IQ issue 48

Issue 48 LIVE MUSIC INTELLIGENCE An ILMC Publication. July 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

18

Features 18 Power to the People Nicola Riches investigates the growing crowdsourcing phenomena

24 G o West (north, east and south) Pet Shop Boys’ remarkable Electric tour

30 Setting the Stage Christopher Austin learns about developments in the staging business

42 The Rise and Rise of EDM

24

Gordon Masson discovers why dance music is attracting big investment

48 Brazil: a Hard Nut to Crack Economic troubles, protests and sporting tournaments dominate the Brazilian market

Comments and Columns 14 Where are the Bieber millions?

Carel Hoffman highlights South Africa’s finer points

15 By the Time We Got to Woodstock

30

Jurek Owsiak talks about building the business in Poland

16 Music Gatekeepers in a Tech-savvy Industry Paul Knowles considers the A&R role in today’s industry

17 Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head!

John Probyn recalls last year’s rain-soaked festival season

60 Your Shout

Your tributes to EST founder Edwin Shirley

42

48

July 2013 IQ Magazine | 3

HeRe CoMes tHe sUN Gordon Masson prays that the rain (and wind) Gods are kind, and doffs his sunglasses to the promoters who risk all for our festivals…

AFTER WHAT SEEMS like a three-year absence, summer is finally here in the northern hemisphere and stadium tours and festivals are well and truly under way. At press time, arguably the world’s most famous festival, Glastonbury, had just finished and the IQ team who attended are happy to report that it was a fantastic weekend whose highlights included the Rolling Stones’ debut performance at the event.

As the weeks tick by, there will be stories of doom and gloom as festivals around the world fail for one reason or another – and I have to admit, I can be as guilty as the next person in reporting such cancellations (see our Swedish story on page 8). However, by and large, the majority of festival news so far this year has been positive and despite crippling economic circumstances in some countries, the outdoor business remains pretty buoyant as millions of people look for their annual fill of escapism. And for that, the people who risk their money on organising and promoting festivals should be applauded.

In this issue you’ll find Adam Woods’ fascinating report on Brazil (p.60). As I write, daily protests are being held throughout the country about what many inhabitants believe is the misuse of taxes to pay for stadium building for the forthcoming FIFA World Cup and 2016 Olympics, rather than vital public services. Such turmoil is having an impact on the concert business in Brazil, but overall, those working there are upbeat about the country’s longterm prospects. 10,000 kilometres away in Turkey, similar demonstrations are taking a toll on daily life too, but while

numerous shows are being shelved, our friends in Istanbul are similarly hopeful that the civil unrest will ultimately lead to better standards of life for the population at large.

Elsewhere in the mag, Nicola Riches takes a look at the growing popularity of crowdsourcing (p.18) to fund shows, tours and festivals; while Christopher Austin talks to some of the biggest staging companies in the world (p.30) for a check-up on the industry, which I’m pleased to report is in rude health.

I have the pleasure of reporting on the Pet Shop Boys’ latest tour (p.24), which involved some clever reverse engineering to make it one of the most compact big shows ever to hit the road. And I also delve into the rapidly expanding genre of electronic dance music (p.42) to find out just why it is attracting billions of dollars of investment and how its leading lights intend to sustain the good times.

Finally, I’d like to thank rock photographer Guido Karp for allowing us to use the images he took at this year’s ILMC to illustrate both the cover of this issue and that of the next.

So if Guido captured you on film and you can’t spot yourself on this cover, you might just find yourself adorning issue 49. Also on the cover, the eagleeyed amongst you might recognise the striking yellow and purple colours used in the IQ logo. If you are unfamiliar with Edwin Shirley Trucking, you can get an idea of the genuine affection people had for Edwin, who died in April, in the Your Shout tributes. He was a legendary character and it’s obvious that he is already sadly missed by many.

Issue 48 LIVE MUSIC INTELLIGENCE THE ILMC JOURNAL, July 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, Carel Hoffman, Paul Knowles, Jurek Owsiak, John Probyn, Nicola Riches, Manfred Tari, 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.

July 2013 IQ Magazine | 5

News

In Brief...

Chris Kelly, of 1990s teenage rap duo Kris Kross, dies in Atlanta. He was 34.

Ticketmaster files a lawsuit against a New York man who they allege uses ‘bots’ to buy as many as 200,000 tickets a day before the general public.

Slayer’s Jeff Hanneman dies at the age of 49 from alcohol-related liver failure.

Aerosmith cancel their 11 May concert in Jakarta, Indonesia, citing “security concerns” despite promoter Ismaya saying it had worked hard to alleviate such worries.

Singer Lauryn Hill is sentenced to three months in prison for failing to pay taxes on approximately $1m (€770,000) in earnings.

Vince Power’s Hop Farm is cancelled because of poor ticket sales.

London’s Alexandra Palace confirms a £24m (€28m) restoration package thanks to a £16.8m (€20m) grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The remainder will be raised by the venue’s trustees.

Paul Gourlie, 37, agent at The Agency Group in Canada, dies from cystic fibrosis.

Australia’s Big Day Out festival agrees a five-year deal to use Metricon Stadium and Carrara Parklands as its Gold Coast venue starting in 2014. The event lost its traditional home at Gold Coast Parklands when it was chosen as the site for the athletes’ village for the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

The European Commission approves the sale of EMI’s Parlophone Group to Warner Music Group, completing the conditions for Universal’s $1.9billion (€1.5bn) acquisition of EMI. AEG joins the Consórcio Maracanã conglomerate to operate the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro for 35 years. The 63-year-old stadium recently reopened after a $500m (€385m) renovation.

Live Nation enters a JV with Singaporebased Lushington Entertainments to promote shows in Hong Kong and Singapore.

The Doors’ keyboard player Ray Manzarek dies aged 74 from bile duct cancer.

Promoter H.I.P. sells out the daily 20,000-capacity for the inaugural Japanese edition of Ozzfest, held 11-12 May.

Trevor Bolder, the bass player for Bowie’s Spiders from Mars and Uriah Heep, dies from pancreatic cancer. He was 62.

Berlin Festival adds two days to this year’s gathering to include more showcase events for new talent. Organiser Stefan Lehmkuhl says the extension days, 4-5 September, will primarily be for international acts.

Pink smashes her record of 17 shows at Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena by booking an 18th date on her The Truth About Love tour.

The Australian leg includes 46 shows and is expected to sell more than 500,000 tickets.

Pink

MAY

JUNE Spain’s PrimaveraPro sees delegate numbers rise 42.5% to 1,995, with 60% of that total coming from outside Spain.

The O2 arena in London inks a deal with StubHub, superceding AEG’s existing agreement with eBay. Australia’s Bluesfest contributed around AUD$150m (€107m) to the local economy, according to a report by Lawrence Consulting that states the event creates the equivalent of 1,700+ full-time jobs.

Former EMI owner, Guy Hands, is allowed to resurrect his £4bn (€4.7bn) lawsuit against Citibank which claims he was tricked into buying the music group after the Federal Appeals Court in New York orders a retrial because the judge in the original case gave the jury incorrect directions.

Jefferson Airplane drummer Joey Covington dies in a car crash in Palm Springs.

He was 67.

Live Nation Canada and Optex Staging and Services are charged in relation to a fatal stage collapse which claimed the life of Radiohead drum tech Scott Johnson in Toronto’s Downsview Park last year.

Russian festival Rock on the Volga attracts more than 690,000 people to its Samara site, doubling last year’s attendance for the free event, thanks to headliners Rammstein.

Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe is cleared of causing the death of 19-year-old Daniel Nosek in the Czech Republic. The teenager died of head injuries sustained at the act’s show in Prague in 2010; but an appeals court upholds Blythe’s acquittal.

AEG and MGM Resorts International agree on a joint venture to build and run a new $350m (€270m) arena in Las Vegas.

The venue is scheduled to open in 2016.

Live Nation and Insomniac Events confirm rumours of a creative partnership, although the latter’s chief, Pasquale Rotella states Insomniac will remain independent.

Robert Sillerman says he intends to raise up to $175m (€135m) in an initial public offering for his growing EDM empire, SFX Entertainment.

The Isle of Man Festival is cancelled due to poor ticket sales. The 6 July line-up had included Johnny Marr, Primal Scream, and Laura Mvula.

Civil unrest in Turkey starts to take its toll with events such as the One Love Festival shelved. Promoters Pozitif Productions also cancel shows by Snoop Dogg, 30 Seconds to Mars and Sigur Rós, as other companies do likewise in the troubled market (see page 13).

Sónar celebrated its 20th anniversary by attracting a record 121,000 visitors from 102 countries to Barcelona, thanks in part to its new daytime location at Fira Montjuïc. Sónar’s events for 2014 will include editions in Reykjavik, Tokyo, Mexico City, Barcelona and Cape Town.

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 July 2013

News

Dot Tickets Passes Critical Watchdog Evaluation The Dot Tickets Organisation has become the first independent firm to pass internet watchdog ICANN’s evaluation criteria, taking it a step closer to revolutionising online ticket sales and protecting purchasers.

The UK-based company last year became one of thousands of applicants in the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) process to create hundreds of new internet addresses alongside .com. Dot Tickets is aiming to secure the ‘.tickets’ top level domain (TLD) which it hopes it can use to eradicate online ticket fraud for the live music industry and beyond. The Dot Tickets Organisation proposes that new .tickets domain names should only be available to vet-

ted ticket websites which meet industry-agreed standards of consumer protection in order to give peace of mind when purchasing tickets.

Following the initial application period, each of the companies seeking to operate a new TLD has been reviewed extensively, including the five companies that applied to operate the registry for the TLD. Their business models, technical capability and corporate structures have been subject to extreme scrutiny by teams of consultants from KPMG, Deloitte, and Ernst & Young, appointed by ICANN to ensure that the companies participating are capable of operating to the highest standards in order to service the security and stability that ICANN requires.

Karp Takes Birds on the Wing Rock photographer and ILMC member Guido Karp is winging his way around Europe with his latest critically acclaimed exhibition, Singvögel, which translates to ‘singing birds’.

Karp, whose portraits from this year’s ILMC will be gracing the covers of both this and September’s issues of IQ, recently celebrated his 50th birthday and his tour marks more than 30 years in the business, capturing some of music’s biggest names on stage.

“I called it Singvögel because that’s how I think of the artists I photograph,” says Karp, who explains that the exhibition has bookings for 100 dates in Europe alone, visiting

the UK, Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland and France. “The prints in the exhibition are hand-processed with a special method I invented to bring out the vivid colours of the live shows and keep them bright. It basically involves ten coats of lacquer over a canvas image.”

Karp’s association with ILMC dates back 20 years or so, and his portrait service at the conference has helped raise countless sums of money for the Nikos Fund. “It’s a way of saying thank you to everyone who has allowed me to work on their shows,” Karp says, adding, “Promoters are a rare breed and convincing them to have their photos taken isn’t easy sometimes.”

Live Nation Wins Arbitration Case In a move that surprised many in the business, the Paris-based arbitration court of the International Chamber of Commerce has ruled that Live Nation was within its rights to rescind a 10-year ticketing deal with CTS Eventim.

Just days before the verdict, a senior figure at Eventim told IQ that they were “Just waiting on the money.” However, once the court had made its decision, the company was amazingly gracious. “The management board of CTS Eventim AG is disappointed but will accept the ruling without further comments,” the company said in a statement. “It is important, after three years duration of

proceedings, that Eventim is able to fully concentrate on its operational business again.”

The case centred on a decision to tear up a global ticketing deal with Eventim shortly after Live Nation had merged with Ticketmaster. Reacting to the verdict, Live Nation president and CEO Michael Rapino said, “The arbitrator’s final decision vindicates Live Nation’s steadfast position that we justifiably terminated our contract with CTS.” Some analysts suggested Live Nation was facing more than €150million in charges if the case had gone against it, while legal bill estimates for each company could top €30m.

Ebay Switches to StubHub in Britain Ebay has shut down its UK ticket operation and moved the business to StubHub, the US ticketing business that it bought in 2007 for $310million (€236m) and which launched in the UK in 2011.

It’s not known if eBay will be shutting down eBay Tickets in other countries.

The move is part of eBay’s plan to grow StubHub, which will also include expanding its pop-up Last Minute Service Centres near venues, similar to the one in Chiquito’s restaurant outside The O2 arena in London. As part of its strategy, eBay recently endorsed secure secondary ticketing platforms, saying, “As a dedicated ticket marketplace, StubHub makes it quicker, easier and safer to buy and sell spare tickets.”

Adding, in a statement: “We’re

making this change because StubHub is a managed marketplace that offers a higher level of customer service to both sellers and buyers.”

Reacting to the news, a spokesperson for rival secondary ticketing operation Viagogo commented, “We applaud eBay for taking the decision to shut down eBay tickets. Ebay just doesn’t work for time-sensitive items. We predicted eBay would shut down its ticket operation when we launched Viagogo, back in 2006. It’s clear that consumers want a safe and secure place to buy and sell tickets. Unfortunately, feedback ratings and hopeful prayers are no longer enough reassurance for fans wanting tickets to see the Rolling Stones or their favourite sports team.”

July 2013 IQ Magazine | 7

News

Hard Times Hit Swedish Festival Season Sweden’s festival season is undergoing a difficult 2013, as the country’s promoters struggle to sell enough tickets to cover costs, thanks, in no small part, to oversaturation in the market.

The country’s biggest festival, the 50,000-capacity Peace & Love, collapsed in May, with organisers putting the 25-29 June event into liquidation.

Meanwhile, Arvika Festival has already fallen by the wayside and the Siesta Festival in Hässleholmsvägen was forced to close down just days before its 30 May start due to poor ticket sales. And proving even the most experienced promoters can take a hit, FKP Scorpio’s Hultsfred Festival made whopping losses, despite Folkert Koopmans offering free passes for ticket holders of Siesta and Peace & Love.

Elsewhere, organisers of the Dragonfly Festival in the south of the country have launched a crowdfunding campaign to try to ‘keep the

dream alive’, after admitting “this exceptional little festival is faced with increasing costs, minimal funding and simply not enough money.”

Live Nation Sweden CEO Thomas Johansson believes several factors are to blame.

“I can’t talk about the other events, but the owner of Peace & Love – who we were working with – went out to do other things, such as a film festival in Cuba, a rock festival in Shanghai and a magazine in Sweden, but when tickets for this year’s festival did not sell, he became insolvent.

“Sweden is big in size, but we only have 9.5 million inhabitants, so there are not enough people to sustain everything.

We’ve had a huge number of artists in the past few weeks: Springsteen sold 175,000 tickets, One Direction sold 30,000, Pink 15,000. If you look at all those shows and then add on the festivals, it’s not surprising something had to give.”

There’s No Place Like Drone

Innovative organisers of South Africa’s OppiKoppi festival have found a worthwhile application for drone aircraft – the technology associated with CIA bombing raids and surveillance. The drones will be used at August’s OppiKoppi to deliver cold drinks to thirsty punters, allowing festivalgoers to replenish their fluids without

having to leave their position in front of the stage. The helicopter drones, originally developed by the military, will deliver cans of beer via parachute, using punters’ GPS coordinates, which will be communicated to vendors when orders are placed through a special app on purchasers’ smartphones.

All that’s needed now is a method of extracting the ‘processed’ fluids from punters without leaving their position in the crowd, that doesn’t involve the use of an empty bottle.

10 | IQ Magazine July 2013

Movers and Shakers Neil Warnock has taken on the new position of founder and worldwide president at The Agency Group and has appointed Gavin O’Reilly to replace him as CEO. O’Reilly was previously chief executive of Irish newspaper group Independent News & Media. “Day to day running of the group will be Gavin’s responsibility, allowing me to work with him and our senior management team to further grow the Agency Group,” Warnock says.

Andy Townsend, formerly GM of PIAS Comedy UK has joined promoters Kilimanjaro Live to help build the company’s comedy business, as well as developing a literary and spoken word portfolio. The company has also promoted Steve Tilley to director level, giving him a minority shareholding in KiliLive.

