's refreshment choices included the Production & Networking Lunch, while back in the conference rooms, those who convened for The View from the Top heard that the stadium concert boom is showing no signs of subsiding, with US-based agent Marty Diamond, who reps acts such as Coldplay and Ed Sheeran, noting that 2023 is shaping up to be even better than the record-breaking 2022.

The Agency Business 2023 panel explored the everchanging landscape of the sector, with Wasserman Music’s Alex Hardee predicting that consolidation will continue with agencies being absorbed by the handful of corporate behemoths as the need for a global footprint becomes a necessity. However, ATC Live’s Alex Bruford noted that certain artists want to be represented in a more bespoke way, meaning there will always be a need for indie operations.

Ed Bicknell’s (Late)BreakfastMeeting saw returning interviewee Doc McGhee spilling the beans on some of the predicaments clients such as Mötley Crüe, Bon Jovi, KISS, and Guns N’ Roses had found themselves in over the years and their reliance on their manager to extract them from police cells, among other places.

Sponsors Loud And Live, Grand Move, OCESA, and Oak View Group provided the refreshments during their Latin Live Happy Hour, while intrepid individuals boarded the coach to participate in the Match of the Year Football at the Hive Stadium in North London, which was won by the UK.

Meanwhile, the hotel’s ballroom hosted 450 guests for the ILMC Gala Fiesta, where the crème de la crème of the business was celebrated at the Arturo Awards –the live music industry’s equivalent of the Oscars (see page 24), while hundreds of guests then descended on Strangey's Bar for an equally raucous after-show party.

And, as ILMC tradition dictates, vocal chords and ear drums were put to the test well into the early hours, as The ‘Primal Scream’ Karaoke and Arthurs After-Party saw delegates from around the world destroying some of the finest songs ever penned…

FRIDAY 3 MARCH

The final day saw ILMC delegates rubbing shoulders with Futures Forum attendees, allowing the next generation of industry execs to network with more established peers from around the world.

The day kicked off in fitting style with the Meet The New Bosses: Class of 2023 session, which introduced some of IQ’s new bosses contenders to ILMC to explore why they chose their career paths and the ways in which they hope to help shape the industry in the decades ahead.

The youth-inspired programming, curated by IQ’s Lisa Henderson, explored such topics as TikTok’s ability to identify new talent, the entrepreneurs who are disrupting the industry with alternative business models, as well as a standing-room only session, Now That’s What I Call 2023, that showcased the music of some emerging acts and new genres to look out for in the year ahead.

Futures Forum also delved into the fascinating differences between the generations on the professional side of the business, with Debbie McWilliams from the Scottish Event Campus chairing the OK, Boomer: Closing the Generation Gap, Part II session, where she leaned on the experiences of CAA agents Maria May and Bilge Morden, and promoters Raye Cosbert (Metropolis Music) and Peter Thomsen (Kilimanjaro Live).

While May and Cosbert harked back to a time when their generation helped make the rules and by definition had to be entrepreneurial, Morden noted that millennials and Gen Z staff desire more feedback from their elders, hoping to be guided through their careers, rather than being allowed to follow the wrong path and thereby wasting time.

May acknowledged that the commitment to invest in people’s success has brought about significant changes in the business. “We need to create an

environment where we can retain staff,” she said. “We spend so long investing in them that you want to keep them and develop them into future bosses.”

Cosbert pointed out that it has been the younger generation that has driven change when it comes to concerns like gender balance, equality, and diversity. “Women in live did not really exist back in the day – and that was the same with colour, people with disabilities,” said Cosbert. “It’s the younger generation that have made my generation embrace that a lot more.”

While the session’s panellists highlighted a slate of differences between the ways that each generation operates, Cosbert concluded, “Our priorities and pathways and goals are pretty much aligned. The live business is a people business. We get paid for doing something we love, but we often tend to forget how it can affect you when you are engrossed in it and how it can burn you out.”

While Friday included a number of mentoring events and rapid-fire Soapbox Sessions, ILMC delegates were also able to participate in Touring Entertainment discussions, with three full sessions dedicated to the non-music business, covering a swathe of developments in family shows and touring exhibitions.

