AUD241 by Audience Media Ltd

ISSUE 241 FEBRUARY 2020

UK £6.25 EUROPE €9.40 ROW $12.25

The party isn’t over Billie Eilish prepares for a world tour

Coronavirus forces mass cancellations Viagogo completes StubHub acquisition TEG raises millions for bushﬁre relief

The potential margins for promoters have shrunk and risks have increased on higher breakevens Lushington Entertainments’ Michael Roche in Singapore

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Contents

Essential reading for live music industry professionals across more than 80 countries worldwide

6-19 World News

Industry news from around the globe

Perspective

20-27 Feature: The great debates

Comment fro leading ﬁgures attending the International Live Music Conference in London, and what they would like discussed.

30-35 Market Focus: South-East Asia Review of a touring market for international artistes

38-45 Feature: Breaking out from Moscow Marking Russian promoter Ed Ratnikov’s ﬁrst 25 years in a challenging market.

After 15 years on the road Five Finger Death Punch crash their way into arenas across Europe.

56 City Focus: Barcelona, Spain 60 Industry Events 62-65 Production News

Obviously these events are truly awful for the people directly involved and cause great upheaval for lots of others, along with governments and all kinds of industries. Among them is ours, and Coronavirus is creating havoc for touring artistes in the SE Asia region When these incidents happen and events and tours are cancelled, everyone involved turns to their insurance companies, many of whom will have some work to do in deciding what’s covered and which decisions are not. Some people will undoubtedly lose a great deal of money.

Developments in live show equipment and infrastructure

66-73 Tour Plans

Artistes, tour periods, agents

74 Festival News

International festival activity

74 A Right WhatsUp With WhatsApp

The trials and tribulations of tour manager Terry Tucker and his crew

The only up side is, that once these great convulsions have passed, our industry is quick to adapt to circumstances and return to business as usual, albeit with a somewhat refocused perspective on life.

Advertising: Gareth Ospina, Tom Brint T: +44 (0)20 7486 7007 gareth@audience.uk.com tomb@audience.uk.com Subscriptions: Victoria Brush T: +44 (0)20 7486 7007 E: info@audience.uk.com Rates: UK: £75 for 12 issues, Rest of the World: £105 for 12 issues Subscribe online at www.audience.uk.com Cover photograph: © REX/Shutterstock Design: Charles McQuaid Print: Stephens & George Ltd www.stephensandgeorge.co.uk

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So when the real world unexpectedly throws a curve-ball, it is not surprising that it catches some people off guard and can cause some initial psychological imbalance. As if the bush fires in Australia weren’t bad enough, with multiple events cancelled, we now have the Coronavirus to contend with, although fortunately it doesn’t seem to have spread too far out of China.

48-55 Feature: Five ﬁnger victory sign

Publisher & Managing Editor: Stephen Parker News Editorial: Lisa Henderson Editorial Contributors: Europe Christopher Barrett, Johnny Black, Mike Gartside USA/Canada Jane Cohen, Bob Grossweiner Sales Director: Gareth Ospina Sales Executives: Tom Brint Administrative Manager: Tom Philips Credit Control: Murali Sri Balaskanda Editorial: Lisa Henderson T: +44 (0)20 7486 7007 E: lisa@audience.uk.com

It is so easy to get wrapped-up in the business of promoting shows, building sets, selling tickets, keeping audiences happy and enjoying a favourite artiste sometimes.

ISSUE 241: February 2020 AUDIENCE is published monthly from the UK by: Audience Media Ltd, 26 Dorset Street, London W1U 8AP, United Kingdom T: +44 (0)20 7486 7007 F: +44 (0)20 7486 2002 info@audience.uk.com www.audience.uk.com The opinion expressed by contributors to this publication are not always a reflection of the opinions or the policy of the publishers. Information on services or products contained within editorial sections does not imply recommendation by AUDIENCE. No responsibility can be accepted for errors or omissions. No part of this publication can be reproduced in any form without the written authority of Audience Media Ltd.

AUDIENCE • Issue 241 • February 2020

6 • World News

Coronavirus forces multiple cancellations SOUTH-EAST ASIA

UMEROUS CONCERTS have been cancelled due to an outbreak of Coronavirus, which at the time of going to print, is reported to have claimed over 1,868 lives in China and spread to more than 20 countries. Cases have also been confirmed in the Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea, US, UK and Vietnam. Among the Asian acts to have cancelled or postponed shows is South Korean group Seventeen. The band was forced to pull-out their Ode To You world tour through February and March, and was due to visit Malaysia, Taiwan, Spain, France the UK and Germany. The group’s agency Pledis Entertainment says, “As the health and safety of the artiste, audience and staff is our top priority, we made this decision to prevent any potential harm, thereby, we regret to

announce that the world tour dates for February and March will be cancelled.” In China, Japanese group Suchmos were forced to cancel performances at Modern Sky Lab (cap. 1,200) in Shanghai, Tango Live 3F (1,500) in Beijing and B10 Live in Shenzhen, taking place in February. Promoter Modern Sky released a statement saying, “With a responsibility for the health and safety of viewers and artistes, we finally decided to cancel … we are already in consultations to reschedule.” Customers have been automatically refunded through the ticket platforms they used. Live Nation Entertainmentowned promoter One Production has cancelled multiple shows in Singapore during February, including K-pop singer Taeyeon and South Korean boy group GOT7, both at Singapore Indoor Stadium (12,000), and NCT Dream and Win-

ner Cross Tour, both at The Star Theatre (5,000). Refunds have been issued. Promoters in other parts of South-East Asia have not experienced as many cancellations, but have voiced their concerns about the impact on the Asian market as a whole, and its economies.

Reggio Emilia to open ‘world’s largest outdoor event space’ ITALY

AILED AS the world’s biggest arena for outdoor live events, the 100,000-capacity RCF Arena Campovolo will open in the city of Reggio Emilia in September. Under construction since 2018, the venue is located in an urban park in a non-operational area of Reggio Emilia Airport.

RCF Arena Campovolo

AUDIENCE • Issue 241 • February 2020

The arena will celebrate its inauguration with a sold-out Luciano Ligabue concert on 12 September, with Ligabue also celebrating 30 years in the industry. “Of the many projects being discussed five years ago, this was unanimously considered the most difficult one to achieve, almost a dream,” says Reggio Emilia mayor Luca Vecchi.

“Now, we find ourselves instead celebrating an important milestone. This infrastructure will redefine the strategic positioning of the city in the cultural and musical field at Italian and European level, and it is perhaps one of the actions that will most impact on the economic value of the city. “With the arena, Reggio has the credentials to apply to become one of the European capitals of music.” The arena will be operated by SPV C.Volo, formed by a consortium of companies who each deal in different areas of venue operation, while pan Europe ticketing and promoting giant CTS Eventim subsidiary Friends & Partners will manage large-scale events. The naming right partner and professional audio equipment manufacturer RCF is also providing the venue’s sound system.

In Thailand, Live Nation BEC-Tero CEO Neil Thompson says, “Thailand has been hit economically, even though the feared outbreak has not arrived here. Local concerts and festivals are continuing and people are going out, but taking the suggested precautions on board. “Maya Music Festival went ahead as planned with over 10,000 in attendance and featuring Kodaline, Lany, Suede, Alan Walker, Illenium and Re3Hab. We are hopeful that the threat will not worsen and that life will return to normal in the coming weeks.” “The Coronavirus situation is putting a large dent into the concert scene all over Asia at the moment, which is hurting the industry at this point in time, but we certainly hope that it gets resolved soon,” says Tommy Jinho Yoon, CEO of South Korea-based International Creative Agency. Among western artistes to take action is Stormzy, who has postponed the Asian leg of his tour. He had been due to play Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia in March, as well as Japan, South Korea and Indonesia in March-April. The Pixies have also cancelled three shows in China in February and March, but are still touring Japan, while X Ambassadors have cancelled two February dates of their The Orion Tour in Chengdu and Shanghai, China Kenny G, 98 Degrees and Spandau Ballet singer Tony Hadley have also postponed upcoming dates in Singapore. www.audience.uk.com

World News • 7

Bushfires concert raises $6.3 million AUSTRALIA

ICKETING COMPANY TEG and promoter subsidiary TEG Dainty have so far raised AS$9.5 million (US$6.3m) from a concert for bushfire relief. The 10-hour, soldout concert took place at Sydney’s 70,000-capacity ANZ Stadium on 16 February and saw Geoff Jones performances from artistes including Queen + Adam Lambert, k.d. Lang and Alice Cooper. The show, which was hosted by actor, writer and comedian Celeste Barber, was shown live on Australian TV channels and is set to be broadcast in the US Paul Dainty and the UK, which is expected to draw more donations.

“What a day and what a night it has been,” says TEG CEO Geoff Jones. “Our huge thanks are owed to the 23 artistes and to the many companies and people who donated their time and services to make Fire Fight Australia happen. “It has been an enormous effort from the music industry to pull this concert together in five weeks and we are just so proud of what has been achieved through our collective effort. “Thank you too to the fans, whose generosity in buying tickets, merchandise, food and drink and donating through firefightaustralia.com has helped raise $9.5 million so far to support Australia’s short, me-

dium and long-term recovery from the bushfires.” TEG Dainty president and CEO Paul Dainty says, “From the first conversation with Queen’s manager Jim Beach, the band’s immediate response to support this amazing event was what set everything in

motion.” Among the charities that will receive donations from the event are Red Cross Disaster Relief and Recovery, RSCPA Bushfire Appeal, The BizRebuild program and the Foundation for Rural & Regional Renewal’s Fire Fight Fund.

Klaus-Peter Schulenberg

Australian Bushfires

Everything she wanted WORLD

ILLIE EILISH has achieved more by the age of 18 than some artistes do in a lifetime. Last year, the Los Angles-born singer-songwriter, along with her brother and producer Finneas O’Connell, one the title of best performing album of 2019 in the US for When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?. The record produced six Billboard Hot 100 Top 40 singles – When the Party’s Over, Bury a Friend, Wish You Were Gay, Xanny, Everything I Wanted, and Bad Guy, the last of which became her first No 1 single in the US. Eilish also won five Grammys at this year’s awards ceremony and becoming the youngest person, and first woman to win the four main categories. She hits the road in March, touring across the US, South America, Europe and the UK, with venues including New York’s Madison Square Garden (20,780), four nights at London’s The O2 (21,000), and Mexico City’s Palacio de los Deportes (26,000).

www.audience.uk.com

Cover Artiste “Billie is an extraordinary live performer,” says her international agent Mike Malak at Paradigm Talent Agency (PTA) in the UK. “Her confidence and commitment to her creative vision takes the audience on a journey of emotion and authenticity. “She is unstoppable and her need to deliver will always prevail.” Her manager is Brandon Goodman at Best Friends, based in the US, while her agents for North Amrica are Tom Windish and Sara Bollwinkel at PTA in Beverley Hills.