Ticketmaster UK has announced the promotion of managing director Chris Edmonds to chairman of Ticketmaster UK and EVP of international strategic partnerships. After more than eight years at the helm of the UK business operations, he will now be responsible for developing Ticketmaster’s relationship with key strategic partners across its international territories.

John Mottram has joined PRS for Music as its new public affairs manager. He was previously head of international broadcasting and radio at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport where he led the UK Government’s media objectives and worked closely with senior officials across Whitehall and in Europe on policy for media industries.

Chris Gorsuch, co-founder of digital music promotion service FATdrop, has joined music management and talent booking agency MN2S as project manager and will head up plans to launch new services and further expand the company roster for DJs, producers and live artists.

Attitude is Everything’s founder and CEO Suzanne Bull has been awarded an MBE in the Queen’s birthday honours list for services to music, the arts and disabled people.

Bull was nominated due to her tireless pursuit of equality for deaf and disabled people, and improving the accessibility of live music venues and festivals across the UK. The Troxy, in London has appointed Will Fincher and Joe Mangara as duty manager, and wedding and events manager, respectively.

PRS For Music membership development consultant Jules Parker has left the company to set-up his own artist management operation, Polaroid Management. Among his clients are Paul Aiden, Auction for the Promise Club and Youth.

News

Charlie Chalks Up Big Four-Oh

ILMC platinum member Charlie Shun celebrates a major milestone in music later this month when he celebrates his 40th anniversary in the business.

Tuesday 23 July will mark 40 years to the day since Shun joined Rank Leisure at a time when, he remembers, live music was very much secondary to movies. “Basically, if there was no big movie on we’d put a show in,” recalls Shun, who as film booking assistant manager was booking 20 venues, the largest of

which was Hammersmith Odeon. And looking back over the 40 years, he observes, “All 50 Rank venues that were around when I worked at the company, are gone now.”

Shun looks back fondly on playing a part in the fledgling careers of some major stars, Three years later, Shun joined Wembley to programme entertainment and sporting events for both the Arena and Stadium and, after a spell at Robertson Taylor he moved to Earls Court & Olympia.

“In 2004, I returned to Wembley with new owners Quintain as head of special projects and client relationships,” Shun tells IQ. I arranged for Madonna to formally open the arena’s new frontage with the unveiling of

the star’s hand-casts plaque.

This involved a a round trip of 7,000 miles to arrange the casting of Madonna’s hands, backstage at New York’s Madison Square Garden.”

In late 2007, he went it alone, setting up Charles Shun Consultancy Live Events and Special Projects to offer his knowledge and experience to the live entertainment industry – and with clients for live events including a diverse range of non-purpose-built locations including sports grounds, stately homes, parks, and cinemas, he has never looked back.

Acknowledging that one of his biggest challenges over the years was overcoming cancer, when it comes to changes businesswise, he notes, “Con-

solidation: there were about 30 or 40 big promoters back in the day. The business back then was less serious – I remember seeing a deal negotiated on the basis of someone getting an extra 1% if they could eat an entire gateau,” he laughs.

“ILMC started when the business started to get serious,” Shun says. “The fear was that the business would not last, but people took a long-term view and didn’t just bleed it dry – the improvements we’ve seen in customer experience; health and safety; training of staff; and investment in shows and venues have all helped make the business sustainable and something that can be passed on for a new generation to develop.”

News

André Béchir

ABC, BDG, CTS, DAB, DEAG and LN Keep Lawyers Busy

June 2013 must have been a busy month for solicitors working for CTS Eventim,

DEAG and Live Nation, as three deals and one cooperation agreement all linked with those corporate concert companies prompted additional administrative efforts.

Live Nation purchased a majority stake in BDG Music Group in Estonia, meaning it is now operating in 43 countries. The new branch will be renamed Live Nation Baltic and claims to be the biggest concert company in the region. Financial details were not disclosed, but BDG’s management team will remain at the helm.

Meanwhile, veteran Swiss promoter André Béchir’s new operation, ABC Production AG, became an instant takeover candidate upon its launch. Bechir, who founded Good News Pro-

ductions in 1970, sold the company in 2000 to DEAG and the Swiss media company Ringier. Despite the fact DEAG announced earlier in June, that its subsidy Good News Group settled a cooperation agreement with ABC Production, “based on the best possible utilisation of synergies”, Béchir apparently believes CTS Eventim offers even better synergies, because just two weeks after DEAG’s announcement, CTS Eventim bought an 80% stake in ABC. No figures were revealed and DEAG would not comment on the deal, but an Eventim press release stated, “Béchir will now focus all of his promoting activities on ABC Productions AG, and has secured support from an

array of former colleagues.”

But DEAG had other news in the pipeline that raised some eyebrows: the acquisition of a 75.1% stake in Ossy Hoppe’s Wizard Promotions. To finance the deal, DEAG issued new shares worth about €4million. For Hoppe, the deal brings him full circle back to DEAG, having previously worked at the company’s Global Concerts subsidiary from 1998-2003. Hoppe and his son, Oliver, will remain at Wizard as co-managing directors. Under the deal, DAB Management, which owned 50.8% of Wizard, now owns 3% of the DEAG share capital. DAB is owned by members of the Reimann family, one of the richest families in Germany.

TESBL Claims 48% Profits Boost Tool The developers of a music festival simulation engine who guarantee it can boost profits by 48% have launched operations in Europe and are looking for clients ahead of the 2014 outdoor season.

TESBL (The Enterprise Software Business Ltd), which has offices in Los Angeles, Paris, Berlin and London, uses state-ofthe-art software to crunch numbers and create 3D site models so that promoters and event organisers can run accurate simulations of their festivals in a variety of different scenarios, including safety-related incidents.

Led by director and CEO Gopi Setivarahalli, TESBL already runs customer relationship management (CRM) ser-

vices for ticketing companies and now claims to have eight festival clients in the United States benefitting from its Caterpillar simulation engine.

“We started out last year in the USA with our CRM software and then launched in the UK. Our plan for 2013 is to enter the festivals industry with the proper technology to make sure the business is heading in the right direction,” Setivarahalli says.

“It’s a very old-school business here in the UK, in particular. For instance, festivals pay their employees for about eight months of the year; when that could be a lot shorter. They also rely on hoping to sell, perhaps, 45,000 tickets for their revenue, when in reality, only 30,000 ticket sales are possible.”

12 | IQ Magazine July 2013

Explaining just how TESBL can drive profits higher, Setivarahalli says, “Caterpillar can help festival teams to maximise profits from the planning stage onwards. There are lots of things that festival organisers do wrong and if an event is cancelled, they can end up with huge debts. What we do tracks current ticket sales of all the artists on a festival’s line-up, as well as past festival ticket sales and we predict, using artificial intelligence, just how many tickets the event will sell, taking a whole range of various information into account.”

Setivarahalli says similar artificial intelligence is used by the likes of rocket scientists and is “99.92% accurate.”

He notes, “People think that is

unrealistic, but that’s the level of accuracy we can offer.”

TESBL also has its own RFID system that it offers to clients to work in tandem with Caterpillar to track punters on-site.

Confidentiality prevents Setivarahalli disclosing the identities of existing clients, however, he says that any new customers would be privy to such information, subject to signing non-disclosure agreements. “All in all, we can guarantee a profit increase of about 48%,” he states. “People in the UK know about this, but seem scared to use it, whereas in the USA people can see the benefits to it and dive in.

It works – we’ve proven it through existing clients and have case studies to back up our claims.”

News

Mark Fisher: 1947-2013 show; the Rolling Stones seminal Bridges to Babylon set, as well as Voodoo Lounge and A Bigger Bang; and U2 extravaganzas such as ZooTV, PopMart and the stunning 360 tour, which featured the ‘Claw’ stage as its centrepiece.

Other commissions included tours by Tina Turner, George Michael, Jean Michel Jarre, Cirque du Soleil, Lady Gaga, Madonna, while this year, his company is involved on Robbie Williams’ Take The Crown tour. Away from production design, Stufish has also had a hand in venue design, notably with new entertainment facilities in Wuhan, China, Osaka in Japan and Yeosu, South Korea.

Turkish Protests Cause Turmoil Ongoing demonstrations in Turkey have taken their toll on live shows in the country with a number of promoters reporting cancelled gigs amid civil unrest and clashes between protestors and police.

Baris Basaran at Pozitif Live tells IQ that he cancelled a number of shows in light of the troubles and all promoters in the country have decided to shelve all live entertainment until the third week in July.

“I personally have cancelled shows by 35 international acts, 11 of which you could call headline level,” says Basaran. “There have also been a few festivals cancelled – we had to cancel our One Love festival, which had a line up including Blur, New Order and Keane.”

However, he says that life is gradually getting back to normal and people are confident that by late July, live music events will start to reappear through-

Last year, Fisher also designed the Queen Victoria Memorial stage at Buckingham Palace for the Queen’s diamond jubilee and he was an executive producer for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic opening and closing ceremonies.

But he was no stranger to big public events and for his work on the Millennium celebrations, Fisher was appointed OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in 2000. Two years later he was awarded MVO (Member of the Royal Victorian Order) for his contribution to the Queen’s golden jubilee celebrations.

Mark Fisher is survived by his wife, Cristina Garcia.

U2 360 set © Stufish

Mark Fisher, one of the world’s greatest set designers and architects, has died.

He was 66. A statement on his company website said, “He passed away peacefully in his sleep at the Marie Curie Hospice in Hampstead with his wife Cristina at his side, after a long and difficult illness, which he suffered with stoicism and courage and his customary good humour.”

Fisher’s stage design involved some of the most spectacular live shows ever seen, including for the likes of U2, the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd, while that work also led to contracts such as the historic open-

ing and closing ceremonies at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. His creativity in bringing fantastical designs to life set the standards for others to try to achieve and his work has been enjoyed by tens of millions of people over the past four decades.

Born on 20 April 1947 in Warwickshire, England, Fisher attended Pocklington School in Yorkshire, before going on to study architecture at the Architectural Association in London, from which he graduated in 1971, aged 24. However, rather than using his skills to construct buildings, he focussed his creativity instead into temporary structures and gravitated toward working in showbusiness.

In 1984 he established the Fisher Park Partnership with business partner Jonathan Park. The partnership was dissolved a decade later and Fisher set up his own practice, Stufish.

Fisher became world famous for his work on Roger Waters’ The Wall

out the country. “There has been no violence in the past two weeks and it seems that people are getting used to things and are adapting to new methods to deal with the government, because the protestors realise that the government just does not understand them.”

From an insurance point of view, Robertson Taylor’s Martin Goebbels warns that the term “force majeure” is not an insurance term, although it is

often cited by agents and promoters when cancellations happen. “A lot of the calls we’ve been getting about Turkey are people asking if they are covered for ‘force majeure’ and the simple answer is no,” says Goebbels. “That does not mean that they aren’t covered for things like civil commotion or local authority decisions, but citing my usual disclaimer that I’m not a lawyer, people should read their contracts carefully to find out what their insurance covers them for.”

July 2013 IQ Magazine | 13

Comment

Where are the Bieber millions?

Carel Hoffman, organiser of the Oppikoppi Festival, speculates on stolen gig money and highlights

developments in South Africa…

As I write, news headlines in South Africa read, “Where are the Bieber millions?”

On May 13th, following shows featuring Bon Jovi and Justin Bieber, someone broke into the 100,000-capacity stadium FNB/Soccer City and stole vendor and merch takings, valued at several million Rand. The intriguing part is how they did it, using fake security cards, hidden toilets, false walls, and by tunnelling into a strong room. They then abseiled, selected only those boxes containing high denomination notes and returned via the tunnel and out through the front door using their fancy passes.

When Allan [McGowan] asked me to write about the differences between South Africa/Africa and the rest of the world, I wanted to say there were none. Every day here can be like a Hollywood movie. Fascinating – as this really is where first world meets third world; and exciting – because developing countries are where the growth is. It really feels like there are fields of opportunity here in almost any direction you look.

Anyway, here are a few of the obvious differences and less obvious eccentricities.

Stadiums and parks: we have some of the best and biggest in the world and most of the major international tours stop here now. However, it is still possible to do rural gigs in the outback where fans are outnumbered by goats and/or cows.

These are my favourites!

Sophisticated vs. unsophisticated: the first world is very much present in much of South Africa, with clever payment, ticketing and cashless systems being rolled out.

Apparently, there are now close to 40 mobile wallets active in South Africa, most strongly focussed on the handset, and operable on green screen phones via USSD or other tricks. What Africans are doing with mobile phones most Europeans have not even considered. Hell, we even have a mobile phone GPS-powered beer-drone delivery service launching at one of our festivals this year. That’s progress!

But the flip side is the hard reality of the rural African outback. Gigs in townships or remote rural towns can be like something from a romantic novel. Just a few years ago, we put on township gigs where entry consisted of nothing

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but proof that the entrant had previously had an AIDS test (the result of which was unimportant). Last year, two techies had to trade their jerseys for a bus ride, although they were given free beers once on the mini bus, and shared the chicken between them when they got home, but that’s another story. Great strides are being made, the last decade or so has been unbelievable, we’re just beginning the rollout of a proper live music network in Southern Africa.

Rich vs. poor: Apparently, SA has one of the highest Gini coefficients in the world, so you can sell high-price tickets for big international acts. However, an ever-growing middle class and a huge underclass like to attend gigs and shows. This is where sponsors and the government operate.

However, very few outsiders know about the existence of the Shisa Nyama – the popular outdoor events and chicken barbecues (braais) that take place throughout the townships attended by 20-40,000 people.

Which brings me to the next point: due to the relative distance and its political history, SA is isolated and remains expensive to visit, creating an artificial protective layer around the local industry. South African artists regularly outsell international acts on record sales and certain live artists are booked up a year or more in advance. There is an industry here.

Another worthwhile initiative is the very recent creation of cross-African tours, which we expect to develop strongly in the next few years. For instance, we are working with Hugh Masekela, creating one of the first-ever, travelling African festivals. The response so far has been great!

The final difference worth noting is attitude. Mainly because of the comparative low-income – a generalisation, but I’ll pursue it – and having started with so little, there is now a great sense of enthusiasm and growth – if you can dream it, you can build it. Visiting certain established European cities and events, it feels as if people think everything has already been done and that there are no exciting opportunities left.

Of course, South Africa and Africa are not perfect; sadly, most of the crazy/horror stories are probably true. But despite this, real solid working principles are being established. And the crazy stories at least keep things interesting.

Speaking of crazy stories, people are still searching for the lost Kruger Gold in SA (the treasure allegedly hidden by the president during the Boer War in the 1900s) based on semi-fictional stories from the past. It’s good that rock & roll and even Justin Bieber are now adding to the folklore with the missing Bieber Millions.

Come and join us sometime. Ask Chuggy, we won’t hurt you. (And besides, much of what we are doing is legal!)

Comment

By the Time We Got to Woodstock Jurek Owsiak, director of Woodstock Festival Poland, reflects on the development of the festival market

and the business in general in his country…

The Polish live music industry is in great shape and is still developing. This can be felt and seen everywhere. Last year, Woodstock Festival Poland received over 700 demos from newly created bands who wanted to play. So many people are desperate for a successful music career, which is why talentbased TV shows such as The X Factor are hugely popular.

The number of festivals is growing and their line-ups seem to get better and better every year. Having bands such as ZZ Top, Motörhead, Guano Apes, White Lies or Limp Bizkit at student festivals is a sign that the live music industry has greatly developed. The sad thing is that this development is not followed by an increase in CD sales. But this is not a uniquely Polish problem.

“ The reason we call ourselves Woodstock is because we wanted to harness some of the extraordinary spirit and energy of the original event.”

The first independent rock festival in Poland was organised in 1974 in Jarocin. Back then, Poland was still a communist country and such musical genres, these types of events, and large gatherings of young people were simply not acceptable. However, that first festival has continued to be held every year, bar a two-year period of martial law. Today, the Jarocin Festival may have lost some of its importance amongst so many other festivals, but it shows that the spirit of free music has always been present in the minds and hearts of young Poles.

Woodstock Festival Poland started 19 years ago in a new, independent Poland. Our aim was to create a huge free music event, where Polish audiences would have the chance to enjoy performances by independent artists.

