Iq49

Issue 49 LIVE MUSIC INTELLIGENCE

An ILMC Publication. Sept 2013

Cover photos © Guido Karp

CONTENTS News 6 In Brief The main headlines over the last two months

7

In Depth Key stories from around the live music world

16

Features 16 Lights, Camera, Action!

Christopher Austin talks to the suppliers that enhance the look and sound of live performance

24 The Headliner Robbie Williams’ sell-out Take The Crown Stadium tour

42 South Africa Adam Woods hears that the strengthening business in South Africa could help create an African touring circuit

50 Family Values

24

Gordon Masson discovers how family entertainment is developing despite the global economic downturn

60 A Day in the Life of…

Bažant Pohoda Festival organiser, Michal Kaščák

Comments and Columns 12 China’s live music market Archie Hamilton shares his thoughts on the state of live in this massive market

13 A View from The House

42

Politician Mike Weatherley argues that live music is just as important in the UK as the National Health Service

14 Supporting Acts Vanessa Reed explains why the live music industry is central to PRS for Music Foundation’s work

15 Stage Diving Roger Edwards details the aquatic history of Wembley Arena’s stage

62 Your Shout What’s the funniest thing you’ve seen happen on stage?

50

60

Sept 2013 IQ Magazine | 3

SHINE ON An entire European summer with sun is something to be celebrated, writes Gordon Masson…

APOLOGIES TO THOSE of you living in places where the weather hasn’t been great for the last couple of months – or those who can rely on the seasons to deliver – but for once, British summertime has been exactly that. The sun has blessed the UK with a fantastic few weeks of warmth and virtually every festival has reaped the benefit, with barely a handful recording any sign of rain – and that does not happen here very often. Indeed, Europe as a whole has been basking in the sun, and, at the time of going to press, we’ve thankfully been spared any of the weather-related disasters and tragedies that have hit events in past years.

However, every silver lining has a cloud.

While the promoters of outdoor events have been enjoying the rising temperatures, the producers of family shows report a more difficult season, as I learnt during the writing of our Family Values feature (see page 50). Spending money to head indoors to entertain the kids is, understandably, not at the forefront of parents’ minds when the outdoors is sunny and considerably less expensive than a trip to a theatre or arena.

But never fear, the days are already getting shorter in the northern hemisphere and our Antipodean friends are starting to dust down their barbeques.

Sadly, the business lost yet another of its pioneers since our last issue in July.

German legend Fritz Rau passed away last month, leaving many of his protégés mourning the great man (see page 10). A few columns of newsprint in a magazine can’t do justice to such a remarkable person, but the calibre of people who contacted IQ to mark his passing, hopefully highlights the high regard Fritz is held in both in Germany and internationally.

Talking of remarkable individuals, I also had the pleasure of spending some

time with the people who took Robbie Williams’ Take The Crown Stadium Tour on its sell-out jaunt through Europe this summer (page 24) and discovered the secrets behind the show from the professionals who make it run so smoothly.

Elsewhere in this issue, Chris Austin’s Lights, Camera, Action! feature on page 16 quizzes the suppliers and contractors who help add the bells and whistles to touring productions, with the likes of top quality sound and video systems; lighting; and special effects. Adam Woods, meanwhile, revisits South Africa (page 42), where currency rates aren’t exactly helping promoters when it comes to making a buck from international acts.

Nonetheless, optimism remains high, and for the first time there are genuine rumours of a proper African tour circuit.

Mind you, I wouldn’t go asking a certain American R&B act for any endorsement anytime soon (see page 7).

Finally, the eagle-eyed amongst you might spot a new feature we’ve introduced in this issue. Our inaugural victim for ‘A Day in the Life of…’ is Michal Kaščák, who got the full IQ paparazzi treatment during his Bazant Pohoda Festival in July.

And we’ve already invested in telescopic lenses for our next issue, which, given that it will be our landmark 50th issue, should include a couple of other new elements to spruce up these pages. Not only that, we’ll also be running our annual European Festivals Report, so if you run an event that hasn’t yet filled out our survey, expect a reminder or two via email until you do the necessary – and if that sounded like a threat, it was meant to.

Right I’m off for a pint of cold fall-over juice while the sun is still on our side, rather than with our friends down under…

Issue 49 LIVE MUSIC INTELLIGENCE THE ILMC JOURNAL, Sept 2013

IQ Magazine 140 Gloucester Avenue London, NW1 8JA info@iq-mag.net www.iq-mag.net Tel: +44 (0) 20 3204 1195 Fax: +44 (0) 20 3204 1191 Publisher ILMC and Suspicious Marketing Editor Gordon Masson Associate Editor Allan McGowan Marketing & Advertising Manager Terry McNally Design Martin Hughes Sub Editor Michael Muldoon Production Assistant Adam Milton Contributors Christopher Austin, Roger Edwards, Archie Hamilton, Vanessa Reed, Manfred Tari, Mike Weatherley, Adam Woods.

Editorial Contact Gordon Masson, gordon@iq-mag.net Tel: +44 (0)20 3204 1195 Advertising Contact Terry McNally, terry@iq-mag.net Tel: +44 (0)20 3204 1193

To subscribe to IQ Magazine: +44 (0)20 3204 1195 info@iq-mag.net Annual subscription to IQ is £50 (€60) for 6 issues.

Sept 2013 IQ Magazine | 5

News

IN BRIEF... for which runs out in 10 years.

The number of artists boycotting shows in Florida grows as part of the protest against the acquittal of George Zimmerman, who shot dead unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin under the state’s controversial Stand Your Ground law. Led by Stevie Wonder, the list also includes Usher, Rod Stewart, Madonna, Kanye West, Rihanna, Justin Timberlake, R. Kelly and Jay Z. Brands such as Coca-Cola, O2, Blackberry and Volkswagen spent a record £105m (€123m) on music in the UK during 2012, according to research by PRS for Music and Frukt – an increase of 6% on 2011.

Live Nation Entertainment completes a complex refinancing deal that it says will shave $12m (€9m) off annual costs and increase cash flow.

Miley Cyrus

JULY Vince Power sells a major shareholding in Benicàssim Festival to SJM Concerts and Denis Desmond in a deal designed to assure the future of the popular Spanish event. Power will remain MD of the event which this year featured Arctic Monkeys, Queens of the Stone Age, Beady Eye, and The Killers.

American rocker Eddie Money, and the Doobie Brothers reach out-of-court settlements with their record labels, Sony Music and Warner respectively, regarding the payment of royalties on digital revenues.

Motörhead frontman, Lemmy Kilmister, is “immediately advised to rest”, after medical treatment to fix an irregular heartbeat, meaning all the band’s planned summer dates are cancelled.

Leeds City Council accepts that putting parking tickets on Bruce Springsteen’s tour trucks ahead of a landmark gig to open the British city’s new £60million (€70m) First Direct Arena was “a little embarrassing.”

Vivendi rejects an $8.5billion (€6.4bn) offer for Universal Music Group from Japanese telecoms giant SoftBank. It’s thought the increasing importance of music services in the mobile market prompted the unsolicited offer.

UK police investigate a massive case of ticketing fraud, with more than 3,000 counterfeit tickets already cancelled or confiscated from shocked event fans. Shows

by Bruno Mars, Neil Young, Beyoncé, Michael Bublé and Kings of Leon were targeted, with tickets seemingly sold on secondary ticketing sites.

Long-term EMI staffer Miles Leonard will lead the management team overseeing Warner Music UK, following its acquisition of the Parlophone label group. The two units will seemingly retain some autonomy, with overall Warner UK chief Christian Tattersfield retaining a co-chair role.

Live Nation appoints Robb Spitzer as managing director of its Chinese division.

Reports circulate questioning the future of Madison Square Garden amid claims that New York City wants to remodel Penn Station beneath the iconic venue, the lease

AUGUST Lady Gaga and Madonna face prosecution in Russia for allegedly performing without proper visas. Both artists are accused of breaking Russia’s new gay propaganda laws, which make it illegal to promote homosexuality to minors.

Ticketmaster says it is opening a Vienna office to build a presence in the Austrian market.

London-based live music operation Mama & Company reportedly separates from long-term CEO Dean James. Richard Thompson, chairman of the company’s financial backer Lloyds Development Capital, takes the role of Mama chairman, but at press time, James is still CEO according to the company’s website.

Agency IMG Worldwide is put up for sale

by private equity firm, Forstmann Little & Co, with analysts expecting a price tag of about $2billion (€1.5bn).

Australia’s High Court rules that commercial radio must pay for simulcasts streamed on the internet, effectively ending a four-year argument over the issue.

Collection society, Phonographic Performance Company of Australia, says it is working out details for licensing deals.

Finland’s biggest indoor venue, the 15,000-capacity Hartwall Areena, is sold to a group of Russian businessmen for an undisclosed sum. Ice hockey fans Gennadi Timtshenko and brothers Arkady and Boris Rotenberg have also acquired a stake in Hartwall’s team, Jokerit.

Live Nation Australasia forms a joint venture with brand entertainment agency Mixitup Enterprises to create music and entertainment brand partnerships across Australia and New Zealand. Mixitup clients include AirAsia.com, Bacardi, ANZ, Jägermeister, Budweiser and Southern Comfort.

Ticketmaster UK appoints Simon Presswell as its new MD, replacing Chris Edmonds who is now VP of International Strategic Partnerships. Presswell previously worked for both BSkyB and the Universal Television and theme park companies.

Publicist Norman Winter, whose clients included Michael Jackson, Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond, Elton John, Queen, Billy Joel, AC/DC and Dr. Dre, dies in a Las Vegas hospital from complications of Lewy Body Disease. He was 85.

Former Ticketmaster CEO Nathan Hubbard is appointed by Twitter to the newly created position of head of commerce and will reportedly lead the social network’s development to enable shopping on the service.

American pressure group the Parents Television Council complains that the sexual content on the MTV Video Music Awards telecast was “unacceptable” after performances by the likes of Lady Gaga and Miley Cyrus.

Devastating fires near Yosemite National Park force organisers of California’s Strawberry Music Festival to shelve the scheduled 29 August to 2 September event.

To subscribe to IQ Magazine: +44 (0)20 3204 1195 info@iq-mag.net Annual subscription to IQ is £50 (€60) for 6 issues.

6 | IQ Magazine Sept 2013

News

Brandy Snaps!

AMERICAN R&B ARTIST Brandy reportedly walked off stage after just two songs at a stadium concert in South Africa in August. But before any promoters consider adding the Mississippi native to any blacklist, it should be pointed out that she had a pretty good reason.

The international star was apparently the surprise headline act booked to give the 17 August Nelson Mandela Sports and Culture Day at the sold-out FNB Stadium in Soweto, a fitting finale. However, according to reports, her appearance was kept so secret that by the time she took to the stage, the audience had gone home. Well, all but a few stragglers who witnessed an intimate performance in the 90,000-capacity venue.

The all-day event had involved football and rugby matches, as well as appearances and performances

by David Jenkins, Elvis Blue, Salif Keïta and D’banj.

But despite Brandy’s huge

popularity in South Africa, only about 40 people were still in the FNB when she made her short-lived appearance.

“Brandy [just] performed to an empty stadium. With the stadium lights on,” tweeted South African musician, Kabomo. “People didn’t know there was a concert after the games. No one knew Brandy was around. Maybe a 40-people audience... She sulked after two songs and walked off.” Meanwhile, one of the gang of 40 tweeted: “Brandy performing for the chairs!”

At press time, attempts to speak to the event promoter had proved futile, but one South African-based ILMC regular comments, “I actually think it was the government who were the quasi-promoters – certainly if a real promoter was involved, it isn’t anybody we’ve heard of. Government as promoters – that says it all. But those were two very expensive songs!”

BluesFest Wins Helpmann Award

A DELIGHTED BluesFest director Peter Noble and festival manager Annika Oman proudly show off the Helpmann Award for Best Contemporary Music Festival, presented to them at a ceremony at Sydney Opera House in July.

BluesFest, which celebrated its 24th edition this year, was nominated against The Falls Music and Arts Fes-

Beatles promoter Bernstein dies Legendary american promoter Sid Bernstein, who helped introduce the likes of The Beatles and the Rolling Stones to America, has died at the age of 95. He promoted the Carnegie Hall shows in New k a US tour in 1964, and a year later, booked the famous Shea Stadium gig, which is widely a stadium concert by a rock band.

Bernstein also promoted a gigs and was responsible for other members of the British a ak a America, including The Kinks, The Animals and Herman’s Hermits. But it wasn’t just

British acts that he booked, as his illustrious career also saw him working with stars such as Jimi Hendrix, James Brown, Fats Domino, Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, Judy Garland and Abba.

Born on 12 August 1918 in New York City, he was adopted by Russian immigrants and worked in his father’s tailor shop from a young a a the arts and began his career promoting local dances.

Always entrepreneurial, during a a a a with entertainment and lifestyle information from back home a a

set-up a successful nightclub for GIs in the town of Dijon.

Post-war he worked as an agent at the General Artists Corporation where he became Tony Bennett’s agent and is credited with helping the star a k a promoting his breakthrough gig at Carnegie Hall.

Asked about his work with The Beatles, he once commented, “I was just glad to get this group I had been reading about for months. It took eight months after I booked them for there to be any airplay of their records on the radio. I had to a a a a a ak ak a chance on this then-unknown

tival, Laneway Festival, and Vivid LIVE 2012. Accepting the coveted award, Noble said, “I am thrilled to accept this award on behalf of my team.

This year’s BluesFest featured some of the finest musicians from around the world and it is great to be recognised at this prestigious industry event. It is also proof that the Byron Bay area is the regional arts capital of Australia.” group. I had been reading about their progress in the European papers and was fascinated with the hysteria that surrounded a The Beatles in the States and Ed a a a k And talking about the

players in the promotion business today are, by and large, not in it for the art anymore. It’s all about how many bucks can you make on a concert… It shouldn’t just be about money. It should be a a a Geraldine, as well as six children and six grandchildren.

Sept 2013 IQ Magazine | 7

News

Barclaycard British Summer Time

Heavyweight Celebrates London Summer Success

ONE OF LONDON’S best summers in a decade has prompted industry giant AEG to have a sunnier disposition than might have been expected, given the fact that it launched a new landmark event in the capital.

AEG Live took over the annual hosting of outdoor shows in the capital’s Hyde Park from rival corporation Live Nation this year, while the latter company used the

Olympic Park in the city’s East End to roll out some of its latest event brands.

AEG Live president of international touring, Rob Hallett, tells IQ, “I’m delighted with year one.”

The company’s 10-day Barclaycard British Summer Time programme of events included shows by the Rolling Stones, Lionel Richie, Jennifer Lopez and Elvis Costello. “It normally takes

outdoor events about five years to properly establish themselves, but we launched a premium product with a superb line-up and overnight it’s become London’s best event,” Hallett says.