Touring 2020 Booking 2021/22 steve@stevesteinmanproductions.com www.stevesteinmanproductions.com AUDIENCE • Issue 241 • February 2020

8 • World News

Viagogo-StubHub acquisition complete but merger on hold WORLD

ONTROVERSIAL RESALE website Viagogo has completed its acquisition of StubHub from eBay, but is still forbidden from merging the two companies by authorities in the UK. Protests to the country’s competition watchdog the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) after the $4.05 billion takeover was announced in December, prompted it to investigate the impact of the deal, and invited input from interested parties. The CMA has since served an Initial Enforcement Order (IEC) ordering the two companies to halt their merger while it continues its preliminary inquiry.

AUDIENCE • Issue 241 • February 2020

The IEC was served on “reasonable grounds for suspecting that it is or may be the case that arrangements are in progress or in contemplation which, if carried into effect, will result in [the two firms] ceasing to be distinct.” The order bans the companies from taking any actions which may lead to the integration of their businesses. It also requires the CEO of each firm to provide the CMA with statements confirming compliance every two weeks. “We are pleased to confirm the closure of our purchase of StubHub, an important milestone in our journey to deliver a more competitive customer offering,” says Viagogo MD Cris Miller, based at the Switzer-

land-registered company’s London mean it is breaking consumer law. office. As part of regulatory monitoring, The two businesses, Viagogo the watchdog found that StubHub and StubHub, will remain separate UK is not complying with commitglobally in line with the recent ments it made following a conorder from the CMA until their ex- sumer law investigation in 2018. amination into the deal is The CMA has identicomplete.” fied new issues as well, A StubHub spokesperincluding failing to adeson says, “The CMA order quately warn people that is consistent with the tickets may not get them approach we have taken into an event and using throughout this process misleading messages and StubHub will conabout ticket availability. tinue to cooperate with CMA chief executive the CMA. Andrea Coscelli says, “We believe that Stub- Andrea Coscelli “StubHub had previously Hub and Viagogo will committed to make imbe an excellent combination with portant changes to the informasignificant future growth potential tion on its site, so anyone buying a and will offer tremendous value to ticket would know what they were fans and partners alike.” getting before parting However, critics of with their money. It’s both company’s practherefore unacceptable tices are concerned and that we have now found the implications of the these concerns. takeover. “We have demanded Adam Webb, camswift action to resolve paign manager of UKthese problems and are based anti ticket-touting pleased that StubHub group FanFair Alliance Adam Webb has said it will make says, “Unlike the US, changes in response. where ticket touts have a We will closely monirange of platforms to list on, com- tor the firm’s efforts and, if it does petition for uncapped for-profit not quickly implement changes ticket resale is far more concentrat- that satisfy us, we will take further ed in the UK. action - potentially through the “In fact, following Ticketmaster’s courts.” closure of [its resale sites] Get Me Other issues the CMA identified In! and Seatwave, large-scale resell- with StubHub’s UK platform are ers are effectively limited to selling targeting UK consumers with tickvia these two sites. ets for events listed on overseas “I think there’s growing realisa- versions of their websites, which tion that allowing those two sites may not comply with UK law, as to merge and effectively monopo- well as failing to ensure people lise that sector of the market as a know exactly where they will sit single entity, brings with it major in a venue, and failing to take problems - and especially given sufficient steps to ensure the full the chequered and controversial addresses of business sellers are history of Viagogo.” displayed. The CMA will follow this prelimiMeanwhile, the watchdog connary inquiry with a formal Phase 1 tinues its regular monitoring of investigation, in which they con- Viagogo. sider comments submitted. Elsewhere, Canada’s competiSeparate to the above, the CMA tion regulator has fined StubHub recently identified problems with for misleading ticket prices. See StubHub’s UK website that could news story on page 12. www.audience.uk.com

World News • 9

Luger expands into Norway establish Luger as a strong brand in Norway and continue working TOCKHOLM-BASED concert pro- with the acts I already have existing moter and festival orrelations with, as well as ganiser Luger is expandbecome the natural proing into market with the moter for emerging acts opening of a new office in Norway.” in Oslo, to be headed by Gullaksen has worked veteran promoter Torgeir with artistes such as Gullaksen. Arctic Monkeys, Queens With a career that Of The Stone Age, Rastarted at Gunnar Eide diohead, Rival Sons and Concerts, now Live Na- Torgeir Gullaksen Tame Impala over the tion Norway, Gullaksen years. went on to launch pro“We have always had a motions company Goldstrong relationship with star, which he ran for 13 Torgeir and have continyears. ued working with him “Over the last 20 years through different setor so, I’ve had the pleasups, so this is a natural ure of working with step which we are very Luger on both internapleased with,” says Luger tional and domestic acts MD Ola Broquist. “Torgeir and consider them the is a great person, a great best in class in developpromoter and a music Ola Broquist ing new talent,” he says. lover. To me that’s the ul“My aim is to firmly timate combination.” SWEDEN/NORWAY

The Oslo office will be the company’s third in the region after the opening of an agency in Denmark, headed by Sarah Sølvsteen. Luger promotes over 300 shows

a year and produces festivals such as Way Out West (cap. 35,000), Åre Sessions (10,000) and, together with C3 and Live Nation Sweden, Lollapalooza Stockholm.

Market Focus South-East Asia See page 30-35

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AUDIENCE • Issue 241 • February 2020

10 • World News

Mumfords crew gathers CMW seeks ‘champions’ for team effort at ILMC for its fifth annual awards UNITED KINGDOM

EW ADDITIONS to the conference programme at the International Live Music Conference (ILMC), set for 3-6 March at London’s Royal Garden Hotel, include legendary artiste manager Peter Rudge being interviewed by former Dire Straits manager Ed Bicknell. In a new format for the event, Team Mumford & Sons – comprising band co-founder Greg Parmley Ben Lovett, who also owns London venues Omeara (cap. 320) and Lafayette (600), their manager Adam Tudhope of Everybody’s and their international agent Lucy Dickins from WME – together on one panel. Rudgem whose artiste associations have included the Rolling Stones, Roger Waters and The Who, will also join Team Mumford & Sons for a session hosted by Radio X’s

John Kennedy for Future Forum, on the final day, programmed by and for young industry executives. “With Mumford & Sons’ ongoing success, built on their sensational live career, and Peter Rudge’s roster reading like a Who’s Who of music, these will be two fascinating sessions,” says conference head Greg Parmley. Elsewhere across the conference, guest speakers include CAA co-head Emma Banks, UTA’s head of global music David Zedeck, Live Nation Entertainment’s executive president of international touring Phil Bowdery, Book My Show CEO Ashish Hemrajani, AEG President/CEO Alex Hill and Oak View Group co-chair Jessica Koravos. This 32nd edition of the invitation-only event will feature over 100 speakers and 40 sessions and expects more than 1,100 delegates to attend from over 50 countries.

Breaking out from Moscow See pages 38-45

CANADA

ANADIAN MUSIC Week has opened nominations for its Live Music Industry Awards, which will be held on 22 May at El Mocambo (cap. 458) in Toronto. Categories include Major Festival of the Year (cap. 15,0001+), Venue Executive of the Year, Agent of the Year and Canadian Music City of the Year. “We’re celebrating the fifth year of the Canadian Live Music Industry Awards and the ongoing achieve- Erin Benjamin ments of our members: leaders, innovators and passionate champions of artistes and their fans,” says CMW president and CEO Erin Benjamin.

“Sold-out every year, the awards bring us together as a community and creates the opportunity to shine a spotlight on the remarkable people behind live music.” Among last year’s winners are Julien Paquin, Paquin Entertainment Group & Management Team (Agent of the Year), Quebec City (Music City of the Year) and Festival d’ete (cap. 115,000) in Quebec City (Major Festival of the Year). The awards are part of the 38th edition of Canadian Music Week which runs between 19 and 23 of May and includes a conference at the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel and a new music festival across the city’s venues.

Newsbites ESTONIA TALLINN MUSIC Week (TMW) has added new locations for this year’s conference and festival, which takes place between 25-29 March. Fotografiska Tallinn, the Noblessner foundry’s Nobel Hall and the Kai Art Center will be hosting events for this year’s edition. The city’s Lasnamäe district will also be included for the first time. The conference, which expects 1,000 delegates to attend from more than 28 countries, is accompanied by a music festival featuring 155 artists. A conference and festival pass costs €175 ($191). CANADA EVENT INFRASTRUCTURE company EPS is expanding its international operations by launching a new division in Toronto. The office is headed by MD Joe Novak, formerly senior director event production and show services at the city’s Rogers Centre (cap. 53,000). EPS is headquartered in Germany and its subsidiaries in Australia, Brazil, Denmark, Italy, Poland, Switzerland, UK and US.

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12 • World News

StubHub fined $983,000 for misleading prices CANADA

OVERNMENT WATCHDOG Competition Bureau Canada has fined StubHub Canada and its San Francisco-based parent company StubHub Inc and combined C$1.3 million (US$983,000) for misleading ticket prices. The regulator found that StubHub “advertised tickets at unattainable prices on its websites, mobile apps and in promo emails to Canadians”. The breach of consumer laws were due, it says, to StubHub’s practice of “drip pricing”, where its mandatory fees are added later, a practice that has come under Bureau scrutiny in the past. Unless consumers clicked or tapped to turn on optional filters to see prices inclusive of fees, those fees were only revealed at later stages of the purchasing process. The Bureau said that providing these optional filters and disclosing fees later in

AUDIENCE • Issue 241 • February 2020

the process did not prevent the initial prices from being misleading. It also found that, in some cases, consumers who filtered results to see inclusive pricing were still asked to pay more than the prices shown as inclusive of fees. As part of an agreement registered with the Competition Tribunal, StubHub will ensure that prices for tickets to events in Canada will now include all mandatory fees throughout the ticket purchasing process. StubHub will also establish a compliance programme and implement new procedures to comply with the law and prevent advertising issues in the future. The fine comes on the heels of Viagogo announcing it has completed its $4.05 billion acquisition of eBay, although the UK’s Competition and Marketing Authority has called a halt to the two companies integrating while it investigates the impact of the takeover (see news page 8).