At this point I had been working on my charity project The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity for a couple of years – one of the most famous Polish charity foundations.

Every year, with the help of thousands of young volunteers, we sacrifice one day to raise money for a specific cause related to children’s medicine. The money collected is used to provide Polish public hospitals with state-of-the-art medical equipment for saving little patients. As of today, we have purchased an incredible US$150million worth of medical equipment.

Woodstock Festival Poland is an event to thank our volunteers and all those people who support our fundraiser.

That is why it is completely free. And though at first Woodstock was just for the volunteers, it kept growing and

becoming more and more professional, and today it is a very important cultural event, featuring not only concerts

by Polish and international artists, but also interesting cultural debates.

Woodstock Poland attracts an audience of 500,000700,000. The atmosphere is amazing, people respect each other and feel that they are a part of a real festival community.

Those couple of days spent together is the time when people unite regardless of different religions, political viewpoints and life philosophies.

The name of our event alludes to the original American Woodstock of 1969 but we do not try to recreate the flower power era. The reason we call ourselves Woodstock is because we wanted to harness some of the extraordinary spirit and energy of the original event. Michael Lang, one of the creators of Woodstock Festival, saw this first hand when he visited us a couple of years ago.

Much has changed in recent years. Poland’s accession to the European Union greatly improved festival standards in many areas. Professional safety and security systems, as well as great stage equipment are now standard at all major events.

Our event requires a lot of hard work because of the incredible number of visitors we attract. We are proud of our rules and of our atmosphere. Our event has a very clear philosophy of working together with the audience. The audience is a community that works with us to co-create Woodstock.

Now, I think the Polish festival market is not very different from the market in the countries of Western Europe. Surely, our experience is limited and many great moments in the history of music have passed us by, but today, Polish events such as Open’er or Off Festival are quite similar to any other European festival. This is one of the reasons why we are proud of Woodstock’s unique formula. We are sure that guests from Europe who come to Woodstock feel it. That is why they want to come back. In Poland, we used to observe the Western European festival industry trying to learn from them how to organise great events.

Now, we are all a part of one great European festival family.

July 2013 IQ Magazine | 15

Comment

Music Gatekeepers in a Tech-savvy Industry Paul Knowles, founder and CEO of International Music Community, considers the A&R role in today’s ever-

changing music industry…

Other than for the most sugary of pop artists, aspirations of mainstream radio rotation remain low, and with every artist the world over gunning for an ever-decreasing number of terrestrial television slots, one-off career-changing opportunities are rare.

The music landscape has come to consist of an infinite number of revenue streams that lead to an elusive oasis that we call ‘success’, where the marker posts that define its very arrival are not nearly as lofty as they once were. Although artists and their core teams have more commercial decisions to make than ever before, much of their collective focus involves various aspects of a live music sector that has remained relatively buoyant in a time of economic downturn.

promoters and their venues of choice form “ Small an essential foundation on which artist careers are built. Never before has the relationship between aspiring artist and small promoter been so integral to this development.”

If the job specification of a modern A&R role still involves the art of spotting new talent, it is worth noting that, for the most part, major label gatekeepers will only open their doors to aspiring artists pending the success that techsavvy fans, the artists in question and core team members have in generating fans through today’s plethora of social networking platforms. A closer bond between artist and fan has subsequently quenched a consumer appetite for a more involved experience into the previously secretive world of the artist and, with that passion for closer interaction, artists and a new breed of music-oriented company are concentrating their collective business focus on direct-to-fan marketing, bypassing traditional labels to fund artist development.

Crowdfunding music platforms have certainly become an important tool to help sustain artist careers financially and underpinning the majority of incentives within these pledge-funded projects is an incessant fan desire for a close interactive experience with the artist – and where better to interact in person than at a live gig. An intimate concert experience for a new breed of music fan, a transient listener of recorded music to boot, has brought the art of

16 | IQ Magazine July 2013

performance back into vogue.

With the baton now being passed to major and larger independent labels further down the artist development curve, label gatekeepers have inevitably relinquished their role as the new music tastemakers to concentrate on building marketing campaigns for already proven artists in the quest for mass exposure. In this altered remit, a once-proven talent filter has all but disappeared, and to see a renowned label A&R person at a small promoter-run gig is now something of a rarity.

If we take ‘press’ to be a combination of radio, online and printed press; in their fledgling years, an artist should be developing an organic local fanbase (with their hometown as the epicentre) in order to generate regional press interest.

This is something that is often overlooked by artists as their focus becomes transfixed on the national equivalent of these sectors. Artists should note that not only is regional press significantly easier to land, it has also become the initial point of interest for key industry players as they peruse the artist’s most influential tool in their arsenal: the press pack or electronic press kit (EPK).

Local press quotes stem from radio interviews and reviews of gigs and recorded material in the regional rags. In Western circles, coaxing a gig reviewer to a local show is undoubtedly easier with new recorded material doing the rounds and, with the importance of live performance as a prime magnet for additional revenue streams, key players have come to pay particular interest to what these regional music journalists are saying about the buzz generated at local gigs.

Small promoters and their venues of choice form an essential foundation on which artist careers are built. Never before has the relationship between aspiring artist and small promoter been so integral to this development. The point of interest for both parties: social media statistics. The smarter promoter will be using social media statistics to determine which artists are creating enough interest to risk placement on an event bill with the artists aiming to generate swathes of new fans in their quest to win over the attention of small promoters who, more than ever, remain a wonderful and essential source of knowledge to those loitering in the next leg of the race.

With social media statistics becoming such a valuable commodity for both artist and small promoter, the main business focus for current networking platforms should be on generating an accurate online filter to assist in connecting these two parties according to their collective requirements.

This is an area of development that will ultimately provide the fundamental glue to a rapidly evolving and increasingly tech-influenced industry.

Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head!

Live Nation COO John Probyn recalls last year’s rain-soaked festival adventure…

Raindrops keep falling on my head… but do I care?

Of course I care, but there is absolutely nothing I can do about the British weather. More importantly, do the people that buy tickets to our festivals care? Following last year’s deluge of rain, mud, and even more mud at Download Festival, you would expect the public to think twice about living in a tent in a field with 79,999 other people for five days, but if I have learned one thing about our punters, it’s that they are better prepared for adverse weather than we are!

Last summer, I developed three things: a hatred for my waterproofs, a very close working relationship with my insurers, and trench foot! But I also watched some of the most experienced and dedicated production people battling against the elements to make sure that the infrastructure could still work and that we had a safe and secure festival site. Knee-deep in mud literally, radios water logged, rain battering them in to the ground, transport at a standstill and

touring production managers screaming for more plywood (why are they all obsessed with bloody plywood!) they just kept going until the arena was safe and secure.

We were two hours late and outside the main entrance, I knew we had over 30,000 people already queuing to get in as a little voice was giving me an update in my earpiece every ten minutes. There had been no trouble or unrest and I could hear them chanting on the other side of the fence “rain, rain, go away, f***ing rain another day”; I was proud of my team and their efforts but I was very apprehensive about what the mood would be like when we opened the gates. Eventually I gave the go ahead. The first guy through the gate was dressed in a wetsuit with a pair of fishing waders and he was followed by four blokes in oilskins and sou’westers carrying an inflatable dinghy inside which a bikini-clad girl was paddling like mad!

Never underestimate the resilience and determination of the British public to have a good time!

Crowdsourcing

18 | IQ Magazine July 2013

Crowdsourcing

Power

to the People

The inability of record companies to invest in new talent saw artists turning toward their fans to fund recording sessions. Now, with thousands of acts adopting that crowdfunding model, a new phenomena – crowdsourcing – is beginning to enjoy fledgling success in the live industry. Nicola Riches reports.

No longer simply associated with struggling artists trying to corral a few hundred bucks, crowdfunding is now a force to be reckoned with, attracting the eyes and wallets of the shrewdest, most discerning investors and big-time investment companies.

Online crowdfunding grew 81% to $2.7billion (€2bn) in 2012 and successfully financed more than 1 million campaigns, according to research across 308 crowdfunding sites carried out by Massolution. The UK has attracted two new launches this June alone: InvestingZone, a site that matches wealthy individuals with start-up entrepreneurs; and Indiegogo, a wellknown mainstay in the US for artists and bands.

Perhaps the most high profile artist benefitting from crowdfunding is Amanda Palmer who has been elevated to dizzy heights for developing an anti-establishment message around fundraising for music. “I think people have been obsessed with the wrong question, which is, ‘How do we make people pay for music?’” she proclaimed in a recent TED lecture, “What if we started asking, ‘How do we let people pay for music?’”

There is a certain inevitability to Palmer’s rhetoric. Artists and musicians were at the forefront of crowdfunding and Palmer is the poster girl for, what some are calling ‘the movement’.

The start of music’s melding with crowdfunding began as early

as 1997 with Marillion, when the band scheduled a European tour. After a fan announced to an online news group that they couldn’t tour the US because of a lack of label funds, they consequently raised more than $60,000 (€45,500), resulting in the band’s largest North American tour since 1991.

Just over ten years later, and US singer-songwriter Jill Sobule launched a website to help fund her next record. In exchange for fan donations, Sobule offered a variety of ‘rewards’ with values commensurate with the amount pledged. Her fundraising tactics are widely declared as the first true venture in online crowdfunding. She raised just over $75,000 (€57,000).

These days, crowdfunding takes three distinct shapes: • Sites which enable people to raise money for personal projects, or charity, which don’t offer anything by way of reward.

• Incentive-based platforms, such as those used by musicians and bands.

• Equity-based crowdfunding tools, allowing people to acquire shares in start ups/projects/companies.

Much research has been conducted into what makes people donate, aside from the reward they might receive in return. The general consensus among those we spoke to is that people

July 2013 IQ Magazine | 19

Crowdsourcing

“

We have more than 10,000 artists using Sellaband. I would say that only 5% are doing it with a lot of commitment and motivation and only 1% of those that are committed are using it for any kind of live event or tour.

”

– Michael Bogatzki, Sellaband ‘give’ for two other significant reasons: Firstly, community – being part of a community and wanting your artist/musician/ project/company etc to succeed. And secondly, investing in a person to establish a connection with them – to feel part of their life and their success. This, combined with the decline in the traditional music business, probably explains why crowdfunding has become so overwhelmingly popular with musicians.

Critics of the Concept The movement is not without its naysayers, however, and the use of such mechanisms are subject to various legal constraints in certain territories. Online selling is controlled by distant selling laws in the UK, meaning that any transaction has to be accompanied with exact notification of when the goods will be delivered. If this isn’t made clear, a statutory 30-day period applies. In the case of a musician recording, manufacturing and shipping a record, it’s widely known that the time frame can change, often at the drop of a hat. Adhering to these rules to raise upfront investment can no doubt be a bind and might explain why some crowdfunding projects have collapsed amid bad press.

Meanwhile, some industry experts believe that sending your closest fans off to a third-party crowdfunding website makes for bad business. Erik Nielsen, artist manager and industry consultant for acts including Marillion and James Blunt, notes with concern that, “The people who are looking to raise the money are driving fans away from their own identities, brand and websites over to what is, for all intents and purposes, an e-commerce platform. A very complex and intricate one, yes,

“

The people who are looking to raise the money are driving fans away from their own identities, brand and websites over to what is, for all intents and purposes, an e-commerce platform.

”

– Erik Nielsen, Wingnut Music

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but still just a piece of software.”

Regardless of such qualms, thousands upon thousands of acts are using the likes of Kickstarter, PledgeMusic, Sellaband, RocketHub and ArtistShare to raise money and awareness. Tellingly, most are using these platforms to raise money for physical product. It is still rare to see an act using a crowdfunding site to raise money for any kind of tour or live event, but thanks to the success in funding record projects, the tide is shifting.

Michael Bogatzki, managing director of Sellaband, the largest crowdfunding platform for musicians in Germany, sheds some light on how many of their users are raising money for gigs or tours. “Our registration tells us we have more than 10,000 artists using Sellaband. I would say that only 5% are doing it with a lot of commitment and motivation and only 1% of those that are committed are using it for any kind of live event or tour,” he remarks. “The majority use the platform to produce albums, singles, videos, or fund marketing and promotion.”

Indeed, the live music business has not been disrupted by crowdfunding in the same way as the recorded music business has by any stretch. Glaringly obvious is the fact that asking fans for capital to go on tour is equivalent to them purchasing a concert ticket. But there are also other issues: if the tour is cancelled, who is liable if all your fans are the investors?

Are the true costs of a tour too much to bear? And is the live music business, as it stands, still vital to an act if they want to progress and succeed?

The Agency Group’s Ed Stringfellow believes that the experience and knowledge of those working in the business is hard to beat. “Sites like these can’t tell artists where to route tours or tell them where the most important places are to play,” he cautions.

The occasions when crowdfunding helps fund or support a tour or event are growing, however. For example, the Torontobased, 14-piece Lemon Bucket Orkestra (self-described as a “Balkan-Klezmer-Gypsy-Punk-Super-Party-Band”) used RocketHub to raise funds for a tour of their musical homeland: Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The band raised their target amount of $15,000 (€11,300) by offering a range of incentives from downloads to the offer of playing at a dinner party for 45 minutes. Another good example is Wild Shore Festival for New Music, which aims to bring new chamber music, composed by Alaskans who now live in New York, to the communities in Kachemak Bay, Alaska. So far they have raised $6,000 (€4,500) on RocketHub – money that would otherwise be hard to come by. In both these cases the musical genres are limited in their reach to a mainstream audience and the events are very localised – these certainly aren’t US or UK/EU tours.

Lessons in Live The relationship between crowdfunding and live music is probably equivalent to a teenage couple flirting down the disco – unlike the recorded music business and crowdfunding, there is no marriage on the table, or indeed, potential divorce

Crowdsourcing

looming. What is happening, however, is a potential sea change brought about by ‘crowdsourcing’. Crowdsourcing can be best described as harnessing the power of the crowd, but in live music’s case, of a fan-base, and it is gaining a foothold in the business.

With the launch of platforms such as Detour (owned by the proprietors of UK-based Songkick), WeDemand! (Brazil) and Gigmit (Germany), what is becoming increasingly more interesting is the power of a crowd to pull a band to a town or city they’re not already booked to play. The basic premise of these sites is that a fan can register interest in a band, asking them to play their local town and by way of guarantee, leave their credit card details with the site. They are then given access to tools that allow them to spread the word through social media to raise further interest.

Detour only went live in the past few months, but has the benefit of plugging into 8 million registered Songkick users.

One recent success story was with American act Desaparecidos.

The band wanted to play in London, but were told they would only fill a 500-capacity venue, therefore making it impossible to cover costs. Detour showed that they could fill a

1,000-capacity venue and they consequently sold-out Camden Town’s Electric Ballroom, then added on a further four UK shows. Ian Hogarth, co-founder and CEO of Songkick/Detour, is naturally very optimistic about the future of the site, “We fundamentally reduce the risk for all types of events: for a band coming to a city for the first time; for a band taking the next steps once they have sold-out their first show, while it allows promoters to put on more shows and to move to bigger shows sooner.” He adds, “It also improves the economics of the artist’s and the agent’s business because ultimately, what that leads to is shows happening that wouldn’t have happened otherwise, which is brand new income. If you remove risk, you increase profitability.”

Detour has been largely well received by the live music community. All Tomorrow’s Parties used Detour to gauge demand for American band Merchandise and Swedish outfit Goat (both have since booked shows in London); while Eat Your Own Ears are using it to amass support for acts including Robert Wyatt through to Electrelane. It would appear that Detour has the potential to assist all parties in reducing risk.

One agent, who has worked in the business for decades,

Explosions in the Sky’s Wedemand!-funded show in Brazil

July 2013 IQ Magazine | 21

Crowdsourcing

“

If you’ve got a board of five people, it’s often hard to get consensus. When you’ve sold equity to thousands of people then that’s going to be even more complex when the company pivots. So, I think there is going to have to be government intervention, legislation, into the fulfilment of these types of campaigns going forward.

”

– Benji Rogers, Pledge Music

remains cautious, saying he is “broadly supportive of it, but wants to see more before reaching a conclusive opinion.