Futures Forum and ILMC ended with BBC Radio 1’s Abbie McCarthy conducting a keynote interview with Wasserman Music chief Marty Diamond, charting his ascent up the corporate ladder and some of the outstanding talent – including the likes of Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, Liam Gallagher, Janelle Monáe, Sigur Rós, and Lorde – whose careers he helps to shape.

Recounting his first encounter with Sheeran, he noted, “I ended up sitting on the steps outside his dressing room talking, and we became friends, and I’m very happy to be a part of this team. It started in a little nightclub in Guildford, and now we’re doing 20 sell-out stadiums in America.”

Bringing down the curtain on ILMC 35, those delegates who had not already left for the airport were invited to say their farewells at the closing drinks, and to finalise any last-minute deals for the year ahead, until ILMC 36 reunites us all again.

KARSTEN JAHNKE, KJK

It's great to see that what I started out over six decades ago still matters to this day. For us as an independent company and myself as a promoter and big fan of live music, it was an absolute honour to receive standing ovations from a room full of important members of the international live music industry. This means the world to us and motivates us to continue to do what we love to do. And that my old compadre, Martin Hopewell, held the laudatio surely was the icing on the cake for me – it was a great night!

KELLY CHAPPEL, LIVE NATION

To have won this award against such stiff competition is such an honour. I feel privileged that I work in the live music industry, and I get to go to shows for a living. I love my Live Nation family. Recently, Los Angeles became my home, where I’m bolstering the UK footprint across the pond. Lastly, and most importantly, I’m proud to be helping to shatter the glass ceiling for women in this sector. I hope that by the time I retire, there will be many more female promoters globally.

MARCIA TITLEY, EVENTIM NORWAY & SWEDEN

I am honoured to receive the Golden Ticketer Award, and I would like to acknowledge and congratulate the other nominees. I would also like to express my gratitude to my exceptional teams whose dedication and hard work make our collective efforts at Eventim a true joy. I share this award with all of you, and I look forward to continuing our journey together.

THE PROMOTERS’ PROMOTER

THE GOLDEN TICKETER

THE BOTTLE AWARD

HOLGER JAN SCHMIDT, YOUROPE

Receiving this Arthur Award is both a surprise and an honour. A surprise because it was voted for by people from the whole live entertainment and music industry, and I wasn't aware that what I do is being recognised beyond the festival sector. And an honour because I got it while there are so many other unsung heroes that I admire and would love to see awarded. The prize gives me even more motivation to continue and hopefully inspire others, like a lot of the festival people – and there were some in the room that night – who inspired me.

STEVE SCHWENKGLENKS, BARCLAYS ARENA, HAMBURG

We are overjoyed to have been awarded the Arthur Award again (after 2005). We have been through difficult times, so I am all the more delighted to receive this award. My thanks therefore go, above all, to the people who make it possible in the first place for the Barclays Arena to be so successful: the fantastic arena team, our great service providers, and our supporting partners and sponsors. They have all contributed significantly to this success, and we cannot thank them often enough.

ALEX BRUFORD, ATC LIVE

It's such an honour to win this award – thank you to everyone who voted. One of the core principles behind the creation of ATC Live 12 years ago was to try and bring a more positive, respectful, and progressive approach to the way we do business with each other, and this win feels like an endorsement of that, which means a lot. Thanks to everyone at ATC, and especially my team –Simon Tagestam, Sam Lister, and Claire Bryant –without whom this wouldn't be possible.

DAN RAIS, CAA

Honestly, it was amazing just to be in the room and to be in the same conversation as all these brilliant industry bosses – past, present, and future. I couldn’t have done this without the trust placed in us by the amazing artists and managers that we have the pleasure of working with, or without the brilliant culture of teamwork at CAA. I’m also incredibly lucky to have the best support system in my friends and family, particularly my wife, who has sat through way too many of my pitches and negotiations when we’ve both had to work from home.

