“ WE WON THE RESIDENTS AROUND BY DOING WHAT WE SAID WE WOULD DO .”
LS EVENTS
LS Events co-CEOs Dave Grindle ( left ) and Steve Reynolds ( right ) backstage at BST .
Cream , where King and LS Events co- CEO Dave Grindle first met . Grindle had tour managed bands before he became an agent and took over the running of Cream ’ s DJ agency . He went on to become Cream ’ s general manager , and it wasn ’ t long before he got his first taste of running major events , with the introduction of the Creamfields festival in 1998 .
“ The launch of Creamfields introduced me to the idea of doing large scale events , and I was hooked ,” he says . “ I wanted to do more of them , so I decided to leave Cream in 2004 . Unbeknown to me , Jim had planned to leave Cream around the same time .
“ I was doing freelance work on various festivals , including Download for [ then Live Nation UK chief operating officer ] John Probyn . Then I got a phone call from Jim and he said , ‘ I ' ve left Cream , and I ' m starting up by myself , do you want to come in and work alongside me ?’ Jim had retained his relationship with [ Cream co-founder ] James Barton , and so we carried on producing Creamfields .”
“ WE WON THE RESIDENTS AROUND BY DOING WHAT WE SAID WE WOULD DO .”
Since the launch of Loud Sound in 2004 , Grindle has worked as operations director for many high-profile UK events including Bestival , Camp Bestival , Common People , Rockness and CBBC Summer Social . More recently he has been venue director at BST Hyde Park . Early members of the Loud Sound team also included Jo Mackay and Ian Greenway , who went on to form LarMac Live . Dan Craig was Loud Sound ’ s head of operations and BST Hyde Park operations director for many years before leaving to take on the role of director of operations at Superstruct Entertainment .
“ Steve [ Reynolds ] joined Loud Sound in 2016 , when we were still only a handful of people ,” says Grindle . “ It really continued on that basis for the next few years until we reached the Covid full stop – at which
St Patrick ’ s Day Festival
point that really changed things for the company .”
Since starting at what was then Loud Sound , Reynolds has taken on many projects for the company , including helping to launch All Points East as operations director in 2018 and taking on the same role at BST Hyde Park , which LS Events has produced on behalf of promoter AEG Presents since 2013 . In February 2023 , Reynolds was appointed co-CEO alongside Grindle .
Reynolds had joined Showsec in 2003 , straight out of Sheffield Hallam University where he had worked at the Student Union . He went on to become venue manager before moving to London as area manager in 2004 to run Earls Court Arena and work on major London events such as the Hyde Park Concerts , Tour de France and the Queen ’ s Diamond Jubilee . It was at Showsec where Reynolds , while working as head of security for Bestival , first met Grindle and King .
During a subsequent seven-month stint as operations manager at ACC Liverpool , Reynolds went for what proved to be a pivotal post-work pint with Grindle , who informed him there was a job going at Loud Sound .
“ My wife was heavily pregnant and about to give birth to our second child . So , when I went home and said , ‘ I think I might leave my secure job and local authority pension and to go and work for some guys who used to run Cream nightclub ’, thankfully she was so dazed she just murmured ‘ ok , sure , do what you want ,” laughs Reynolds .
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