Latino Pioneers Further afield, the launch of WeDemand! in Brazil proves that crowdsourcing can reignite a dead live music scene in a major city. Until very recently, bands rarely played Rio, instead choosing São Paolo as the Brazil stop on international tours.

Rio had developed a bad reputation (lack of audience and lessthan-honest promoters), so promotions company Queremos! invented WeDemand! to get their favourite acts to come to the city. The premise is that 300-400 ‘tickets’ go on sale via WeDemand!, prior to any agreement from the band/agent/ manager or a venue being booked. Once these tickets have sold-out Quermos! approaches the relevant parties and if they agree to add Rio to their tour, the remaining unfulfilled tickets go on sale.

Founder Bruno Natal explains: “Knowing there were many music fans just like us in Rio and that there was an untapped market, we came up with a solution to make the process of booking a band easier and more interactive; putting together fans, artists and promoter/venues and making for a better experience. Quickly we learned that this format that we created to make our first concert possible (Miike Snow, in September 2011) was actually a new business model. So, here we are, two years on and expanding.”

Queremos! has since organised 39 concerts in Rio via WeDemand! attracting the likes of Vampire Weekend, Primal Scream, James Blake, The National and many others, and so

“

It improves the economics of the artist’s and the agent’s business because ultimately, what that leads to is shows happening that wouldn’t have happened otherwise, which is brand new income. If you remove risk, you increase profitability.

”

– Ian Hogarth, Songkick/Detour

22 | IQ Magazine July 2013

far selling more than 45,000 tickets. Footage from the concerts is particularly special – the crowds have so much vested in these shows that the connection between them and the artists is undeniably tangible.

Crowdsourcing offers the very attractive ability to accurately meet unfulfilled demand, whether that’s domestically, internationally, from venue-to-venue or town-to-town. In itself, crowdsourcing has the potential to be more powerful than mere crowdfunding, and the owners of Alt Fest, a new festival launching in the UK, have taken the whole philosophy to an entirely new level by allowing their event to be ‘crowd-led’.

Alt Fest takes place at Boughton House, Kettering in August. Dedicated to metal, gothic, industrial and steampunk, organisers are using the massively popular US crowdfunding platform Kickstarter to raise funds (more than £60,000 [€70,000] – 205% of the organiser’s target – has been raised todate) but are also throwing open every aspect of the festival to punter choice: there’s a poll to vote for the line-up (organisers promise to contact the agents of all winners) and a chance to express opinion on details such as how the site layout will work, for example. “There is a great community out there who we know are really supportive of alternative music and culture, but we’ve been overwhelmed by the level of support and the speed at which that support has been given to Alt Fest,” says co-founder Dom Void. “We don’t think it is good enough anymore to create an event without asking the fans what they want and then expect them to fork out extortionate amounts of money to buy a ticket.”

Alt Fest organisers are attuned to their genre-specific audience and perhaps this is why their crowd-led event could work. At the other end of the success spectrum, Tribe Festivals attempted to harness equity-based crowdfunding last year by offering shares in Wychwood (£1,000 [€1,175] bought ten shares out of an available 200,000 in the company).

The company offered a small return by dividend when the company started reporting a profit. The project failed with little investment and Wychwood has, for now, forgotten its dalliance with crowdfunding.

Maybe Wychwood’s failure to achieve its goal has been a saving grace. Pledge Music managing director Benji Rogers highlights the problem he sees with this type of crowdfunding: “If you’ve got a board of five people, it’s often hard to get consensus. When you’ve sold equity to thousands of people then that’s going to be even more complex when the company pivots. So, I think there is going to have to be government intervention, legislation, into the fulfilment of these types of campaigns going forward,” he says.

Crowdfunding’s association with music will more than likely remain, even if legislation alters the landscape of the market and its potential. Whether or not the live music business will undergo any obvious alteration on account of crowdfunding remains to be seen. For the moment it seems a very remote possibility. However, as demonstrated, it is very likely that crowdsourcing could have positive effects on the business with its potential to help reduce the risk of booking gigs and tours; by opening up new venues, towns, cities and even territories to acts; and ultimately offering more choice to fans

Go West (north, east and south)

More than 30 years into their career, the Pet Shop Boys are more relevant than ever.

Eternally innovative, the band is rewriting the rules on how to take a big production on the road without breaking the bank. Gordon Masson reports‌ The list of acts that can keep hitting the top of the charts for decades is a short one indeed, but although they are now into their fourth decade, the Pet Shop Boys (PSB) are arguably at their most prolific. For the majority of artists, releasing a new album usually involves a minimum 18-month campaign of promo and touring. But despite releasing Elysium last September, PSB are on the cusp of releasing their 12th studio album Electric later this month, meaning their latest tour can tap into a swathe of new material, as well as one of the most impressive catalogues in the business.

Not content with pushing the limits on the recorded

24 | IQ Magazine July 2013

side of their careers, Chris Lowe and Neil Tenant also bring their unique approach to their live shows, paving the way for others to take their productions around the world in the most efficient way possible, but without compromising on spectacle.

The Electric tour is taking the band and their crew across four continents and will see them performing everywhere from huge festivals and arenas to intimate theatres and halls. But quality prevails and the band have hit the road determined to deliver every single fan the same live experience, no matter what country, city or venue they visit.

Electric’s impressive laser effects © Rob Sinclair

Reverse Engineering Starting the tour in that most fraught of regions, South America, preparation for Electric was a prolonged process, but such is the deep thinking behind the production that the tour’s principal planners were somewhat extended out of necessity.

“Because it was kicking off in South America, I was involved at the conception,” says Andy Lovell of freighting specialists Sound Moves. “[Tour manager] Andy Crookston basically gave me a list of cities they wanted to play in and between us and agent Pete Nash, we came up with a schedule doing certain cities on certain days of the week so we could ensure there would be a crowd. With the recession and the downturn in passenger travel, airlines are using smaller aircraft and as a result they cannot take as much cargo. So part of the planning was to find the maximum number of pallets we could travel with – you could say that the show was planned around the freight restrictions.”

Fortunately for the band, the tailored production was effectively able to have a large-scale preview courtesy of the Cumbre Tajín Festival in Mexico in March, where the creative team was able to test some new elements, such as lasers, before taking to the road. The tour proper began in the Chilean capital, Santiago, on 13 May at the Movistar Arena. Tour manager Andy Crookston explains, “It’s like a huge, expensive game of Tetris.

We manage to fit 8.6 tonnes of equipment on four pallets. That’s the maximum you are allowed to take on commercial flights, which we use wherever possible.” Crookston has been working with PSB for more than 11 years. “It’s the best job I’ve had in music – they look after me well and we get along great.”

Leave Them Wanting More Agent Pete Nash has represented PSB for close to 30 years and has booked more than 500 dates for the band. Talking about the current tour, Nash reveals some of the strategy he employs for his clients. “There’s value nowadays in exclusivity, not just for promoters, but also for artists,” he tells IQ. “We deliberately underplay certain territories because we want to sell-out a hot ticket, for example in Copenhagen. By doing that we potentially set-up another headliner appearance down the line – they headlined Roskilde [Festival] last time they played Denmark. Chris and Neil understand the concept. They have better ideas than most of the industry and have said ‘no’ at all the right times in their career. For instance, they’ll never play a retro show or 80s event. They only recorded two albums in the 80s and have released ten since, and that’s why they are still headlining festivals.”

Underlining that philosophy, Nash says the decision to miss out certain territories in recent years was key. “The

July 2013 IQ Magazine | 25

Pet Shop Boys

Neil Tennant resplendent in his in his jacket of straws © Rob Sinclair

important thing about Asia is the headline show at Summer Sonic,” he states. “We skipped Japan on the last couple of tour cycles so demand has built. Plus, Naoki Shimizu at Creativeman is the best promoter on the planet. Summer Sonic was the anchor date to build Asia around. I sat down with [fellow William Morris Endeavor agent] Akiko Rogers and she brought in other shows.”

Phil Rodriguez at Miami-based Evenpro agrees with Nash’s approach. “In Latin America it is very important not to overtour. It’s extremely rare for any act to be able to go back to a market year-on-year, so a two-year minimum break is needed to help build demand.” Rodriguez has been working with PSB since the 90s and has taken them to Brazil, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Venezuela and Paraguay. “They are very clever in what they present and how they do that,” he says. “Electric is a well laid out and fantastic tour for the road – they manage to create a spectacle without having 19 trucks.”

Testing Times One of the challenges on this current outing is mixing festival appearances with those at smaller venues. Production manager Thomas Stone has worked with the likes of Tom Jones, James, Il Divo, The Hoosiers and Amy Winehouse, but is one of the new faces in the PSB entourage. This is his first tour with the band and he admits production assistant Dani Dowden has helped keep him right, as she has been working with the band since 2009 and “does all the important stuff that everybody else forgets about.”

“This is a large-scale show but a very compact production.

We’re playing arenas, festivals and theatres so it can be interesting,” Stone tells IQ backstage at the Grand Rex in Paris, which he reports is one of the most difficult venues to shoehorn the show into. “We’re really pushing the boundaries. We use lots of new technology. Electric is not your run-of-the-mill show – it’s heavily content-based and we have lots of different projection surfaces on stage.” One of the most striking of those surfaces is a massive venetian blind that can extend to 8 by 12 metres. “It’s a beast and can be tricky to set-up depending on the venue,” Stone says. With five or six different line ups for projection, one of the most eye-catching involves two vertical beds where the duvets are used as projection screens while the performers are under the covers.

Stone contends the production typically takes five or six hours to load in and about 90 minutes to load out, on a good day, with lights and PA supplied locally, as well as local crew and stage hands helping out the 12-strong core crew. Looking back to the start of the tour, he says, “The only thing that lets South America down is the equipment situation. For instance, only one company in Paraguay has automated hoists, so we had people operating manual chain hoists – a nightmare when you consider 70% of the show is flown. But in all fairness, the guys in Paraguay smashed it.”

The issues didn’t go unnoticed by the crew in South America, where Electric also visited Luna Park in Buenos Aires, Argentina; the Bourbon Conmebol Asunción Convention Hotel, Paraguay; Credicard Hall in São Paulo, Brazil; and the Centro de Eventos Bima in Bogotá, Colombia.

26 | IQ Magazine July 2013

“The frustrations of working in South America still exist, but it gets better each time you go there,” says lighting designer Rob Sinclair. “The band wanted lasers and to go for a banging clubby vibe, so ER Productions were brought in to do that.

We use the lasers sparingly in different parts of the show, but it works very well indeed. Chris in particular loves the lasers.”

ER’s Marc Webber observes, “South America is not as bad as people might think, but there were certainly some challenges when it came to the likes of power supplies.”

Sinclair adds, “Pet Shop Boys are ideal clients – they speak the language of theatre so they know what is possible and have very defined requirements, which makes them a joy to work with.”

Another newbie to the tour party is Jack James, from Really Creative Media, who takes charge of the show’s video.

“My background is in doing live events for mostly corporate clients,” he says. “In the past, I’ve worked with people like Rihanna and Justin Bieber and I had a few one-day calls from Pet Shop Boys at the back end of their last tour, but this is the first time I’ve taken on an entire tour – it’s an area I’ll be prioritising in the future. I put the equipment in for the shows and provide tech knowledge, but the equipment comes from Creative Technology and the content has been put together by Luke Hall at Treatment.” James adds, “Keeping things working is challenging, especially in South America, where there were issues with power, humidity and preventing equipment getting knocked about, which seems to happen a lot for some reason.”

But the environment in the region is definitely improving, according to Holger Schwark, the tour’s sound engineer. “We worked with a German PA system – the D&B J System – at three or four shows in South America and that never used to happen,” he reports. “We don’t carry speakers so we face using different systems and rigs at each venue, but it’s kind of cool to be using something new every day as it’s rewarding when you align it to target.”

Sourcing reliable local labour is another key element.

Stage manager Matt Gurney comments, “Some local crews

Pet Shop Boys

Electric’s massive venetian blinds

band for nearly ten years and admits one of the frustrations in France is that the band’s popularity doesn’t necessarily translate to ticket sales. “Nobody knows how crazy their live show is,” Hazot says. “They will fill a 2,500-capacity theatre each time they visit, but for the kind of show they put on, I wish it was bigger. They last played here about three years ago so demand has built again and we sold out the first and second floors for the Grand Rex in about two hours.”

Meanwhile, in Germany, Lars Berndt at LB Events is looking forward to his first show with the band at the Westfalenhallen Dortmund (cap. 3,500) on 1 July. “Pet Shop Boys are very popular in Germany – they are one of the biggest electronic acts worldwide,” Berndt says. “They are authentic: Neil has an unbelievable voice, so the fans get a fantastic show.” are better than others: the guys in Denmark and France were particularly on it.” Gurney is another of the new faces.

“I worked with Thomas [Stone] on CarFest last year and he brought me in. It’s been good getting to know everyone on the crew – they are a great bunch and they work really hard for the band. As for Chris and Neil, they are real pros and just lovely guys; they’re genuinely interested in who we all are and what we are doing.”

Promoting the Pets In addition to linking up with some new promoters for Electric, Nash has done some direct deals with venues promoting shows in-house. “We’re booked directly with Crocus Hall in Moscow, for instance,” he says. “Where it’s competitive, either between venues or between cities, then venue operators want to get their room used. So the venues are becoming more proactive.”

As for the show itself, it’s hard to believe that the spectacular production and its personnel are transported in just one truck and one bus. “It’s an incredible stage set with incredible choreography and Neil and Chris interacting with the films,” Nash says. “The Boys have very high standards and expectations but they make people step up and that brings everyone to a higher level.”

One promoter eager to welcome the band back is Ilan Elkayam of Plug Productions in Israel who has hired the 7,000-capacity Nokia Hall arena in Tel Aviv for the Electric tour date. “I brought them here in 2009 when they played the Bitan 1 hall to a sold-out 6,000 audience. People still talk about the show. Pet Shop Boys are loved in Israel and there’s a great scene for them here. They have hits from the 80s, 90s and the noughties, but also new hits on the radio, which is very good for us as promoters.”

In Denmark, the band played the Falconer Hall in Copenhagen, before a sell-out 3,000-capacity crowd. “Pet Shop Boys put on an extraordinary show, which got great reviews,” promoter Kim Worsoe of ICO Concerts says. “This tour has amazing lighting effects and lasers, but it doesn’t take three days to load in – they do everything in normal production hours, which is very unusual, especially when it’s such a big show, visually.”

Salomon Hazot at Nous Productions has worked with the

A Chequered, Fluorescent and Multicoloured Past Noting that Messrs Tennant and Lowe “have something like 41 top 40 hits in the UK alone,” Nash contends the band has always pushed the envelope in terms of their live shows. “Their first world tour was completely groundbreaking,” he comments.

“People had used elements of film and theatre before, but not on anything like the same scale. Neil and Chris worked with experimental film-maker Derek Jarman who directed the entire concert with specially commissioned film footage. Nobody had done that before, but lots of people do it now.”

Nash recalls the next tour, working with English National Opera designers David Alden and David Fielding, actually lost money, but took the live element to another level. The touring side of their career has also seen them work with artist Sam Taylor-Wood and architect Zaha Hadid, who harnessed her famous style to design a stage set that took on a waveform on multiple levels. “That concept has now been further developed

by Es Devlin whose set has stages within stages, as well as art installations and film projection,” Nash says.

Tour manager Crookston concurs. “The great thing about Neil and Chris is they’ve never been pushed into doing things they don’t want to do – they are ruthless and relentless about their careers and the shows they put on are simply spectacular.”

Crookston has also worked with the likes of Sade and Will Young in recent years, but declares, “Pet Shop Boys keep me occupied pretty much full-time because of all the other things that they do, like Battleship Potemkin and The Most Incredible Thing, which was a ballet project they did a couple of years ago.”

Like many on the crew, Schwark also counts the band as his main employer. “I’ve been working with them for about ten years, the last five of which have been full-time,” he says. “My background included a lot of classical work, so I first started working with them on Battleship Potemkin, which involved a full symphony orchestra.”