Live Nation takes full AC ownership UNITED STATES

IVE NATION Entertainment (LNE) has fully acquired Knoxville, Tennessee-based AC Entertainment, having bought a majority share in of the company in 2016. No financial terms have been revealed. AC founder and president Ashley Capps remains with the company and running its 80,000-capacity Bonnaroo Mu-

sic and Arts Festival. AC vice-president Ted Heining, who has worked with Capps for 23 years, becomes head of Live Nation’s Knoxville, Chattanooga and Asheville office. In another LNE developments, Kurt Melen moves to New York as president after serving as president of Live Nation Las Vegas for more than five years.

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SOMETHING EXCITING IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN IN ROTTERDAM

AHOY.NL/EXCITING

World News • 15

ID&T and Made for each other WORLD

LECTRONIC MUSIC promoters ID&T and Made Event have

Electric Zoo

formed a strategic partnership to work together on US-based Made’s Electric Zoo (cap. 100,000) festival in New York City, and take the

brand international. the best music to market. Among Netherlands-based “The Made Event team, with ID&T’s portfolio of fesAdam [Richman] and tivals is the country’s Kevin [Mitchell] as the oldest dance inspiring leaders, have music event shown that they know M ys te r y l a n d how to create and pro(cap. 60,000), duce successful events as well as and premier festivals Awakenings in a very competitive (70,000) and market.” Amsterdam Richman, Made Open Air Event senior vice-presRitty van Straalen (20,000). ident, says, “Working “Made Event together with them and ourselves will allow us to take our share the flagship brand Electric same vision,” Zoo to cities around the says ID&T world.” CEO Ritty The ID&T group van Straalen. includes Platinum “We both beAgency, Most Wanted lieve in high DJ-Agency and artiste quality expemanagement company riences and Headliner Entertainwant to bring Adam Richman ment.

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AUDIENCE • Issue 241 • February 2020

16 • World News

Ahoy boosts appeal with mid-size arena NETHERLANDS

HE CONVENTION complex in which the 15,000-capacity Rotterdam Ahoy arena is located is opening a new 7,819-capacity hall, and says it will be the largest and theatre auditorium in the country. Ready To Move (RTM) will accommodate 2,863 for seated concerts and theatre, and up to full capacity for standing events. Construction on the new hall and greater building is due to finish in September, with its official opening set for the start of 2021, the year the Ahoy celebrates its 50th anniversary. “The acronym RTM comes from

the airport code for Rotterdam, because we felt it was a nice connection to the city,” says Ahoy director Jolanda Jansen. “When you look at the profile of Rotterdam it’s a very dynamic and young city with many different nationalities, so we wanted to pay homage to that with the new stage.” As well as concerts, the venue will host musical theatre, comedy and children’s entertainment, with the first shows announced in within weeks. Next year, the Ahoy will take part in hosting the 65th edition of Eurovision Song Contest, following the Netherlands’ win at last year’s event, held in

Israel. “We couldn’t have planned it this way, but we’re so excited that all these

Rotterdam Ahoy RTM Stage - artist’s impression

New team players for New Arena UNITED STATES

AK VIEW Group (OVG) has added two key executives to its team at the 17,459-capacity New Arena at Seattle Center in Washington state, scheduled to open later this year. Eric Bresler has been appointed senior vice-president of programming and Tom Conroy as vice-pres-

ident of operations. The New Arena, also known as KeyArena, is undergoing a $600 million renovation by OVG, in a deal with the city of Seattle. Bresler, with nearly 30 years of experience in the sports and entertainment industry, will also assist in driving content for OVG’s other operated properties, including the Moody Center at the University of

new things are coming together in 2021 – the new building, our anniversary and the Eurovision Song Contest, which is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us.” Artistes playing the Ahoy include The Kelly Family, DI-RECT and Waylon. Wider redevelopment in the area will see the opening of a hotel, cinema, swimming pool, theatre, library and residential housing.

Texas at Austin (15,000), New Arena at Agua Caliente (10,000) in Palm Springs and the New Arena (10,000) in Belmont, New York State. Conroy has 30 years of arena industry experience and has been involved in the opening of new venues in the UK, Canada and the US. At the New Arena he will oversee all back-of-house and venue operations.

Newsbite USA INTERNATIONAL AGENCY ICM Partners has elevated six agents to partner, including music agent Andrea Johnson, whose clients include Wyclef Jean. David Foster, Michael Feinstein, Jane Lynch and Straight No Chaser. She started her career at ICM as an assistant in the classic music management division in 2001. She left for The Agency Group (TAG) in 2007 to run its performing arts division, before returning to ICM in 2014.

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18 • World News

Ticketmaster extends its Asian network SOUTH-EAST ASIA

IVE NATION Entertainmentowned Ticketmaster is expand-

ing further into the region with the acquisition of Tixcraft in Taiwan and the launch of Ticketmaster Singapore.

Five finger victory sign See page 48-55

AUDIENCE • Issue 241 • February 2020

Founded in 2014, Tixcraft is the country’s leading music ticketing platform, working with local promoters such as Live Nation Taiwan, B’in and iMe Taiwan. Tixcraft MD KT Chiu will remain at the company and serve as MD for the newly named Ticketmaster Taiwan. “By acquiring market leaders in Taiwan and launching in Singapore, we have Mark Yovich established two great bases with talented teams to support the burgeoning live entertainment scene in South-East Asia,” says Ticketmaster International president Mark Yovich. In Singapore, Chad Phillips, for-

mer MD for APACTix has been appointed to the newly created role of MD at Ticketmaster Asia..The news follows the December 2019 announcement that Ticketmaster was successful in securing a place on the Sports Hub panel in Singapore, which means it is one of three ticketing companies authorisd to work with the complex. Sports Hub incorporating the National Stadium (cap. 55,000), the 12,000-capacity Singapore Indoor Stadium, a 3,000-capacity arena and other facilities. Live Nation also has offices in China, Japan, South korea Thailand Australia and New Zealand.

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Sting, Steven Tyler, Zucchero, Roger Hodgson, Editors, Simple Minds, Scorpions, Mark Knopfler, David Guetta, Martin Garrix, Liam Gallagher, Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, etc.

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Leader in the french part of Switzerland for 25 years Please contact : Michael Drieberg, managing director - m.drieberg@livemusic.ch

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14,000 capacity • Total audiences in 2019 close to 750,000 • Central location 4 conference rooms • 20 VIP Sky Boxes • Sky Bar & Restaurant for B2B business 2019 was once again a successful year again for Papp Laszlo Budapest Sportarena (Budapest Arena). With a colourful and attractive mix of events, including concerts, family shows, sport events, exhibitions and conferences, we welcomed close to 750,000 audience members in total. Events counted for one third of the year, but together with build-up, rehearsal and dismantling days more than two thirds of the year was taken up with activities.

were transformed into vivid red, with music-inspired art work and modern furnishings. A brand new bar, the House of drinks, was installed by the main entrance area, serving both soft drinks and cocktails.

Continuing our focus on green innovations, lightning for build-up within the venue, as well as the lighting system on both levels in the parking garage were completely changed to LED technology. To support the increasing popularity Among the international stars who performed at Budapest Arena in 2019 of electric- and plug-in hybrid cars, we installed 9 chargers in our parking were Sting, Tom Jones, Backstreet Boys, Muse, Slayer, Mark Knopfler, Eros facility, so users of these cars have the chance to charge their cars while a show Ramazotti, Andrea Bocelli, Scorpions, Deep Purple, Paul Anka, Nicki Minaj, is happening. Maluma, Luis Fonsi, Mike Shinoda, Rhoda Scott, together with a number Perhaps our most important green innovation though, has just been unof renowned bands and performers from the Hungarian music industry. veiled. February 2020 saw us introduce our next green solution at the venue In April we launched our brand new Mastercard VIP lounge. An exclusive by banning the use of single use plastic glasses at our concession stands, inarea with a contemporary and comfortable interior design, allowing premium stead supplying audience members with their drinks in reusable cups. At the Mastercard debit or credit card holders to have the chance to relax and enjoy end of an event, audiences can, of course, retain the cups as a souvenir, but by our food and drink offerings before the show. returning and reusing it one cup can substitute approx. 150 single-use plastic During the summer we fully revamped the Arena’s reception area. Based glasses, thus significantly decreasing both waste, as well as CO2 emissions on our partnership with Coca-Cola, the original grey walls in the area during production.

Feature • 21

The great debates The invitation-only event takes place from 3-6 March at the Royal Garden Hotel in London. www.ilmc.com

It’s the biggest gathering of international promoters and agents in the world and delegates at the 32nd International Live Music Conference certainly have some serious topics to discuss, not least the ramifications of the Coronavirus across Asia and isues related to a Brexit that is finally happening. Christopher Barrett asks some key figures what they expect from the event

ounded by agent Martin Hopewell and his team at Primary Talent International 32 years ago to bring agents and promoters together, it may have changed ownership, but the International Live Music Conference (ILMC) remains a vital annual talking shop and meeting place for the global industry. From multinational corporate bosses to independant promoters in emerging markets and rookie agents, everyone genberally makes valuable connections and even the most veteran of vetrans learns something they didn’t know be- Detlef Kornett fore, during the three-day event. Deutsche Entertainment AG (DEAG) executive Detlef Kornett is pleased to see that most of the key issues he is interested in are in the conference schedule. For him, the most pressing issue is Brexit and what impact it will have, if any, on concert www.audience.uk.com

touring in Europe, as DEAG and its subsidiaries promote shows and festivals in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the UK. Its interests also extend across ticketing, venue management and record labels. Corporate consolidation across Europe is of particular interest to Kornett. “It is worth thinking about how much Live Nation in the UK and CTS Eventim on the continent are dominating the live music market and what are the effects?”, he says. “That is a very important issue but I haven’t seen it listed as an ILMC panel subject.” “Both in the UK and in Germany you can see that when there is a dominant force in the marketplace, it changes the economics and it marginalises those that are left out of the conglomerate, and that is not always to the benefit of the market or artistes.

“One has to continue to be critical about it because the market needs diversity, it needs more than one business approach in order to benefit different artistes, different genres and properties.”

Meeting circle

Florida-based stage show production company Feld Entertainment holds one of the most successful touring franchises in the word with Disney On Ice, which has visited nearly 80 countries. Feld’s vice-president for Europe, Steven Armstrong has been with the company for more than two decades, based at Feld’s European headquarters in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. His responsibilities include marketing, ticketing and operational functions across its live events, which include Marvel Universe Live, Sesame Street Live and Monster Jam and sell around 30 million tickets anually worldwide. “You can have most of your partner meetings for the year in the one week of ILMC,” he says. AUDIENCE • Issue 241 • February 2020

22 • Feature There are also some serious issues, Armstrong acknowledges “How is the industry dealing with cancelations in China and possibly wider regions as a result of Coronavirus,” he wonders. “And, following Brexit, what to expect and plan for?” He would also like to discuss whether anything can be done to extend Schengen visas, shortstay permits that enable a person to travel to any member state of the European Union’s Schengen area for up to 90 days. “Can the industry petition the EU to introduce performer visas that can last more than 90 days, to help tours travel around the whole of Europe rather than just parts of it,” he asks.