In addition to the weekend gigs, AEG also opened the site to the public during the week. Hallett explains, “Part of our tender, that impressed [site owners] the Royal Parks, was our observation that the general public were pretty much denied access to a large part of Hyde Park for weeks on end. So we agreed a plan, devised by [events director] Jim King and his team, to allow free access to the site by closing off the main stage during the week. So we had all sorts of events on the site – cook-offs, folk bands,

movies on the giant screens, the Ashes cricket and many more.”

Hallett laughs, “There were still lots of people sitting outside trying to peek through the fences – we told them it was free to come in, but sometimes the British public don’t get the meaning of ‘free’.”

Indeed, with one very special plaudit, Hallett says bands are already enquiring about playing the venue next year. “We had fantastic feedback from everyone involved – the Royal Parks, the audience, the police, and the artists. Mick Jagger, who has played every conceivable venue around the world, said it was one of his greatest gigs ever and that he wanted to play there again.

Praise doesn’t get much better than that.”

Delegates Pack Their Bags for Conference Season THE EUROPEAN MUSIC industry’s autumn conference season switches into gear later this month when Germany’s Reeperbahn Festival kickstarts what is fast becoming a packed calendar.

The city of Hamburg is already preparing for the annual invasion of musicians and industry executives ahead of Reeperbahn, which will take place 25-28 September across more than 80 venues. The event is expected to attract as many as 3,000 delegates from around the world, as well as thousands of music fans from Europe and beyond, to boost the fanbases of the hundreds of invited artists.

As part of this year’s Reeperbahn seminar programme, IQ editor Gordon Masson

will be involved in a number of panel sessions, including Fascination Dance, where Kontor Records’ Gareth Davies, Amsterdam Dance Event’s Richard Ziljma, Monkey Town Music’s Ronni Krieger, Warner Music’s Andreas Weitkämper, and Tobias Thomas of Kompakt Booking will debate the ways in which dance music is infiltrating mainstream music and society; its ability to encourage partnerships between music and brands; and how it is also leading developments in design, fashion and technological progress. Can other genres learn from the dance movement?

Masson will also chair the Understanding Eastern Europe session where he will be joined by Andràs

8 | IQ Magazine Sept 2013

Berta from Sziget Festival, Baris Basaran of Pozitif Live, Pohoda Festival’s Michal Kaščák, and Nikki Wright of Global Publicity to discuss how promoters and event organisers defy the odds to attract big name acts to Eastern Europe, despite perceptions of financial hardship and geographical challenges.

Next month, the IQ team will make the short trip to Paris for the 16-18 October MaMA Conference and Festival where Sziget’s Fruzsina Szép, Exit co-founder Ivan Milivojev, Primavera’s Beba Naveira and Stefan Lehmkuhl from Melt! will participate with Masson on the Yourope-sponsored panel How Do You Break Your Festival Internationally?, to share

their insights on how to attract audiences from overseas.

Elsewhere, on a much smaller scale, we will also be at the 30 October-3 November Lleida Sessions Pro – a small, targeted showcase event in Spain developed by Martin Elbourne, (Glastonbury Festival, The Great Escape) and Jordi Puy (Sound Diplomacy), in partnership with Xavi Manresa, vice-president of the Spanish Promoters’ Association. The boutique event will bring together 8-10 bands and 15-20 European and South American festival programmers, while a Spanish industry conference will run alongside, as will a bigger showcase festival open to the public.

News

Fritz Rau (1930 – 2013) Legendary German music promoter – Fritz Rau – has died at home in Kronberg, near Frankfurt, aged 83.

RECOGNISED AS ONE of the founding fathers of Europe’s live music business, Rau made his name, initially, as a promoter of jazz and blues artists working with the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Nat King Cole and Miles Davis. In later years, he promoted pop and rock acts such as Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and the Rolling Stones. Stones’ frontman Mick Jagger once referred to Rau as: “the godfather of all of us.”

Rau’s career began in the 50s alongside Horst Lippmann, and the duo eventually established the Lippmann + Rau agency in the early 1960s. Just last year, both pioneers were nominated to the Blues Hall of Fame. Rau reportedly viewed his early work with jazz musicians as events against racism, and, ever politically minded, he even stood as a candidate for the city council in Kronberg.

Veteran promoter Marcel Avram says, “Fritz Rau was a loyal partner for over 12 years at Mama Concerts & Rau; and I had not only a devoted partner, but also a good friend.

The music industry has lost one of its pioneers. Fritz’s slogan always was ‘You can never do enough promotion for a concert until the last ticket has been sold’. Fritz, you were my friend, my partner and I will miss you – rest in peace.”

Born in Pforzheim, Rau’s parents died when he was young and at the age of ten he began living with relatives.

He graduated with a degree in law from the University of Heidelberg and while he worked as a court clerk and in a legal firm, in his spare time he ran Cave 54, a jazz club in Heidelberg. However, his big break came in 1955 when he organised his first major concert at Heidelberg Town Hall and was spotted by Lippmann who hired him to help run jazz tours. From that point onward, the duo build their business into a powerhouse, while, when Lippman stepped back from the business, Rau joined forces with Avram’s Mama Concerts.

United in grief, some of Germany’s biggest promoters contacted IQ to pay tribute. Marek Lieberberg says, “The music industry [has lost] a legendary and charismatic veteran who set standards for decades. He initiated the awareness of artists, concerts, and the promoter forming a trinity. He defined and personified the term ‘promotion’, devoting his passion to gain maximum attention for popular culture. Fritz once said a promoter can only rest once the artist is airborne. Now he has left us and is hopefully watching us from above. His star will shine as long as we remember.”

Karsten Jahnke notes, “The German concert landscape would have looked completely different if it wasn’t for

10 | IQ Magazine Sept 2013

Fritz. His lifelong enthusiasm for music, his ability to spread his excitement to other people and his pioneering spirit to go routes nobody had dared go before is what makes his contribution outstanding.

Without a doubt, my life took a significantly different turn once I got to know Fritz. He put trust in me from the very beginning and we’ve been working together ever since. I miss a true friend and mentor – farewell, my hero.”

MCT’s Scumeck Sabottka says, “No one else had such an important influence on me than you, Fritz; no one else showed me the way, as you did. Your courage paired with your incredible trust in your taste gave me faith in presenting new artists. Your partnership with Marcel [Avram] was pure power. Our friendship was special and you always supported me. Thank you so much and keep on rocking!”

DEAG CEO Peter Schwenkow began his career working for Rau in 1975 and comments, “Almost everybody worked for or with Fritz in the German live entertainment industry. He helped a lot to establish the concert promoter as a profession and invented many marketing tools in those days. And he lived for the music and his artists – Rock ‘n Rau forever!”

Creative Talent Europe’s CEO Carlos Fleischmann did not work directly with Rau, but says, “I was very impressed as a young man by this shining character. He was, and still is, one of my true inspirations – he will be greatly missed.”

Peter Rieger, however, knew Rau his entire working career, “His office happened to be right next to my grammar school in Frankfurt and I applied as a trainee with him when I was 17 and still attending school,” says Rieger. “That’s what got me into the concert business. We have been friends for a long time and I remember quite well our cooperation during the last tour with Queen and Freddie Mercury. He was a great master of anecdotes and very funny.”

And Semmel Concerts CEO Dieter Semmelmann adds, “The first concerts that I was allowed to host for Fritz Rau were very special to me. His weekly faxes with the latest pre-sales hit lists and information about marketing activities concerning each tour were legendary. For me, personally, he set a standard: his caring way of dealing with the artists; his eye for detail in all matters concerning press and marketing; and his meticulousness setting up each concert. He was unique, and today we try to reach this level of perfection, without ever really coming close.

Being a promoter was his passion and his calling. For all who have known him and, in particular, worked with him, Fritz Rau will always remain unforgotten.”

News

Promoters Missing in German Safety Study A MULTIMILLION euro research project designed to improve safety standards in Germany has raised eyebrows after it neglected to include any promoters among the consortium tasked with handling the study.

An impressive €5.5million has been set aside for the BaSiGo (safety and security modules for large public events) project. It is the first survey of its kind on a national level in Germany, following the tragedy at Love Parade in Duisburg three years ago.

Indeed, the initiators of the study also refer to the tragedy at Belgium’s Pukkelpop Festival in 2011. But while both events were obviously based around music, BaSiGo has come under fire because no live music promoter or

promoters’ association has been officially involved in the project.

Most of the organisations involved in the consortium are publically funded, while, according to sources, only a few commercial service providers are officially participating and only one company – IBIT (international education and training centre for event security) – is linked to the live music industry.

IBIT MD, Sabine Funk is also deputy chairman of the International Safety Training Association (IST); manager of the association for security and crowd management planning (VSCM); and a board member of the Yourope Event Safety Group. As a result, IBIT is apparently being viewed as a gatekeeper for the German

live music industry, despite the fact that it does not promote music events.

BaSiGo has also been questioned regarding its approach to large-scale public events, especially when it comes to how the €5.5m is being used. Despite governmental assurances that BaSiGo’s aims could only be realised “by closely linking the different expertise from practice, science and industry,” willingness to commit funding to gather crucial data has been slow.

Daniel Schlatter, MD of IVVM Schlatter, which handles administrative tasks for promoters such as FKP Scorpio and Germany’s biggest festival, Wacken Open Air, said the BaSiGo consortium’s desire to

scrutinise the Chiemsee Reggae Summer Festival was fundamentally flawed.

“Despite the declaration and explanation of the interests of the promoter, the consortium was not prepared to carry the corresponding expenses,” says Schlatter, adding that BaSiGo asked the festival promoter to supply extensive data and staff efforts for its research work, but apparently forgot that someone has to cover these additional expenses.

However, at press time Schlatter revealed that the consortium recently approached him again and it seems the research scientists have recognised that it might be helpful for the study to include a proper music festival in their study.

Comment

China’s live music market Archie Hamilton founder of Split Works, the biggest independent international promoter in China, shares

his thoughts on the state of live in this massive market…

FOR A COUNTRY that only started hosting big international acts in 2005 (and really only a handful since then), the months of August-November are an incredible, if unrealistic step forward. August sees Metallica and Pitbull play two shows at the 10,000-capacity Mercedes Benz Arena, followed by the Pet Shop Boys and Jamiroquai at the 9,000-cap Grand Stage in Shanghai. Creativeman/Live Nation have decided that this is the right time to launch their Summersonic Music Festival with 90s icons Korn and Limp Bizkit headlining; and Gold Typhoon step into the mix with Aerosmith to headline the 23,000-cap Hongkou Stadium (gulp!).

Looking forward, there is the big AEG-organised Justin Bieber Asia tour that will most likely do well; The Killers, and Akon in October; and Alicia Keys will be back in China in November, hosted by Live Nation.

At the same time, there are expensive-looking club shows taking place in the main cities; the likes of Owl City, Tony Bennett, Kenny G, George Benson, Herbie Hancock, and Coheed and Cambria, are all priced at US$50 [€38] and up. And it is the pricing that is so incredibly anomalous, according to the Wall Street Journal.

At present, the majority of Chinese are working class, living in households with an annual disposable income of between $6,000 [€4,500] and $16,000 [€12,000]. The middle class, with an annual disposable income of between $16,000 and $34,000 [€26,000] make up only 6% of the urban population. A tiny group of upper middle class, whose disposable income exceeds $34,000, comprises only 2% of the urban population.

The nosebleed seats for most of these arena shows start at around US$75 [€56], and to get a seat on the floor often costs well over US$200 [€150], sometimes closer to US$400 [€300].

Genre-based delineation doesn’t feature here in China as much as in other places. Your average Chinese music fan

12 | IQ Magazine September 2013

just about understands the difference between domestic and international music, but differentiating between hip hop and EDM; metal and indie rock, not a chance. That will take generations to filter down to the masses, and will require sympathetic and interested domestic media (something in short supply here). Finally, the Chinese are notorious hoarders, preferring to hide their money under their mattresses at the best of times (a legacy of imperfect healthcare and welfare systems). The second half of 2013 doesn’t look like being ‘the best of times’ as growth rates look set to drop below 7% for Q3, with multinational and domestic companies announcing that sales are way down so far this year.

As one significant venue owner said to me recently: “All these shows draw from the same well. Does it worry me? Of course it does. We are all betting big on this period.”

These massive international shows are all built (to give a good religious analogy) on a foundation of sand. International music was almost completely unknown to the Chinese population before the dawn of the internet. Media still isn’t interested in any but the biggest celebrities and there is a bias toward stars with a command of Mandarin Chinese.

For the last eight years, my company Split Works (www. spli-t.com) has been focused on redressing this balance through a combination of shows (we bring through 40-50 international tours a year and we own two of the biggest festivals here) and media (we have two web communities dedicated to independent music). We try to keep prices as low as possible (most of our shows run $5-15 [€4-12]) and we are trying hard to develop an actual audience for international music rather than taking massive multimilliondollar punts on international celebrities; we are hoping to build the stars of the future.

We don’t know why the big promoters consistently fail to see this as a problem and continue to run aground on massive losses and unrealistic business plans. Perhaps the advent of a new generation of executives – mostly culled from the ahead-of-its-time China West (leading concert promoters in China from 2003-2009) – will effect real change. Adam Wilkes has been in charge of AEG’s Asian touring since 2011 to great success, while Robb Spitzer has just been appointed head of Live Nation China.

It is a commonly held belief that developed economies boom and bust in 17-year cycles. I have observed here in China that excess exuberance and fear speeds up this process markedly, and it seems that our cycles are closer to three years. Since the bottom, in late 2009, we have seen an increase in the size and frequency of shows, that may well have peaked in August. Watch this space!

Comment

A View from The House Conservative MP, Mike Weatherley, founder of the Rock the House initiative, argues that the live music business is just as important as the National Health Service…

I was elected to Parliament in May 2010 and along with other newly elected MPs, I was determined to get stuck-in to help the Coalition fix Britain’s broken economy and sort out ‘the big issues’. But along that route I noticed that the creative sector was not widely understood and certainly terms like ‘intellectual property (IP) rights’, an incredibly important part of creativity, along with the layers developing vibrant new musical talent such as rules governing live music events, were not considered a ‘sexy’ subject by many colleagues.

Something had to be done. As one of only three net exporters of music, the overseas revenue to this country is vitally important. More than the NHS? Well, without these revenue streams we wouldn’t have an NHS, so yes. The creative sector is the third largest in the UK (after manufacturing and financial services) and represents 13% of GDP. Distributing briefing notes to MPs was pointless – we get literally hundreds every week. They may get read but most likely the unsexy subject would be ignored by most. A new approach was necessary to make MPs take an interest, whether they liked it or not. And Rock the House (RTH) was born.

The idea is simple. Unsigned bands and artists send their music to their local MP, and those chosen to represent their constituency compete to go into the finals. The winner gets to play live on the House of Commons Terrace (a first for Parliament!). The goal being to raise governmental awareness of the importance of IP and live music to the artists, and to the British economy.

The tentative approach to test if the concept would work, exploded. The music industry, bands and MPs, all loved it.