Musical director, Pete Gleadall, is another long-term collaborator. “I did George Michael’s first solo tour, Faith, in 1988, and having seen that, Pet Shop Boys got in touch and I ended up working for them on the legendary 1989 tour with Derek Jarman. In the past couple of years, I’ve been pretty much working exclusively for Chris and Neil. Every show

July 2013 IQ Magazine | 27

Pet Shop Boys

Dressing Things Up Another major aspect of the live shows is the flamboyant wardrobe, which is not only sported by the principals, but also involves the crew donning coordinated suits throughout performances. “I have a bit of an insane mind when it comes to design and the Boys really love that,” explains costume designer Jeffrey Bryant whose other clients include Will Young, Marina and the Diamonds, Goldfrapp, Lady Gaga and Duran Duran. In keeping with Electric’s slimline production Bryant is packing less than usual, but says the clothes are ‘bigger’ to make up for that fact. But it’s hard work. “Maintenance is constant – this tour has been the hardest I’ve experienced on repairs because we have to rip clothes off people so fast, they inevitably get damaged.”

It isn’t just clothing that has to be packed carefully. With such a condensed production, the tour’s main bulk of lights also need to be sourced locally. “Modern lighting desks can cope quite well with whatever you throw at them,” Sinclair says. “Every day we learn more about the show and develop various tricks to fit it into venues. The Boys want the same show no matter which venue we are in and there’s a certain amount of flexibility because of the different venues we are visiting – the venetian blind can contract and expand accordingly, for instance.”

But festival shows can prove awkward. “Going outdoors is problematic,” Sinclair states. “75% of the show uses projection and there are obvious issues when you are outdoors trying to set-up and it isn’t dark.”

Martin Connolly, senior project manager at Capital Sound, reveals the restrictions his company faces. “We were introduced to Pet Shop Boys when they were special guests on the Take That [Progress] tour in 2011. For this tour they had a very particular package they wanted – namely to keep everything as compact as possible.” Capital Sound ended up supplying DiGiCo short frame SD10s, but Connolly adds, “They actually wanted something even smaller, but as the production progressed it became clear that desks of a certain standard were needed. But, in short, the audio package is tiny compared to the likes of the playback racks they are using.”

Mike Moulds of bussing supplier MM Band Services is another new face at the table. “As a company we’ve grown over the last ten years to the extent that where we can now supply services to top-line bands, so this is our first job with Pet Shop Boys. We’ve had a relationship over the years with

28 | IQ Magazine July 2013

Thomas Stone through the likes of The Hoosiers, so when he became involved with this tour he invited us to quote and everything has gone swimmingly from there.”

Creative Technology (CT), meanwhile, have been working with PSB for the last three years. Marketing manager Laura Vallis reveals, “For 2013, the kit CT has supplied will follow Pet Shop Boys for the duration of their tour, including both the European and South American legs: six Panasonic DZ21K onstage projectors and Catalyst machines have been provided, all managed by Jack James from Really Creative Media.”

Increasing the Electric Flow?

The success of the Electric tour may prompt other acts to reverse engineer their production when it comes to hitting the road, but there are signs the tour could grow in size next year, thanks to the demand Nash’s strategy is creating.

Promoter Phil Rodriguez sums things up thus, “Lots of acts have their days of glory, but only the good ones will maintain their core audience, as well as enticing new fans. Pet Shop Boys are long-time professionals who have built a solid following.” ICO’s Worsoe agrees. “It’s always good to work with Pet Shop Boys and Pete Nash, because they have a well-thought-out touring strategy that helps when it comes to promoting shows,” he says. “For example, we’re already talking about next year’s festivals.”

Noting the names of the individuals Electric is working with in 2013, Crookston says, “There are a bunch of new promoters on this tour, which says something about Pet Shop Boys’ popularity and how relevant they remain. Next year, we’ll maybe do a series of stuff that will make it more worthwhile to expand the size of the production, but those are just whispers at the moment.”

Nash all but confirms that speculation. “I think we’ll revisit Electric in the summer of 2014,” he concludes. “We turned down a lot this year – there are no shows in the likes of South Africa, Australia, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Italy, Ireland or Scotland. In fact, I’m slightly alarmed by the amount of things we’ve turned down.”

Example ‘duets’ on stage for the track ‘Thursday’ © Rob Sinclair

takes weeks of programming, so Chris and I will talk about what he wants to play and what sounds he wants to use – for It’s A Sin the keyboard is split three ways, for example. The task is getting the right sounds and making sure they appear under Chris’s fingertips at the right time. It’s not as simple as it sounds, so I provide him with reminders of what is up next when he is on stage.”

Gleadall adds, “I wouldn’t have worked with them for as long, if I didn’t love it. They know what they want and they are very funny guys. Chris is a fantastic musician, but he loves that stereotype of being the mute bloke on stage wearing a hat, sunglasses and playing the keyboards. But their first questions to me are always ‘What key is it in?’ and ‘What are the chords?’”

Staging

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Staging

Setting

The Stage As festivals and headline tour productions get more and more complicated, the demands on the staging sector to cope with ever greater loads, while ensuring the highest standards of safety amidst tightening budgets, is no easy task, as Christopher Austin discovers…

W

hether constructing a stage in a swimming pool for the president of Angola or rescuing a stage that has been torn apart by protesters to build barricades on Istanbul’s streets, there is rarely a dull day in the international staging business. Those recent respective experiences of Spain’s GUIL and German-based operation Megaforce may be exceptional, but leading operators in the event staging business have become accustomed to tackling challenges of all shapes and sizes. Recent years have seen staging companies face growing demands; not only for increased safety and sustainability, but also sophistication, all at a price that meets ever-tightening budgets.

With the outdoor concert and festival season well under way in the northern hemisphere, the summer is proving a period of frenetic activity for the majority of leading staging operations, not least Stageco. With its headquarters in Belgium and offices in nine countries, Stageco is enjoying a particularly busy season, working simultaneously on major projects at a multitude of locations around the world. They include stadium tours by Robbie Williams, Bon Jovi, Muse and Roger Waters with The Wall, all of which incorporate bespoke stage set-ups.

“We have seen a rise in demand for bespoke shows this year; every band wants to have a show that is completely different from the next. It is our job to help make the show look unique

and provide the designer with the solutions to enable him to do that,” says Stageco founder and president Hedwig De Meyer.

The launch of Stageco’s XL Tower, the XL Stage and Arena Lift innovations saw the company collect the best staging prize at London’s Event Production Awards in February. De Meyer acknowledges that the increasing demand for spectacular productions has meant that groundbreaking solutions have become a prerequisite of any tour within the major league international concert business. “In a way, audiences are spoilt because they have seen so many exciting shows. Video and other visual aspects are increasingly important these days, so we are always looking to find something new that the audience hasn’t seen before and that will stun them,” De Meyer says.

Stadium shows not only present staging companies with the task of creating something spectacular and unique to satisfy the enormous audiences, the venues themselves are often a demanding environment in which to work. Recent years have seen huge sums of money sunk into major stadium building and regeneration projects, often with event flexibility in mind, but according to De Meyer, even state-of-the-art stadiums present challenges. “On the one hand it gets easier because new stadiums have improved access to the field, but on the other it gets more complex because new stadiums are built in such a way that the audience is closer to the field, so there is

July 2013 IQ Magazine | 31

Staging

We have seen a rise in “ demand for bespoke shows this

year; every band wants to have a show that is completely different from the next. It is our job to help make the show look unique and provide the designer with the solutions to enable him to do that.

– Hedwig De Meyer, Stageco

”

less room for the stages,” he says.

Working primarily with touring arena shows, All Access Staging and Productions is also concurrently involved in numerous concerts all over the world at any one time. With two offices in the US, a pair in Australia and one in the UK, All Access offers a global sale and hire service that provides equipment that includes rolling stages, lifts, turntables, portable risers and solenoid systems.

Financial Restraints

T

he widespread economic slump has increased pressure on tour budgets, which have not been helped by the escalating cost of basics such as fuel and raw materials. With that in mind, All Access has seen its global hire business prove popular with international touring acts. “Because we have offices around the world, we can often offer bands 80% of staging from standard stock that

we hold at all our international locations,” says All Access sales manager Matthew Bull. “It means you often only have to ship 20% of the staging around the world. That really helps with shipping and flight costs and with the core of equipment being stock items it means that at the end of the tour there is not the whole stage to dispose of.”

Research, development and manufacture of All Access equipment takes place in the US, with the most recent piece of equipment – a new take on the ribbon lift called the X Lift – making it possible to raise a performer 20 feet into the air in 30 seconds. “It uses a new mechanism and is a considerable improvement on the old ribbon lift – when you are at the top of it, it feels a lot safer,” Bull says.

Each festival season, All Access supplies acts with equipment including drum risers and stairs to enhance their shows. The Wanted, Whitesnake, Paloma Faith and Jessie J are just some of the acts whose festival sets will feature All Access equipment this year. For Jessie J it meant supplying a custom stage that is both visually impressive and extremely portable. “The custom stage for Jessie J involves custom risers with video attached to them,” Bull reveals. “They wanted to be able to roll it all on and off of festival stages easily and were restricted with truck space.”

Founded in 1992, Germany-based Megaforce has become one of the biggest staging suppliers in Europe. This year the company’s equipment will be at nine festivals throughout the continent, as well as about 90 single shows or tour stops.

Megaforce sales manager Timo Mathes says, “I believe that even today in a time of overstimulation, a festival organiser

Stageco’s Bon Jovi stage in Vienna, Austria

32 | IQ Magazine July 2013

Staging can still have quite good success by having everything planned properly beforehand. That includes working with professional service providers in all fields. An inventive location could also help a lot to make the festival a blockbuster.”

Mathes doesn’t just look for business with the megafestivals, however, and he is adamant that some of the better events Megaforce is involved with don’t just rely on A-list acts to sell tickets. “Megaforce is always looking for new opportunities on the festival market and every year we are supporting ‘festival beginners’ with our know-how and gear,” he says. “Many successful alternative festivals show that success cannot only be tailored to famous names on the lineup. It is also about the spirit of the respective festival and the atmosphere the festival organisers create for their audience.”

John Henry founded his London-based operation back in 1976 and developed what was then a unique portable stage riser that proved a mainstay of the touring circuit for decades to come. John Henry’s now handles everything from the complete provision of rolling risers at festivals to bespoke stage builds for television and record companies. Among its regular UK festival clients are Latitude, Rewind, Reading, Leeds, V Festival and Proms in the Park, for which it supplies up to 120 platforms with wheels, rigging, carpet and drapes.

With budgets always under pressure, Henry’s son, Johnny Henry, who manages the London-based operations, says the company strives to find ways to supply the best possible equipment at an appealing price. “We always try to maintain

“

We own an architectural and structural engineering practice, so have highly qualified specialists to make sure that all our Right Structures designs come with detailed engineering calculations.

”

–G erald Borg, Right Structures good and long-term relationships with our suppliers, which in turn gives us the room to give our clients the best deal. This is a must in today’s market. Although we find that sometimes it’s worth spending that bit more to get the best tools for the job; be it gaffer tape or carpet,” Henry says.

One of the greatest challenges for promoters and event organisers is to make sure their stages come from a reliable supplier that tests their equipment for crucial safety factors such as the weights they can support and the wind speeds they can tolerate. As a result, even in a crowded market, there is still room for newcomers to make their mark. One such newbie is Right Structures which having purchased the demountable structure that was the Wembley Arena Pavilion, developed that building into the MFCC as an international venue in Malta.

Now the company is expanding. “Our architects and

Staging

Guarding Against Tragedy

B

udgetary pressures aside, every staging company IQ canvassed for this report emphasised that safety is at the forefront of everything they do. Recent years have seen numerous tragic incidents at concerts, from fires to falls and crowd-related accidents, to stage collapses at events including

“

We aspire to set the standards.

We carry out all our own design work and meet all relevant codes of practice and guidance. We do not buy ready-made systems from truss manufacturers like the one that collapsed in Indiana.

”

–R oger Barrett, Star Events Group the Indiana State Fair, Pukklepop and the Ottawa Blues Fest.

A more recent incident, in May this year, saw a man crushed to death during the installation of acoustic equipment on a stage in Moscow’s Bolotnaya Square. No matter the shape, size or location of an event, structural safety is now more of an issue than ever before.

Following the death of Radiohead’s drum technician when the band’s stage collapsed in Toronto’s Downsview Park in June 2012, British operation LS-Live was brought in to pick up the pieces. After an initial evaluation of the damage, the Radiohead production team was under pressure to get the show back on the road as swiftly as possible and a quote was delivered overnight by LS-Live. As there were no original drawings of the set available, the team had to start from scratch based on photographs and the information at hand. Over the following three weeks, the company was involved in structural assessments, re-drawing detailed components from scratch,

All Access Staging’s X Lift

engineers turned their attention to solving the challenge of rigging capacity and load bearing in the roof. This was the one area where the otherwise fantastic Tensile Fabric Structure (TFS) offered us limited capability,” says Right Structures managing director Gerald Borg. “Our engineers came up with a proprietary spaceframe system, which led to us designing and manufacturing a curved weight/load bearing arch that followed the contour of the TFS at MFCC. With Malta being an island that attracts some large global artists and corporate events, we adapted the system to be used as an outdoor stage roof, or corporate/advertising structures such as the 10m GeoLandmark globes.”

Following considerable investment from new business partners in 2011, Borg’s company has now launched an innovative staging solution to the international market. “We believe we are unique in that we have a modular system which allows us to design and construct a wide variety of stages and demountable structures with minimal components.

This widens design options for weight bearing structures at a significantly lower cost than bespoke manufactured stages or structures,“ he says.

July 2013 IQ Magazine | 37

Staging

reverse engineering, testing, re-manufacturing, modifications and final assembly.

Founded in 1996 by Alexander Strizhak, Russia’s JSA Staging Company was one of the first professional businesses of its type in the territory. It has worked on an array of major local rock festivals, including Nashestvie, Krylia, Picnic Afisha, Maxidrom, Rock nad Volgoy and Alye Parusa and its stages have seen performances by an array of A-list Western acts ranging from Metallica to Elton John. According to Strizhak, JSA’s near two-decade history has been devoid of major safety-related incidents, despite the continued need to meet the demands for innovative stage set-ups. As part of the stage structure for a recent show by Russian rock star Zemfira, JSA built a helipad adjacent to the stage that the musician used during a performance.

Right Structures’ Borg states, “Safety was at the very core of the system design all those years ago and is integral to the fabric of everything we do, which has been reinforced by our new partners (involved in international hotel construction and management, Corinthia Hotels). We own an architectural and structural engineering practice, so have highly qualified specialists to make sure that all our Right Structures designs come with detailed engineering calculations. The system was designed so that it can be built from the ground up – so our crews work at ground level – removing the working at height risk.“ He adds, “Each event has its own weight and wind loading considerations, along with ground/site conditions, so we are very attentive to all aspects of safety, which clients seems to be very happy about.“ It is not only staging companies but also their clients that

“

Many successful alternative festivals show that success cannot only be tailored to famous names on the lineup. It is also about the spirit of the respective festival and the atmosphere the festival organisers create for their audience.

– Timo Mathes, Megaforce

”

have become increasingly safety focused. Switzerland’s Fortissimo works primarily with Megaforce and Stageco and is busy this summer putting on shows by Bon Jovi, Roger Waters and Bruce Springsteen. Head of production Kurt Bucher says safety is the operation’s single biggest concern.

“It is always about safety. I need to make sure that the stage that they develop for me is safe and the next consideration is the price and how it will work; safety is always the first thing we look at,” Bucher says.

“Safety is an area that is evolving; 15 years ago safety harnesses didn’t exist, it is something that changes all the time and you have to be aware of all the developments in every region,” says Stageco’s De Meyer. “Recent years have seen increased interest from government officials, but every country has its own rules and it is hard to get the rules in line with each other; what is asked of us in England and Italy can be completely different and that puts a lot of pressure on us.”