Future panel. “Secondary ticketing is a serious problem in our market and we believe we could do more by joining forces against it,” he says. “Ticketing technology has the potential to bring this issue to an end.”

Secondary concerns

As sales and marketing director at Poland’s 22,000-capacity Tauron Arena in Kraków, Sara Lamik will be among the panellists during the Venue Summit’s Citizen Venue session. “I will be discussing how we, as a venue, can participate in the life of the community,” she Barry Dickins Sara Lamik says. “It is an important subject for us as we are owned by the city and feel responsible not to just of the first Saudi state. The development, on the west side of the capi- be a venue where huge international events take tal Riyadh, is being transformed to accommodate place – e also want to do something for the inhabmuseums, restaurants, retail outlets, hotels and a itants of the city.” The venue is running a series of initiatives to 15,000-capacity arena, which is expected to open encourage locals to be minimise their environin two to three years’ time. “ILMC is one of the few annual gatherings mental footprint, including a daily educational where all the industry parties get together in one programme for infants, regular training sessions place – venues, promoters, agents, managers and encouraging the use of sustainable means of even some government bodies and sponsors,” he transport such as roller blades and bikes, and an environmental conference for school children says. “I hope this year we can get to have a con- scheduled for October. “The conference will educate children as to structive conversation about the Middle East as a whole and in particular the challenges faced in what the city is doing environmentally, and what the UAE and the opportunities in the new Saudi they can do to be more sustainable,” she says. Other aspects of the ILMC agenda Lamik and market.” “How do we professionally deal with the issues colleague Karolina Korusiewicz will be attending some agents and managers feel pertain to taking include Venue Summit’s Safety & Security session.

As a partner in Argentinean festival operator and promoter Pop Art Music since 2009, Matias Loizaga is involved in concerts with artistes such as Roger Waters, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, and Chainsmokers, as well as events including Sónar Buenos Aires at Tecnópolis Thomas Ovesen (10,000) and free festival Movistar FRI (30,000) in Mendoza.A trained lawyer, he has also promoted shows and festivals Uruguay, Paraguay. Loizaga’s main focus at ILMC will be promoting the company’s Messi10 by Cirque du Soleil show; which bridges the world of football and circus by celebrating Argentinian football legend Lionel Andrés Messi. Having attending ILMC on many occasions, Loizaga says he would like to see “more visibility and facilities for those of us who have attended the conference for a number of years.” He is pleased to see The Greener Touring workshop on the agenda and says his company is very interested in low-impact touring. “We believe this industry, as all others, should fight for a more sustainable world.” He is also looking forward to the Ticket of the

AUDIENCE • Issue 241 • February 2020

Emerging opportunities

Thomas Oversen, formerly a promoter in United Arab Emirates and chief programmer at Dubai’s new Coca-Cola Arena (cap. 17,000), is now entertainment director at Saudi Arabia’s Diriyah Gate Development Authority (DGDA). Launched in July 2017, DGDA is developing the ruins at Diriyah, which once served as the capital

their artistes there,” he asks. “If it is really just about how big the fee is or are we, as an industry, going to assist the market to emerge and become a serious touring destination? “It would be great if we could help Saudi fasttrack, as it will help the wider region get back on track, and the industry we will then have access to a real powerhouse of a new region.” Oversen believes that plans for new venues across the region are a huge opportunity. “The region is bound to see a boom in new venue builds and could lead the green and sustainability movement from the front.”

Safety and sustainability

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24 • Feature “It is important for us to see what the trends are in the industry, and a great opportunity to see what other people are doing and get inspired,” she says.

Remaining relevant

Few agents have attended ILMC on all 32 occasions, but among those Platinum Members is ITB co-founder Barry Dickins, one of the industry’s respected elder statesmen. In the 1960s Dickins could be found booking acts such as Jimi Hendrix into the Upper Cut club in Forest Gate, East Phil Rodriguez London, and organising the Maximum Jenny Blomqvist R&B nights at Soho’s Marquee (cap. 400) “One of the things I want to discuss at ILMC is club, featuring The Who. These days his clients insecondary ticketing. That is a big concern to me. clude Neil Young, Bob Dylan and Paul Simon. “There are so many international conferences The sports industry has introduced far greater rearound now, such as Eurosonic Noorderslag strictions than the music industry, so there is a lot (Netherlands) and The Great Escape [Brighton, more we can do.” UK], and that has to drain ILMC a little. But all these events offer different things and ILMC re- Finding benchmarks mains a key event, especially when it comes to Another delegate who wants to learn how venues networking. and the industry can become more sustainable is “In a world of digital communication, it is more Jenny Blomqvist, head of event sales and bookimportant than ever to meet people face-to-face ing at Stockholm Live in Sweden, which operates and really find out what they are all about. five key venues – Friends Arena (75,000), Ericsson “There are some important topics scheduled to Globe (16,000), Tele2 Arena (40,000), Hovet (9,000) be discussed, but my concern is that some of them and Annexet (3,400). are debted every year and nothing has changed. “I’m interested to discuss how artistes, venues

AUDIENCE • Issue 241 • February 2020

and productions, individually and together, can work for the better of the environment. I’m, interested in whether there any good examples or benchmarks we all can use within this industry,” she says. “As always, ILMC is also great forum for meeting international colleagues and keeping in touch with promoters for future collaborations.”

The right move

Running the largest promoter network across Latin America, Move Concerts’ CEO Phil Rodriguez, who is headquartered in Miami, US, hails his three sold-out Ed Sheeran shows, including two at the Allianz Parque (55,000) stadium in São Paulo – as the highlights of the year. Forthcoming tours for the company, which has offices in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, Mexico and Peru, include Michael Bublé, Bruce Dickinson and Kiss. “Thank God secondary ticketing is not a major issue yet for us, probably because consumer protection laws are quite strict. Flexible pricing is illegal in most of our territories and touting is a felony in Uruguay. Result: zero touts in Uruguay,” he says. He thinks the Greener Touring workshop is a great idea: “It seems to me it is common sense that we should all try to be as responsible as

www.audience.uk.com

26 • Feature possible when executing our events, and reducing our waste and carbon footprint should be on that list.” “ILMC is the best event that I know of in our business for meeting up with all your international colleagues and network, in one stop,” he says.

Eyes on the future

I think it is mainly a matter of legislation, regulations and other interventions in the economy. “On the other hand, artistes can raise the issue and help increase the pressure on legislators and regulators by influencing public opinion.”

Southern hemisphere perspective

Working in South Africa can Working for the Czech mean a promoter is someRepublic’s 20,000-capacity O2 what isolated from the rest of Arena and new sister venue the world so Glen 21’s Glen the O2 Universum (5,000), Netshipise, ILMC is a chance to both in Prague, Stanislava mingle with like-minded profesDoubravova head of sales and sionals from across the globe. events for operator Bestsport, The Johannesburg-based is especially interested in the company works on events such Venue Summit: Safety & Security as urban music event the BET and New Technology panels. Experience Africa show and “ILMC is a great international Nickelodeon children’s characplatform, through which we ter-filled Nick Fest, both taking can learn what is new in the live place at the city’s Ticketpro music business, what changes Dome (19,000). Upcoming Glen Stanislava Doubravova we can expect in the future and 21 concerts feature Boyz II Men how best we can prepare for it,” she and Scorpion Kings. says. “There is a lot of political upset and economic She also plans to attend the Greener Touring challenges in South Africa at the moment, which session. makes it difficult for us, particularly with the ex“I hope that this discussion will see reasonable change rates not being stable,” he says. “It makes suggestions made as to how people can behave it hard to plan for the future.” responsibly,” she says. “Changes are necessary but The opportunity to network and discuss the

RAMMSTEIN

TREVOR NOAH

challenges facing both himself and his peers in other territories is one of the key reasons for his attending ILMC. Secondary and counterfeit ticketing is also a major problem in South Africa, according to Netshipise. “For the big selling shows there are people that are coming with tickets that have been stolen and copied many times. Digital ticketing and ticketing apps have not yet been introduced here, but would help a lot,” he says. “Also, environmental issues are not highlighted enough in South Africa and as an industry we can definitely do more, including replacing plastic cups with paper, and using events to get the message across about the lifestyle.” On the subject of climate change, DEAG’s Detlef Kornett agrees that the live music industry has an important role to play in helping to combat it. “It is an important issue, but touring without travel does not work. However live music is a great platform, an emotionally-charged experience during which everyone is very opened up – it is a one of a kind opportunity to encourage change. “It is very important to start something, think about change and lead on change, but the sphere within which we can make change across transport and show production is relatively small compared to the change we can help trigger among fans of live music, which could be enormous.”

MASSIVE ATTACK

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AUDIENCE • Issue 241 • February 2020

HANS ZIMMER

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IBRAHIM MAALOUF

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ELTON JOHN

www.audience.uk.com

30 • Market Focus SOUTH KOREA

MARKET FOCUS

South-East Asia THAILAND PHILIPPINES MALAYSIA SINGAPORE

INDONESIA

As one of the wealthiest countries in the world, with a high standard of living and low unemployment, the country is in good shape both economically and otherwise. Its relatively small size, and conveniently central position in Europe, makes it a unique music market. Lisa Henderson reports While opportunities for both local promoters and international artistes are certainly growing, the cost of traveling between countries is still a barrier for acts who can’t assemble enough shows to amortise the cost of visiting the region from Europe or the US. Also, many local promoters are still grappling with poor local infrastructure, a lack of suitable venues, government restrictions and economic factors, not to mention, as many say, rising artiste fees. But optimism abounds and there is no doubt business overall is growing rapidly across the region.