In its first year, 54 MPs responded, 180 in the second, and the just-completed third year saw 450 constituencies take part, making this the largest competition Parliament has ever seen. Many MPs think RTH exists purely to find new talent, which does of course happen (the first two years’ winners have secured deals) but have still to understand the IP implications. But more are starting to ask about IP and live music, establishing an acceptance that IP is important.

RTH now looks like becoming an international event. We are meeting with MEPs in September, as well as considering possibilities in Australia and the USA. We have seen governmental progress in live music.

In May 2010, you needed a special licence for an event for more than 100 people. Enter one of my favourite

parliamentarians – Lord Tim ClementJones (Liberal Democrat peer), with the help of Don Foster MP (Liberal Democrat), and I would like to think, a gentle nudge from RTH activities, he successfully put through a Bill to increase that number to 200. Even better, the Government recently extended this to 500 persons. Live music is no longer seen as an objectionable noise problem, but something to be encouraged to help new artists develop their talent.

As regards secondary ticketing; as a ‘free-market’ politician, I believe in the market principle of buying and selling for a profit, if possible. So my natural reaction to ticket touts was: why not? – surely they are providing a market mechanism to

“ Live music is no longer seen as an

objectionable noise problem, but something to be encouraged to help new artists develop their talent.”

equate demand and supply. But on inspection, it is clear that there is not a free market defence.

Firstly, it is not a perfect market in economic terms.

There are barriers to entry, not an unlimited supply etc. So the usual rules letting the market decide do not apply.

Secondly, the internet has changed everything. The guy on the corner buying surplus and selling at what he can get has been superseded by banks of computers set-up to obtain multiple tickets.

Thirdly, if a band wants to set tickets at an attractive price for a particular fan-base, they must be permitted to do so.

There are also considerations of criminality and fairness.

The Government will at some point have to step in. It worked with the Olympics and (to some extent) football.

In 2007, the CMS Parliamentary Select Committee decided against any action. Six years later rapid changes have altered the circumstances, but sadly Government position is still that it does not want to intervene in what many see as a free market position, which a truly concerned industry could fix itself. However, fans, artists the police, and a growing collective of MPs, promoters, and managers want to see Government support and a review of the whole ticketing industry. Plans are being formulated. Anyone wishing to be part of lobbying for change, should contact me: mike.weatherley.mp@parliament.uk.

September 2013 IQ Magazine | 13

Comment

Supporting Acts Director of PRS for Music Foundation, Vanessa Reed, explains why the live music industry is central to the foundation’s work…

2013, 90% of the bands we helped attend “ In SXSW came back with tangible results such as new deals with labels or agents and international tour/festival bookings.”

I HAVE THE PRIVILEGE of leading the only organisation in the UK that’s dedicated to funding the creation and performance of new music in any genre – from contemporary classical, jazz, and folk; to rock, pop, electronic, urban; and everything in between. With PRS for Music as our core donor, and given the increased importance of the live music business to the industry as a whole, it’s perhaps no surprise that the lion’s share of the foundation’s support goes to live music.

Every year, we support around 250 promoters, festivals, performance groups, bands, music organisations and development agencies, and this helps UK-based songwriters and composers get their music out there, hone their craft and earn an income along the way.

The foundation’s commitment to the live industry attracted me to this job because I’ve always felt that the best way to hear the latest music by bands or writers I love is at a gig or festival, where you can be part of a unique experience with the performers and other fans who are passionate about the same music as you. I also believe that PRS for Music Foundation’s extensive support of live music is a crucial resource for artist development across the music industry – and that’s something I care about. Of the 4,000+ initiatives that we’ve funded since 2000 to the tune of over £16million [€18.6m], each has involved at least one songwriter, writer-performer or composer who had created new material and tested it on an audience, with the help of the promoters and producers who make the UK’s live industry the diverse and successful business it is.

So far so good… But as some claim that the UK is now

14 | IQ Magazine September 2013

home to around 170,000 bands, and we know that PRS has around 84,000 living songwriter/composer members, how can we make sure that PRS’s annual donation of £1.5m [€1.7m] and the funds we secure from other sources has any tangible impact?

Firstly, we make sure our support goes to musicians and organisations on the cusp of taking their music or business to another level. In this context, our assistance acts as seed funding, which, matched with investment from the particular artist/business, has twice the impact it would have alone. A recent example is our launch of Momentum Music Fund; a £500k [€582k] talent development fund backed by Arts Council England, which will invest in artists/bands at a tipping point in their career. UK touring is one of the key activities Momentum will support because we know that this is central to artists’ creative and business development.

Secondly, we often support promoters, festivals or agencies who promote niche music genres or emerging acts that are not yet backed by commercial investors, but still make a significant contribution to the originality, diversity and sheer brilliance of the music industry in the UK. New folk promoters, The Local; urban tastemakers, Put Me On it; development agency, Generator; and festivals LeeFest, In the Woods and Norwich Sound and Vision are examples of these organisations. They tell us that our grants are crucial to the development of their companies and the artists they work with. We know that without this infrastructure the new music we regularly fund would not reach the live audiences it needs.

Finally, we work with other funders to spot markets and activities not supported by anyone else. For example, since 2006 we’ve been running a fund with Arts Council England, British Underground, UKTI and more recently, the Musicians’ Union, which helps artists/bands attend industry-facing events overseas like SXSW, CMJ and Womex. In 2013, 90% of the bands we helped attend SXSW – including SOHN, Tall Ships and Dan Croll – came back with tangible results such as new deals with labels or agents and international tour/ festival bookings.

So, making a difference to live music in the UK and overseas is central to why we exist. We do a lot with the resources we have but we want to increase the impact we’re having. This means that we’d like to find new ways of teaming up and sharing experience with those who drive the live music industry’s success in the UK and overseas.

We’d like to hear your views on what we’re doing now; what we could do in the future, and how your work could fit in.

Interested in finding out more? Any ideas on how we could do more together? Please get in touch…

Comment

Stage Diving Operations and marketing consultant, Roger Edwards, dusts off his water wings to reveal a tale of genuine stage history…

THE RECENT DEATH of US Olympic swimming champion Esther Williams has reminded me of one of those little bits of pop history involving Wembley Arena.

Following her Olympic triumphs, Williams enjoyed a period as a Hollywood film star and when this tailed off she toured in an aquatic show called Water Queen of the World, which came to Europe in 1956. Her last date before returning to the US was at Wembley Empire Pool, now the Arena.

The production used a large, steel, raised stage and platform which bridged the pool so as to provide a diving position, height for tableaux and company set piece routines, as well as access to the water from behind so artists could enter/exit the performance pool area from beneath the stage.

At the end of the Wembley run, the production company decided that the cost of shipping the stage back to the US was too expensive. The late Peter Seddon, who many in the business will remember, then technical manager of the arena, bought it for £150 [€175], at a time when staged entertainment activity at a scale to suit Wembley’s very large capacity was

only just beginning. The Esther Williams stage with some structural amendments was subsequently used right up to 1989 having been used by a pantheon of international artists too long to list, but including the Beatles, the Stones, Tina Turner, The Yardbirds, The Hollies, Springsteen, Rod Stewart, Status Quo, Bowie, ELO, Fleetwood Mac, Wings etc etc etc.

In 1989, the Esther Williams stage was finally replaced with a modern modular unit. Before scrapping, I asked Peter for some pieces as I had it in mind, given its history, to cut it into smaller pieces, mount and frame them, add some historical detail and use them as presentation pieces for promoter of the year and similar. But, as you do, I never got round to it. I do, however, still have those pieces languishing in a plastic bag, where anyone opening it would find some rusty bits of pipe – any suggestions for a positive use would be welcome.

PS: I’ve been been told by older production managers that on a cold winter’s night, after the audience has long since departed, the production has been packed and the trucks sent on their way, that you can still get a whiff of chlorine in the air!

Caption

Lights, Camera, Action!

16 | IQ Magazine Sept 2013

Lights, Camera, Action!

Lights, Camera, Action!

Quantum Special Effects are working on the current Pink tour © Joshua Mellin Photography

Whether marvelling at the illusion of northern lights hovering above a Sigur Rós performance or ducking a swooping satellite from Kraftwerk’s 3D stage production, fans have grown to expect spectacular live shows. Christopher Austin talks to the specialists who add glitz to artists’ performances.

NATURALLY THE FRENETIC ACTIVITY involved in bringing the magic to life on stages around the world is far from the view of the paying public, as lighting, sound, video screen and special effects suppliers work tirelessly to deliver something new and dramatic to the next tour or festival show. Coordinating the use and supply of highly complex, valuable, and often hazardous materials and equipment to concert productions around the world has never been a simple task and with demand growing, it’s not getting any easier.

This summer literally thousands of outdoor music festivals took place across Europe alone; meanwhile, far-flung markets including South America, Australia, and Asia, demonstrated an increased appetite for full-blown concert productions.

Production support operators are being forced to excel and innovate like never before. Meanwhile, the increased international demand for complex productions means that production managers have had to look at economical ways of avoiding huge transport costs and accessing the equipment in far-flung locations.

GLOBAL EFFECT PYROTEK SPECIAL EFFECTS OFFERS everything from pyrotechnic and cryogenic effects to lasers, screens and confetti. Its ancillary business includes live TV shows, and corporate and trade events, but its core concern is concert touring. In June alone, Pyrotek was involved in more than 160 events around the world, including tours by Paul McCartney, Bruno Mars, Rihanna and Metallica.

Pyrotek has a sales office in LA and depots in Toronto and Las Vegas, but with 60% of its business being outside North America the company utilises collaborative relationships with vendors in territories around the world. “Because we are dealing with permitted hazmat (hazardous material), we frequently interface with a locally licensed shooter or company internationally, so we are dealing with a local vendor in every city and every country in some way. They may make arrangements for the delivery of hazmat, sublet equipment or operate with their licence. Some acts tour with all their own equipment, some want to pick up local production, in any case, we are responsible for it,” says Pyrotek CEO Tom Sorce.

The need to have a global reach was behind the launch of a US office by Quantum Special Effects, a UK company specialising in pyrotechnics; fireworks; fire and flame effects; CO2 jets; confetti and streamers. Founded in 2009, Quantum has doubled turnover almost every year since, and in 2012, provided effects for over 300 shows across the globe including the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics. It was voted Special Effects Company of the Year in both 2012 and 2013 at the Event Production Awards.

Quantum president, Shaun Barnett, says the opening of a US office was spurred by the requirements of Richard Young, production manager of Pink’s The Truth About Love Tour.

Young wanted to work with Quantum again having previously successfully collaborated on Pink’s Summer Carnival Tour in 2010, but couldn’t justify paying for equipment to be shipped from the UK for a US tour. “That prompted us to get a US company up and running, which was something that we had talked about for a long time, so we launched it in January and were ready for the start of the Pink rehearsals in February this year. We run all tours from either the US or UK office and bring in local cover companies as and when we need them,” Barnett says.

A company with a truly global reach is Production Resource Group (PRG), which operates from more than 40 offices in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. PRG provides integrated services and equipment, including audio, video, lighting, rigging, staging, scenery and automation systems for major events around the world, with the live music side of the business headed by concert touring president, Mickey Curbishley. Among PRG’s recent and current tours are Bon Jovi, Taylor Swift, the Eagles, and Pink. “We tend to do big global touring artists that are equally popular in territories such as Australia, Japan, Europe, North America and Central America. Pretty much wherever you go, there is a PRG facility,” Curbishley reports.

Based in LA, Curbishley says that PRG’s global framework is essential to its success. “The technology that we are travelling around the world with now is so advanced that no matter how smart the crew are and how well prepared you are, you are going to have a problem, and Sod’s Law, it will happen in a remote place,” he says.

Sept 2013 IQ Magazine | 17

Pyrotek worked on the last tour of Avenged Sevenfold

Lights, Camera, Action!

“It is tempting for clients to get [Chinese-made products] 30% cheaper, but they will not get the level of support they are used to, and if there is a problem, there is nowhere to go.”

– Lee Spencer, XL Video According to Curbishley, the top-level tour business has seen a dramatic change in recent years with the major tours maintaining all facets of a production, no matter where a show is located. “Ten years ago, an artist would tour the same show in the US and Europe, but use a reduced system everywhere else. But now the audience wants to see the spectacular when it comes to their town because they have seen it on YouTube. The challenge is taking these huge 20-truck plus shows to every market,” Curbishley says. “We have spent all year with Pink and she is now in Australia with the same show. We send some key elements down there but duplicate 75% of the system in Australia, saving a huge amount in freight costs,” he says.

XL Video is one of the UK’s leading suppliers of audiovisual equipment and associated services. It has a vast inventory of LED screens ranging from 3mm-90mm resolution and a broad range of equipment including HD and SD cameras, and video control systems. With consumers having enjoyed a decade in which the resolution of screens on portable and domestic devices has changed dramatically, expectations are high at concerts. Video is one of the fastest evolving elements of the concert supply sector and XL has spread its wings around the world since it was founded in 1996.

XL operates offices in Belgium, the US, the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, and China, and has associates in Australia and South America. Recent work includes Robbie Williams’ 26-date Take The Crown stadium tour (see page 22), which involved the creation of a 12.6-metre high by 7.5-metre wide 3D head modelled from a scan of Williams’ face and fully pixel mapped. It was fitted with 46,000 Barco FLX 24

18 | IQ Magazine Sept 2013

video pixels, previously used on U2’s 360° Tour.

XL Video UK MD, Lee Spencer, says that when the company was founded the concept was to mirror its offering across Europe and the US so that a tour could acquire identical systems at the same rate, wherever it was. “What took us by surprise was that the majority of tours continue to ship productions, even today when more tours are taking advantage of local suppliers. Because major tours tend to have purpose-built structures, and complex control systems and programming, they are still prepared to pay to ship the tours,” Spencer says.

Advances in technology have enabled the creation of lightweight equipment that costs less to ship. In the case of LEDs, it means shows can use bigger screens than ever.

“For Robbie Williams, we had 650 square metres of LED. In the past that would have been impossible because of weight loading,” Spencer notes.

As if the shipping of pyrotechnic materials isn’t complex enough, with them being handled and shipped in a very specific manner and stored in safe, often bomb-proof, containers, the nature of the materials means that reams of paperwork must be done before they can be legitimately used.

An artist may want to make an impact with an explosive stage show, but a particular special effect often has to meet with a number of specific safety regulations. In the US, Sorce says that means not only complying with national and state regulations, but also those imposed by a particular city and venue. “The logistics of our business are substantial, on one tour we might have 30 different venues with 30 different permits and 30 different sets of rules that we have to address.

You have to be aware of that and notify the production team and band ahead of time,” Sorce says.

SPARKING CREATIVITY DESPITE THE COMPLEXITIES INVOLVED in creating a spectacular stage show night after night around the world, it hasn’t

Lights, Camera, Action!

“Ten years ago, an artist would tour the same show in the US and Europe, but use a reduced system everywhere else. But now the audience wants to see the spectacular when it comes to their town because they have seen it on YouTube.”