Among the most highly respected of the many differing regional safety specifications are the UK’s BS, Germany’s

The Script on a stage built by LS-Live

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Staging

Megaforce’s new R-28 stage

TÜV, the European Norm, and American Federal Specifications. All of these standards are fully complied with when an assignment is handled by the staging and structures team at South Africa’s Gearhouse. Robyn D’Alessandro, Gearhouse’s marketing manager, confirms that many safety measures are taken by the company, including regular inspections and testing of rigging and trussing equipment, while written risk assessments are carried out prior to each project, and portable structures undergo comprehensive load and wind-speed testing. “We are at the forefront of event safety in South Africa. We have an in-house national health and safety manager to manage safety at all events where the company provides its services,” D’Alessandro says.

Approximately 80% of Gearhouse’s revenue derives from corporate assignments, but being the largest rental company in South Africa it handles many major international tours, most recently Bon Jovi and Justin Bieber. But in terms of spectacle, D’Alessandro says it has proved hard to top the FIFA World Cup opening and closing ceremonies it worked on in 2010.

Aside from helping to stage major international events, Gearhouse is also able to offer entire venues for events via its specialist design and manufacturing sister company In2Structures. The operation’s range of custom-designed portable venues come in various sizes and are available for hire or sale. According to D’Alessandro, safety was a key issue throughout the design of these dome-shaped structures.

“Unique and extremely versatile, they can be erected almost anywhere, are completely weatherproof and have outstanding safety features. One- to three-tonne load-bearing capacity per arch offers generous rigging capabilities and the structures are certified to withstand wind speeds of 120 kilometres per hour,” he says.

Inclement weather is also a major consideration at Star Events, which supplies staging, structural, rigging and seating technologies to numerous major festivals, including Bestival and V Festival in the UK, and the Nike Festival of Sports in Shanghai.

40 | IQ Magazine July 2013

Along with its UK headquarters, Star Events has bases in China, Spain, Portugal, Italy and New Zealand and is well versed in handling events of all shapes and sizes. The most challenging yet, proved to be the construction of a 180-tonne structure in the middle of a river in London’s Olympic Park, without any access to the riverbank for cranes or other machines.

Star Events Group technical and commercial director Roger Barrett says that the company constantly monitors the weather at events and always has skilled stand-by crews on site to deal with any issues. “We aspire to set the standards.

We carry out all our own design work and meet all relevant codes of practice and guidance. We do not buy ready-made systems from truss manufacturers like the one that collapsed in Indiana,” Barrett says.

Indoor Challenges

W

eather may not be a consideration when it comes to arena shows but, alongside their stadium big brothers, arena tours have seen a rapid evolution in complexity, brought about by the same desire of artists to impress jaded audiences. “It is not just the open-air shows that are becoming more complicated, the indoor shows are becoming huge, with very complicated stages,” says Fortissimo’s Bucher.

“They are often 20-30-truck productions and more intricate than the outdoor shows. The artists are wanting bigger stages and effects and lights and it is becoming difficult to fit it all under the arena roofs.”

LS-Live not only boasts specialist skills in staging, set design, automation, electronics and equipment rental, but a 17,664 square feet rehearsal arena on site next to its rental warehouse and construction division, means staging can be built and tested all under one roof. UK-based LS-Live deals primarily with indoor staging and bespoke structures and a recent project saw it complete the stage set for The Script’s tour with the main stage structure being a bespoke variation of one

Staging

“

We always try to maintain good and long-term relationships with our suppliers, which in turn gives us the room to give our clients the best deal. This is a must in today’s market.

Although we find that sometimes it’s worth spending that bit more to get the best tools for the job; be it gaffer tape or carpet.

”

– Johnny Henry, John Henry’s of LS-Live’s standard touring rental packages. “It was customadapted to incorporate three video screens that run up from the floor in front of the audience onto the stage underfoot, then angle up onto a 3-foot-high platform upstage. We fabricated a Perspex cover with an aluminium frame to cover the video screens on stage so that the band can walk over the top of them,” says LS-Live director Ben Brooks.

LS-Live’s vast range of rental equipment includes rolling risers, scissor lifts, turntables, LiteDeck, crowd barriers, staircases and man lifts, enabling the majority of custom-built shows to incorporate off-the-shelf pieces which alleviate the pressure on budgets.

While the faltering Spanish economy may not be helping the local live entertainment business, Valencia-based GUIL is

enjoying strong business from overseas clients in burgeoning territories such as Russia, South America and China, while also providing customised products for major events around the world and exclusive nightclubs in the likes of Dubai and Ibiza. GUIL manufactures five models of stage, which means they can be used for multiple applications from small set-ups in hotels or bars all the way up to large events for stages of over 200 square metres. “Our lightweight version is perfect for conferences and schools and they go all the way up to our heavy-duty platform with a load capacity of 2,600kg for large events such as festivals,” says export head Tracy Hobbs.

GUIL platforms come with a weather resistant, non-slip finish as standard and the use of stainless steel components and connectors adds to their durability. Over GUIL’s 30 years in the staging business the company has manufactured equipment for many concerts and festivals along with a broad array of non-music events ranging from fashion shows to car exhibitions. Due to the weather resistant treatments of GUIL’s platforms they can handle almost any kind of weather and have even been used in snowy conditions in Norway and Andorra.

But one of the most unusual requests for GUIL’s services was for 200 square metres of staging to elevate an orchestra in the president of Angola’s swimming pool for a performance to celebrate his wife’s birthday. “Our platforms are used all over the world, when we develop a product our engineers design them to the highest standards so that they can be used anywhere,” Hobbs notes.

Electronic Dance Music

The Rise and Rise of EDM While the growth in live music events has arguably hit a plateau, Gordon Masson learns that the rapid development of electronic dance music over the past couple of years shows no signs of slowing down.

In the not-too-distant past, dance music was pretty much the reserve of clubs and underground raves, although a healthy smattering of dance festivals have been thriving in key markets for a number of years. But the world of electronic dance music (EDM) has had an incredible resurgence of late, and with some of the biggest music organisations now investing vast sums into the continued development of the genre, the explosion of events around the world is growing apace.

Last year, the world’s biggest promoter, Live Nation, created a specialist dance division, while live music billionaire Robert FX Sillerman has emerged from the shadows with an aggressive strategy to build a global EDM empire. Sillerman most recently acquired a 75% stake in Dutch promoter ID&T from under the nose of AEG Live (which had been courting the company) for a reported $100million (€76m). That deal gave SFX Entertainment a significant role in the awardwinning Tomorrowland festival in Belgium, as well as its sister event, TomorrowWorld, in Atlanta, in late September.

Meanwhile, Live Nation’s head of dance, James Barton – who established the Cream brand and Creamfields festival

42 | IQ Magazine July 2013

– has been given a far reaching remit to establish new EDM events around the world and tells IQ he is actively identifying new markets in which to take large-scale dance festivals and shows.

Advancing the Cause Earlier this year, some of the dance community’s leading lights gathered to create the Association for Electronic Music (AFEM), bringing together artists, DJs, managers, labels, promoters, publishers, agents, retailers and broadcasters with one aim: “to advance the cause of electronic music.”

“Electronic music is probably at the strongest point it’s ever been, but that’s also the best time to be creating more structure, and infrastructure, to make sure we remain as strong as possible going forward,” says AFEM coordinator Ben Turner. “There has been a lot of hype about the genre, but also a lot of misrepresentation and misunderstanding, particularly in the American media, which wrongly associates the music with drugs. AFEM’s job is to advocate electronic

Electronic Dance Music

music as an art form and try to get that accepted and embraced by the media and the general population.”

Turner has been running the UK-based Association of Independent Festivals for the past five years, but states, “AFEM is a more ambitious project because it is a global proposition. However, in the two meetings we’ve already had, there’s an incredible unity between everyone involved, and the energy is very positive.” With 51 board members, AFEM has four scheduled meetings per year, centred around the Winter Music Conference in Miami, in March; the International Music Summit in Ibiza, in May; EDMbiz in Vegas, in June; and Amsterdam Dance Event in October.

Pastures New The ability to launch in new markets is exactly the kind of lure that has prompted corporate entities to dive into the electronic market. Last year, James Barton became president of Live Nation’s electronic music division when the company bought a majority stake in his Cream empire. Now relocated to California, Barton says interest in the genre has never been greater and there’s barely any market he’s not looking at in terms of expansion.

“The vast majority of markets already have a wellestablished electronic scene of some description, so we determine whether the existing ticket base might be able to grow,” says Barton, who has been at the sharp end of promoting dance events for 25 years. “Basically, we are looking to take brands that we own and find existing local partners or, where we need to, local independents to launch those brands.”

Noting Creamfields’ impact in many countries around the world, Barton explains the reasoning behind introducing Electric Daisy Carnival to the UK this July. “We looked at London and realised it had never hosted one of the major dance events, so using the Olympic Park we thought it would be ideal for London,” he says. “It’s heading toward a sell-out in the first year, which is very pleasing.”

Having relocated to America’s West Coast almost a year to the day that IQ speaks to him, Barton discloses, “One of the reasons I joined Live Nation was I could see they are ultimately a music company that has created events for millions of people around the world and their next logical step would be to get into electronic dance, because our business is now talked about in the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal and is attracting some serious investment.”

He adds, “The great thing about being part of Live Nation is we can take a long-term view in certain markets and know we can take our time to establish and be profitable. But there’s a lot of competition. Creamfields is still considered the biggest electronic festival in the world, but there are other major brands out there that are now recognised even outside of the dance community – Electric Daisy Carnival, Ultra, Sensation, Stereosonic and now Tomorrowland.”

Gearing up for its ninth edition, Tomorrowland’s spectacular production makes it one of the best known EDM events in the world, with an unparalleled set design that managing director international Bruno Vanwelsenaers coyly admits takes a significant proportion of the festival’s budget.

But the award-winning gathering wasn’t always as revered.

“We started as a one-day event for 9,000 visitors, but it was very slow in the first two or three years,” he says. “By year four, it really started to take off and now we are a three-day festival with 60,000 people per day.”

Being such a popular event isn’t without its problems.

“We sell-out very quickly, but that also means we have to disappoint a lot of people, including some who have been with us from the very start,” Vanwelsenaers says.

Visitors from 140 countries will be at Tomorrowland in Belgium this year, making it one of the most international audiences in the world, while a twin event will launch across the Atlantic later this year. “TomorrowWorld in Atlanta will give a lot more people the opportunity to attend the festival,” Vanwelsenaers says. “We are bringing the DNA of Tomorrowland to TomorrowWorld by creating that fantasy world for people to get lost in. The vision is to eventually bring an event to each continent. We want to do it well, so we’re going to approach our expansion step by step. Each market will require different suppliers and we’ll need to work within different rules and regulations, so it’s important to take our time.”

Tomorrowland’s local partner in the United States, is ID&T, which is now 75% owned by SFX, but Vanwelsenaers is reluctant to divulge too much more about the relationship with Sillerman’s operation.

Supply and EDMand With EDM events requiring venues, stages, lights, sound and, very often, lasers, pyro and other effects, the success of electronic music is providing a boost for scores of suppliers.

Michiel Fransen at Dutchband is making the most of the opportunities. “We supply some of the biggest EDM promoters in the Netherlands, but those operations are also very visible abroad and therefore it helps introduce our products to a lot of people around the world.”

Inevitably, however, when the money starts to roll in, opportunists appear out of the woodwork thinking they can exploit the situation to make a quick buck. “In any explosion of popularity for a genre, there are going to be vultures swooping in,” Turner observes. “But there are only really two new significant players in EDM – Live Nation and SFX – and they both seem to be biding their time to properly examine the assets they acquire.” He adds, “Thankfully, the rogue operators are not getting much of a look in and through AFEM we’ll be hoping to keep it that way.”

A Genre for a New Generation?

Dave Corbet at promoters DF Concerts in Scotland believes the growth of EDM actually stems from the success of other genres influencing a new generation of musicians. “If you look at T in the Park, over the last 15 years we’ve evolved from the Slam Tent being where dance music was mainly about DJs, to now, when there has been a big diversification of the music and how it is presented,” he says. “This was led by the likes of The Chemical Brothers playing their own music ‘live’ and wanting to create more of a live experience

July 2013 IQ Magazine | 43

AFEM members

Electronic Dance Music

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–B en Turner, AFEM (Association for Electronic Music)

so they could have a bit more sustainability in their careers.

Now you have people like Calvin Harris on stage playing his own music. And if you take acts like Chase & Status, they are almost a rock act with a rock audience, while we’ve got a Scottish act called Churches who have evolved out of the indie route. These different genres are a lot more interwoven than they used to be and that’s allowed dance music to grow and touch people it’s never touched before.”

One popular hypothesis in EDM’s growth is that there is little or no language barrier. Agent Steve Goodgold from The Windish Agency believes there is a far simpler explanation.

“Dance music is universal because there has always been dancing,” he says. “It is the nature of humans to want to dance.”

AFEM’s Turner voices a different theory. “Electronic music is the first genre to really embrace the internet – it’s tech driven music for a tech driven generation: the kids are absorbing music through technology so it’s not a huge leap that the music they are into is electronic,” he contends.

Barton buys into that concept. “There are lots of different opinions about why there has been the re-emergence in electronic music,” he says. “There’s a new generation of artists, such as DeadMau5, Skrillex and Swedish House Mafia, who I think have been the catalyst. But connectivity through the internet using tools like Facebook, where fans can pass messages about the music and events around instantaneously, has really helped. Electronic music is the first port of call for this generation of music fans.”

Viva Las Vegas Richard McGinnis, head of talent for Mama Group, books acts for festivals such as Lovebox, Global Gathering and Wilderness, as well as in-house promotions across Mama’s venues portfolio. He believes America’s influence in EDM’s growth has been key. “I worked at Creamfields for seven years, which is just as good a measuring stick for the business as Global Gathering, and I vividly remember when David Guetta’s fee passed the £100,000 (€117,000) mark,” says McGinnis, who recalls booking Pendulum for £50 and Chase & Status for £200. “Around the same time, acts like Faithless and Basement Jaxx stopped becoming main-stage acts and DJs started to take over as the huge, production-heavy DJ performances helped them step up a level.”

McGinnis continues, “The biggest single thing that has

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By year four, it really started to take off and now we are a three-day festival with 60,000 people per day.

– Bruno Vanwelsenaers, Tomorrowland

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In any explosion of popularity for a genre, there are going to be vultures swooping in.

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– Ben Turner, AFEM (Association for Electronic Music)

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happened in dance in recent years is Las Vegas: the things that operators such as the Wynn Group are doing to secure acts is unprecedented. I remember [Calvin Harris’s manager] Mark Gillespie commenting that the money you could make in Vegas is ridiculous. Beyond that, he noted there are 50 states in America, each one of which you can play at least twice a year, which would mean 100 gigs, so the current appetite for EDM in America is just phenomenal.”

Backing up that assertion, the IMS Business Report, published in May this year, announced that EDM is now worth $4.5billion (€3.4bn) a year globally, with Vegas contributing an astonishing $600m (€450m) of that total.

Underlining EDM’s popularity stateside, the report claimed digital track sales in the USA have grown to more than three times that of other major genres.

Turner comments, “If you look at the landscape of US culture, electronic music is everywhere – in films, TV, games, and even in restaurants and hotel lobbies. That, and the likes of Lady Gaga and Calvin Harris have helped get electronic music on radio, so it is the soundtrack of America at the moment.”

But AM Only agent Ben Shprits cannot see the Vegas model being repeated on such an enormous scale elsewhere. “There are so many properties on top of each other in Vegas every weekend and everyone wants to feel like a VIP out there. So DJs are making fees that don’t necessarily correlate with the traditional business model of ticket revenues – but in Vegas such things aren’t about capacity and ticket price, because the casinos can figure in all other kinds of revenues if they attract people to their premises.”

McGinnis agrees. “Vegas is about ten times bigger than anything else,” he says. “But I’ve been in New York and Los Angeles a few times this year and there’s definitely a feeling that there’s an underground movement starting to evolve – the candy ravers have had enough and that’s where the demand for an underground culture is coming from.

If you look at how house music evolved in the UK, there was a similar explosion in the underground scene. I think we might see a repeat of that and a succession in waves of genres,” he predicts.

