APRIL | COVER FEATURE
speaking at conferences urging that
we invest more in music and nurture
new acts.
We’re in the pop phase now, and
there’s nothing wrong with that,
but it’s not lasting. We need some
kindness from angels that don’t
expect too much too early, so that the
next generation has great songs and
presents themselves brilliantly.
With 90% of material today, you
won’t remember the name of the
act or the tune. It rarely has a longer
shelf life than two years, with obvious
exceptions. However, 2017-2018 were
record years for live, contrary to what
people expected. People want to go
out more, so we need to sustain and
establish talent. Festivals currently
can’t find headliners, and it’s a
nightmare. Those that are around
are pillaging and it doesn’t allow
businesses to take risks.
What can promoters and the music
industry in general do to improve
things?
As a promoter you have to go with
what your head tells you. There are
no rules, but if you want to be with
the top acts it’s often about ‘how little
do you want to earn?’, and its counter
productive. There’s bands that drop
off quickly, which is devastating when
we’re planning really far ahead. In 18
months all sorts can happen, they can
go bust, split up, get sick, fall out of
fashion, so we have to hope they sell
out fast enough to cover that risk.
As a producer you’re always at risk.
A big problem today is the business
push to do one extra show. To do
three arena shows instead of one.
Promoters are scared they’ll lose an
act so they go along with it.
I grew up thinking demand should
always strip supply, but you’d then
get pushed. It’s hard to put your foot
down and say: “I don’t think that will
work”. The last thing an artist wants
is a show that’s not sold out. But they
don’t understand what’s behind it, the
bidding wars are insane. We should
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be a demand business. That doesn’t
mean doing one Hammersmith
Apollo show when you could be doing
ten O2s, but it is a balance.
Promoters gave up ownership of
ticket distribution, the ticket brokers
are now in control and they have no
skin in the game. It doesn’t matter
to them if act A or B sells. When one
act is not selling, they put efforts into
ones that are.
The distribution system is also
still really bad. People get shifted to
websites that cost ten times more. We
need to get to a fair system even if it
can’t fill demand, and we should push
government to not be a commodity to
be bought and sold.
Let’s not over-exploit artists.
They pushed Rhianna into doing
big stadium shows, but they were a
disaster. If they’d held back, the next
year she no doubt could have done
“I believe my role in life is to
entertain people, so I’m as
happy promoting Smash Hits
as I am Pavarotti.”
two such shows.
Every time Queen came to London
they played Wembley Arena, then
Wembley Stadium, but people were
getting bored of seeing the same
show in the same venue. So I said: “We
need to do something else, let’s do a
stripped back tour in smaller venues”.
So they went off in a huddle and
came back and said: “Let’s do it”.
We played 12 ballrooms in London,
including The Lyceum, and five shows
at Hammersmith. All we had was six
spotlights and some equipment. It
was stripped back and the band had
an absolute blast.
The next time we came back, we
played Knebworth twice and sold it
out. Sadly that was near to the end for
Freddie.
Customers need a bit of variety and
artists need to think through their
careers.
The fan wants to see you in your
best light. With all the technology at
festivals, the sound is still lacking.
In general, is the industry a better
managed, more professional scene
nowadays? Fyre Festival aside, of
course.
Fyre Festival was a con from to
start with, and proves my point about
instant success and celebrity factor. It
had nothing to do with music. When
I heard about it, I had a weird feeling,
and what happened didn’t surprise
me. What did surprise me was how
people in the industry stuck by it,
and agreed to take the money – not
good for the business. As an exercise
it’s a stroke of genius, but everyone
suffered really badly.
But the industry is much more
professional in general. Weeley
Festival (1971) was a classic example
of how not to do a festival – it was
the most bizarre event, held on the
East Coast, but people didn’t know
back then. The recent Fortnite event
was another cheap rip off, like the
cheap winter shows which disappoint
children, and end up with them
being stuck in a field. Unfortunately,
the public are gullible, but overall
most event organisers are run very
efficiently and well.
What kinds of technology and
IT innovations would benefit the
industry?
There’s been a huge number of
experiments on data management,
on watching people flows, with RFID
systems to manage bars, etc, but it’s
still a big pain to understand how
patterns of people work.
Regarding ticketing: there is no
reason why a ticket can’t simply be
just on your phone. Sim cards are
secure and individual.
The industry has to decide how
honest it wants to be - the public are
our customers and if we keep taking
the piss and overcharging them,
they’ll kick back.