– Mickey Curbishley, Production Resource Group

Artem, a European operation specialising in animatronics, pyrotechnics, prosthetics, atmospherics, rigs, and props, was also heavily involved in the Olympics’ ceremonies, creating everything from rain, wind, smoke, and molten-metal effects to a 10 x 6-metre sleeping baby. CEO and SFX supervisor, Mike Kelt, is now looking to expand the business into live music and create options for a variety of budgets. “We think of alternative solutions so there are always options for a production, and keep on top of technology to underpin them,” Kelt says. “We have various CNC (computer numerical control) machines including a new £100k (€115k) robot arm, and 3D printing in-house.”

Innovative use of LEDs in concert productions, such as Bono’s LED jacket worn during U2’s 360° Tour, have been led by companies like XL Video. However, Spencer is quick to point out the limitations of creating LED-laced clothing. “You have to be aware of restrictions such as signal and the fact they need power. An artist carrying a car battery on stage doesn’t go down well, and there is the time issue, because they will only last half an hour,” he warns.

One of the more complex production challenges Event Sound & Light has had to solve is working with an uncovered stage area and a 60-metre crane suspending artists above the audience. “We had to ensure that all of the equipment used on the show was fully waterproofed and protected from the elements. Through careful selection of the equipment the show went ahead without any problems despite suffering a rehearsal day of torrential rain,” says director, Nigel Hills.

Based in France and the UK, the SSE Audio Group provides professional audio services including PA hire, pro audio sales and audio installations. Recent clients include the Stone Roses and Alice Cooper tours, along with festivals such as Latitude and Bestival. MD John Penn says that with new and innovative equipment coming to market all the time the company has a policy of investing at least £1million (€1.16m) a year in new PRG helped Bon Jovi achieve the desired effect on their stadium tour

quelled the desire of artists and production managers to use groundbreaking special effects. “Paul McCartney uses a huge amount of special effects while performing Live and Let Die: between flame and pyro there are 150 cues in that one number, there are not usually that many in an entire act,” Sorce reveals.

At Quantum, which was built on the back of its involvement with Take That’s The Circus tour, in 2009, Barnett says his aim is to become the go-to company for artists with big ideas.

Quantum has recently employed a research and development engineer, and a visualisation expert responsible for bringing ideas to life. “When an artist comes up with an idea, we can simulate the effect. Instead of writing a long document trying to explain it, we can send them some footage that actually shows them what it will look like,” Barnett says.

An estimated global TV audience of 900 million people watched the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony – not bad exposure for Quantum, who not only created a pyrotechnic waterfall for the Olympic rings, but also used an explosive technique usually reserved for quarries. For a sequence featuring internet creator Tim Berners-Lee, they took a shock tube detonator (a long thin plastic tube carrying a small amount of explosives that flashes extremely quickly and brightly) and used it to simulate information flowing through the internet.

Sept 2013 IQ Magazine | 21

Lights, Camera, Action!

kit and has surpassed that figure every year for the past ten.

Penn says SSE often embraces cutting-edge technology while using tried-and-tested equipment as back-up. “We put in a digital return system and will use analogue as a back-up because they are often being used in a harsh environment,” Penn reports. The company enjoys a lot of repeat business that Penn says enables it to better understand the event and find solutions to audio issues. A lot of time is spent building computer-generated 3D models of concert and festival sites in order to demonstrate the effect of changes to the venues.

“If there is an increase in capacity or there are new noise considerations, it means we can go back to last year’s acoustic models and see how we can make changes to get the best acoustic output without upsetting the neighbours,” Penn says.

PAYING THE PRICE

XL Video’s equipment wows fans on Depeche Mode’s European tour

THE QUALITY OF THE EQUIPMENT USED by production suppliers is naturally a paramount consideration for everyone involved, but of course, quality comes at a cost, and there are concerns that cheaper Chinese-made products flooding the market could compromise standards and safety.

XL Video has an office in China with a team of 20, primarily working on research and development of LED screens. “We were beholden to a couple of European manufactures and decided to do it ourselves in China,” Spencer says. “We haven’t gone into China with a European mentality. We have a strong team of Chinese staff. The Chinese are very eager to learn; as soon as a westerner goes into China, they are very helpful. But there are difficult business restrictions.”

Despite XL’s Chinese interests, Spencer laments that cheaper products manufactured in China represent a major challenge to his company. “The price of products in China has

dropped dramatically, which has allowed a lot of companies to come in. The problem is that it is tempting for clients to get it 30% cheaper, but they will not get the level of support they are used to, and if there is a problem, there is nowhere to go. We don’t want to compete with that – service and quality comes at a price; you can’t buy a Bentley for the price of a Mini,” Spencer contends.

In a similar vein, Pyrotek’s Tom Sorce says that the company only uses equipment manufactured in the UK, Germany or North America and applies its own supplementary safety standards on top of existing ones. “The Chinese are mimicking other manufacturers’ products and they do so at a lower cost.

However, on the special effects side we have found them to be lower quality so do not use them,” he says.

Barnett is also concerned by the perceived influx of seemingly inferior products. “There is a lot of equipment coming out of China that you cannot rely on, but smaller pyro companies will use it because it’s cheaper. It is a worry but it’s out of our hands.

There will either be a nasty accident and the whole industry will be pulled through the coals, or health and safety officials will realise that the equipment should not be used,” he says.

With productions becoming increasingly expensive and the cost of touring escalating, margins are being eroded, yet Curbishley remains confident that safety is something that will never be compromised at the top level. “They are pushing the boundaries with the scale and size of productions and the speed we are expected to move them around the world. We are putting up small towns every day all over the world and safety is a huge concern for us,” he observes.

“Luckily we have amazing production managers that have grown up with the industry and adapted to the scales we are now working at. We have a pretty good record as an industry considering the amount of equipment that is being raised above people’s heads every day.”

22 | IQ Magazine Sept 2013

Take The Crown

THE HEADLINER After a seven-year hiatus, Robbie Williams returned to the stadium circuit this summer with the most spectacular show his fans have ever seen. By tour’s end, close to 1.5 million people will have witnessed Take The Crown and been entertained by the serial showman.

Gordon Masson reports...

From the moment that Robbie Williams makes his grand entrance – via a zip line from the top of the stage – his Take The Crown show is a non-stop entertainment rollercoaster that has had hundreds of thousands of fans throughout Europe rocking stadiums, big and small, all summer.

Audience feedback for the spectacular show has been nothing but gushing in its praise for Williams, who, although it seems like he has never been out of the limelight, has not been on a proper solo tour since 2006. His solo exploits were actually in the planning four years ago, only to be torn up by the intervention of a certain former boy band. “We were on the run up to a tour at one point and I was even having conversations with [agent] Ian Huffam about routing. And then Robbie told his management that he was rejoining Take That, so the tour was shelved,” reveals production manager Wob Roberts. Bob Angus, of London-based Metropolis Music, recalls, “The plans in 2009 never got as far as us promoters. We were told it was happening, but what the public really wanted was to see Robbie reunite with Take That, and sometimes you just have to concede that what the fans want is exactly what should happen.”

Artist managers David Enthoven and Tim Clark of IE Music, confirm the story. “The 2006 tour was a huge undertaking and Robbie wanted to take some time off, which was understandable because he’d pretty much been working non-stop since 1997,” Clark says. “So there was a two-and-ahalf to three-year hiatus and it’s true that we were talking about going back on the road with another solo tour. But then the Take That 20th anniversary tour came up and it was simply too good to miss.” Enthoven comments, “What is brilliant is that the guys from Take That and Robbie are all fast friends again now. Having been sworn enemies for so long, it’s really great that they’ve had that reconciliation.”

CROWNING ACHIEVEMENT Take That’s record-breaking 2011 tour reaffirmed the band as one of the world’s top crowd-pullers. And if there was ever any doubt about Robbie Williams’ ability to sell tickets after such a lengthy touring absence, his participation in the Progress Live outing soon put such thoughts to bed. “I remember standing next to David Enthoven in the tunnel at Hamden when Robbie came on stage for his appearance with Take That and the way the stadium erupted we knew he’d have no trouble coming back to play here,” states DF Concerts managing director, Geoff Ellis.

After such a headline stealing show, however, the pressure was on Robbie Williams Productions to create something equally compelling for his eager fans. Tapping into the expertise of artistic director and lighting designer Willie Williams and stage architect Mark Fisher (who died in June) the result – Take The Crown – is astounding, with Lee Lodge on-hand to produce the extravaganza and long-term Robbie collaborator Wob Roberts handling the production manager duties. Roberts has been working with Williams since 1997.

“In fact, the only two people from the original team are me and guitarist Gary Nuttall – everyone else has joined since,” Roberts says. “The last tour, in 2006, was massive, but we’re in a different economic climate, so the fact that we are out there and selling tickets is phenomenal.” At more than 1.3 million tickets, and counting, the sales are phenomenal too.

But the latest tour, which includes 26 stadium dates across 18 cities in 14 countries, represents a new chapter in the artist’s career, with everyone involved in the production speaking openly about Williams’ more mature and attentive approach, as well as his desire to have a hands-on attitude to the actual show itself. “This time around he is paying a lot of attention to the details,” says Roberts. “During production rehearsals in Belgium, rather than having him on stage, we got Robbie to sit out front with a microphone and watch the production. His choreographer, Paul Roberts, then moved around the stage to suggest where he thought Robbie should be – it was a positional choreography, rather than dance moves. We didn’t even get half way through the first song before Robbie interrupted and said ‘I see it as this…’. And from that moment onwards he stood back and directed the show. If you read any of Robbie’s blogs you can get a sense of how mentally prepared he is for this tour.”

One of the central players for the tour is Lee Lodge, who works closely with the artist and was tasked with putting the whole creative team together. “We’ve worked with Stufish since Knebworth, but for this tour it was important to expand the team, so I had a very civil cup of tea with Willie Williams about a year before the tour and it just clicked,” Lodge says. “I wanted to put someone in the mix that would look at Robbie in a completely different way because Rob’s approach with the new records was to completely start afresh, so we wanted the same ambition for the show.”

For his part, production designer Willie Williams tells IQ that the Take The Crown project was more than a year in the making. “I knew there were going to be club shows, then The

Sept 2013 IQ Magazine | 25

Take The Crown

TALKING HEADS O2 arena at Christmas, before the stadium tour in summer 2013, so I wanted to look at a way that we could use art to connect all three,” Williams says. “The thing that caught my attention on the artwork for the album was Robbie’s 3D head, so when he did the small club shows, we used phrenology on the stage backdrops. By the time we got to the O2, we had six heads that acted as mirror-balls, so we were always keen to involve the heads on the outdoor shows and from there we sort of worked backwards to the smaller shows.”

But the heads theme was not the original incarnation, according to the artist’s managers. Clark reveals, “Robbie actually didn’t like the original designs. At the start, the concept drawings Mark Fisher came up with involved a vortex, but Robbie sat down and worked with Mark, Lee [Lodge] and Willie Williams and they went back and forth until they arrived at the heads designs. So Robbie has been really hands-on and enormously involved from the planning stage onwards.”

Enthoven adds, “It’s been a joint discussion through the evolution of the set design, but it was Robbie that drove the idea of the 3D design on the album sleeve and it was Robbie’s idea for the Take The Crown tour name and, working with the team, that’s where the whole imagery came from.”

Documenting the set’s evolution, designer Williams says, “The very first drawings were for a carousel sort of stage. But fairly quickly Robbie communicated that he’d rather not do a show in the round, so the stage was moved to one end and the carousel then morphed into a sort of vortex. When you plan production design, the main goal is to do something that connects the audience to the performance and, thankfully, Robbie is fairly straightforward, so his point of view about the vortex was simply ‘why is it there?’. It’s very good to deal with someone so direct – and he had a point, so the vortex idea was dropped and replaced by the permanent 3D head on the back wall, while during the show there are about seven ‘head’ moments from the colossal eight-ton heads right down to a glove puppet.”

Lodge comments, “One of my main roles is to support Willie, so he’s been handed the reins and we are there to back him up – there’s no point in hiring him if we were going to shackle him. We’ve always had a sense of scale on Robbie Williams shows, but this time the process that we went through in rehearsals in Belgium meant we could show Robbie the physical production – it was almost like we’d done the tech

Take The Crown is punctuated by a number of performances using the tour’s giant heads, the largest of which, Steampunk, is 7m tall and weighs 8-tons. The industrial-looking, lattice-work head was fabricated by MDM from glass reinforced plastic (GRP) and finished to resemble rusted iron. Brilliant Stages added a curved staircase around the head to provide multi-level performance platforms. Berlin-based FFP embedded pyro into Steampunk’s framework, and a water spray that drenches the front rows of the audience. Mounted on its wagon, Steampunk trucks to a revolving platform allowing the unit to face the audience whilst a hydraulic slew ring in the neck allows the head to turn from side to side.

Lighter than Steampunk, but also standing 7m tall, Phrenology is formed from silver-coloured, mesh-like GRP by 2D:3D of Wembley. Six panels in the cranium open to release a cloud of helium balloons as it tracks downstage carrying Williams and co-star Olly Murs. A further hydraulic mechanism in the neck allows the head to swing 25° either side of the vertical.

Skull head is made from translucent fibreglass which, when backlit, produces the appearance of a skull and tracks downstage carrying Williams in its mouth. Perry Scenic was commissioned for the head construction and finish.

As additional support, Brilliant Stages assisted Jacqui Pyle by supplying air genie mechanisms to lift and rotate four mirror heads, constructed from polystyrene covered with individually-cut mirror tiles, which track onto stage.

The final noggin is Crown head. Unlike the others, it sits atop a scissor lift, which elevates 3m above the downstage edge of the stage. Created by Perry Scenic, the head is surmounted by a 2m diameter performer platform, installed in the crown.

Set designer Willie Williams, from Stufish, comments, “The carpentry crew that built the heads was amazing. They call themselves the trainee matadors for some reason, but I’m not sure why.” run by the time the artist arrived.”

The artist dedicated one of his Glasgow shows to the late Mark Fisher and talking of his former colleague, Williams says, “Mark was very involved in the production design – he was always very comfortable when it came to sharing tasks, so he would take care of the engineering and I’d concentrate on the aesthetic, while Lee Lodge was also an important part of the equation as he allowed me to take it where I wanted it to go.”

XL Video’s crew make use of the technology at Wembley © Louise Stickland

IT’S ALL IN THE PLANNING As with all stadium tours, Take The Crown requires a vast road crew and multiple contractors to keep it on the road, but despite the pressures on everyone involved, backstage at Wembley Stadium, where the show stopped for four nights, the atmosphere is remarkably relaxed. “It’s a difficult show to load in because it’s so big,” Roberts discloses. “There are 38 production trucks, five trucks for each of the advance teams and 18 steel trucks. The advance teams are for catering and setting up the generator cables and rigging – the riggers set-up all the motors before we arrive.”