Creamfields © Anthony Mooney

Electronic music is probably at the strongest point it’s ever been, but that’s also the best time to be creating more structure, and infrastructure, to make sure we remain as strong as possible going forward.

Sahara Tent, Coachella © Maurice Li

Electronic Dance Music

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These different genres are a lot more interwoven than they used to be and that’s allowed dance music to grow and touch people it’s never touched before.

– Dave Corbet, DF Concerts

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EDM Specialists With the dance community enjoying such a multi-strained renaissance, specialist agents are enjoying the busiest time of their careers and, like their promoting counterparts, some of the major players are specifically targeting the electronic sector. Creative Artists Agency, for example, recently merged its Toronto office with the top specialists in electronic dance music in the Los Angeles office, and agents Jazz Spinder, Matt Kingsley and Inbal Lankry moved to LA to work with Maria May, Mac Clark, Alex Becket, Hunter Williams and Roman Trystram.

Goodgold, an agent in Windish Agency’s New York office, is enjoying electronic music’s resurgence. “I’m busier than I ever have been in my [15-year] career, however, I do not attribute this to the style of music I represent, but instead to the nature of technological and societal changes that affect us all,” he says. Among the dance music clients on Windish Agency’s roster are Steve Angello, Justice, A-Trak, Diplo, Thomas Gold, The Glitch Mob, Rusko, Skream, Benga, and Z-Trip.

“People never really took EDM seriously before, despite EDM events doing so well,” Goodgold continues. “Nondance events only recently opened their doors to more EDM, not because it wasn’t strong enough, but rather they didn’t ‘get it’. In 1999, The Chemical Bothers, Underworld, Roni Size, Moby, DJ Shadow, Amon Tobin, and many, many others all played Coachella. These are all electronic acts that outsold many other non-electronic acts. [Goldenvoice president] Paul Tollett is one of the few who not only got it, but has always been a fan of the music.”

Also based in New York, Shprits is another EDM specialist agent. He believes acts that crossover from one genre to another are a significant factor. “We have a UK act called Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs who exist in a dual world – they played the Governors Ball here in New York, but then also DJ’d at the after-party,” Shprits says. “There are lots of acts that can do that now – Disclosure are a live act but are considered a dance act, for instance.”

Shprits notes that production plays a key role in attracting new fans, but also that people’s taste in music is becoming more eclectic. “At Lollapalooza, or the Sahara Tent at Coachella, you can see that dance is on a different level production-wise and, as a result, you could see kids flocking to that tent. But Sasquatch! Festival in Washington is one of my favourites, where you can watch the likes of Beirut, then

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It’s a bit different this time and in the United States, at least, it feels like electronic music is long-term and here to stay.

– James Barton, Live Nation

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The biggest single thing that has happened in dance in recent years is Las Vegas: the things that operators such as the Wynn Group are doing to secure acts is unprecedented.

– Richard McGinnis, Mama Group

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if you feel the urge for some dance music, you can go and get your fill of that too. More music fans these days don’t want to tie themselves down to any one style, so that’s helping spread EDM to other events outside of pure dance music.”

Learning from History Despite EDM riding high around the world, Barton warns that electronic music has been here before and when the bubble burst, it took more than a decade to scale the heights again.

“Of course in music we see that things are cyclical,” Barton says. “In the 90s, electronic music dominated the charts and ticket sales, but when it got to the end of the decade, dance had become overblown and bloated. It’s a bit different this time and in the United States, at least, it feels like electronic music is long-term and here to stay.”

But he is already aware that spiralling artist fees, perhaps driven by the Vegas boom, are changing the landscape.

“The increase in fees is inevitable because it has become so popular and it’s wrong of us to overly protect what talent does,” Barton says. “It’s a non-issue because we cannot control it.”

Vanwelsenaers agrees. “We are fortunate because artists really want to play at Tomorrowland and TomorrowWorld, but it’s now very big business and the competition for the biggest DJs is getting tougher and tougher,” he reports.

“Our reputation as the number one EDM festival definitely helps. The bottom line, though, is there is a lot of negotiation between our talent bookers and the agents, artists and artist managers to get the best line ups.”

One phenomenon that might keep guarantees in check, however, is highlighted by McGinnis. “I’m finding that the cycles in dance music are getting much shorter,” he says.

“It used to almost follow university courses – you’d have three or four years before there was a turnover in dance genres, but now that seems to be closer to 18 months. So we’ve got to be a lot sharper when it comes to picking up new acts now, because while they can be white hot one moment, they can completely disappear very quickly.”

Barton agrees, but concludes the future of EDM is in the hands of those, like himself, who run the events. “We, as promoters and businessmen, can always say ‘no’. If we get into an arms race, ultimately, it will lead to us cannibalising each other.” And he adds, “We’ve done a great job making festivals as good as can be for the audience, but also for the talent as well, so perhaps acts and their representatives should support electronic events and keep fees at a certain level. But at the end of the day, it’s up to us promoters to balance the best line up that we can, with also making sure you make something at the bottom-end or your business will go to the wall.”

Brazil 48 | IQ Magazine July 2013

A Hard Nut to Crack Introduction As Brazil’s live music industry matures and shows signs of fulfilling its potential, more and more acts are including it as a destination on their tour schedule, writes Adam Woods. But as the country prepares to host the two biggest sports tournaments on the planet, that could all be about to grind to a halt, according to some.

It will be hard to avoid Brazil over the next few years, as first the 2014 FIFA World Cup and then the 2016 Olympics bring the country’s thronging cities, golden beaches and organisational capabilities under the scrutiny of the rest of the world.

Vast and beautiful, with every possible natural advantage, Brazil last year surpassed the UK to become the sixthbiggest global economy, heralding a new golden age for a nation on an apparently inevitable upward course. And then, at Christmas, the two countries swapped places again, which goes to show that, while God may be Brazilian, even a sure thing takes time.

As IQ went to press, millions of Brazilians were involved in demonstrations throughout the country amidst renewed calls for an end to government corruption and demands for better public services. “People are angry that they are paying high taxes and although there are great new stadiums being built for the World Cup, the spending on things like hospitals has disappeared,” observes Luiz Oscar Niemeyer, president of promoters Planmusic. “Right now there are new things happening every day and a local artist had to cancel a show in Belo Horizonte this week because of the protests. The whole thing is about quality of life though, so it is important for the country to come through this and provide some solutions for the people.”

For international acts and their agents, it didn’t take a pair of huge global sporting events to reveal Brazil as an attractive destination. In the 1980s and early 90s, rock and punk bands such as Queen, The Ramones and Iron Maiden were able to rely on a rapturous welcome, and more recently, giant Copacabana gigs by the Rolling Stones and Rod Stewart have enhanced a reputation for spectacle. Rock in Rio, born in 1985, lives on, albeit under new part-ownership, and is on the cusp of a global brand push, though the growth among Brazilian festivals in general is rather more tentative.

The beach spectaculars have largely been replaced now with a solid and regular flow of shows, not only in the largest city, São Paulo, and the most glamorous, Rio de Janeiro, but also up and down Brazil’s 7,500-kilometre coastline, from Porto Alegre and Curitiba in the south to Recife and Fortaleza in the northeast. “It wasn’t that many years ago that acts would play Rio and São Paulo and that was it,” says Bruce Moran, Live Nation’s

president of music for Latin America. “Now, when you have the cities to plan four, five, six shows in Brazil, you have an opportunity to do more cost-efficient concert touring.”

Brazil’s scale and 200 million-strong population certainly make the country a tantalising prospect for acts looking for untouched markets, and while a circuit exists around certain key cities, and leaving the beaten track can be expensive, there are still unexpected engagements. Brazilian promoter Planmusic’s May dates with Paul McCartney, for instance, skipped Rio and São Paulo this time and took him instead to stadiums in Fortaleza and the inland cities of Goiânia and Belo Horizonte, following shows in Recife and Florianópolis in 2012.

Likewise, the thriving domestic circuit, built largely around the sertanejo and samba scenes, knows none of the geographical limitations international touring acts come up against. Brazilian acts regularly sell-out theatres, pack warehouses, even stadiums, the length and breadth of this extraordinarily diverse country.

But the most picturesque and ambitious of developing nations is going to harbour tricky challenges where live entertainment is concerned. Despite an orgy of stadium building in preparation for 2014, arena venues are sorely lacking. Ticket prices are high, radio is allegedly rife with payola, well-off punters are finite in supply, and promoters gnash their teeth at the government-imposed student discount, which brings a none-too-thrilling element of chance to potential revenues for even the most popular of shows.

Brands occupy a particularly sacred place in the economic fortunes of Brazilian festivals and live music in general, with some taking advantage of an unusual government loophole to stage big public shows and write them off against tax.

When the World Cup and the Olympics come around, however, promoters recognise that one of their chief effects will be to suck sponsorship money away from other fields of entertainment. Some speak of organising supplementary events. Others plan to keep a low profile for the duration.

“These events will definitely dry up sponsorship income in their respective years and we will definitely not be doing any concerts during the World Cup time period,” says Phil Rodriguez of Evenpro and XYZ Live. “There will be one thing on everyone’s mind: football.”

July 2013 IQ Magazine | 49

Brazil

Local Conditions

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Bruce Moran, Live Nation Weather dictates that the windows of January to May, and September to early December tend to be the busiest in Brazil. The blockbuster effect of Rock in Rio this year will dramatically skew artist traffic to the region, according to Miami-based Latin America veteran Rodriguez, as stars build local mini-tours around their appearances. “This year, with Rock in Rio, the traffic in the region in September and October will be absolutely mental,” he says. “It puts a strain on vendors and staffing. The trick is to go up on sale and lock in your production and tour staff as soon as possible.”

As Brazil becomes an economic powerhouse, more and more corporations are establishing operations in the country and the same is true for live music suppliers. Okan Tombulca, managing director of eps holding, says, “A worldwide tour business has become more and more important for eps especially within the live entertainment sector, so [opening] subsidiaries in South America, and especially in Brazil, was a logical step for us. The World Cup 2014 and the Olympic Games in 2016 are the events with the biggest focus at the moment. But if you look deeper you will find many more opportunities in the whole country which are not so much spotlighted at the moment, but still interesting – Brazil is ‘shouting for entertainment’. Our Brazilian eps offices in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo are just the start within South America. Next steps for eps will be subsidiaries in Argentina and Peru within the next two years.”

As with any country of Brazil’s size and unequal distribution of wealth, some parts are inevitably easier to get to than others, which is one reason most international acts have been inclined to base their tours around the south-eastern cities.

“International flights all come to São Paulo and Rio,” says Time4Fun operations director Alexandre Faria. “To play in the north-east, you have to fly the cargo internally up to the north and back to the south. There is a market – we have done shows in the north-east with Seal, A-ha, Ringo Starr, Simply Red – but it’s expensive and it takes time. Rio to Recife is two days’ trucking and two days back.”

Of the two main cities, it is São Paulo that has the more vibrant music scene. In fact, crowdfunding start-up Queremos launched in Rio as a response to the fact that artists were

50 | IQ Magazine July 2013

more likely to play in the larger city, unconvinced of demand in its neighbour 400km to the north-east. “There is a bigger internal structure here,” says David McLoughlin, director of Brasil Music Exchange, the São Paulo-based music export organisation funded by APEX (the Brazilian trade department.)

“There have always been more bookers in São Paulo than Rio and a lot of indie labels, a lot of great clubs.”

Lurking beneath the vibrancy, of course, is the economic situation of a country whose growing wealth is not evenly distributed, and where rampant credit is thought by many to be building up a large bubble of non-payable debt. “Brazil is going through a hidden economic crisis that is affecting the market in general,” says Bianca Freitas of São Paolo promoter Enjoy Events. “The number of indebted people is extremely high. We have a lot of concerts with expensive ticket prices, so it’s simply impossible to attend them all.”

Amid civil unrest and growing protests, Niemeyer observes, “You can’t be overly optimistic at the moment, but I have faith that Brazil can fix its problems and get the train back on track.”

But he reveals a 10-15% increase in the dollar exchange rate within the past few weeks is not helping.

Another major barrier to profitable promoting, is the controversial student discount, which offers half-price tickets to those in full-time study, who can, of course, make up any proportion of a concert’s audience. Promoters report that halfprice sales account for up to 95% of tickets for certain shows. “It impacts the bottom line pretty dramatically,” sighs Moran. “We had dates with Madonna and Lady Gaga in Brazil and by far the lion’s share of all the tickets sold were discounted. That is a real challenge, and we will have to see if the powers that be can be prevailed upon to deal with it, because frankly, there is some abuse of the system.”

Jamiroquai in São Paolo

We had dates with Madonna and Lady Gaga in Brazil and by far the lion’s share of all the tickets sold were discounted. That is a real challenge, and we will have to see if the powers that be can be prevailed upon to deal with it, because frankly, there is some abuse of the system.

Brazil

Venues public company means you get your spanking in public. But I assure you, everyone had their share of spanking, reflection and adjustments.

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Phil Rodriguez, Evenpro If Brazil gets one thing out of its busy schedule of global sporting extravaganzas, it will be a country full of new, large-scale venues. Among the newly built or drastically remodeled stadia in the 12 host cities are those in São Paulo (the 68,000-capacity Arena de São Paulo), Recife (the 45,000-capacity Itaipava Arena Pernambuco), Belo Horizonte (the 62,547-capacity Estadio Mineirão) and Brasilia (the 70,000-capacity Estádio Nacional Mané Garrincha).

The legendary Maracanã has been renovated at a cost of US$500m (€385m), and will be operated by a consortium led by Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht, but which also includes IMX and AEG as minority stakeholders.

AEG will also manage the Pernambuco arena, which is being touted as a Brazilian entertainment landmark, with a surrounding ‘smart city’ complex due to be built after the World Cup. And its portfolio will be further expanded with another São Paulo venue approaching completion – the Nova Arena, home to Palmeiras football team, with a 60,000 entertainment configuration.

Nor does the building end there. T4F has a plan to build

a chain of venues in five key Brazilian cities, as well as new theatres in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, with the aim of receiving Broadway productions. The group already operates São Paulo’s 7,000-capacity Credicard Hall and the 8,450-capacity Citibank Hall in Rio, and last year acquired the rights to Belo Horizonte’s 5,500-capacity Chevrolet Hall in its commitment to ‘verticalisation’.

Assessments of Brazil’s general music infrastructure tend to vary, depending who’s talking. Phil Rodriguez damns the lack of mid-size arenas as “embarrassing”. Besides Rio’s HSBC Arena, which can contain 18,000 for concerts and has welcomed Demi Lovato, Miley Cyrus and Iron Maiden in recent years, Brazil has hardly any. “We just have one in Rio and one in Santiago and that’s it,” Faria says. “The ones we do have, they are very old – arenas from the 70s.”

São Paulo has recently lost its own Citibank Hall and Via Funchal theatres, but XYZ Live will open a new one, the US$18m (€14m), 7,000-capacity Claro Live! House, in July.

At a lower level, Brazil has more to offer. Clubs such as the converted cinema Cine Joia and Funhouse in São Paulo and Circo Voador in Rio draw UK and American indie acts, and numerous others host local music. Smaller acts can also benefit from a circuit of venues run by the Social Service of Commerce (SESC), a highly active, non-profit cultural organisation that draws its budget from a 1.5% payroll tax.

“It is a fantastic circuit, and most of the big cities have one,” Mcloughlin says. “SESC work with other export offices, and indie and electronic bands can do a complete tour of those centres.

T4F’s Britney Spears show

2012 was a tough year for “everyone in Brazil, and being a

July 2013 IQ Magazine | 53

Brazil

Local Talent Where to begin on the subject of musical talent in Brazil, where 70% of the market consists of local music in a wide array of national and regional genres, many of whom make a living entirely through domestic touring?

The nation does not necessarily pump out a steady stream of international stars, though veterans such as Caetano Veloso, Milton Nascimento and Gilberto Gil can still tour at a high level around the world, as can rockers Sepultura. More recent rock indie breakthroughs have included São Paulo’s CSS and Bahia’s Pitty, though it is undoubtedly the case that new artists lack local industry backing. “There are so many good things being released and bands are getting more and more professional each year,” Batistela says. “Still, they don’t have a significant music scene – not enough venues, festivals, options for them to play, so they can’t make money out of music yet.