Indonesia

A forerunner of Indonesia’s live music market is North Sumatra-based promoter Vizion Vibe, which held between 20 and 30 concerts last year, including Honne at Hall A&B, Jatim Expo (cap. 15,000) in Surabaya, Boy Pablo at Basketball Hall Senayan (2,920) in the capital Jakarta and two dates with LANY at the Tennis Indoor Senayan (3,300) in Jakarta. This year, Vizion Vibe will promote former One Direction member Louis Tomlinson for his first foray in the region, at Tennis Indoor Senayan in April, with tickets ranging between 625.000-973.500 rupiah ($45-71). Among the Asia acts Vizion Vibe are promoting this year is South Korean singer Jin Jin Seok at Jakarta’s Soehanna Hall (500), with tickets costing between 420,000 rupiah ($30) for a regular ticket and 1,140,000 rupiah ($83) for a VIP Fan Meeting Session. Korean hip-hop rapper One aka Jung AUDIENCE • Issue 241 • February 2020

performances and shows with their family and friends,” says Rajagopal. “With over 30 million people and great connectivity between the major cities, if we get the right act on the right day (weekend performances), we can get fans from all over the country to visit our shows.” Rajagopal says the market is often underrated, but the multicultural composition of the population means languages are no obstacle, so there’s Malaysia opportunity to promote a wide variety Having previously partnered with of local and international events across Live Nation Entertainment (LNE) on various genres. tours for Bruno Mars, Lewis Capaldi Para Rajagopal However, despite the opportunities and LANY, promoter PR Worldwide sold a controlling stake in the company’s live and the relative success operating indepenentertainment division in January, to create dently, Rajagopal knew that expansion was the key to growth. Live Nation Malaysia. “Apart from being able to promote a wide Founded in 1999 by Para Rajagopa, PR Worldwide has worked with artistes such as Ed range of acts and shows across different genres Sheeran, Mariah Carey, Taylor Swift and Maroon under Live Nation Malaysia, this venture provides Live Nation with the opportunity to 5. Rajagopal says the company enjoyed remark- expand into other related areas of the business able results as an independent promoter and, including venues, media and sponsorship, as through steady business, has kept Malaysia on well as other fan experiences such as exclusive pre-sales and other VIP experiences,” he says. the touring circuit for the past 20 years. While the acquisition will see PR Worldwide Last year for example, it promoted Ed Sheeran’s at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium and Live Nation Malaysia become a more pow(87,000) in Kuala Lumpur, which sold over erful force, the company isn’t immune to the 30,000 tickets in a single day and 40,000 in total, challenges affecting other promoters in the while Shawn Mendes sold 10,000 tickets in a region. Among the issues Rajagopal cites are a lack few hours at the same venue, outperforming of purpose-built and mid-sized venues to some of the other bigger cities in the region. “We've seen a positive change in the buying accommodate a variety of shows and artistes, patterns and more and more people are begin- rising artiste fees, regulatory constraints and a ning to adopt a lifestyle of attending musical fluctuating currency.

Jae-won will also be making his debut in Jakarta at The Pallas (2,400) in June, with tickets ranging between 480,000 rupiah ($35) in the presale and 720,000 rupiah ($52) for a standard ticket. The company also offers event management and agency services for artistes and DJs touring the region.

www.audience.uk.com

Market Focus • 31

Andy Lau at Singapore © Focus Entertainment

Philippines

The country’s biggest promoter MMI Live operates mostly in the capital Manila and last year promoted shows with U2 at Phillipine Arena (55,000) in Santa Maria, as well as Maroon 5, Bruno Mars, Shawn Mendes, Backstreet Boys and Troye Sivan – all at Mall of Asia Arena (15,000) in Pasay. It also promoted Kodaline at the New Frontier Theatre (2,385) in Manila. “There are years when the concert traffic is overwhelming and there are years when it’s slow,” says CEO Rhiza Pascau. “Some territories are more advanced than others. There are acts that do well in Manila and not sell in the rest of Asia, so I understand that it’s hard to do a tour sometimes.” Pascua says the company’s success is largely down to maintaining good relationships with venues and using extensive analytics on their target market in order to price tickets correctly. However, Pascua explains, the region is something of a micro market within the South-East Asia region, which needs to be taken into consideration by western agents planning shows. “Inflation is also something we deal with every so often,” she explains. “Sometimes, we have to remind the artiste side that we are a third world country and our market has limited budget. For the most part, they do understand.” Natural calamities such as typhoons and earthquakes are not uncommon in the region, with recent dramas including the eruption of the Taal Volcano which caused all flights to be cancelled, not to mention the threat of the Coronavirus.

www.audience.uk.com

“People are being warned to stay away from crowded places such as live events. There’s always a chance that an event might get canceled or postponed,” says Rhiza. Among MMI Live’s upcoming shows are Tori Kelly at New Frontier Theatre in April, plus Green Day in March and Billie Eilish in September – both at Mall of Asia.

Singapore

Capaldi sell-out at the Capitol Theatre (977), the artiste’s first visit to Singapore. Upcoming shows include Green Day at Singapore Indoor Stadium (12,000) in March. As a company which has operated both independently, and as a part of Live Nation Entertainment between 2013 and 2017, Roche knows all too well how difficult it is to compete for artistes against multinational players. “Live Nation and AEG have global buying power and global touring rights on many artistes, which restricts the amount of shows open for independent local promoters,” he says. “Also, the cost of venues and doing business in our three markets and bringing western artistes across to Asia and realising viable budgets on smaller and emerging acts, are all so high,” he says. “Overall, the potential margins for promoters have shrunk and risks have increased on higher breakevens Roche says the company’s showpiece event is the entertainment for the Singapore Formula 1 night race, which takes place at Marina Bay Street Circuit over three days in September, and includes nine stages of mixed genre entertainment. It attracts 268,000 ticket-buyers and has seen performances by Swedish House Mafia, Muse, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Gwen Stefani, Fat Boy Slim, Hans Zimmer, Toots and The Maytals, Texas, Lighthouse Family and the Ramona Flowers. Other artistes Lushington has promoted include Ariana Grande, Bruno Mars, Harry Styles, Imagine Dragons, Linkin Park, Jason Mraz and Twenty One Pilots.

Founded in 1990, Lushington Entertainments was one of the early pioneers, introducing acts such as Eric Clapton to the region in 1990. Other acts the company has promoted over the years include Michael Jackson, Madonna, Eagles, Sting, Coldplay, Foo Fighters, Green Day and One Direction. With the company also operating Michael Roche Hong Kong and Macau, Lushington MD Golden vision Michael Roche says the South-East Asia market is Midas Promotions, which has offices in Hong Kong, vibrant and constantly developing, attracting more Singapore and Philippines, has promoted artistes and more international acts. including Sam Smith, Khalid, Jessie J, The Script, “We had great dates and solid sales with Pet David Guetta and Charlie Puth.Founder Michael Shop Boys and Jason Mraz each at The Star Theatre Hosking says the scene has grown enormously [5,000], Anne Marie and Proclaimers each at the over the past few years. Capitol Theatre [1,800],” says Roche. “South-East Asia tours are now a destination on “But the highlights of 2019 were a sell-out show its own instead of just a stop on tours of Australia with Ed Sheeran at Singapore National Stadium or Japan,” he says. “Music festivals built around [50,000], as well as two sell-out shows from Lauv the region have also boosted travel and there are at Capitol Theatre, which we promoted in conjunc- greater efforts underway to support homegrown tion with AEG Presents.” talents as well.” This year Lushington has already had a Lewis As with Lushington’s Roche, Hosking says

AUDIENCE • Issue 241 • February 2020

32 • Market Focus

Leslie Ong

Michael Hosking

Rhiza Pascua

that increasing appeal is a blessing and a curse for independent promoters like Midas. “Major rivals sign global deals with artistes, directly impacting independent promoters like ourselves to fight for the smaller slice of the pie. We sometimes get involved in bidding wars and end-up paying exorbitant artiste fees,” he says. “Venues have also jumped in to promote their own shows and it is almost impossible to compete with them.” Hosking says to overcome these problems, the independents must remain creative and agile with their long-term vision and tackle challenges by collaborating. “Technology is doing amazing things to unearth new talent and statistics have allowed us to make more calculated risks when curating artistes for the various markets,” says Hosking. Last year the company promoting emerging artists Boy Pablo and Mahalia, but Hosking admits that 2019 was “fairly grim” overall. “Data does not necessarily translate to ticket sales. The economic health of the market also determines how often and how much fans are willing to spend for a show ticket,” he says. “So cutting tighter deals and being careful not to oversaturate a market is key to face the stiff competition.” While, last year’s shows were limited to the Philippines, the year before Midas

promoted Sam Smith and The Script at Singapore Indoor Stadium and Khalid at Zepp, Big Box Singapore (2,333). Established in 1997, Unusual Entertainment has offices in Singapore and Malaysia and specializes in production and promotion. CEO Leslie Ong, reports a successful 2019, particularly with taking Asian artistes to bigger heights. “JJ Lin, one of Asia’s top Mandopop acts, performed to 80,000 people at the National Stadium in Singapore last December. This makes him the first Asian act to perform two nights at the venue, joining the ranks of Coldplay and U2. “And, Andy Lau, one of Asia’s top Cantopop acts, sold 40,000 tickets to My Love Andy Lau World Tour held in September, at the Singapore Indoor Stadium [12,000],” says Ong. While enjoying success in stadiums, Ong says the region is lacking mid-sized venues between 3,000-5,000 capacity. “There are only four key venues and these have to be shared amongst live entertainment, family entertainment, sports, conferences, exhibitions in one calendar year,” says Ong. Ong believes there’s room for growth in other areas of South-East Asia. “Counties such as Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam are still untapped territories, but it may take more years before the local

JJ Lin at Singapore © JFJ Productions

facilities, infrastructure, soft skills, spending power catch-up.”

South Korea

Formerly Yescom Entertainment, promoter International Creative Agency (ICA) programmes several festivals in Korea including new music festival Yoursummer and Pentaport Rock Festival, which is the longest sustaining annual international music festival in Korea. It also operates across the region. Last year, ICA promoted artistes including The 1975 at Olympic Hall (15,000), Jess Glynne at Blue Square imarket Hall (1,400), Nothing But Thieves at Yes24 Live Hall (1,090) – all in the capital Seoul. “The Asian territories in general have become huge buyers for international artistes and now its live music industry

Bringing international shows to Korea and Asia www.icaliveasia.com AUDIENCE • Issue 241 • February 2020

www.audience.uk.com

Market Focus • 33

carries great importance in the world and generates a high source of revenue,” says CEO Tommy Jinho Yoon. “The market is growing rapidly, a lot faster than anticipated, with international shows and events emerging throughout the region.” Yoon says it’s no trouble drawing international artistes or selling tickets in South Korea, but the primary challenge they’re faced with is winning the business. “It’s very common for promoters here to fight for the same artistes, which causes bidding wars and ends up boosting the artiste fees till they’re much higher than other territories,” says Jinho Yoon. This, in turn, breeds a market that’s rife with competition but lacking in professionalism, he explains. “There’s a real lack of respect amongst

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promoters, causing organizations to show weaknesses and conduct business without manners - it’s extremely typical on this side of the world!.” Jinho Yoon believes part of the issue is that the market is saturated with promoters who’ve migrated into the territory and are causing friction with domestic promoters who’ve helped build the local market. “Local domestic promoters are now starting to emerge and team-up as a unit to fight against western companies and organisations that are making an entrance into the Asian world. “However, the Asian territories are strongly influenced by the government system, which is strengthening its relationship with the domestic entertainment world and will eventually overpower foreign entities.” On top of the standard issues promoters have to deal with, Jinho Yoon says political unrest in South Korea presented the company with some major challenges last year, almost forcing the company to close. “With the new president and political parties and their new system geared towards Communism, businesses in general experienced major negative impacts,” he says. “But then again, from my perspective, a lot of the facts are controlled and covered up by the media here.” These unexpected issues caused by the government also forced ICA to change

the dates for its festival Pentaport at the last minute, when the artistes had already been confirmed. “By some miracle we were able to salvage all the confirmed artistes by launching a new festival two months before the show dates, which resulted in our new festival Yoursummer, which was the top drawing and the most successful summer festival of Korea in 2019,” says Yoon. Artistes who performed included Rita Ora, Chvrches, Zedd and Superorganism..