That’s music to the ears of power suppliers Fourth

26 | IQ Magazine Sept 2013

Stageco’s construction - Robbie Williams, Wembley

Take The Crown

Generation.”The advance team lay all cable from the generator to the stage and under-stage cabling also. This allows the universal production team to have rigging power directly and show power for testing the equipment as it loads in,” says the company’s Tweed Hurlocker, who supplied a 420 kVA Twinpak amongst other equipment. “They are the latest addition to our fleet and comply with the new European emissions legislation. High profile clients such as Robbie dictate that we continue to strive to provide the latest fuel efficient and up-to-date equipment possible. It’s our responsibility to keep abreast of this technology on behalf of our clients.”

On the catering side, Popcorn has three teams of five staff each on the tour – two for the advance teams and one for the main production crew. Commenting on the superb organisation behind the tour, company founder Wendy Deans says, “I’m not surprised – we’ve worked with Robbie from very early on and we know everyone on the tour, so it’s a well-oiled, organised team.” Indeed, Deans recalls playing venues such as Middlesbrough Town Hall in the early days of Robbie’s solo career. “He used to personally sign all the cheques – they’d be from Robbie P. Williams business account,” she says. “He’s so nice to work for and Wob is great too – we know people well which makes things easier; if there are ever any issues, we can sort them out very quickly.”

Such harmony makes Take The Crown the envy of the business. But it’s not a surprise for anyone who has worked on a Robbie Williams tour in the past. Jäki Hildisch has been the artist’s tour manager since 2005. “Any big tour is challenging but it’s obvious that the economic side is a more important factor nowadays, given that artists rely on touring revenues as the main source for their earnings,” Hildisch comments. “The main criteria for a tour this size is in the planning and how careful you are toward the details. This business is known for

being improvised, but in reality that’s not the case – it can’t be.”

Stage manager Paddy Fitzpatrick applauds Roberts for assembling an elite army of individuals that know how to get things done. “I was on the last tour as the assistant stage manager, so it’s great to be involved again.” Fitzpatrick says, “It’s all going very smoothly. It’s a really big production, but load-in takes about 12 hours and we loaded out the other night in six hours, so it’s working well. The crew is very professional. I’m purely in a support role for most of the time.

These guys all know what they are doing and you have to trust professionals to just get on with it.”

CREATIVE HEADSPACE Unsurprisingly, on such a mammoth project, some of the industry’s biggest names are in the crew party. When it came to the massive stages, Stageco engineers utilised their XXL tower system to accommodate the required weight loadings and heights. What greets ticketholders is an open-plan structure 50m x 25m deep, centred on three giant central towers at heights of 26m in the centre and 23m on each side.

Two PA towers positioned at either end of the open-top stage overlook a central performance area, where the artist performs atop several different-sized steel heads of up to 8,000 kilos in weight. To accommodate those vehicles, Stageco created a reinforced trackway on both sides of the stage and along the catwalk, on which the heads move throughout the show.

“Considering the surface area of the back wall, one of the biggest challenges we faced was with regards to the windloads management,” Roberts says. “Several versions of the stage design concept were initially considered and this one was selected as it allowed us to achieve the creative aim with the bespoke engineering that was required.”

Two Stageco touring systems are in use, with each stage

Sept 2013 IQ Magazine | 29

Take The Crown

taking three days to build and one to disassemble. Two teams of 14 Stageco staff and 18 truckloads of gear are used on each system, according to Stageco project manager, Dirk de Decker, who says, “The design team [at Stufish] were aware of the extra weight-carrying capacity and additional height our XXL towers offered them, and factored these extra capacities to allow them to expand their creative boundaries.”

Such a large production also keeps the hauliers busy; Will Johns from trucking suppliers Stagetruck has a total of 48 vehicles out on the tour. “We have 38 megacube trailers on the main production and five more on each of the advance parties, with each truck able to carry 22 tonnes of gear,” Johns says.

“As usual with Robbie, there are some great people working on this tour. All the drivers get on well with everyone and it’s a pleasure to be involved in something that runs so smoothly.”

The artist’s managers also come in for a lot of praise. But for his part, Clark states, “David and Josie Cliff play a big role in all this – Josie deserves huge credit. She is extraordinarily wellorganised and she just does her work with an unfailing sense of humour.” Enthoven agrees, adding, “These two old farts would not be operating if it wasn’t for Josie’s hard work and diligence.”

But the meticulous planning for the tour means that it’s been a little quieter for Adam Hutton at freight specialists Global Motion, who has been involved in the forwarding aspect of every Robbie Williams tour since day one. “The tour was planned in such a way that we sat down and talked about some of the big moves that could not be driven,” Hutton says. “It was

then decided which markets were the most worthwhile and the tour was rescheduled in such a way that everything could be driven. We’re more than happy to give a tour advice so that it can save money, because we know that if it goes international they will come back and use us.”

BUILDING THE DREAM As part of the set, Kinesys designed an ingenious bespoke automation system to open and close two imposing, two-tonne doors on the rear video wall backdrop. The doors each measure 7.73m high by 6m wide, to allow set trucks carrying the giant heads to enter and exit the stage. Each door tilts by 6 degrees, before raising 7m to fully open. The mechanics were designed and engineered by Tait’s Pieter Denijs and Jerry Hough and feature a counterweight system driven by Kinesys Elevation vari-speed hoists, which allows the doors to open or close in around 25 seconds.

Particular attention has also been paid to the show’s audio.

Speaking from the production office at Wembley, Roberts explains, “We have 14 rounds of PA set around the stadium roof, which means that we don’t actually need delay towers. However, we do use delay towers because they are there for the lights, so the sound for the show is exceptionally good. It’s complicated to hang delays from the roof because of weight restrictions, so we hang PA everywhere the roof can support it.”

“It made sense to incorporate audio as well on the repeat

towers,” says Scottie Sanderson, senior account manager at PRG. “We have a 10-strong crew headed by Nick Barton out with Robbie. They go in a day before the show, once the steel has been assembled. The way the planning has been done on this show, there is no need for an advance team or for splitting the team.” Sanderson adds, “Willie Williams has designed a phenomenal set. It’s understated – it looks very simple, but when you start to dissect the different elements, it is very complex indeed. Because we are predominantly outdoors, we’ve spent a lot of time planning for the waterproofing. You can cover and protect, but in case anything fails or there is water ingress, you’ve got to set things up in such a way that people can get access to that equipment.” That protection was certainly tested for the tour’s curtain raiser. “I was lucky enough to see the first show in Dublin and 24 hours before the show it was pouring with rain and they were sweeping water off the stage. But because of the drainage and the measures that had been taken, it didn’t affect the show at all,” reports Rick Inglessis of insurers, Doodson.

“We pretty much did every part of the insurance – cancellation, liability, travel, equipment, terrorism, you name it – whatever the tour needed, we provided.”

SHOW ME THE MONEY While each country might pose different challenges, an overall dilemma for the European tour was the continuing continental

The ‘Take The Crown’ Steampunk head

Take The Crown

recession, and it appears that conversations about ticket pricing were long and laboured. “The biggest decision was to balance ticket prices given the drastic economic downturn over the last few years,” says agent Ian Huffam, of X-ray Touring. “The whole team was aware that this recession was different from previous slumps. There is still money around and management wanted to offer hospitality packages and premium view seats to those who could afford it. To some extent, higher priced tickets and packages subsidised the lowest priced tickets, which at £55 offered superb value for money. Strangely, there were examples of higher priced tickets outselling lower priced.”

That certainly seemed to be the scenario at Wembley, where the stadium’s head of music and events, Jim Frayling, says that with four shows, “Robbie is the biggest act to come through Wembley this year.” He continues, “It’s a

The Kinesys doors allow the giant heads to access the stage

Take The Crown

phenomenal show and, for us, the most pleasing thing as a venue is that we paid out more money in terms of hospitality and tickets sold to our members than the tour paid in rent. In other words, our Club Wembley members bought more than we charged the tour for renting the stadium. That’s always a pleasing benchmark to achieve.”

What was all the more remarkable about the Wembley sellouts was that two of the gigs took place over the same weekend as Glastonbury Festival. Metropolis Music’s Angus reports, “We sold 270,000 tickets over our four Wembley shows. It was a risk in the timing, and because of the economy, but we have faith in Robbie as an artist, because he’s always done the numbers for us. Glastonbury Festival always sells; but Robbie Williams always sells too, so we did not regard the two as mutually exclusive.” He adds, “Everyone is taking a sharp intake of breath when it comes to the economy, but we priced the tickets sensibly and managed to pull it off.”

In Manchester, meanwhile, SJM shifted 225,000 tickets

for the tour’s four-night run at Etihad Stadium. “We originally went on sale with two dates but tickets went so quickly we added a third date, and then a fourth when that flew too,” says SJM’s Rob Ballantine. “The ticket pricing was just right and made it a very accessible entry. It gave people the ability to spend more so we also sold out our hospitality packages each night, priced at the £299 (€348) mark.”

Scumeck Sabottka at MCT Agentur promoted four shows in Germany, selling a total of 208,000 tickets. He observes, “The class four tickets, for standing, always sell very late in Germany, but that’s basically all we had left in the weeks leading up to the shows. We maybe could have sold out quicker if there was a lower price. But the fans bought the most expensive tickets first, so it’s difficult to gauge.”

However, Robbie’s managers confess they are still debating the pricing strategy. Enthoven says, “The tickets were sensibly priced, but I think they could have been a bit lower with hindsight, as things are still in an economic downturn, wouldn’t you agree Tim?” Clark retorts, “The tickets were fairly priced, but we’re very conscious that we don’t want to be taking advantage of the fans because we’ve got to come back again and we rely on them and their support for Robbie.” One of the reasons for the managers’ reticence might be the slightly softer-than-hoped-for merchandise sales. But that isn’t true for every product.

One of the more unusual items of merch on offer is a live recording of the show, which UK-based company Concert

Take The Crown Live is tasked with producing. “We produce the recording instantly for the fans to take home from the concert,” explains company MD Adam Goodyer. “We’re on track to hit 55,000 units by the end of the tour and we sell the CDs at £20 or €25, which means it’s a premium album product, but it’s still one of the more inexpensive merch items. The actual CD is available before the show has even finished. We burn the music onto disc as the show happens and then we provide customers with a blank CD and a code that they can use to download the last couple of songs from the encore.”

When it comes to additional revenue streams, as part of Samsung’s partnership deal with the tour, brand experience agency Brand and Delver worked with ID&C to create more than 200,000 RFID wristbands for a marketing campaign targeting ticketholders at the Manchester, Glasgow and London gigs. ‘Tapping’ the wristbands against one of the instadium NFC registration units unlocked exclusive Robbie Williams content and online offers from mobile network operator EE. Aside from the giant heads, the centerpiece for the show is the gigantic model of the artist’s face on the back-wall of the stage. “The set is very big and very high and the 3D head in the middle has to be supported,” says Stageco’s De Decker. “It is heavy and hangs out of the plane, so we had to put our biggest equipment into play because of the sheer height of the construction.” Roberts concurs. “The back face is a major challenge,” he says. “The concept of what that

does involves getting the pixels to physically fit on a screen shaped to Robbie’s face. Just getting all the cabling into that is a huge task. It’s a Tait Towers’ construction and they’ve done a spectacular job on it.”

Tait also created a huge LED-integrated backdrop for the tour – a 40.8m by 23.1m back-wall, finished with 700 screenprinted, gold polycarbonate panels, incorporating 20 different custom shapes. Eighteen thousand Tait Pixel Tablets were inserted into these panels to create an enormous LED wall around the head of the artist. Brilliant Stages’ general manager, Tony Bowern, was appointed by Roberts as project manager and he turned to Prolyte UK, and a number of subcontractors to meet the specifications. Bowern says, “Our major design considerations were that the set would work in conjunction with all the other suppliers and trades on the tour. It had to be economical and efficient to transport; user-friendly for assembly and disassembly of all elements; and mindful that it formed a major focus of the show.”

Thanks to the hard work of Tait, Stageco, Prolyte, Brilliant Stages and others, one of the show’s most spectacular effects kicks into gear during Williams’ hit Me and My Monkey, when the backwall head springs to life, morphing between video footage of the artist and a chimpanzee. The effect is achieved courtesy of 46,000 Barco FLX-24 pixels, supplied

by XL Video, which also provides an HD camera system and crew. Stu Heaney leads a team of 13 video crew (ten from XL and three from Tait), while XL also erects two portrait side

Take The Crown

IMAG screens, each measuring 8.1m by 5.4m.

The impressive 12.6m by 7.5m back-wall head was modelled from a scan of Williams’ face and took video director, Smasher, around two months to fully pixel map. The head itself was engineered at Tait’s Belgian workshop. A D3 server is programmed with the pre-recorded video content

by Smasher and Luke Halls from London-based video artists Treatment, and for the show it receives time-code triggers from the backline.

“Both Willie and I are very happy with the pacing of the show,” says Lodge. “The main set is 90 minutes and is a bit like a Vegas show in that Robbie is always on stage and the encore is a bit like an after party. The major challenges were the budget and pushing new or existing technology to create a series of interesting moments. The video technology is a huge moment and the extravagance that Willie and Mark Fisher brought to the heads works brilliantly. We had to come up with a framework that could work in daylight, but also be flexible enough to support any changes the artist wanted to make.”

RISK-FREE BOOKING FOR PROMOTERS? From the promoters’ point of view, the planning for the production was matched by the groundwork to get the message about the tour out to the fans. “The set-up was perfect,” proclaims DF Concerts boss Ellis. “A few hundred thousand people requested tickets for the club show at

Barrowlands in November and then, at his press conference for the tour, Robbie was able to announce and bring in Olly Murs, so it was really good to know about such a strong support act in advance.”

Turning to the two sold-out shows at Hamden Park, which shifted more than 100,000 tickets, Ellis notes, “It’s the biggest tour through Scotland this year. In fact, as an individual, Robbie holds the record for ticket sales in Scotland – he’s sold out Hamden Park more than anyone else and he’s more popular now than ever.

Although Take That set the bar really high in terms of production values, this tour meets those standards and then some. It’s a phenomenal show, from the moment he makes his big entrance on the zip wire to the finale. The speed of the build and break is impressive too and I have to credit Wob and his team for their hard work. They are a lovely lot to work with – everyone is at the top of their game and that just made it a pleasure to deal with.”

Tor Neilsen, of Live Nation Sweden, enjoyed a similar experience. “Because there has been some reconstruction at the Ullevi Stadium we were able to expand the capacity to a sell-out 61,500, which is the second-biggest show in Swedish history,” he says. “It was a lovely evening, both on the weather and audience front, and everything went extremely smoothly with the production.”

Leon Ramakers of Mojo Concerts promoted the tour’s visit to the Amsterdam Arena. “I go way back with Robbie – to the Take That years and his previous managers,” Ramakers informs IQ. “The show sold-out in one day and production-wise it all

Take The Crown

went like clockwork. It’s one of those classic shows where the artist had everyone in the stadium in the palm of his hands.”