For me, it is time for them to go abroad.”

McLoughlin enthuses about local artists such as Criolo and Tulipa, and Brasil Music Exchange recently held up the Brazilian end in a successful live music exchange between

artists in Salvador and London, with shows in both cities and at Brighton’s The Great Escape festival. Brazilian acts including Os Nelsons and rap group OQuadro made the trip. “We have a lot of interesting artists with no record company behind them,” McLoughlin says. “There are brands, like the cosmetics company Natura, who invest in music for marketing reasons.

New artists need to give away their music to build a name, and then they play live and sell a smaller number of LPs and CDs to make some money.”

There is also government funding to be found at a regional level for bands with international ambitions, though clearly it is not a perfect model. “New Brazilian bands are touring more,” says Robert Singerman, who directs the Brasil Music Exchange in North America. “The provincial governments have the budgets – Bahia, Minas Gerais, and they sponsor some events. São Paulo sometimes puts money in as well. I don’t think there’s a huge market for Portuguese-language music overseas yet, but there are certainly pockets of interest.”

Promoters Promoters here are “competing for the same

international bands, which increases their fees insanely. It seems really stupid to me, as big festivals don’t necessarily break even and the high fees are certainly the number-one cause of that.

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Fabiana Batistela, Inker Agência Cultural Time4Fun (T4F) remains the biggest player in Brazil, and in South America as a whole, operating across tours, festivals, venues and family entertainment. It signed a deal in 2008 to partner Live Nation, which remains in force, and its tours over the coming months include Black Sabbath/Megadeth, Eros Ramazzotti, Sarah Brightman and the Pet Shop Boys.

A cancelled run of rescheduled Coldplay shows in February dented T4F’s first quarter, but as Phil Rodriguez charitably points out, no promoter emerged from last year unscathed. “To be fair, 2012 was a tough year for everyone in Brazil, and being a public company means you get your spanking in public,” he says.

After a bloody 2012, this year is looking healthy, according to Faria, who reels off names. Black Sabbath is selling strongly, more than four months ahead of show time, and recent visitors include the Jonas Brothers, Regina Spektor and Alejandro Sanz.

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Planmusic’s Niemeyer remains another local heavyweight, but he admits the signs that 2012 was going to be a struggle were obvious. “It was very tough last year, but the economy gave signs that growth had slowed down and that, added to the number of events on offer to the public, made it difficult for promoters.” However, with the likes of Joss Stone, Simple Minds, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Stevie Wonder booked for later this year, Niemeyer is optimistic 2013 will be better.

In the last two years, IMX, a joint venture between Brazilian mining and oil billionaire Eike Batista’s EBX Group and American sports and media giant IMG Worldwide, has made a very public play for the top spot in the Brazilian live entertainment business, snapping up sports rights and other choice items. Among those is a 50% share in Rock in Rio and a further joint venture with Cirque du Soleil to develop “special events and creative content”, though T4F maintains a relationship across South America, and is promoting Cirque’s Corteo show in Brazil.

Evenpro founded XYZ Live as a branded entertainment operation in 2011, backed by ABC Group, the largest marketing services group in Brazil. Forthcoming Brazilian shows include Diana Ross, Bon Jovi, John Mayer and Papa Roach. A recent addition to the team is José Muniz, formerly T4F’s senior vice-president of international talent. “José’s addition to the company has been very helpful,” Rodriguez says. “At the end of the day, companies are simply the sum of their human capital and we’re trying to build the best team in the region. Very few have the mileage and regionwide experience José has.”

Brazil

Festivals We just have one [arena] in Rio and one in Santiago and that’s it. The ones we do have, they are very old – arenas from the 70s.

“

”

Alexandre Faria, T4F Rock in Rio remains by far Brazil’s most renowned festival brand. Back in its home of Rio for the fifth time this September, the festival’s headliners will include Beyoncé, Justin Timberlake, Bruce Springsteen and Bon Jovi. The festival is unusual for its pulling power and the strength of its brand, but also for founder Roberto Medina’s philosophical and social aims. Its challenge will be to maintain those values in the face of recent developments. Lately, Rock in Rio has made a home from home every other year in Madrid and Lisbon, but IMX Live’s acquisition of a 50% stake in the festival last August means the brand should soon have a great deal more international expansion to report.

“The goal is to make Rock in Rio a global music brand,” says IMX CEO Alan Adler. “Besides expanding the festival to other Latin American countries, the US and Europe, there are plans to develop new branded products. This is one of the largest operations ever to take place in the Brazilian entertainment industry.” IMX expects to make a worldwide investment of US$350million (€270m) in Rock in Rio over the coming years, with brand extensions also including a musical, which is already running in Brazil, with a European season to follow.

Roberta Medina, vice president of Rock in Rio and daughter of the event’s founder, Roberto Medina, explains the ambitious plan to elevate the brand’s image internationally.

“Our main goal is to make Rock in Rio the biggest brand in music, not just in the festival business,” she tells IQ. “We want Rock in Rio to be in the daily life of consumers and thanks to our partnership with IMX, we’re already starting to do this through projects like the Rock in Rio musical.” Medina says one objective involves allowing different promoters around the world to use the Rock in Rio name and she reveals that talks with potential partners in Berlin, Istanbul and Peru are already under way.

Highlighting the financial potential that the deal with IMX provides, Medina says among the plans for the festival, after its return to Rio de Janeiro this year, are a visit to Lisbon next year and a special celebration to mark the event’s 30th anniversary in 2015 with simultaneous festivals in Rio and New York, while in the same year the brand will launch operations in Las Vegas.

T4F and Live Nation, meanwhile, have signed a deal with the Planeta Terra Festival and installed Blur as headliners for its seventh edition in November, with further acts to be announced. The partners are also working on a series of festivals for December, in the midst of the Brazilian summer, to be announced shortly.

Other festivals on the calendar in São Paulo include XYZ Live’s Monsters of Rock in October, while Lollapolooza went through in March, bringing with it The Killers, Deadmau5 and Pearl Jam. The second year of Sónar São Paulo, which would have brought Pet Shop Boys, The Roots and Jamie Lidell to the city’s Anhembi Parque, was cancelled that month, citing “the latest difficulties and instabilities in the Brazilian entertainment market”.

Most, though clearly not all festivals, focus on São Paulo.

“There are good independent festivals everywhere here, of course, like Dosol Festival in Natal and Se Rasgun Festival in Belém,” says Fabiana Batistela, founder and artist director of promoter and communications agency Inker Agência Cultural. “But São Paulo is still the city where things really can happen and where everyone wants to be.”

There is also a significant disconnection, according to the promoters of smaller festivals, between the fees they can pay and those the big-name festivals offer, with the result that tickets for the blockbusters are often very high. “Promoters

No AR Coquetel Molotov festival

is to make “RockOurin Riomainthegoal biggest brand in music, not just in the festival business. We want Rock in Rio to be in the daily life of consumers.

”

Roberta Medina, Rock in Rio

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Brazil

Festivals continued

Besides expanding the festival to other Latin American countries, the US and Europe, there are plans to develop new branded products. This is one of the largest operations ever to take place in the Brazilian entertainment industry.

Alan Adler, IMX

”

happened and we have been doing it for the last ten years.”

Enjoy Experiences, which has put on The Vaccines and Paul Banks at São Paulo’s Grand Metropole under its Club NME brand, has plans for an entire festival of English music in 2014. “We are working closely with a brand on the marketing strategy as they are planning to launch their business in Brazil during the same period,” says Freitas.

“We can’t announce the brand yet, but the concept is to bring the experience of the English and European festivals to Brazil, focusing mainly on the high-quality service and the experience.”

The World Stage at Rock In Rio, Brazil in 2011

here are competing for the same international bands, which increases their fees insanely,” says Batistela. “It seems really stupid to me, as big festivals don’t necessarily break even and the high fees are certainly the number-one cause of that.

There won’t be a healthy and established market if we keep on playing the rich guys.”

It is widely acknowledged that demand for bands, especially among festivals, means international acts that play their cards right can receive lavish fees in Brazil. “I have lost bands like Animal Collective to Terra, because they offered ten times more,” says Ana Garcia, producer of the youth-centric No AR Coquetel Molotov festival in Recife. “But now the agents are starting to notice that it is not so good here anymore and they are bringing down the prices.” Coquetel Molotov has brought American bands such as Dinosaur Jr, Tortoise and Beirut to Recife to play among local acts, and staged spin-off shows in cities such as Salvador and São Paulo, but Garcia says small festivals are a labour of love. “It is very hard,” she confirms.

“When we started in 2004, it was for very personal reasons – there weren’t any festivals happening in my city with bands that we wanted to see live. So, we didn’t have any money and we started with Teenage Fanclub,” she laughs. “But it

goal is to make Rock “in RioThea global music brand.

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Your Shout

Edwin Shirley 1948-2013 Your tributes to trucking pioneer Edwin Shirley who died in April I’ve known Edwin since the late 1960s, when I was production manager for the National Youth Theatre (NYT) and he was a member. Edwin was working for me at ESP and during a 73 Stones tour, he and Roy Lamb decided that they could do a better job on trucking so they founded the company and called it EST because it came out of ESP where they worked. Roy chose the colours of the truck livery and it became a huge brand.

We used EST for all our trucking, and they recommended ESP for lighting.

Edwin stayed a loyal member of the NYT and used to give jobs to students who needed the money – famously, he gave a nightwatchman job at the EST yard to a young Daniel Craig. He was a huge supporter of the NYT throughout his life and we’ve now set-up an Edwin Shirley bursary for aspiring actors.

Edwin was a very colourful person, a great entrepreneur and never said a bad word against anybody. He was the most wonderful person.

Brian Croft, ESP Lighting Edwin made a lot of things possible for a lot of people. He parked himself on that fucking dump, Three Mills, and turned it into a proper film studio. I had so much fun with Edwin it was untrue. A few years ago, a film called the Periwig Maker was made at Three Mills – I supplied the gear and Edwin provided the studio. It was nominated for an Oscar. That would not have happened without Edwin. If he was involved, everything got done – you could just rely on him. He was extraordinary.

Roger Law, Spitting Image creator William Penn, the English poet, once said: “ I expect to pass through life but once.

If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again.”

To me this summed up the man that I knew and loved for over 40 years.

RIP Edwin.

Alan Dunn, Rolling Stones tour manager (1967-2012)

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© Nobby Clark

Well, what can I say about Edwin – a true pioneer in the live music industry.

The day that I heard about the passing of Edwin was one of the saddest in my life! I knew Edwin personally, since at least 1977, and I always considered him to be a great person and a personal friend. We met from time to time, often at the ILMC and I always did my very best to put business his way.

One short story: In 1978, I was head of logistics for a British Museum archaeological dig in Cliffe, Kent, and needed to rent a good-sized truck in order to transport a load of tools and materials from another site in Essex. I called Edwin and asked him if he would be able to rent me a suitable truck for the aforementioned job. He said, “Of course, Gerry, and do not even think of offering me any money’’. That is it.

A great guy and a true gentleman; and one who I will never forget and will miss very, very much.

Gerry Stevens, Talent Care International

I first met Edwin in 1983, when he trucked production for Santana through the Iron Curtain to Budapest. He was a bit worried about the border crossing, as they had never worked before in this unknown part of the world. So I went to Vienna to their previous show, sent a guy to the border crossing and gave two cartons of Marlboro cigarettes for each truck driver, telling them this is for the customs men, that’s all they need for a quick border crossing…

It all went smoothly, and I invited Edwin to the Young Communists’ Artist Club in Budapest after the show. One of the young communists invited us for a bottle of Hungarian BB Champagne that Edwin really liked because it is very, very dry. He even bought a few bottles and took them away with him in catering cases.

Every time after that, when his trucks came, I sent him a box of BB. Then one day in 1994, Edwin sent me a fax asking if I could get a full truckload of BB because he was involved in a hotel business at the Channel Tunnel and he thought it could be great for the opening festivities. Of course, we arranged it as a barter deal and the money went towards the fee of a U2 Zoo TV stadium concert in Budapest.

He was a great guy with a very interesting, bittersweet sense of humour – a real pioneer of our business.

RIP Edwin.

Laszlo Hegedus, Multimedia Organisation Edwin Shirley trucks carried the logo EST, which is the international sign for Estonia. The first time we had a major outdoor concert was in 1996 with Bryan Adams 18 til I Die tour, and as there were 20 trucks bearing the EST logo on pink wagons – for the young republic of Estonia it was like advertising, and we were very proud of it.

When I first met Edwin at ILMC, I was a bit surprised at how humble this BIG man in our business was.

RIP Edwin, and my condolences to your family, Juri Makarov, Makarov Muusik

Your Shout: Edwin Shirley Tribute

Edwin was a brave man. He pushed to the limits. I was so delighted to see him at ILMC this year, but saddened that he did not look well, although in spirit he was his same cheerful, cheeky self and full of ideas for the future. I can’t believe he has passed away in such a short time, and so wish I could have done more to support him. It’s a grim reminder to keep in touch and have a bit of fun still with those we have worked and played with for several decades.

Rest in peace Edwin. You touched many lives and made a big contribution to the way our industry is now. May your legacy live on and may you be remembered for your tremendous presence and passion.

Penny Mellor, consultant – health, safety and welfare

I first met Edwin in the very late 60s/ early 70s when I was a member of the National Youth Theatre (NYT). Edwin had small parts in a few plays, as we all did at the start, but he always seemed more interested in the technical side – lights, sets etc. I remember him having boundless enthusiasm, a mad sense of humour and a way of bringing what seemed at first to be a mad idea, to fruition. I also remember a rumour that on an NYT trip to Europe he fell off a cross-channel ferry into the sea whilst under the influence. This was never proven, but Ed was certainly the kind of character whose legend was large enough to carry such a story and have it believed. It was no surprise to me that he became ‘The’ Edwin Shirley.

Steve Andrews, School Touring

He was a dear friend. We talked a lot about French wine versus German wine.

Dennis Armstead, Yellow Go-Rilla Productions

Berryhurst, along with Edwin Shirley Trucking, were established around the same time and we worked on so many tours together. Edwin was a great pioneer and a great guy – always approachable and he knew how to get from A to B. I last saw Edwin at dinner during ILMC and it was obvious he still had the hunger for the business, as he talked about wanting to get back into it and resurrecting some of the old faces. It’s such a sad loss to the industry and very upsetting. There just aren’t as many characters around any more. All the new

companies learned their business from people like Edwin. He will be missed.

Sacha Levy, Crawfords A long, long, long time ago, I went through the ranks of the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain, alongside Edwin and Roy Lamb – some five years’ of rockin’ & rollin’ and trying to become famous actors. There were many nights of partying but there is one pivotal occasion I recall: Sitting drinking one night with Edwin (we must have been all of 19) he was trying to convince me to give up on my acting career and join him in his ‘man and van’ venture which he was going to run out of his parents’ farm. I laughingly said I had had enough of trawling round the UK in a transit van and I would be a star actor soon anyway. Edwin threw his head back and laughed that incredible and totally unique laugh of his, got his bread-van and the rest is rock & roll history. I bumped into Edwin several times over the years – he was still asking when I was gonna become this famous actor. I still hear his laugh.... and the rock & roll world is a sadder place without him.

Rusty Thorpe, Bluesfest I feel very lucky and privileged to have had the opportunity of meeting Edwin on many occasions at ILMC during my time with Pollstar, and he was always excellent company. What struck me the most was his humility and downto-earth nature, given his history and achievements in the business, he had time for everyone and he knew how to enjoy himself. I was really pleased to see him at the ILMC this year and had a long chat with him, not expecting him to remember me as it had been a while – I was wrong. He told me quite candidly about the treatment he had been receiving and how it was affecting him. It was tough to hear but despite his frailer frame, he still had that glint in his eye.

He was a true legend and a lovely man, and someone I will always remember.

God bless you, Edwin!

Charlie Presburg, ents24.com

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