Michael ‘Curly’ Jobson

The MDLBEAST Executive Director of Events looks back on four decades in the industry and reflects on his personal journey throughout a distinguished career so far.

A 40-year veteran of concert production, having worked with the likes of Echo & The Bunnymen, The Waterboys, UB40, Slayer, Anthrax, Ministry, Jane’s Addiction, Richard Ashcroft, Regina Spektor, Queens of the Stone Age, Wet Wet Wet, Amy Winehouse, Swedish House Mafia, Avicii, and many others, there’s not much that Michael ‘Curly’ Jobson hasn’t come across in his time in the industry. In his current role as Executive Director of Events at MDLBEAST, Curly now finds himself at the sharp end of the creation of a brand-new industry in Saudi Arabia.

With a high-powered position at one of the industry’s most exciting and rapidly developing companies, it would be easy to assume that life has always been a walk in the park for Curly. However, in this exclusive and intimate interview conducted the day after the TPMEA Awards 2023 – where the MDLBEAST team bagged an impressive seven awards – he shares the story behind his personal journey, charting the ups and downs that have shaped his outlook on life and helped him become the person he is today.

How did you get your start in the industry?

I started in a privileged position, as my brother was the singer in a Scottish punk band called The Skids, best known for their 1979 single Into The Valley. Their guitar player Stuart Adamson went on to form Big Country, and my brother went on to be a filmmaker. I started working for The Skids as a guitar tech at the age of 11, and my career path was mapped out from there.

In those early days, I also worked for The Armoury Show as John McGeoch’s guitar tech, but my big break was when I got a call to work with Echo & The Bunnymen as Production Manager and part-time guitarist.

How did the American phase of your career come about?

I was PM for UB40 doing a shed tour of the US when I got a call from The Bunnymen’s former Tour Manager,

Ted Gardner, who had started managing Jane’s Addiction. That led to me getting into the world of US grunge, and I worked for the likes of Slayer, Anthrax and Hole, as well as Lollapalooza for five years in various guises and Perry Farrell’s Enit Festival.

I started to transform into a more business-minded person when I left Lollapalooza to take a General Manager position with Riverdance, and helped change the methodology of how they toured, from a more theatrical style to something more like we would expect in rock ’n’ roll.

How did the launch of your own production company help your career progress?

I started MJM Production in 1999 and that operated until 2018. By 2010, my clients included Amy Winehouse and Florence + the Machine, and over the course of the next six years, my office became the go-to place for event production in the electronic world, with the likes of Swedish House Mafia and Avicii on the books.

Why did you decide to close your company after 18 successful years?

In that era, a few very difficult things happened to me, starting with the loss of both my mother and father in a relatively short period of time. That time was hard on me psychologically. I had a wonderful relationship with my parents, but I hadn’t lived with them since I left Scotland at the age of 15, so I always had a yearning to go back and be closer to them, but I never got that opportunity.

Th e death of Amy Winehouse also hit me hard, and when Avicii died in 2018, the compound grief took a devastating toll on me. I’d never known anything about depression and anxiety before then, but suddenly I became a very anxious and depressed person. I struggled, started to withdraw and wanted to shut my company and stop working altogether.

I bounced back by rediscovering myself. There was nothing I could do to change what had gone on in the past, but I did have the power to change what would happen in the future. I started doing things for myself. I walked the Camino De Santiago; I circumnavigated the UK in my own boat. I’m aware that not everyone has the luxury of being able to do those things, but depression is a devastating illness that can come to anyone no matter what position they’re in.

I got help and I managed to reinvent myself, lay new foundations and grow new branches to the tree of life. I’m very lucky that I managed to get that back.

He lp is out there, but the industry could be doing a lot more. There was a lot of focus on mental health in the industry during the pandemic, but now everyone is back working, that has taken something of a back seat again. Mental health is something we take very seriously within MDLBEAST. We have a retained mental health team available 24/7 and my door is always open. If there’s ever anything I can do to help someone, I’d be more than happy for them to reach out and contact me.

I was sailing in Ibiza in February 2020 when I got a call from my long-time friend and colleague, Panos Ayassotelis, asking if I’d be interested in doing some consultancy work in Saudi Arabia for MDLBEAST. I had come through a difficult phase in my life, and I was keen to get back into work, so I went for it.

I travelled to Jeddah at the end of February with the intention of staying for a few days and, lo and behold, COVID-19 hit, sending us into lockdown. I missed the last repatriation flight back to the UK, meaning I was stuck in the country indefinitely. I extended the work with MDLBEAST, staying for six months before I could fly back to Europe. During that period, they then offered me a full-time job, which I took.