Ewald Tatar of Austrian promoters Nova Music had not worked on a Robbie Williams tour prior to this year and used Vienna’s 65,000-capacity Krieau Racecourse to stage the concert. “We sold out two months in advance, which just proves that Robbie is still one of the most popular artists in Europe. He is just in the best form – it was one of the best shows I have seen in my life and it’s the reason why I do my job. For a production of this level, everything was just so easy and smooth and it was just a real pleasure to be involved.”

At IQ’s press time, Peer Osmundsvaag of Norwegian promoter Atomic was looking forward to bringing the curtain down on the tour at the Viking Stadium in Stavangar. “It’s a great honour to do the last show of the tour – it’s a big responsibility,” says Osmundsvaag. “The show sold-out as fast as the ticketing systems could operate and with a capacity of 25,000, it’s the biggest single show in Norway this year, despite, I think, being the smallest venue on the whole tour.”

With Robbie Williams achieving an almost impossible dream – making every promoter on the tour happy – SJM’s Ballantine sums it up. “It’s tough selling tickets in 2013, but Robbie’s show is head and shoulders above anything else out there and the production is second to none,” he states. “I have to take my hat off to everybody who worked so hard on the production side of things. Wob Roberts deserves a lot of credit for all the preparation he has done on this tour. We were effectively the first place on the tour’s load-in because it came straight from Dublin to us, but the crew in Manchester were getting tips from Dublin on how to prepare better, and that again is down to the hard work of Wob and his crew.”

FAMILY TEAMWORK

The giant back wall becomes the show’s centrepeice

It isn’t just the promoters who have enjoyed a good summer.

“This is the happiest we’ve ever seen Robbie,” Clark says. “He got married to Ayda, he’s had a child and they are both on the road with him. He’s the artist, but when his baby, Teddy, is in

40 | IQ Magazine Sept 2013

the room, she’s the star of the show – it’s great to see.”

Enthoven observes, “We regard everyone on the road as one big family, but we’re all there for Mr Williams. It’s a complete team effort, but the good vibes emanate from the top. There are no egotistical battles with Robbie and the great thing is that he is very inclusive with everyone. He’s a great leader.”

Indeed, the artist isn’t the only one who is travelling with his offspring: production manager Roberts has his son assisting him; the son of tour manager Hildisch has been helping out in the kitchens, among other tasks; and stage manager Fitzpatrick has gone one better. “My 19-year-old daughter, Adrienne, is working with me and my 17-year-old Danielle has been with us doing work experience,” Fitzpatrick says. “It’s lovely to have them here, although it’s really strange being called dad during load-in. Mind you, if they are on the radio, I’m always Paddy. It’s a brilliant family atmosphere.”

Hildisch agrees. “Getting the chance to have your kids on the tour is a really nice opportunity because you are on the road for so long and wouldn’t otherwise get the chance to see them.”

The good news for fans, and those involved on Take The Crown, is that there are signs they won’t have to wait quite so long for a Williams family production to come back to Europe next time around. Rumours about another tour are already circulating. Ballantine hints, “Once the final dates are out of the way, we’ll hopefully be able to sit down and plan when the next Robbie shows will be.” And Dutch promoter Ramakers says, “Apparently, he is going to record a swing album again.

I’ve heard a rumour that the album will be released by the end of the year, so maybe we’ll see Robbie on tour again in 2014 with a completely different show.”

Management all but confirms those whispers. When asked about the routing for the current tour, Clark responds, “The tour dates and locations basically made their own decision. We’ve got another album coming out, but we can’t really say more than that.” Asked if gossip about the swing album is on the money – and if that means fans might see Robbie on the road again sooner rather than later, Enthoven laughs, “Probably.”

South Africa Introduction

As the last great continent to develop a live music business, Africa still really has just one major market. But with its inhabitants embracing technology, demand is on the rise, despite difficult economic circumstances and a high profile crime. Adam Woods investigates...

LET’S GET ONE THING OUT OF THE WAY: there was a bit of a heist. At some point, in the early morning, after Justin Bieber’s show at Johannesburg’s FNB Stadium in May, a crack team of villains, apparently with inside knowledge, broke into a strongroom in the depths of the dramatically upgraded World Cup venue and made away with R3million (€229,326) in food and merchandising receipts.

Immediately after the event, Justin van Wyk, of promoter Big Concerts, spoke of feeling “rattled”, but cleared up the popular misapprehension that the haul had included ticket receipts – the show had sold-out long before, and the victims

42 | IQ Magazine Sept 2013

were the third-party concessionaires.

A couple of months later, Van Wyk has a different perspective. Crime happens everywhere in the world, he points out; but back-to-back stadium shows in South Africa!?

This is something genuinely new. “We had four stadium shows in that one week, with about 210-220,000 [concertgoers] between Johannesburg and Cape Town,” Van Wyk says. “My father [Big Concerts founder Attie] used to talk about back-to-back stadium events years ago and I told him he was insane; but he said ‘Yep: economies of scale. Watch.’”

Obviously, Attie didn’t forecast the robbery part, and Van Wyk

South Africa

concedes that was rather less than ideal. “It certainly doesn’t sit well. You don’t want to end what was arguably the biggest week in South African live entertainment with what is widely accepted as an inside job. But then again, if you look at recent incidents around the world: it happens in Cannes, it happens in Germany.

But when it happens in South Africa, people’s prejudices tend to come out, and they all decide this is some lawless place.”

He makes a fair point. And at the same time, no one seriously expects an isolated incidence of skullduggery to derail the progress of a South African live business that is, at most levels, currently registering nothing but growth. In just a few years, it has staged a World Cup; welcomed U2, Gaga and a host of international stars; rapidly evolved a small but vibrant festival circuit; and generally built its live business into something pretty cool.

South Africa remains a market apart, buzzing ambitiously at the southern tip of a wonderful, wild continent in which no other country can remotely approach its readiness. But

In the past, the South African entertainment and live music industry was only perceived as consisting of musicians and artists. The truth of the matter is that the technical and production side holds the power, and that is where the bulk of the industry is.

“

”

Freddie Nyathela, South African Roadies Association

with state-of-the-art stadiums to play and a keen, somewhatstarved market, South Africa is beginning to make a good case as a next stop after Brazil, way out west; or Australia, away to the east.

And meanwhile, though you wouldn’t necessarily want to hold your breath, there are stirrings from further north, as markets from Ghana and Nigeria, to Rwanda and Zambia vaguely threaten to one day coalesce into an African continental circuit that could, as far as South Africa is concerned, put a very different complexion on things.

It’s not all perfect. The rand is weak against the pound and the dollar, the population with money to spend is substantial but finite, and the cost of travel for any band that doesn’t expect to sell many thousand tickets is hard to justify. There are infrastructure problems, too, with some types of venue entirely absent.

But new technology catches quickly, the recession hasn’t hurt too much, and the industry is determined to make the best of what it’s got. “Venues are still difficult, but certainly festivals have grown up everywhere,” says Carel Hoffman of Hilltop Live, a diverse set of companies that sprang out of the popular Oppikoppi festival. “Also, social media has democratised music. So many people are now willing and able to start doing live music. Bands feel they have a shot at getting into the international scene, but also promoters and fans can get their own shows going. There is just much more of a scene around than, say, five or ten years ago. When we started, there was almost nothing.”

Local skills IT IS TRUE THAT SOUTH AFRICA’S live business, as it stands, has existed for barely 20 years, and that the majority of internationally-known South African talent, including Hugh Masekela, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and British-born Johnny Clegg, have been around for rather longer.

All the same, a great deal has happened in that time, in terms of both infrastructure and talent. As Erin Crous at Southern Pulse points out, leading local bands such as The Parlotones and Watershed are approaching their 10- and 15year anniversaries, and the quality of the local musical output is increasingly high. Capetonian singer-songwriter Matthew Mole recently became the first South African artist to hit number one on the iTunes album chart and rap-rave outfit Die Antwoord have an international presence.

Crous reels off numerous names to watch, including The Muffins, The Shadow Club, Prime Circle, Fokofpolisiekar, and Afrikaans rapper Jack Parow. Local radio is increasingly supportive, she says, but the rise of dance music has helped to restrict the opportunities for bands.

“The DJ culture is really thriving, to the point where a lot of venues would rather spend R5,000 on a DJ, because the technical set-up is a lot less,” Crous says. The practice of inviting local bands to support visiting stars is not quite as helpful as it might appear. Most don’t get paid to play, she says, and generally the chosen few are drawn from an established pool.

Talent is crucial, but so is technical backup, and a similar problem exists on the production side of the business, according to Freddie Nyathela of the South African Roadies Association (SARA). “In the past, the South African entertainment and live music industry was only perceived as consisting of musicians and artists,” he says. “The truth of the matter is that the technical and production side holds the power, and that is where the bulk of the industry is.”

Nyathela is realistic that the growth of the South African live industry will be driven by shows for South Africa’s white population. His appeal is for visiting production teams to share their expertise with local youth, and for companies like Live Nation to support technical training in the country. “Last year, when we had Linkin Park, the production manager and his team managed to make time to deliver a two-hour workshop for our students,” he says.

According to Nyathela, SARA is close to a deal to work with technical supplier Gearhouse South Africa to provide training, which Gearhouse’s Ofer Lapid agrees is still in very short supply.

“Knowledge is still seriously lacking, and it is an ongoing challenge to improve skills and bring new blood into the industry,” Lapid says. Gearhouse has an in-house internship programme at the Kentse Mpahlwa Gearhouse Academy – an 11-month course with the aim of equipping graduates to enter the industry as work-ready, entry-level technicians.

Sept 2013 IQ Magazine | 43

South Africa

Promoters We’ve got the infrastructure, the know-how, and the passion, but you must understand the demographics. Currently, there are five or six noteworthy promoters in SA all competing for the next announcement.

“

”

Dawid Fourie, RAMfest/RAMtouring NEW PROMOTERS ARE POPPING up all over South Africa, but the proven players amount to a handful of veterans and newish challengers. Big Concerts have probably earned top billing over the years, pioneering the business since 1992 and partnering with Live Nation to bring the lion’s share of South Africa’s stadium-filling international visitors.

“The first big show we did after the World Cup was U2’s 360° Tour, and we had the whole Live Nation global touring infrastructure interrogating every little cost,” says Van Wyk. “That experience was incredibly valuable.” In addition to Bieber and Bon Jovi, the Van Wyks have staged the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Lady Gaga in the past year, with Rihanna, and WWE Live to come.

Big Concerts has been South Africa’s leading promoter since apartheid, but lately the company has been reaping the rewards of over a decade of patient work. After 15 years of fruitless chasing, Attie van Wyk last year picked up the phone to Neil Diamond enquiring about a tour. “My father nearly fell off his chair,” Van Wyk says.

Another veteran, Roddy Quin of Real Concerts, steers the career of Johnny Clegg and will bring Simple Minds to SA in November. One more long-time player is Tony Feldman of Showtime Management, which marries deep roots in the comedy and musical theatre worlds – Jersey Boys and Russell Brand for example – with an enthusiasm for EDM. “We have started delving a lot more into that scene this year, and it is

definitely a growing and very well-entrenched genre,” he says, citing shows by Deadmau5, Skrillex, Swedish House Mafia and Avicii. “What’s exciting is that the kids know an enormous amount about the scene, whether it’s the big DJs or the underground names. The traditional norms of marketing all go out the window in the dance genre. It’s all on social media, and the kids have an opinion on the venue, ticket prices, and how to buy tickets. It’s an incredible culture that’s growing.”

Other ambitious promoters include RAMtouring, an offshoot of RAMfest. Its particular sphere is rock & roll – a relatively marginal genre in South Africa, where jazz, dance music and Afrikaans music thrive. RAMtouring recently scored a coup with the announcement of shows by US metal titans Lamb of God in Cape Town and Johannesburg in January 2014. “Being rock & roll fans, we are a minority of a minority in this country,” says RAMfest/RAMtouring founder Dawid Fourie. “Hopefully, by touring more and more artists, we can grow the concert-going audience. I think there is a definite need for tours that are not stadium- or even arena-sized, and on a more regular basis, whatever the genre.”

Among other notable South African promoters, Seed Experiences is an event specialist that works with brands and has launched its own festival, Rocking The Daisies. Afropulse Entertainments, meanwh ile, is the promoter behind the recent R. Kelly shows. Factor in numerous other plucky challengers, and most seem to agree that South Africa easily has as many promoters as it could ever need, given the limited size of the market.

“It certainly feels like South Africa is becoming a soughtafter destination, and we’re happy to be a part of that change,” Fourie says. “We’ve got the infrastructure, the know-how, and the passion, but you must understand the demographics. Currently, there are five or six noteworthy promoters in SA all competing for the next announcement. I fear disposable income of punters and high touring costs might become a challenge in the future.”

An African circuit don’t know when that is going to “ I just turn around into a live entertainment circuit.

But at some point in the future, our partners worldwide are going to ask us, ‘What are we doing about Africa?’

”

Justin van Wyk, Big Concerts THEY MAY SHARE A LAND MASs, but even in South Africa, no one is quite sure how seriously to take the stories of increasing wealth in countries such as Nigeria, Ghana and Angola. Everyone knows that if South Africa were not the only country on the continent capable of hosting major international shows, the outlook for the live industry would be dramatically different.

“There is a big African story,” says Van Wyk. “I just don’t know when that is going to turn around into a live entertainment circuit. But at some point in the future, our partners worldwide are going to ask us, ‘What are we doing about Africa?’.

44 | IQ Magazine Sept 2013

When that question comes, we want to be able to say, ‘well, we’ve developed a potential circuit which includes Luanda [Angola], Gaborone [Botswana], Accra [Ghana], Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban’.”

South African companies have already got involved in building what might become such a circuit. EspAfrika has produced events in Mozambique, Nigeria, Mauritius, Angola, etc, and has a policy of promoting skills transfer.

“We produced the Luanda International Jazz Festival for the first three years with intensive training of local personnel.

The client has now taken over producing this festival,” says esp Afrika’s Rashid Lombard.

Little will happen further north if South Africa doesn’t take the lead, says Nyathela. “The South African entertainment industry has huge potential for growth and job creation, but also in terms of exporting skills to the continent, especially the SADC countries: Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, etc.

Those countries are looking to South Africa for equipment and knowledge, and for skilled production personnel.”

South Africa

Festivals

RUMOURS ABOUND IN SOUTH AFRICA of incipient tie-ins with major international festival names, but as things stand, it’s a nation of relatively small, independent festivals, usually out in the veld. Oppikoppi is arguably the king of these, drawing as many as 20,000 campers to a site in Limpopo Province.

Famously characterful, with a broad music policy, Oppikoppi’s most unusual innovation is a beer drone which accepts orders by cellphone and delivers them using GPS coordinates, which Hoffman describes as, “the highlight of my 42-year-long life.”

