JIM KING
“ There are never any half measures with Jim, his mindset is very much; go big or go home. He is always very focused on making sure everything is the best it possibly can be.”
BST With the relationship with Barton remaining very much intact, Grindle and King continued to produce Creamfields up until it was acquired by Live Nation. The festival is now overseen by James’ brother Scott.
“ Loud Sound was originally set up for me to realise my ambition, which was to work with a range of clients on great projects that I really believed in,” says King.
DJ dreams
Numerous events, such as LED Festival and Field Day in London’ s Victoria Park, followed. Among the many pivotal moments was a meeting with music journalist and artist manager Ben Turner. At the time, Turner was managing DJ Rob da Bank, aka Robert Gorham, who on the back of his success with the Sunday Best label and club night wanted to launch a festival.
“ I ' d been asked to produce other people ' s festivals before then, but never really connected with what they wanted to do,” says King.“ I met Ben and Rob in the pub opposite my flat. Rob sat down
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BST Hyde Park
and pulled all these pieces of paper out of his bag and pockets and started rolling them out. He had drawn up his brilliant plans for Bestival on these pieces of paper.
“ Rob, and [ his wife ] Josie, had loads of great ideas but they didn ' t have the practical experience to turn them into an event format. They were unbelievably creative. I learned so much from finding ways to realise their creativity. For the first four years, Bestival was among the most creative and enjoyable events I ' ve worked on.”
With Bestival launched successfully in 2004 on the Isle of Wight, two years later King would be working at the other end of the UK, in Scotland, bringing another DJ’ s festival dreams to life. King’ s involvement in RockNess, on the banks of Lock Ness, stemmed from a call from his former Creamfields compatriot David Levy, during which the agent asked him to meet his client Norman Cook, aka Fatboy Slim.
RockNess was launched in June 2006, with the first edition boasting a line up including Stanton Warriors, Scratch Perverts, Carl Cox and, of course, Fatboy Slim. The next edition saw the capacity expanded to 35,000, with a lineup featuring The Chemical Brothers and Daft Punk.
“ RockNess was a crazy idea we had for Norman because we were, and still are, always looking for the‘ gag’ when it comes to keeping things fresh for Norman,” says Levy.“ It quickly grew into an annual event, and we needed to bring Jim in to help. Back then it was a no-brainer to want him on board; he was one of the only outdoors operators who truly understood electronic music, and, sadly, he still is.”
In 2008 King sold his stake in the event to AEG, and started working for them as a consultant.
In time King left the team at Loud Sound to independently drive the business forward.“ I realised that others in the company were the future of that business – sometimes you have got to let go to grow,” he explains.“ The Loud Sound you see now is very much driven by its co-CEOs,” he says.
Parklife
King’ s history of promoting shows in Hyde Park goes back well beyond the launch of BST in 2013. Working with Clear Channel, before it became Live Nation, King helped promote the first Wireless Festival in 2005 at the West London park. Working alongside Stuart Galbraith, who went on to launch Kilimanjaro Live, King co-promoted a Wireless show day featuring a lineup including Basement Jaxx and LCD Soundsystem.
King continued to work on Wireless at Hyde Park until 2007, but it wasn’ t until 2012 that he had the chance to return there with a major event of his own.
“ The reason I was so passionate about it was that I ' d been to some amazing concerts in Hyde Park,” says King.“ I had to bide my time until an opportunity arose, which wasn’ t until 2012. We put together a very compelling proposal that reimagined what we felt events in Hyde Park should be.”
“ Jim is someone I love and respect because whilst he might be a world class festival / event promoter, I know in his heart he’ s an old school raver done good like the rest of us; and that makes me happy.”
WME agent David Levy accessaa. co. uk 27