TOMORROW’S NEW BOSS

FIRST VENUE TO COME INTO YOUR MIND

THE UNSUNG HERO

SECOND LEAST OFFENSIVE AGENT

KAI HENDERSON, AEG PRESENTS

Being named The People’s Assistant 2023 isn’t something that a young rocker from the Highlands would ever have expected! I feel very grateful to be able to mark ten years since I moved to London for a job in the live music business by bringing home an Arthur Award. There are so many amazing assistants in the industry that I’ve learned from during that time, including this year’s other fantastic nominees, and I owe them all massive thanks for showing me how it’s done. Of course, the biggest thanks go to Lucy Noble for her mentorship, encouragement, and all the incredible opportunities that being her assistant has brought me, even though she’s never forgiven me for nicking all her hairspray. Thank you!

JÖRG PHILIPP, BEAT THE STREET

We are so proud to win this! When you see who else was nominated, the amazing companies we were up against – wow!

The team work tirelessly: the drivers, office staff, mechanics, bus builders, laundry staff, every member of the team is completely committed to excellent service. A massive thank you to all the people that voted for us and the clients that keep us on the road doing what we love!

MATHIEU JATON, MONTREUX JAZZ FESTIVAL

MOST PROFESSIONAL PROFESSIONAL

KATIE MOORE, LIVE NATION

I’m thrilled to have won the Most Professional Professional Award. It’s a real honour. Congratulations to all my fellow nominees.

We are very honoured to have won this prestigious award. A massive thank you to the public and to our peers who voted for us. We will continue to push the boundaries of what a music festival can be and look forward to welcoming you all to Montreux this summer, from June 30 to July 15. This recognition goes out to the whole MJF team, volunteers, partners, and artists who make the magic happen year after year. Congratulations to our fellow nominees, who all deservedly hold a special place in the hearts of music fans worldwide. Let's rock this festival season!

SERVICES ABOVE & BEYOND THE PEOPLE’S ASSISTANT

LIGGERS’ FAVOURITE FESTIVAL

Wednesday night at ILMC marked the launch of the London Calling showcase programme, where 14 emerging artists took to the stages of some iconic Soho venues – with many of the artists performing huge underplays in small and intimate club settings for the benefit of ILMC delegates.

Artists performing:

Ajimal (Ajimal.co.uk)

Bel Cobain (Instagram.com/bel.cobain)

Casey Lowry (Caseylowry.co.uk)

Delaporte (Delaportemusic.com)

Demob, Happy (Instagram.com/demob_happy)

Edgär (Facebook.com/Edgarofficiel)

Frozemode (Instagram.com/frozemode)

Hamish Hawk (Instagram.com/hamishhawk)

Jelani Blackman (Instagram.com/jelaniblackman)

L’objectif (Instagram.com/l.objectif)

Quasi Qui (Instagram.com/quasi_qui)

Queralt Lahoz (Queraltlahoz.com)

Sarah Olivier (Instagram.com/saraholivierofficiel) swim school (Instagram.com/weareswimschool).

The London Calling concept was embraced by delegates, with staff at the Phoenix Art Club, 21 Soho, The Lower Third, and Spice of Life reporting full-to-capacity audiences. Special thanks go to the musicians who entertained everyone, as well as FORM and Kili Presents who helped organise the shows. Supporters of the night included Music Venue Trust/Revive Live, Mad Cool Festival, Comunidad de Madrid, The Spanish Wave, NME, Ginger, Gigseekr, and United Talent Agency and their HEAR THIS new music brand.

As one of the music industry’s most legendary artist managers, what sets Doc McGhee apart from that very small group of peers is the fact that he is universally revered and respected by everyone he does business with.

Currently celebrating 40 years of his company, McGhee Entertainment, here he tells Gordon Masson about his path to the top and his future plans for his “QTR”…

f the old adage is true about making your passion your job and you’ll never work a day in your life, then Doc McGhee hasn’t been working his ass off for the best part of half a century.

Obsessed by music, Doc’s first taste of the live business came courtesy of his grandmother, whose restaurant bar would regularly see big bands gracing the establishment. “My first introduction to music that I really got into was The Ed Sullivan Show,” he says. “Whenever they would have a musical talent on one of the shows, I would make sure I watched it, because at an early age of like, 12 or 13, I was playing guitar, so I gravitated toward music from there. And then when The Beatles came out, I was just hooked. I didn’t know much about the business side of things. But the music side, I was very deeply into.”