Thailand

BEC-Tero Entertainment, founded in 1988 is one of the country’s longest established promoters and joined forces with Live Nation Entertainment in 2015 to form Live Nation BEC-Tero. The company is led by Neil Thompson, who has spent almost three decades working in Thailand’s music industry, and is well-versed in the challenges and opportunities in the local market. “Unlike the major touring markets, we have very high costs that we have to absorb with only one show, where as in the other key touring markets they can amortize over multiple shows,” says Thompson. “All of our shows have very high freight costs as every one has to fly in and out of each market.” In addition, Thompson says the lack of suitable venues means the cost of venue

Tommy Jinho Yoon

AUDIENCE • Issue 241 • February 2020

34 • Market Focus

Westlife in Singapore © Unusual Entertainment

Damian Kilroy

Shawnz Neo

Loy Joon How

rental is high and therefore tickets are more expensive. This means it’s a gamble to put on shows with smaller, developing artistes. “I think we will see a strong emergence of Asian artistes breaking across markets as well as internationally, as the rest of the world discovers these acts. I predict that we will see Chinese, Japanese, Indonesia and Thai artists breaking out of their home markets in 2020 onwards,” he says. According to Thompson, last year was a strong one for live music, with a noticeable increase in the number of shows, festivals and the ticket sales despite a slowing down in the Thai economy due to elections. Among Live Nation BEC-Tero’s upcoming shows are Green Day and Khalid, both at IMPACT Arena (11,000) in Bangkok, and Babymetal GMM Live House (3,000). LOL International is an artiste booking agency and event organizer which operates across Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand and Singapore. Among the artistes LOL has promoted in Thailand are Liam Gallagher, Mariah Carey and Take That. Last year the company was involved with promoting Flume, Two Door Cinema and Matteo Bocelli. “We are very proud to be the first company to debut Matteo Bocelli’s first solo concert,” says LOL International co-founder Shawnz Neo. “The show was a success and we are already planning for more with him.” Like other promoters in the region, Neo says one the biggest challenges is meeting increasingly high artiste fees and says

AUDIENCE • Issue 241 • February 2020

promoters have to rely on sponsors to make shows happen. “Each year, it will be the standard few top brands in each category sponsoring musicrelated projects and their budget is usually quite fixed, but we do see that the increase of artiste fees makes it harder to get major artistes into Asia for a show.,” he says. Meanwhile, business is good for the country’s biggest indoor venue, the newlyrenovated Impact Arena (15,000) and its sister venue Thunder Dome (6,000) in Bangkok. Over the years, the arena has welcomed artistes such as Michael Jackson, Scorpions, Eric Clapton, Santana, Kylie Minoque, James Blunt, Linkin Park, Sting, David Foster, Elton John, Luna Seas, Avril Lavigne, Mariah Carey. “Last year we hosted about 31 music events at Impact Arena and another 32 music events at Thunder Dome, which for us is a satisfactory result,” says general manager Loy Joon How. Last year the arena saw performances from Two Door Cinema Club, Westlife, Daniel Caesar and John Mayer for his first appearance in Thailand. Tickets ranged between 2,000 to 10,000 baht ($64-320). Joon How’s only complaint is the increasingly high running costs for the venue. “We are looking at the application of technology and automation to help us reduce our operating costs. For large-scale indoor arenas, I think we are a major player in the market,” he says.

Vietnam

While the country’s live music scene is still in its infancy, pioneering promoter Loud Minority believes that if nurtured, it could become a worthwhile market. “It needs to start with creating a gig culture, where it's a part of kids’ lives like it was for us growing up,” says Loud Minority CEO Damian Kilroy. “We try to educate and expose people to something they are not familiar with.” Kilroy believes the young and fast-growing population is its greatest attraction but

because the market is still relatively underdeveloped, there’s a culture of what he calls “smash and grab”. “A lot of people are looking to do one or two big shows and make big money but the cash involved makes it such a high risk. EDM has been popular for years and some of those promoters are trying to expand into live music, but they're only interested in huge acts that come at a hefty price and then try and get that back from sponsors.” Though most markets in the region suffer from a lack of suitable venues, Vietnam is significantly lagging behind the others. “Since Cargo closed in 2016, nothing has taken its place, so we're limited to 300-capacity venues, bigger spaces that are old and unsafe, or outdoor spaces which are more costly,” says Kilroy. “Also, the fees demanded by big international acts are not realistic for a new market like Vietnam. If an artiste is asking for $2 million to play here, but has never played here before, it just doesn't make sense. There's just too much risk. We tend to work directly with artistes and via agents that have an understanding of Vietnam and who want to play here,” says Kilroy. Rather than lament the lack of major international artistes passing through, Loud Minority has turned its attention to its two-day Coracle Festival, which launched in 2018. Artistes played the event last year, which took place at Ho Tram beach resort, include The Lemonheads and William McCarthy, both from the US, and Canadian band The King Khan & BBQ Show. “We wanted to create the festival we think should exist. It’s US$50 a ticket and $2 for a beer. It's still an intimate event too, with 2,000 people expected this year. Last year we had a new venue and ran a cashless site, a zero-plastic policy, free drinking water and drew 1,000 people,” says Kilroy. Aside from last year’s edition of Coracle Festival, the company also co-promoted The Wedding Present at Lela Bar (250) in Saigon.

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@MANDSBANKARENA AUDIENCE • Issue 241 • February 2020

38 • Feature

Breaking out from Moscow A tough man in one of the world’s toughest markets, Ed Ratnikov has battled to bring international artistes to fans across the vastness of Russia for 25 years, from the turbulent days just before and after the collapse of the USSR, when doing business was more challenging than most people could imagine. Christopher Barrett reports

ne of the pioneers of country-wide touring in Russia, Ed Ratnikov, the founder and president of Moscow-based Talent Concert International (TCI), has been promoting for the past 25 years, helping to open-up the market for international artistes. Since he founded the company in early July 1995, TCI has AUDIENCE • Issue 241 • February 2020

promoted shows by acts including Robbie Williams, Rihanna, Kraftwerk, Limp Bizkit, the Scorpions, Jennifer Lopez, Blur, Nick Cave and Deep Purple. Moscow and St Petersberg have long been established as tour

Ed Ratnikov

stops, but Ratnikov’s vision has never been restricted to the easy locations. “I worked with TCI on Kraftwerk and we played the Kremlin, which was a landmark concert in the history of the band,” says Scumeck Sabottka,

CEO of promoter and agent MCT Agentur in Germany. “Ed is not afraid to test the waters for an act all over Russia, the furthest I have gone with him was with [German-Swedish industrial metal band] Lindemann, when he played in Irkutsk, in the middle of Siberia, in the winter at -38 degrees centigrade,” he says. www.audience.uk.com

Feature • 39

Rammstein

TCI’s first pan-Russian tour with an international artiste was in 1996 with Nazareth, which saw the Scottish band play more than 20 shows across the country, in sports

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halls with capacities of between 4,000 and 5,000. The following year it was the turn of Uriah Heep, who played a 20-date national tour. “Then it become business as usual, we organised tours with Rollins Band, Faith No More, Motörhead, Slayer, Manowar and [MCT artiste] Rammstein,” says Ratnikov. When TCI was launched, the market was comparatively undeveloped and Nadia Solovieva’s SAV in Moscow was one of the very few internationally-recognised promoters. “Besides SAV and couple of other companies including Rise Music and Silence Pro, there were no other professional promoters,” he says. “Rise Music was mostly working with national talent and Silence Pro closed after losing a fortune on a Rolling Stones show in Moscow. “The Russian live music market was no market at all at the time. There was absolutely no systems, infrastructure or services, but I saw it as a great challenge, I wanted to go my own way and make people laugh and cry at the shows I promoted.” Ratnikov didn’t establish TCI on passion alone, he also had considerable experience. After managing a few Russian rock bands, who he promoted around Western Europe in the late 1980’s, he went on to work with Boris Zosimov at BIZ Enterprises as an A&R at its Alien Records label. At BIZ, Ratnikov worked on one of the biggest concerts of all time – the Monsters Of Rock festival in Moscow in 1991 saw an estimated 1.6 million people descend on Tushino Airfield to see acts

Ed Ratnikov

including AC/DC, Metallica and The Black Crows. Taking place just one month after the Soviet coup d’état attempt to overthrow president Mikhail Gorbachev, footage of the concert shows the huge crowd going wild despite there reportedly being 1,000 militiamen surrounding the stage. The event was just over three years since Uriah Heep’s historic

10-night run of Moscow shows, with a combined audience of 185,000, in December 1987 – the first major rock shows allowed from the west. The band was invited to perform to show the world that the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and Russia were relaxing their iron grip on culture and the media. Just months after the Monsters of Rock event, the USSR