Did you have any idea of the potential scale of the company when you took the job?

It was unfolding in front of me. I had the blueprints from the 2019 festival, so I understood the scale it was at already, but that was done very differently to how we do it today. As much as I changed a lot going forward, I’ve got to give kudos to the people involved in the first MDLBEAST festival. The guys from LarMac that put it together so quickly did a tremendous job and I doff my cap to them.

How did you go about assembling the team to build your version of MDLBEAST Soundstorm?

The first thing I did was listen to our leadership, take what they were saying and translate it into entertainment industry vernacular, so we could approach potential suppliers and accurately communicate what was needed. Yvonne Donnelly-Smith from PRG who I’ve known for many years got involved early in the project, and she was a massive help in contextualising the way forward.

I was always of the opinion that we didn’t need to reinvent the wheel here. There’s been a lot of learning in our industry already, and there’s something to be said for sticking to what works. At the same time, I’m also aware that we can get stuck in our ways and sometimes a fresh perspective is exactly what’s required. Some of the ideas from our leadership in those early stages broke the norms hello@hudamediaevents.com but they proved to work just as well if not better than the conventional wisdom.

Who were some of your first hires?

Alex Reardon from Silent House came in to design BIG BEAST and fulfil the role of Creative Development Director for the whole site. Sam Tozer designed the UNDERGROUND areas, Cassius Creative’s Chris ‘Squib’ Swain and Dan Hill designed DOWNBEAST, and the guys from Ushuaïa started out with DANCEBEAST.

Jim Digby’s experience was vital in the first year; Nancy Skipper and Ginger Owl supported on the administrative side; Steve Coleman handled security; Mark Breen, health and safety; and John Wilson, site infrastructure.

The final piece of the puzzle came when productionglue

Grucci at Grucci Fireworks, and John Gianquitto from TAG have all been steadfast partners; General Saeed Ayyash at Full Cycle has given me endless support in Government Liaison; and the support from Clair Global and Britannia Row Productions, as well as The Robert Bird Group has really been incredible.

What did you learn from your first year putting on Soundstorm in 2021?

We had some failings in the first year, mostly around the patron journey. Parking was a huge challenge. Bearing in mind that we’re putting 135,000 people and 80,000 cars into the festival daily, it was always going to be a big ask. We had serious parking issues on the first day of the 2021 festival and had to change the method going into day two.

I’ve ever seen on a festival site before. The chance to create something like that doesn’t come along very often, and we continue to increase our footprint year on year.

With Soundstorm just one of several MDLBEAST events taking place throughout the year, how do you manage to juggle everything?

That’s not difficult – it’s all about teams. I’ve got an amazing core team and we scale up as needed. There’s no shortage of talent out there. We got some great people after the pandemic who are at the forefront of evolving our offering year after year. When you have incredibly talented people from all corners of the globe with centuries of production knowledge between them, you know that something special is going to come out of the other end.

What are you most excited about for the future?

We’re incredibly excited about the legacy that we’re leaving for young Saudis. Historically, companies would be in and out of the Kingdom and leave the country with nothing to show for it, but we’ve got a government mandate that the companies we use must register in Saudi Arabia, have equipment in the country, and be training Saudis to be part of the industry.

Long-term development is the goal, and what an incredible gift it is to be giving, being at the sharp end of the formation of an industry. To the likes of Haydn Cruickshank at Colour Sound Experiment and Ryan Hagan from ER Productions, who both believed in the project and invested in Saudi Arabia from day one without hesitation, I would like to say thank you for being pioneers.

We c an put on gigs all day long, but the exciting stuff is the creation of an industry at large – that’s the legacy for me. I’m not at the beginning of my career, and who I pass it on to and what state I pass it on is very important to me.

I’m extremely grateful to the guys who came before me and gave me the template, and I’m proud of those who came along for the journey, showed willing, and put their money where their mouth was. The vision and dream for me is that we’re handing this over to young Saudis who are trained, willing and able.

Finally, how pleased were you with the results of the TPMEA Awards?

We’ve all been to the TPi Awards in the UK and loved them, and I have to say that I was equally impressed with what I saw at the TPMEA Awards in Dubai. We won seven awards between the group, and I was delighted for everyone who was recognised in front of their peers. It was a great night, I loved the format, and we’ll definitely be back next year.

Photos: MDLBEAST, Ob Panakal www.mdlbeast.com