He adds, “For many people, it is a cross between escapism, a religious outing, and pure rock & roll hedonism. I think Chuggy explained it best last year when he visited. He said, ‘These guys are fucking mad! You won’t pull this off in Australia.’ ” Another highlight of South Africa’s offbeat calendar is C-Weed’s Splashy Fen, South Africa’s oldest festival, having launched in 1990 on a farm in KwaZulu-Natal. The next edition is in April 2014, and line-ups draw heavily on South African talent, as does its sister event, White Mountain Festival.

Seed Experiences’ Rocking The Daisies mixes international and local acts on the Cloof Wine Estate in Darling, with The Hives, Spoek Mathambo and Skunk Anansie, all in for this year’s October event. For a different sort of crowd, espAfrika’s Cape Town International Jazz Festival remains one of South Africa’s best-known events whose success has prompted a longterm expansion plan. “We have reached audience capacity with ‘sold out’ signs over the past eight years,” Lombard says. “The CTICC (Cape Town International Convention Center) is going to start an extension project that will double the floor space. This will only be completed in 2016.”

Oppikoppi parent Hilltop Live partners with numerous other festivals, including the Dullstroom Winter Festival, which brings blues, roots and folk to Mpumalanga province each July; and

RAMfest, which started in 2007 in Cape Town as a weekender, at a time when international acts were still scarce in South Africa.

“We were getting fed up with seeing only chart toppers and what was played on local commercial radio, and we wanted to fill the gap,” Fourie says. Spreading quickly to Johannesburg and then Durban, RAMfest became a touring festival spread over two weeks, with full-scale weekend events in Cape Town and Johannesburg and smaller side shows in Durban, Port Elizabeth and Bloemfontein. But in a market that is still testing its boundaries, the plan proved over-ambitious.

“Dismal support in smaller cities like Durban, Port Elizabeth and Bloemfontein is forcing us back to the generic Cape Town/ Johannesburg route in 2014,” Fourie says. “We try hard to grow the scene and would love to be able to go back to the smaller cities, even as sideshows, but the lack of suitable club-size venues, the high cost of travelling artists and the bad rand-dollar exchange rate is making it near impossible.” Lombard agrees: “International artists’ agents and managers don’t understand these issues so we are seen as a new market. The biggest challenge is to be able to sustain major festivals. Looking at trends in the world, it’s not possible for the arts to sustain themselves through ticket sales. Besides Government support we need corporate business to be more supportive versus their investment in sport.”

Every major promoter has plans for a festival, with Big Concerts weighing up a stadium-based event in the vein of Rock In Rio, and Showtime in discussions with an unnamed US festival for an event in February 2014. “I know a lot of promoters in South Africa are looking at licensing big international festival brands,” Feldman says. “South Africa isn’t part of a festival circuit. We have a lot of smaller festivals where people like to go out and camp, but I still don’t think the concept has really taken off yet in South Africa.

The country’s scattered population, the logistical difficulties of event tourism to such a remote nation, and its own large wealth gap are the factors that may ultimately keep a lid on the festival market. “I don’t think any South African festival, could ever be on the scale of any of the European festivals,” Fourie says. “Our demographics don’t allow it. So our focus now is putting on the best 10-15,000-capacity event we possibly can.”

Willim Welsyn at RAMfest

Africa isn’t part of a festival circuit. We “ South have a lot of smaller festivals where people like to go out and camp, but I still don’t think the concept has really taken off yet in South Africa. ” Tony Feldman, Showtime Management

Sept 2013 IQ Magazine | 47

South Africa

Venues

IF WE TAKE BLOCKBUSTER INTERNATIONAL concerts as the means by which thrusting young markets advertise their professionalism to the world, then it is probably fair to say the World Cup ended up doing South Africa’s live business a pretty good turn. Since the curtain fell on the tournament, the stadiums in Cape Town and Johannesburg have done the bulk of the pop service. Cape Town, the legislative capital, boasts the purpose-built, 64,100-capacity Cape Town Stadium; in Johannesburg, it’s the remodelled, 95,000-capacity FNB, known as Soccer City. Fans of state-of-the-art stadiums can have no particular grumbles about either one. “They were built by the Germans, put it that way,” says Van Wyk. “The head of the FA said Cape Town Stadium was one of the best stadiums in the world. Soccer City is the biggest stadium in Africa – it’s phenomenal.”

Sprawling Durban, the third city of South Africa’s live entertainment industry, got the 54,000-capacity Moses Mabhida Stadium, which has welcomed Neil Diamond and Chris Brown and, most recently, R. Kelly, who also played at Soweto’s recently renovated Orlando Stadium.

Carol Weaving, managing director of Thebe Exhibitions & Projects, which manages the Moses Mabhida Stadium, as well as Johannesburg’s main arena, the 11,000-capacity CocaCola Dome, says that while larger international acts have gravitated to stadiums, she is expecting a busy 2014 for music at the Coca-Cola Dome. “We have received enquiries for some exciting new events, so we think it’s going to change,” she says. “This year we have hosted more niche concerts with targeted audiences, and two extravaganzas, which have done particularly well. We kicked off 2013 with the Castle Light Kanye West concert, followed by Cirque du Soleil and Disney on Ice. We also hosted 11,000 people at Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow, which was one of the biggest international comedy shows ever in South Africa.”

Casinos play a key role too in the South African live entertainment mix. Montecasino in Johannesburg hosts musical theatre and comedy, while in Cape Town, the corresponding venue to Johannesburg’s Coca-Cola Dome and 5,000-capacity Big Top Arena, is the Grand Arena at the GrandWest Casino, which can accommodate 7,000 standing. Snoop Dogg and Rodriguez have taken the stage this year and Deftones and Bullet For My Valentine headlined Oppikoppi’s two-day One Night in Cape Town event in August.

A few miles further east, Big Concerts has firm plans for a thoroughly overhauled Bellville Velodrome. In April, Metallica played two nights at the existing venue, an indoor sports arena, drawing 8,000 fans a night. Once remodelled, it should be a 10,000-15,000-capacity space, though that remains “a long-

48 | IQ Magazine Sept 2013

term project”, says Van Wyk. The project is due for completion in 2016 or 2017.

If superstars have various options, there is a unanimous view that South Africa needs a lot more venues in the smallto-medium range.

“We only have venues in the 500 to 1,000 range, arenas of 5,000-plus and then stadiums of 30,000 to 60,000,” Fourie says. For middle-sized international acts, he notes, club dates don’t generally yield enough to make the trip worthwhile, while arenas are generally too big. “If anybody reads this,” he adds in a pleading tone, “there is a big gap in the market here for 2,000 to 4,000-capacity venues.”

Feldman says he has been trying to get a purpose-built venue built in Johannesburg for years, without managing to convince the necessary banks and developers of the business model. “And it is a risky business model,” he concedes. “You’d probably need to get government involved, and government is not going to pour money into an arena when millions of people don’t have access to running water.”

At the grass-roots level, there are further issues. Clubs have had a torrid time with councils over zoning, noise and other hitches, and they come and go with some frequency, according to booking agent Erin Crous of Southern Pulse. Those that survive and thrive, she adds, tend to be booked solid. “A lot of venues here have shut down, but the venues we have are doing shows every day of the week, just to cope with the amount of requests.

There are definitely a lot of shows taking place, and there seem to be a lot more South African bands playing. Rumours Lounge [in Johannesburg] went from doing shows in a tiny little area on a Friday and Saturday to shows every night of the week, from open-mic nights to full-on mini festivals.”

Johannesburg’s Coca-Cola Dome

is really thriving, to the point “ TheaDJlotculture where of venues would rather spend R5,000 on a DJ, because the technical set-up is a lot less. ” Erin Crous, Southern Pulse

Caption

Family Entertainment

50 | IQ Magazine Sept 2013

Family Entertainment

Family

Values

As more and more promoters explore the family entertainment and theatrical shows sector, the business has rarely been healthier. However, rising production costs, venue hire fees, and even the weather are becoming issues to the producers of such shows, as Gordon Masson discovers...

READING BACK OVER IQ’S annual reports on the family entertainment business, it is apparent that in recent years the creators of such shows have been committing bigger and bigger investments into launching new products, in the hope that they can establish themselves as successfully as some of the brands that do the business year in, year out.

Such spectacular shows have also prompted a number of traditional music promoters to expand into the family shows arena – much to the delight of venue owners and operators who are determined to fill diary dates with events that attract punters to their buildings.

However, during research for this year’s report, we heard rumblings from a number of producers and promoters about a growing malcontent towards venue operators. Stage Entertainment CEO Henrik-Jan Rinner sums up the dilemma, “The biggest issue we are having is that our customer spend is dropping, while our show costs are increasing. Venues, in particular, are getting more expensive and seem unwilling to

Harlem Globetrotters’ Scooter Christensen and young fan

work with us,” says the Netherlands-based executive. “They get a big share of the merchandise revenues, but they are not very flexible, despite the fact that family entertainment is very important for them – they have empty weeks and our shows give them income at their bars, cloakrooms and car parks that they would not have if we were not in town. They just do not compensate for the risks that we have to take.”

However, speaking from a venue’s perspective, NEC Group’s Koen Melis says, “You have to be careful about pricing and not going too high for tickets, while thought also has to be given to sensible timings so that family shows are not planned too close together, otherwise they really start to compete for your customers. Fortunately, in Europe we don’t have that competitive thing that exists in the United States whereby there are a number of competing arenas in each city, so it is easier to plan a sensible schedule for family shows visiting cities.”

Another issue, not unique to the family shows part of

Sept 2013 IQ Magazine | 51

‘Mamma Mia!’ international cast 2011

Family Entertainment

the business, is the ongoing economic downturn, which is affecting different promoters in different ways. “Last year was not fantastic, but the business is picking up and our autumn tours are looking like they will do well,” Derek Nicol of London-based Flying Music tells IQ. “People keep saying that the economy is starting to come back, but we’re finding that some markets that have a slightly older demographic went late into the recession and are also late coming out of it, because older people maybe depend on better interest rates for their savings and because of the state of the economy they simply don’t have spare money.”

Other operations are enjoying mixed fortunes. Robert HcHugh of Feld Entertainment comments, “Our company goal is to continue to grow, and in the last year we’ve seen quite a few regions around the world grow faster than others.

In Europe we had two Disney On Ice shows on tour, as well as two Disney Lives. Both formats did very well in France, but in Spain business took a step back, mainly down to the economy and the government raising VAT to 21%. So looking ahead, we’ll take Disney On Ice to Spain in the next year, but we’ll be giving Disney Live a year off in that market.”

Meanwhile, Kenneth Svoldgaard at CSB in Denmark admits, “The last year was a bit like the year before – people are being very careful about what tickets they are buying and they are buying tickets much later than they did before. As a result, it’s very important that we spend a lot of time, energy and money on marketing.” Indeed, Svoldgaard reveals that the continuing recession is having a lasting impact on CSB’s strategy. “We’ve taken the decision not to tour as many shows – we’re going for quality rather than quantity. If people are not buying as many tickets, it is really important to concentrate on delivering what they want to see.”

ICE IS NICE ONE OF THE RELATIVE NEWCOMERS to the business is Roland Theierl, who works at Georg Leitner Productions (GLP) in Austria. “As head of show-acts and family entertainment I set up this department at GLP three years ago and I’m happy to say, that it has become an important pillar of our agency,” Theierl says. “In the second year, we had over 100 performances worldwide and we currently represent shows like Peter Pan On Ice, Edith The Show, Theatre of Illusion, An

52 | IQ Magazine Sept 2013

Evening of Burlesque and Broadway On Ice, just to name a few.” Revealing the best moneymakers, he says, “Especially for ice shows we have experienced a strong demand and are happy to mention that we will have an eight-week European tour with Peter Pan On Ice this autumn.”

Theierl’s experience is not unique. Stage Entertainment’s portfolio relies heavily on frozen product. “We have three major international shows on tour – Holiday On Ice, Ice Age Live and Madagascar Live,” Rinner says. “Ice Age is a tougher show because we try to be innovative using ice, air and land, so our running costs are higher and if we sell less tickets, the production can come under pressure. But Holiday On Ice remains our anchor show and ticket sales are strong every time, allowing us to keep our average price quite high.

But it’s a new show every year, so it requires investment. This year will have a platinum theme to mark the 70th anniversary of our company across 2013-14.”

Feld’s McHugh has also enjoyed success with ice shows, but he contends that their popularity is more down to the brand than frozen water. “Although the economy may be down in certain territories, families know what they are getting with the likes of Disney and because of that, they trust us,” he says. Detailing the company’s biggest areas of growth, McHugh reports, “The Middle East has been very successful for us in the past year. Disney On Ice played Qatar for the first time when we sold out shows in Doha.

The promoter there now wants to take us to Dubai as well, so that’s a project we’re looking at. In the Asia Pacific we also had a strong year. We opened the new arena in Perth with Disney On Ice and 70,000 people saw the show there. And the other big area for growth is Latin America, where we’ve done huge business in Argentina, Brazil and Chile.”

Despite the success of Feld’s Disney product, McHugh says the company will be concentrating on one of its more high-octane brands in the year ahead, as well as launching a new show. “We’re really focussing on Monster Jam in the next year,” he says. “We took it to Abu Dhabi for the first time and it did very well, and we’re scheduled to take it to Australia for the first time when we go to the ANZ Stadium.

Monster Jam has already visited Europe, the Middle East and North America, but we’re looking to take it to Asia Pacific, South Africa and Brazil within the next year or two.”

McHugh explains, “Feld bought the motorsports portfolio

Family Entertainment

Touring Exhibitions Establish a New ‘Family’ Sector

‘Tutankhamun - His Tomb and His Treasures’

Semmel Concerts is one of the biggest promoters and producers across Germany, Switzerland and Austria, promoting around 1,000 concerts, musicals and shows per year, many of which could be seen as family entertainment, such as The Pilobolus Dance Theatre presents Shadowland and Grease – The Musical.

However, Semmel is one of a growing number of operations that is expanding its remit to also host travelling exhibitions, such as Tutankhamun – His Tomb and His Treasures and Bodyworlds. And concerned that there was no decent forum for the producers and promoters of such shows to discuss business, the company last year established The Touring Exhibitions Meeting. “We held the first event in Paris,” explains Semmel’s Christoph Scholz. “It was a spontaneous gathering – rather like a two-day barbeque – and 60 people from all over the world attended and it was very well received.”

The second edition of The Touring Exhibitions Meeting will go ahead in Berlin from 30 August to 1 September and by mid August when IQ spoke to Scholz, close to 150 delegates from 30 countries had registered to attend, including many museum professionals and local promoters. “It’s not our aim to compete with the likes of the ILMC or any of the museum conferences, such as the American Alliance of Museums, but we believed that an additional meeting platform was needed because we feel the travelling exhibitions are not yet properly catered for at other conferences,” continues Scholz. “This is a growing sector and ever since 2009, when IQ published a feature about the expos explosion, a lot of promoters such as Live Nation and Laszlo Hegedus and others have discovered and developed this field of travelling exhibitions.”