AUDIENCE • Issue 241 • February 2020

40 • Feature

collapsed, Gorbachev resigned and Boris Yeltsin became president of Russia and its remaining federation. Russia was open for business. For Ratnikov, working on shows that stir emotions has always been one of his prime motivations and being a rock fan himself, working with them was a natural calling. “I want the shows I promote to make people feel alive,” he says. “I think it was especially important in Russia in the 1980s because after all those years of being denied the music they loved, people were very hungry for concerts, Ed Ratnikov with Slayer especially the youth. “In the autumn of 1996 I set up appoint“I think you do your best and most successful work when you understand and love what you ments with agencies including Fair Warning, are doing. Our business is to stir emotions, and International Talent Booking [ITB] and The the best way to do that is by being passionate Agency to discuss my strategy of merging the about what you do. I don’t think of it as a job, it is entire Russian market into world tour routes,” he says. some kind of mission.” His persistence would pay off and Ratnikov had forged deals with UK TCI went on to work on national tours agent Neil Warnock at The Agency with acts including The Prodigy, KORN Group (now UTA) for TCI’s first naand ITB’s Scorpions and Limp Bizkit. tional tours, with Nazareth and Uriah “Ed promoted Ozzy Osbourne in Heep, and proved that playing cities Russia and did a great job,” says ITB cosuch as Murmansk, Tver, Samara, founder Rod MacSween. “TCI has been Ekaterinburg and Perm, as well as trail-breaking and very innovative.” Moscow and St Petersburg, was an endeavour worth the effort. The next step was to meet the rest of the Schumeck Sabottka Ambitious vision key agents in London. Among the many artistes that TCI has

Ed Ratnikov with J-Lo

had a long relationship with is German rock act Rammstein. “In March 2001, my old friend and partner [international talent broker] Nick Hobbs sent me a demo CD of Rammstein’s third album Mutter,” says Ratnikov. “When I heard those riffs I knew it was an epic album so I spoke to then Rammstein manager Emu Fialik and the band’s agent Scumeck Sabottka who decided to come to Russia to check out a Megadeth show I was working on in early July 2001, at Luzhniki Stadium [cap. 81,000]. “They left understanding how it would work in Russia and since then we have had some glorious years.” Sabottka says, “Ed and his team had

Congratulations Ed and all at TCI on 25 years, here’s to many more! from Rod and all the team at ITB

itb.co.uk AUDIENCE • Issue 241 • February 2020

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Feature • 41

Ed Ratnikov with Rihanna

enough vision to put on a band that sings in German. In the climate back then that was unusual, but he had faith and guided us through thick and thin and Russia is now one of the biggest markets for Rammstein.” Ratnikov’s level of commitment to Rammstein and its team was vividly illustrated in early 2010 when he found himself stuck between a rock band and a hard politician. In December the previous year a tragic fire had killed 150 people at the Lame Horse nightclub in the town of Perm. “President Putin had to say something to the nation, and he did not find anything better to say than to outlaw the use of pyrotechnic effects, which had started the fire. “Rammstein had sold-out shows in Moscow

Ed Ratnikov with The Black Eyed Peas

and St Petersburg in late February and after Rammstein there was Metallica and other big acts scheduled with pyro elements in their shows. Of course, no officials wanted to talk about permits for pyro, so we were stuck,” he says. Undeterred, Ratnikov petitioned the Minister for Emergency Situations, Sergey Shoygu, and succeeded in having the ban lifted. The shows went ahead and Rammstein played to 60,000 delighted fans. A producer and booking director at the Tele-Club (1,500) in Ekaterinburg, Semyon Galperin first met Ratnikov in 2006 while working for MTV. He’ll Nick Hobbs never forget just how persuasive

Ratnikov can be. “Ed had a Bloodhound Gang show at an ice hockey arena in Ekaterinburg, it was a big deal and we were covering the show. The first thing he said to me was ‘why aren’t you running? Things get done faster when you run’. He obviously didn’t know I was an MTV guy and thought I was a promoter, which I later became. But I think even if he knew who I was his attitude would have been much the same.” A year later, Bloodhound Gang were booked to play the opening night of the Tele-Club and Galperin has been asked to help out. He became a little nervous when he heard that Ratnikov was due to come by and inspect the venue the night before the show. “The venue wasn’t finished and I knew Ed was a tough guy, so I was worried he would f**king kill me, but I didn’t know the extent of venue’s incompleteness,” he says. “When we entered, we saw a hundred workers, in clouds of concrete dust, trying to make the floor flat and build the stage and the balcony. A moment of silence followed, then Ed looked me in the eye and said quietly, ’Well, we’re not going to tell the band about this until tomorrow, are we?’. I said, ‘No, of course not’. Then he said, ’I know you can do this Semyon. I believe in you’.

To Ed, Nikolai, Sergey and all at TCI - Happy Silver Jubilee! It’s been the greatest of pleasures to work together for 23 years. Nick & the Charmenko team

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AUDIENCE • Issue 241 • February 2020

42 • Feature “I still worked for MTV and had nothing to do with the venue, they had just asked me to help as I knew English. So I said, “Yeah I’ll do it Ed. Don’t worry Ed, things are gonna be just fine’. “Luckily, the next day a hundred workers finished the job on time, and Tele-Club soon hired me as a head of programming. “Ed is a great partner once you have earned his respect. You can trust his word 100 per cent.”

Pioneering spirit

Klaus-Peter Schulenberg

UK-born pan-European booker and promoter Nick Hobbs, whose company Charmenko is now based in Turkey, with offices in Czech Republic, Poland, Serbia and Croatia, has worked with TCI on Rammstein ever since sending that promo CD to Ratnikov. “Russia remains limited to Moscow and St Petersburg for the great majority of international acts, regional tours are still quite rare and anyone, such as TCI, who take international acts on tour in the provinces deserves a medal for courage,” says Hobbs. Hobbs says he has always found TCI to be both highly reliable and professional, and commends its efforts in a market that is far from easy to navigate. “Every time you bring a major act into Russia it is a challenge – a challenge with customs, with visas, with weather, with geography, with currency fluctuations, dealing with officials and so on,” says Hobbs. “To be a major promoter in Russia you need a titanium backbone.” Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium (81,000), is the largest in Russia and its manager Vitali Mant has worked with TCI on many shows there, including Rammstein last year. Mant also first engaged with TCI on a show by Rammstein when he worked at the city’s Olimpiyski Stadium (28,000) in 2010. “Ed and his team are great professionals, as well as very decent people and they always fulfill their obligations,“ he says. “In 2017 a Robbie Williams concert was canceled due to the artiste being ill. In this acute situation, the TCI team and the Olympiyski sports complex did everything possible to deal with the situation honourably.” “Ed is a trusted, reliable and creative partner in a country which can have its difficulties … and he’s a gentlemen, I should add,” says Williams’ agent Ian Huffam at X-ray Touring in the UK. TCI now has 13 employees but in the early days it consisted of just three people; Ratnikov, Peter Smirnoff and Tatiana

AUDIENCE • Issue 241 • February 2020

Dalskaya. “I did a lot of work in those days, almost everything,” says Ratnikov.

Team strengths

Not only has the in-house TCI team grown to include key staff such as finance director Nikolay Sinitsyn, booking and operations manager Serget Podgorny and special projects manager Julia Doroshina, the company has also forged many long lasting partnerships. They include St Petersburg-based National Concert Academy (NCA).

“I was surprised to find Ed at my office with a bunch of tour posters with an empty space for the venue, and a one-page contract. He had travelled 700km.” Michael Shurygin

“I first met Ed back in 1997, a year before I started my own business,” says NCA owner and MD Michael Shurygin. “I was working as the manager of the Hollywood Nights club in St Petersburg. I was approached by Ed to do a show by German metal band Accept at our club. But I was just a young manager and I didn’t have the authority to confirm anything, so I asked them to come over from Moscow and do a presentation of the show. “The next morning I was surprised to find Ed at my office with a bunch of tour posters with an empty space for the venue, and a one-page contract. He had travelled 700km and didn’t want to go back without me confirming — he was very enthusiastic. That’s one of the reasons why TCI have been so successful, they are very persuasive.” Among the many successful shows that TCI and NCA have partnered on are

Robbie Williams and Ozzy Osbourne at the 10,600-capacity Ledovy Dvorets arena in St Petersburg and Rammstein at the city’s Gazprom Arena (55,000). “You can always be sure TCI will deliver,” says Shurygin. “I feel very confident with them, even when we are competing with them for an artistes, because we know it is a fair competition – they won’t overpay, they won’t badmouth you to the agent and they will not lie to you. That may be an old style way of working but I appreciate that way of doing business.” Ratnikov says, “Our teams are absolutely integrated, we share philosophy and working methods as well as profits and losses in the projects we collaborate on. Sometimes NCA proposes acts to us, sometimes we propose to them, but nobody dominates, we are partners.” In October last year German pan-Europe promoting and ticking powerhouse CTS Eventim acquired a 51 per cent TCI, bringing it into its Eventim Live network, which comprises 28 promoters organising 30 festivals and more than 5,000 live events annually. “The Russian market is very important to a growing number of internationally popular artistes, and few companies bring as many acts from abroad to Russia as TCI,” says CTS founder and CEO KlausPeter Schulenberg. Ratnikov and Sinitsyn continue as TCI’s senior management, and collectively hold the remaining 49 per cent of company shares. “I am not expecting immediate benefits from becoming part of the Eventim family, it’s business as usual for us, but now we can take a little more risks and increase the number of shows we work on. As Klaus-Peter says, we will maintain the name and logo and keep working as before, but all main decisions have to be made with Eventim Live.

Rammstein

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Feature • 45 Since 2006, Eventim has owned Russian ticketing operator parter.ru, which Ratnikov says is advantageous. “The combination of a promoting and ticketing service is much stronger as we can increased the amount of tickets sold and move to venues with Eventim ticketing.” While TCI has come a long way in the last quarter of a century, its boss believes the Russian government could do a lot more to bolster the live music market by building a better transport network and purpose-built venues throughout the country. He says, “The improvement of the entire Russian market depends on the strategy of our country’s leaders but I am afraid the current strategy is to not let our country develop rapidly and properly. “Russia is the biggest and one of the richest countries in the world and could be such as strong touring market, but our current leaders are focused only on oligarchs. “However, during the past decade we have seen improvements to infrastructure, with new airports, highways, recognisable hotel chains, world-standard arenas and stadiums opening. But the income of people in many parts of the

Not on Lemmy’s bucket list Ed Ratnikov will never forget working on Motorhead’s first Russian tour, in October 1996. He had hired a Russian military cargo plane, with a passenger compartment for the band and crew, to transport them and the backline to a show in Rostov. The aircraft’s departure from a military airfield in the suburbs of Moscow was delayed for two hours due to the arrival of the commander general of the Russian Air Force. “Lemmy was furious, in one hand he had a strong Dutch beer and in the other a bottle of Jack Daniels, he was swearing like hell,” says Ed Ratnikov and Lemmy with Ratnikov. “When he found out that the WC on board consisted of a bucket, Samantha Fox, also performing he refused to fly. in Russia at the time “The band then chose to fly on a regular airline, but Lemmy had left his passport on the military plane, so at the airport, I had to persuade the airline rep to let him fly. “I gave the rep some swag, our tour jacket and CDs, and he agreed to help but then we came to passport control. I showed them a CD with a picture of the band and their names underneath. They looked at the CD and then at Lemmy and start laughing… but they let us through. That was Russia in the ‘90s.”

country is still not sufficient to enable us to often work there.” In the immediate future, the key priorities for the TCI team include a show by Iron Maiden at the VTB Arena (33,000) in Moscow in July and a stadium tour by Rammstein next year. “TCI is stronger than ever. We have great people in the team who are dedicated to developing the business, continuing to entertain fans and increase ticket sales,” says Ratnikov.