And Doc’s guitar skills were better than most. “Everybody seems to have some story of success, ten minutes of fame… or four seconds of fame,” says Doc. “When I was 16, we had a record deal with Mercury Records – a singles deal back then.

It was 1966, after the Beatles came out.

“We’d been playing together as a band, The Rising Four, since about the age of 13: me and another guy and two brothers on bass and drums. We practised at their house because their father was in a jazz band, and they had a rehearsal room – he was a big shot at AT&T. It was fun.”

Growing up on the southside of Chicago, Doc never had any other aspiration but to be involved in music, in some shape or form. And his determination to get a foot in the door quickly paid off, courtesy of a Hollywood exec taking a chance on the music-obsessed teenager.

“Bob Stirling was in the film business, but he loved music, and he had some songwriters on the payroll, so he hired me to try to help him work with his writers to produce some music for his movies. The bottom line is that he didn’t know what to do with them, so that’s why he gave me the job.”

That first step also involved Doc relocating to Florida – a state where he still has a home to this day. And with a fairly flexible remit, the job also allowed him to develop some entrepreneurial skills while honing his ability to sniff out an opportunity.

“Basically, I’d just go after stuff,” he explains. “A lot of it just felt like I was waiting around, doing research, and knocking on doors. But in truth, I just wanted to hang around the recording studios because I was still an aspiring guitar player.”

Indeed, having had a modicum of success with a one-single record deal, Doc had some credentials and a basic understanding of how to make a record. “I was a fucking professional,” he laughs. “We’d recorded on a four track, so it was the simplest time: guitar, bass, drums, and you could overdub a couple of things. And luckily, I was able to keep up with developments over the following years when recordings became 16 tracks, then 32, etc.”

Nothin’ To Lose

Quite how Doc made the switch from general music biz dogsbody to artist manager remains a mystery, even to him. But he pinpoints a fellow Chicagoan as the catalyst.

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TO BOT OR NOT TO BOT

Artificial intelligence might be ready to take over much of our working life, but are we ready to let it? Gordon Masson delves into recent developments in the AI-space, and asks ChatGPT how it can help…

For anyone unfamiliar with OpenAI’s ChatGPT tool, the artificial intelligence chatbot has been making the headlines for some time now, most recently when one of the company’s founders, Elon Musk, became one of 1,000 signatories of an open letter that calls on labs around the world to immediately cease “for at least six months, the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4.”

Underlining their concerns, the scientists, academics, and tech pioneers who added their names to that of Musk, stated that the six-month pause on development, “should be public and verifiable and include all key actors. If such a pause cannot be enacted quickly, governments should step in and institute a moratorium.”

While many observers have criticised the letter, which to add to consternation was instigated by the alarmingly named Future of Life Institute, the call has been taken seriously by many others. The Italian government has moved to temporarily ban ChatGPT, blocking its citizens from access to the service by citing OpenAI’s failure to verify the age of its users while arguing that the mass processing of personal data to train the chatbot is also questionable under European law.

Other EU nations are apparently also considering blocking ChatGPT, while China has also banned the tool, labelling it an instrument of Western propaganda. However, Chinese tech giants such as Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent are known to be developing their own AI chatbot platforms.

However, with chatbots now a common and accepted (if sometimes frustrating) part of customer relations, the use of AI is undoubtedly here to stay, with ChatGPT and other systems such as ChatSonic, Playground, Bard, and numerous others soaking up billions of dollars in research, set to revolutionise the way we all conduct business and other aspects of our lives.

“Remember when Google first appeared, and people thought it was weird that you would want to ask your search engine questions to get results? Well, ChatGPT is that on steroids,” observes musicologist and founder of The Online Recording Studio, Joe Wadsworth.

Also using Google as a reference point is author David Boyle, who has written three books on the subject of AI, including PROMPT FOR MUSICIANS: A practical guide to brand growth using ChatGPT, co-written with Richard Bowman, to provide a guide for people working in music to sharpen their ChatGPT skills.