Nevertheless, Scholz warns, “This is not a cash cow. At Semmel our core is still live music, but we have noticed that both new and old players are targeting the exhibitions sector, which is, after all, family entertainment, and it is becoming more commercial and successful. As things stand, we usually enter into cooperation with museums or other public organisations to put these exhibitions on the road, but there is no clear structure as yet, so that’s why we created The Touring Exhibitions Meeting. At the moment, Semmel is acting on a voluntary basis as sponsors, but we hope as the meeting develops that other promoters will host the event.”

from Live Nation six years ago and at that point it had been limited to shows in Europe and that was about it, so there was a lot of room for growth and that’s why we’re focussing on that now.” And he reveals, “Over the next couple of years, we are also launching and developing a new show called Marvel Live, featuring superheroes such as Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America and The Avengers. It will open in the United States in 2014 and we’ll take it global after it has established itself in America. It will be a big show and one of Feld’s biggest ever investments.”

WEATHERING A STORM ONE ASPECT PRODUCERS and promoters have no control over is the weather. While the organisers of festivals have much to fear if the heavens open, such dilemmas don’t normally affect indoor shows, but that hasn’t been the case in certain markets this year. “We’re having a great summer in the UK, but I would think that would mean that the matinees are having a disaster,” says Andrew Leighton-Pope of the Leighton-Pope Organisation. “The sun is great for the seaside resorts, but it’s a disaster for our business because the theatre is the last place you want to take your family when the sun is shining.

When it rains, as it normally does in British summertime, then families pack out the theatres.”

But it hasn’t all been bad news at the box office, as Nicol at Flying Music reports that their leading product is defying the odds. “The hot weather has not affected our Thriller Live box office, as we’re more or less sold out every night, which is not typical when the sun is shining.” He adds, “One of the adverts I took out for the show called it ‘The Coolest Show in Town’. Make of that what you will, but maybe emphasising our air-conditioned theatre helped.”

Leighton-Pope admits that although one of his productions in particular took a hit, he maintains a long-term outlook on his business. “This year I had Mother Africa, an African circus show, on tour in March, but it didn’t do great,” he says. “There are varying theories as to why, but despite the struggles we’re going to revisit it – I’ve convinced the German producers to give it another run next summer because I think it’s important to establish a show in the public consciousness, and that takes time, effort and, of course, the show visiting on a regular basis.”

Thankfully, the Leighton-Pope Organisation has a couple of recognised brands to rely on. “We’ve got the Chippendales coming back to Europe in the autumn, although we’re taking a year off from the UK. But we still have 85 European dates on sale.” Leighton-Pope continues, “The Chippendales is a bit like the Harlem Globetrotters in that it is a great brand and people know what they’re going to get when they buy a ticket. It’s steady business and that’s exactly what we, as agents, promoters, venues, etc, want – a nice, safe bet, rather than something unproven you could lose your shirt on.”

Corrado Canonici of World Concert Artists has a different strategy to target families. “We’re now concentrating on more specialised shows and exhibitions,” he says. “Days of the

Sept 2013 IQ Magazine | 55

Family Entertainment

Dinosaur is currently in Belgium and we’re touring a smaller version of the show in Italy. But we’re also looking to take the show to South Africa next year for the first time, which is very exciting. We’ve also done more than 60 shows in the UK with Shaolin Warriors, in collaboration with Theatre Productions, and we’re working with Laszlo Hegedus and his Multimedia Organisation to bring their Murder show to London.”

LONG-TERM STRATEGIES

‘Monster Jam’

WHILE COMPETITION INCREASES, GLP’s Theierl warns those contemplating the expansion into the family sector that they should not expect instant returns. “Many of our partners in the live music business now also book theatre productions from us,” Theierl says. “The challenge for promoters from this industry is that the marketing efforts usually need to be

always so good on actually taking the show on tour. As a result, NEC Group this year created a new company, Memory Haus, to provide a service agency or co-promoter for international tours. We feel there is a bit of a gap for certain producers and shows that require a lot of hands-on work.”

Launching new shows is always going to be risky, but the choice of subject can sometimes lower risk and Svoldgaard believes CSB could be on a winner with its newest production.

“We’re producing a new Bee Gees tribute show which will debut in Denmark on 21 October,” he says. “The Bee Gees sold hundreds of millions of records so we’re trying to copy the same type of format we developed for the Abba show 12 years ago. We’ll be inviting all our key partners to come to Denmark to see the show when it launches.”

As for CSB’s jewel in the crown, Svoldgaard continues, “We are in discussions about taking the Abba show to Australia, because it is the biggest market in the world for

higher than working with well-known bands because family productions, unlike music acts, do not have the support of radio, MTV and record labels, who do part of the job in building-up a brand. So in general, the marketing budget, especially in the first year, takes a higher percentage in the overall costs than with well-known live acts. We encourage our partners to regard it as a mid- or long-term investment that might not pay back immediately, but can be much more profitable in the long run than working with superstars where profits for promoters tend to become marginal.”

It isn’t just promoters who are eyeing the family entertainment market. NEC Group’s Koen Melis sees great opportunities for growth. “A lot of producers focus on making the show right for international touring and are very good when it comes to marketing and branding, but they are not

Abba and, as we have the favourite show of the official international Abba fan club, we really want to go there. It’s very important for us to keep up our high standards and in our show we have original Abba band members and a symphony orchestra so, as you can imagine, flying at least 20 people to Australia from Europe is a very expensive proposition.”

TO TRANSLATE OR NOT TO TRANSLATE Exploiting international sales is, of course, the Holy Grail for any family show. With an 87-year history, one of the most successful brands internationally is the Harlem Globetrotters.

“Last year we revisited quite a few markets where we had not been for a few years. We went to Oman for the first

Sept 2013 IQ Magazine | 57

Family Entertainment The stars of ‘Ice Age’

UK-based Lunchbox Productions, which has a portfolio of shows that includes Starlight Express, Stomp, Phantom of the Opera, and Wicked. “The majority of our business is outside of the UK – we’re major producers for events in Australia and New Zealand, as well as Manila, Hong Kong, Singapore, and sometimes, South Africa,” says Lunchbox’s Rachel Abbott. “In the UK, we currently have The Barry Humphries’ Farewell Tour: Eat Pray Laugh!, we’ve got Nutcracker On Ice starting at the London Palladium at the end of October, while Sleeping Beauty On Ice goes to Birmingham and Woking later in the year, and The Ice Factor is setting up in York as part of Yorkshire’s Winter Wonderland too. Elsewhere, we just finished a run with Phantom in Singapore and we opened Wicked in Manila in August.”

But for the coming year, Lunchbox is also focussing on Imperial Ice Stars, which has a run at the London Palladium in October and November, after which the company will be looking for partners to take the show elsewhere in 2014. time since 1993; Ecuador for the first time in five years; Iceland where we hadn’t played since 2003; we had four shows to capacity-crowds in Egypt, where we last played in 1989; Dominican Republic for the first time since 1991; and in New Zealand, where we had not been since 2000, we had nine shows which were near to sell outs,” says Globetrotters’ director of international booking and marketing, Bobby Dulle.

“So, not only are we doing the same markets we typically hit on an annual basis – in Europe, South America and China – but we’re also doing very healthy business and getting great results in the countries that don’t see us every year.

Dulle continues, “Our access to talent is very good and we can use them as a great resource for marketing. One of the most recent things we’ve done is to make sure all of our shows are done in the local language and we put our talent through language training to achieve that. We are very promoter friendly, so we’re also happy to incorporate local music or fads into our performances, so we’re always happy to adjust according to the markets we visit.”

That approach for local language content isn’t always necessary, however. Cirque du Soleil simply set the skills of their performers to music, while others tweak their performances according to the advice of local partners.

“We’re currently in auditions for Mamma Mia! – it was on tour for more than seven years and has visited 35 countries and sold more than 4.3 million tickets,” says Nick Grace of Nick Grace Management. “We basically ran out of approved countries to go into – we don’t go in to territories where there is an existing sit-down production of Mamma Mia! So we’ve taken a year out and we’ll relaunch in Seoul before going to Switzerland and the UK, with a summer season in Blackpool.” Contemplating the local language question, Grace says, “We use a UK cast for the show and everywhere we go we perform in English, but we will use subtitles if the local presenter thinks that would be helpful. But most people know the show because of the film and the DVD – in the UK alone, one in four households owns the Mamma Mia! DVD.” Another company that relies on international sales is

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CHANGING LANDSCAPE THE IMPORTANCE OF THE FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT sector cannot be overstated, but with so many shows now competing for a limited pool of disposable income, the business is getting tougher.

Grace observes, “Four or five years ago, if you had something big and spectacular you could persuade people to go out and buy tickets. Now people are telling you when they want to buy. It’s a complete reversal.” He adds, “We’re lucky – Mamma Mia! is a premium ticket, but with shows like Batman Live and Walking With Dinosaurs, we have to be sensitive with ticket prices because we’re selling to families and they are thinking hard about money.”

World Concert Artists’ Canonici states, “One of the changing parts of the business for us is that we’re now looking to do more co-promotes in an effort to persuade some artists and productions to work with us, rather than go to the big corporate promoters, which often turn them down anyway.” And he reveals that his company has endured some difficult moments. “The last year had some drawbacks due to a couple of companies who owed us money going bankrupt.

You definitely have to think carefully about who you invest your money with, because it’s riskier than it’s ever been – it’s nerve-wracking getting into business with promoters when so many are going bust.”

And while the competition increases, some promoters are slashing prices to try to get bums on seats. But Feld’s McHugh concludes that short-term fixes can cause long-term damage. “We’ve seen a lot of family shows struggling and going into huge discounting mode – some offering 50% off or two-for-one deals on tickets,” McHugh says. “We haven’t done that. We’ve given small discounts, but we don’t want to ruin our brands by going discount crazy: our shows are recognised brands in many markets around the world and we work hard to maintain that.”

A Day in the life of ... Michal Kascák Commended by successive IQ editors as one of Europe’s best events, Bažant Pohoda Festival this year hosted the likes of The Smashing Pumpkins, Atoms For Peace and Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds. Gordon Masson spent 24 hours in the company of Pohoda organiser Michal Kaščák and discovered that sleep isn’t something that works with the promoter’s schedule.

3. Using his personal limousine to get around the Pohoda site 1.Addressing the media

l e as a specia the main stag on g n c ri ri u ea K pp 4. A Janko iek frontman guest of Vid

7.Late night troubleshooting in the festival office with booking assistant Monika Satková

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2. Officially opening the festival

5. Fulfilling a certain act’s rider to be serenaded by violin during dinner

8. Back on stage to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Bratislava’s legendary U-Club

rbaty e Ch ’ doves k s t a rp rity ct Ka d pu cal a edom an o l g e n e, fr ssisti 6. A eir ‘peac h t se relea

rise with Pohoda’s 9. Welcoming the sun ty crowd par hard core

Photos: 1, 2, 3, 8 and 9 © Katarína Acélová; 4 © Michal Babincak; 6 © Martina Mlčúchová

Your Shout

“What’s the funniest thing you’ve seen happen on stage” My most recent funny thing on stage would be when a Justin Bieber fan (during his second Dubai show in May this year) jumped on stage and was tackled by security just before reaching the artist who was sat behind his piano. The fan tumbled into the piano knocking it over and so, whilst Justin, casually and unharmed, walked away to the other side of the stage still singing (like a pro) the now broken and overthrown piano miraculously kept playing Believe, The clip fast trended on YouTube where more than one million viewers have seen it.

Thomas Ovesen, Done Events The funniest moment I have seen on stage was this year’s Capital Summertime Ball. Psy took centre stage, in the round, and 80,000 people at Wembley Stadium partook in Gangnam Style! An epic moment for all involved, losing themselves in the music, having fun and enjoying the event together.

Danielle Buckley, Wembley Stadium In the autumn of 1980, I was working as tour manager for The Police. We were on tour in Europe and the show that night was in a large venue in the French city of Biarritz. The show was very much sold-out. About one and half hours before showtime, when the venue was full to the brim, Stewart Copeland suddenly became very unwell and it was very clear that he would not be able to perform. This meant that the show would have to be cancelled but, with the venue full, this could have posed a very serious risk of a riot and potentially the destruction of the venue and all our equipment.

However, an excellent but potentially very risky solution was found.

Stewart’s drum tech, Geoff Ocheltree, was a very competent drummer and

knew the band’s material inside out, so it was agreed that he would stand in for Stewart and the show would go ahead. The show happened with Geoff keeping his head down, nobody appeared to notice, the show was great and the audience were ecstatic! This situation was not funny at the time but afterwards, it very much was.

Gerry Stevens, Talent Care International Miles Davis went on stage at the Budapest Sportaréna in 1989, but he turned his microphone around and started to play towards his band with his back to the audience. He played excellently, but he didn’t move and didn’t speak, just playing towards the back. In the break I asked him if he disliked something. He hesitated to answer, but after a minute he said, “Simone promised to bring my chocolate truffles from Paris, she must have been here before the show.

What happened?” I told him she had indeed arrived and was sitting in the promotion office, making some calls, and I promised to bring Simone Ginibre (his French agent) to his dressing room. Simone arrived with a large box of truffles a few minutes later. She also offered me a chocolate – it was really gorgeous, direct from the Mecca of truffles, the famous La Maison du Chocolat in Paris.

During the break I heard from jazz experts and journalists in the buffet that “Miles hates white people”; “he doesn’t like the Budapest audience”; “he is protesting against being forced to play in a big, ugly venue”, and many more similarly stupid theories. In the second half of the show, Miles came back to the stage smiling, and played facing the audience. He was a changed person.

I don’t know what was in the box – maybe not just truffles – but it

became a great concert. I told the ‘experts’ about Miles a few times – that it all depended on the truffles – but nobody believed me.

Laszlo Hegedus, Multimedia Concerts In the late 70’s I toured Dire Straits with a support band called The Legionnaires, whose tour manager was such a pain that on the last night (Hammersmith Odeon) the Dire Straits guys filled the stage with dry ice, tied the tour manager with gaffa tape and pushed him onto the stage. When the ice cleared he was on the floor being rolled off the stage by various band members. That was funny!

Carl Leighton-Pope, Leighton-Pope Organisation One of the funniest things I’ve seen was the ‘famous’ Robbie Williams fall on stage. I was just to the left of him, in the pit, out of camera shot.

The thing that made me chuckle most was the slick way he continued the performance and tried to make out he’d done it on purpose.

Wob Roberts, Robbie Williams’ production manager Correction – the Justin Beiber YouTube clip has had more than four million viewers!!!

Thomas Ovesen, Done Events A very nice artist was not too shy to try out his basic knowledge of the Spanish language on stage during a South American tour. Instead of preparing the words before the shows, he preferred to improvise. One night after the last song, he said to the audience: “Muchas gracias. Soy fantàstic. (Thank you very much. I am fantastic.)” There was silence in the audience for a split second, but then everyone kept on applauding. The artist only realised what he had said when I told him after the show. We had some good laughs, and remembered this moment during the rest of the tour.

Christian Krämer, CK Concerts

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62 | IQ Magazine Sept 2013