“If you ask Google a question at the moment, you’ll find a very small subset of answers that we can use to help make decisions,” observes Boyle. “AI massively amplifies that. If we devoted our whole life to reading about the live music industry, we’d still only read a tiny, tiny percentage of what was online. But ChatGPT can access everything that is available online, summarise

that, and deliver a comprehensive document within minutes, in whatever style you request. In other words, it can access the sum total of human knowledge in a way that’s perfectly curated to the question or task at hand.

“For instance, if I’m interested in researching the future of concerts, without AI, it would take me days to find all the right stuff, and I would not be able to interpret it – and I wouldn’t be able to understand the information in foreign languages that I don’t read. But by using ChatGPT, I can access the sum total of human knowledge in a way that’s perfectly curated to the question or task at hand. It’s awesome!”

Rather than ask for a second opinion on how ChatGPT can help the live entertainment business, we asked it directly:

What is the potential for ChatGPT within the live music business?

It returned the following answer:

As an AI language model, ChatGPT has the potential to provide various services to the live music business. Here are some potential use cases:

1 Customer Service: ChatGPT can be used to provide customer service for live music events. For example, it can answer frequently asked questions, provide information about the event, and help customers with their queries.

2 Personalised Recommendations: ChatGPT can analyze customer preferences and provide personalised recommendations for live music events, artists, and genres.

3 Virtual Event Hosting: ChatGPT can be used to host virtual events, such as online concerts, by providing a virtual host that can interact with the audience, answer questions, and provide information about the event.

4 Marketing and Promotion: ChatGPT can assist in marketing and promoting live music events by providing targeted advertising, social media outreach, and other promotional activities.

5 Data Analytics: ChatGPT can analyze data related to live music events, such as ticket sales, audience demographics,

and customer feedback, to help event organizers make informed decisions.

Overall, ChatGPT can be a valuable tool for the live music business, providing a range of services to enhance customer experience, increase engagement, and improve business outcomes.

One of Boyle’s golden lessons is that experts should always judge, refine and enhance ChatGPt’s output. So, how did it do this time?

“Not great,” says Boyle. “With some rewording, 1, 4 and 5 are ok, but 2 and 3 aren’t likely to be valuable avenues to explore. For marketing, concentrate on understanding an artist or genre’s target audience, devising content and messaging strategies, and rapidly producing marketing materials. Legal tasks, such as converting brief notes into contracts and vice versa should be added.

“Enhancing communication is another big area of opportunity, quickly transforming rough emails into concise, clear, and well-structured messages. However, in all use cases, it’s essential to have experienced professionals evaluate, refine, and improve ChatGPT’s output, as it was with this list [for IQ] .”

However, in their ‘Pause Giant AI Experiments’ letter, Musk et al protest, “AI systems with human-competitive intelligence can pose profound risks to society and humanity, as shown by extensive research and acknowledged by top AI labs.”

The letter adds, “Should we automate away all the jobs, including the fulfilling ones? Should we develop nonhuman minds that might eventually outnumber, outsmart, obsolete, and replace us? Should we risk loss of control of our civilisation? Such decisions must not be delegated to unelected tech leaders.”

Wadsworth tells IQ, “I think what [Musk and others] are saying is absolutely right. Just taking a minute to say, ‘Hang on, let’s do the smart thing here and just really look at this,’ seems a really measured way of doing it. Culturally, the capitalistic approach is to go fast and develop and grow and grow. And we’ve seen these big crashes where that gung-ho attitude often ends in disaster.

“With something that has the potential to be as powerful as this, taking a minute to look at the implications from a sort of societal level, is no bad thing.”

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All photos © Fabio Germinario

LOUD KIDS

Having won the San Remo Music Festival in early March 2021, Måneskin automatically became Italy’s contender for the same year’s Eurovision Song Contest. And when the band also triumphed there, their trajectory took off, with millions of fans around the world alerted to their undoubtable talent.

When Måneskin were voted runners-up in the 2017 season of X Factor Italy, sceptics may have believed that would be the last the world would hear of them. But local promoters Vivo Concerti were already convinced they were on to something special.

“When I saw them performing on X Factor I knew that they had something more, I knew that they were one of a kind,” says Vivo Concerti managing director Clemente Zard.

Vivo’s general manager Andrea Ritrovato explains.” At that time, three of them were under the age of 18, so we knew we would be starting a journey with them because although they had

experience of TV stages, they knew nothing about live stages, which [are] a completely different place.”

Acknowledging that finding fame on such a high-profile TV show could have opened the doors for Måneskin to immediately sell out arenas in Italy, Zard says that Vivo’s vision for the act was for a long-term career, internationally, rather than simply cashing in.

“We started to do a lot of small clubs, then medium-sized clubs, because our strategy was to keep people out and build demand. So, the first tour was over 30 dates, when they were still under 18, with us acting like their tutors on the road.

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Gordon Masson reports.

A RARE BREED

As Ginger Owl turns ten, founders Nancy Skipper and Julie Chennells tell Lisa Henderson how they gained a reputation as “the fixers” in the production industry.

When you consider the baptism of fire that was Nancy Skipper and Julie Chennell’s entry into the live music industry, it’s no wonder their company became renowned for delivering when the heat is on.

The North London-born pair first met in 1998, working in the hallowed offices of Harvey Goldsmith CBE, the legendary English promoter who has worked with everyone from Madonna to The Rolling Stones but who is perhaps best known for Live Aid and the Teenage Cancer Trust shows.

Though Chennells gained some prior experi-

ence in the live music industry, working as a festival production assistant for Mean Fiddler, both women agree that Goldsmith’s office is “where it all began.”

“It was mad,” Chennells tells IQ. “It was a traditional rock and roll company – chaotic, fun, busy. There were lots of big personalities. It was incredible really.”

According to Goldsmith, the company at that time was producing 750-plus concerts a year, with Julie and Nancy supporting Pete Wilson, Dennis Arnold, and Andrew Zweck.

“I worked in all the different departments in that company – from ticketing to production to marketing,” says Chennells. “It was a good exercise in being able to turn your hand to anything. And Harvey was a great teacher.”

Goldsmith, who is known as “our industry dad” to Skipper and Chennells, tells IQ he taught them as much as he could about the touring business: “They have seen it all, every bit of madness that our world offers, and have not only survived but have thrived. They are a great team.”

Chennells adds: “It changed me completely that job – more so than anything else. You had to be really resilient and – to use a cliche – work hard, play hard. I’ve never really experienced a job like that. Everything after that was never quite as mad.”

“Plus, he knows all the music industry legends,” says Skipper who worked as a bookkeeper at a media company in Soho before joining Harvey Goldsmith in 1997. “There aren’t many people in the UK industry of his generation that haven’t worked with him. As a result, we know so many big players in the industry.”

Some of those big players proved to be the steppingstones from Goldsmith’s office to their freelance careers to eventually launching their own company.

Skipper left Goldsmith’s operations in 2005 to move to Devon in the southwest of England, and though she’d resigned herself to getting “a regular job,” her fate in the live music industry was sealed.

“Paul Loasby, manager to Jools Holland and Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, kicked off my freelance career,” she explained. He said, “It’s fine if you leave [Harvey], but you can take the work with you and do it remotely.”

“David Gilmour started touring in 2005/06, so I was really busy straightaway. If that hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t have had the financial ability to kind of support myself and start my career

as a freelancer. Allowing me to work from home was a really progressive approach from Paul. He just wanted to make sure that he had consistency with the people that he was working with.”

Skipper and Loasby went on to produce a Jools Holland tour every single year after that, as well as two more tours for Gilmour. To this day, the pair still look after the famed artists.

Chennells, meanwhile, left Goldsmith’s company in 2004 and also pursued a freelance career, primarily production-repping on behalf of Live Nation and SJM for increasingly large shows.

“I got some real hands-on experience during that time,” she says. “When you’re repping on your own, you have to do every single thing going, from security briefings to guestlist to production load-in. That time really cemented my knowledge of the other side of the industry that maybe I hadn’t got when I was office-based.”

Though each of the women went their separate ways after the Goldsmith years, their paths crossed more than ever as freelancers.

“More and more, Nancy and I got each other into jobs,” says Chennells. “Sometimes clients wanted two of you or sometimes I couldn’t do it and she could do it and vice versa.

“We both always worked as freelance artist liaison reps on the Live Nation festivals (before they became Festival Republic), but then we were asked to take over running the backstage. Between us, we were running all of their festivals that year, and at the same time, we also had other jobs coming in that we worked on together as freelancers.”

Eventually, the pair were working on so many freelance jobs together, forming the company felt like the next logical step. “It took us longer to decide what to call it than it did to decide to do it,” laughs Skipper.

Ginger Owl was officially launched in April 2013 and from the get-go, business boomed.

“We did around 11 weeks of back-to-back festivals straightaway… our first year was incredible,” says Skipper. “We got a lot of work from Live Nation that first year. They’ve always been so supportive of us – from the festivals to touring to VIP work to guestlists work, we’ve always counted them as one of our major clients.”

Live Nation and Festival Republic weren’t the only clients that remained loyal to Ginger Owl. The pair retained Teenage Cancer Trust, One Fifteen’s Jools Holland Autumn Tour, The BRIT Awards, Loudsound, Beautiful Days festival, and MTV from their prior era.

And their offering has only gained value with

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“They have seen it all, every bit of madness that our world offers, and have not only survived but have thrived. They are a great team”

Harvey Goldsmith CBE

SCHNAPPS, CASTLES AND POP!

The last time IQ published a dedicated Austrian market report, back in 2018, it was a different world: no pandemic, no war in Ukraine, inflation at 2.0%. We all know what happened with those first two things, and as for the third, Austrian inflation hit 11.5% in January, giving the country the highest rate in the EU.

It wouldn’t be right to say that these have been profoundly troubled years for one of Europe’s wealthier and sturdier economies: Austria remains wealthy and sturdy, and even the inflation doesn’t seem to have greatly stunted consumer spending – at least not on the biggest shows. And yet, times are subtly changing.

Five years ago, the Austrian live

music business could still talk about its legacy of independence in the present tense, the big groups largely present in Vienna as challengers. Now, the weight has shifted, the market-leading Barracuda selling to CTS Eventim in late 2019 and Goodlive going to Live Nation last year. FKP offshoot Arcadia Live completes the Live Nation vs Eventim field, and suddenly, although the old faces remain, the market doesn’t look quite as homegrown and independent as it did before.

Such is the way of things. Nonetheless, the market, predictably rampant last year, remains hot –albeit perhaps patchily so – even in the face of inflation and other worldly concerns.

“2023 has definitely begun differently compared to the last two

years,” says Arcadia Live managing director Filip Potocki. “Finally, we can pursue what we enjoy doing again, which is organising concerts – largely without any restrictions. Bigger shows are doing really well, and many of our concerts with higher capacities are selling out well in advance. Having said that, it is more difficult with smaller club shows, which have become real last-minute topics.”

Sitting in a mountain range – the Eastern Alps, which covers nearly two-thirds of the country – and with a population approaching 9m, of which around a fifth live in the capital Vienna, Austria is historically a sustainable and sensible live market. It also has significant geographical strengths. Bordering Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein,

Consolidation and corporate takeovers have transformed the Austrian live entertainment business in recent years, forever changing what was an indie-dominated landscape. Adam Woods discovers a buoyant market, but where grass roots events and club shows are increasingly relying on last minute marketing strategies…

Måneskin performed at Barracuda’s Nova Rock 2022 © Thomas Ranner

Austria has many iconic concert venues, including the floating stage on Lake Constance for Bregenz Performing Arts Festival

MEMBERS’ NOTICEBOARD

NEC Birmingham held its most successful Event Week Live to date, welcoming undergraduate students from local universities to its venue for a taster of the live events industry during annual dog show, Crufts. The 28 students from Birmingham City University and Coventry University received tutorials, advice, and guidance from a variety of leaders on the NEC campus, as well as a 12-month group mentorship to help guide them in their career pathways.

Rock-it Global chief administrative officer Sasha Goodman received the Airforwarders Association (AfA) Jim Foster Lifetime Achievement Award at the AirCargo 2023 event in Nashville in recognition of her long career in air cargo, as well as her 12 years of service on the AfA board of directors, and her championing of women in air cargo.

Scott Stander from The Stander Group was the lucky winner of a trip to Mexico at ILMC’s Nikos Fund Prize Draw, which this year raised funds for Music Minds Matter. Donated by Ocesa Presents, Stander and a guest will now be the promoter’s VIP guests at the Coca-Cola Flow Fest in November with round- trip flight tickets, three nights hotel accommodation, and transportation to and from the festival site.

Some of Finland’s brightest and best artists, songwriters, and music industry professionals gathered on the red carpet to celebrate a landmark year at the annual Emma Gaala, held in the Helsinki Ice Hall.

Music business professionals, friends, and colleagues gathered in London’s House of St Barnabus club to witness the launch of Tamsin Embleton’s new book – Touring and Mental Health: The Music Industry Manual. Embleton and dozens of experts were involved in compiling the tome, and the likes of Live Nation have already bought thousands of copies to distribute to employees and make its guidance available to artists and crew visiting venues and festivals.

Ginger Owl’s team of production specialists marked the company’s tenth birthday (see page 62) with a party at Century Club in London, alongside clients, supporters, and friends.

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Published May 2023I

n A comprehensive overview of touring product

n Business critical information about each sector

n Critical insight through interviews with top industry figures

n Q&As with leading producers and creatives

n A spotlight on the most successful and promising new productions

For more information or to take part, contact Tom Brint tom@iq-mag.net

What

TOP SHOUT

My highlights were the panels on mental health and diversity! The best prepared and most thoughtfully planned I have experienced – much credit due to Tamsin Embleton and the others involved. But as always, they ended up preaching mainly to the converted while the middle-aged, grey-haired men (and I am one) were downstairs talking about ticket fee structures and stadium acts. I love that you prioritised these panels, now let us find a way to get these important issues higher up on the agenda for the big business players.

Anders Wahrén | Roskilde Festival

I thought the bursary and Futures Forum elements of the programme were great. It meant that there were younger people around asking new and challenging questions and just generally giving the event a bit of a lift. This was the best ILMC I’ve been to yet. Well done!

Lucy Wood | The Roundhouse

My highlight was winning the family of four pack of tickets for Dancing on Ice at the Nikos prize fund draw!

On a serious note, our panel Mud baths and outdoor pursuits was a memorable experience, not only because I had the privilege to be (for the first time) one of the speakers at ILMC, which is an amazing experience on its own, but also because it shed light a bit over the wider topic of differences between large promoters and independent

festivals and how things are perceived in the eyes of different stakeholders in the business. This particular debate probably calls for another panel, soon!

Nika Brunet Milunovic | Heartlee

The networking is the most important to me and is still the winning argument to attend ILMC. The best panel for me was the one I was in (just kidding) Marketing 3.0 – The new rules.

Sybil Franke | Velomax Berlin Hallenbetriebs

I had a passionate discussion with a minister of the Georgian government, for whom we talent buy, where I said, “I think part of our role is not to squander the Georgian taxpayers’ money”; the minister beamed.

Alex Hardee gave a rant about how the future

of the live music lies with bedroom music-makers and their computers and how bands were an anachronism. I think that’s bollocks (peace, Alex). But it’s an interesting subject for debate.

Nick Hobbs | Charmenko

The ILMC highlights for me were: The Next Ten Years with Gerd Leonhard; Venue’s Venue – especially the data report by James Drury, and the apparent disconnect between UK audience ill-behaviour and the European experience; and the two Touring Entertainment sessions.

Tim Chambers | TJ Chambers Consultancy

Thank you for inviting Gerd Leonhard. His keynote was as very impressive. Can you please invite him every year?

Also, I liked the panel of female leadership very much. Four absolutely brilliant and inspiring ladies. It really felt so good to listen to their similar experiences.

Catherine Mayer | Just Jazz International

The fact that the hotel had so much more space to meet onsite was great. I loved the meeting rooms having daylight including the fresh and light lobby; it gave more ‘air to breathe.’

I also loved the interview with Doc McGhee: the core of the passion there is in our business.

Jolanda Jansen | Ahoy Arena

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