Tele-Club’s Galperin has no doubts that TCI has had a huge impact on the development of the Russian touring market and will continue to do so. He says, “TCI has established many Russian cities on the world touring map, shown that it’s possible to bring major Western acts even into Urals, Siberia and the far east of the country, and brought lots of incredible bands and lots of joy to astonished fans who didn’t believe it possible.”

STS Touring offers Backline Rental, Lighting Rental, PA Rental and Staging Rental Tel: +44 (0) 161 273 5984 | pete.dutton@ststouring.co.uk Tel: +44 (0) 161 273 5984 pete.dutton@ststouring.co.uk STS Europe | Ian Tompson | +49 343 648 79599

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Royal Arena is a modern 16.000-capacity Live Nationoperated indoor venue located only a few miles from downtown Copenhagen, the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s international airport and the bridge connecting Sweden and Denmark.

www.royalarena.dk Contact: dh@royalarena.dk

Copenhagen

48 • Feature

Five finger victory s Metal fans are especially loyal and tend to embrace those acts that have steadily worked their way up from the streets, honing their performance skills and music along the way, which is one of the reasons why Five Finger Death Punch’s 15-year investment is finally paying-off. Johnny Black reports

“

Last December, when we played at the Amsoil Arena [cap. 5,333] in Du-luth,” remembers Bruce Reiter, the production manager for Five Finger Death Punch, “We were loaded-in and all set to do the show, when it be-came obvious that our guitarist Jason Hook was very sick. “He was in a horrible state and they had to take him to the hospital right away for emergency surgery, where he had his gall bladder AUDIENCE • Issue 241 • February 2020

removed that night.” With an extensive European arena tour set to kick-off one month later at Ki-ev’s Sports Palace (10,000) in Ukraine, many bands would have been thrown into disarray. But, for the seasoned road warriors of Five Finger Death Punch (5FDP), eve-ry new disaster is treated as an opportunity to let their true mettle shine through. Fresh out of hospital, Hook set

off on the tour, but by the time they rolled into Hamburg’s Sporthalle (7,000) in Germany on 4 February, it was clear his re-covery was far from complete. Did they cancel the show? Of course not. As if by magic, Andy James, an ac-claimed British shredder mostly known for his solo material and instructional videos on YouTube, stepped into Hook’s boots and the tour went ahead to massive

critical plaudits and sold-out arenas across the continent. Arguably metal’s best kept secret, 5FDP, as they’re known to aficionados, is now the world No 3 hard rock outfit in streaming consumption, surpassed only by Metallica and AC/ DC. Founded in Los Angeles in 2005, their rise to the top has been slow but steady, a classic case of building from the bottom up in a surprisingly www.audience.uk.com

Feature • 49

sign

Pyrotek working with 5FDP

tradi-tional fashion. “I did my first show with them on 3 March 2009 at the Rohstofflager [700] club in Zurich,” says Stefan Matthey of Good News Productions

www.audience.uk.com

in Switzer-land. “I sold 21 tickets.” Nevertheless, Matthey was so “taken aback by their power and energy” that he has promoted them several times since. “This time we’ve sold about 8,000 tickets for their headlining appearance at the Hallenstadion [13,000] in Zurich, which is excellent for a country of our size,” he says. “I’ve always enjoyed working hand-in-hand with their wonder-ful team at 10th Street Entertainment, because they are always willing to lis-ten to you. “They have wisely not overplayed Europe in recent years and always do the right thing at the right time.” Similarly, Jeppe Nissen of Live Nation Denmark can remember selling just 137 tickets for the band’s show at Vega [450] in Copenhagen, but recalls, “the show was really good and you could see even at that point, that this band could go somewhere.” Nissen was prepared to stick with them even after another club show “didn’t do much better”, and got his reward when his third show with them sold 6,000 tickets. “I think their appeal for our audience is a mixture of many things,” says Nissen, “but, basically, the riffing and the songwriting are really up there. They write big songs and that’s what you need to grow as big as they have done.” The name of 10th Jeppe Nissen Street Entertainment crops up frequently in connection with 5FDP. The New York and Los Angeles-based company, which has worked with the band since 2012, also looks after Motley Crue, Blondie,

Tour dates DATE COUNTRY CITY

VENUE

14-Jan Ukraine Kiev Sports Palace 16-Jan Russia Moscow Adrenaline Stadium 18-Jan Russia St. Petersburg A2 Club 20-Jan Finland Helsinki Hartwall Arena 22-Jan Sweden Stockholm Hovet 23-Jan Norway Oslo Spektrum 24-Jan Denmark Copenhagen Royal Arena 26-Jan Netherlands Amsterdam AFAS Live 28-Jan France Paris Le Zenith 30-Jan UK Cardiff Motorpoint Arena 31-Jan UK London The SSE Arena, Wembley 2-Feb Luxembourg Esch-sur-Alzette Rockhal 3-Feb Germany Berlin Max-Schmeling-Halle 4-Feb Germany Hamburg Sporthalle 6-Feb Germany Frankfurt Frankfurt, Festhalle 8-Feb Germany Oberhausen Konig-Pilsener Arena 9-Feb Germany Stuttgart Schleyerhalle 10-Feb Germany Munich Olympiahalle 12-Feb Poland Warsaw Torwar 14-Feb Czech Republic Prague Tipsport Arena 16-Feb Italy Milan Alcatraz 17-Feb Switzerland Zurich Hallenstadion 19-Feb Austria Vienna Stadhalle 20-Feb Hungary Budapest Sportarena 22-Feb Bulgaria Sofia Arena Armeec

CAPACITY 6,000 7,000 2,500 9,920 8,700 9,643 10,902 5,934 6,000 7,468 11,353 6,000 8,556 6,939 10,986 10,274 12,148 11,684 7,602 10,481 3,500 7,089 10,627 8,990 12,408

Papa Roach and others. Company president Chris Nilsson says the first thing that attracted him to them was, “their fantastic live show, their authenticity and the strength of their songs. They really connect with their fans in a unique way.”

work it takes to get there.” Rod MacSween, co-founder of ITB in the UK, also allied himself with 5FDP in 2012, and says the band has “strong songs, a great fanbase and particu-larly loyal and passionate following. “They have a great live show, and are on a path of continual upward im-provement. Myself and [fellow ITB agent] Mike Dewdney work on the band together, it is a team effort and a strong dual performance. Mike also Chris Nilsson Mike Dewdney loves the band and Nilsson was also impressed by the their management.” fact that, “They always had a vision Dewdney says, “The band’s tourto become one of the biggest rock ing history is very impressive and acts in the world and weren’t afraid once they have played a market, to put in the tremendous amount of they always want to return,

AUDIENCE • Issue 241 • February 2020

50 • Feature which is a great credit to them. The fans know the guys’ history and both sides are loyal to each other, it’s a club and you can’t leave.” “At the end of the day, their success is down to the songs, delivered live to perfection with the best production possible. The band are on top of their game and every show feels like Saturday night out.”

Business drive

One element which sets this band apart from most others, is that found-er/guitarist Zoltan Bathory (see panel), has always taken a major role not on-ly on the musical side of things, but in the running of the band as a business. “Zoltan is involved in literally every aspect of the band’s career, whether it’s the merchandise, the creative direction of the show or the songwriting,” con-firms Nilsson. “He has an incredible

amount of passion, tenacity, an impec-cable work ethic and always had a greater vision for the band.” After 15 years, it can be tricky constantly finding new ideas which can ener-gise and reinvigorate yet another tour, but 2020 finds 5FDP accelerating faster than ever. “This is the biggest European arena headlining run in their career,” says Nilsson, “and it’s happening right before their long-awaited new album, F 8 comes out at the end of February. So the timing is perfect and the tour is so-lidifying the band’s position as one of the few big arena rock acts that are here to stay.” With Megadeth and Bad Wolves as support acts, they’ve created a package that can attract a wide range of Metalheads, rocketing through 25 major Eu-ropean venues before heading home to the US for 25 more. The crew of 110 is travelling in seven buses,

European knockout Successfully playing arenas has its rewards and that started on 14 January with the band drawing 5,610 fans to Ukraine’s Sports Palace (cap. 6,000) in Kiev, grossing 8,308,200 hryvnia (approximately $339,753. Other highlights include grossed 23,886,200 roubles (apx. $374,296) at Russia’s Adrenaline Stadium (7,000) in Moscow, followed by their first sell-out, grossing $825,857.52 at Finland Hartwall Arena (10,292) in Helsinki. In the UK, The SSE Arena Wembley. (11,353) in London contributed £449,240 (apx. $584,014) and six concerts in Germany notched up a total of $3,379,644. The show in 5FDP founder Zoltan Bathory’s homeland Hungary grossed 154,483,560 forints (apx. $497,201) at Budapest’s Sportarena (9,277), with the final concert at Bulgaria’s Arena Armeec (12,891) in Sofia, generating 926,559 lev (apx. $511,974.69). In total the tour grossed approximately $12,153,972.

AUDIENCE • Issue 241 • February 2020

Pyrotek working with 5FDP

with their gear in nine trucks, but production manager Bruce Reitner, after more than a decade with the band, has no qualms about keeping everything moving along, despite en-counters with two massively destructive storms along the way. “Storm Ciara gave us a very windy bus ride from Stuttgart to Munich in early February,” he recalls. “We feared for our lives, for real.” With Storm Dennis sweeping across the continent in Ciara’s wake, the band’s trans-European trek has been anything but a breeze, but Reitner is usually too busy to pay too much attention to the weather. “I’ve always engineered their front-of-house

www.audience.uk.com

Feature • 51

What others say

Laszlo Borsos, MD, Live Nation Hungary “This show means a lot here in Hungary. Zoltan Bathory is a Hungarian, he is the leader of the band and I think we can say that he is one of the most famous Hungarian musicians these days. The show sold-out well in advance with the average ticket price of €50 [$54], which is comparable with other shows we have in this genre.” Damien Chamard Boudet, Live Nation France “Our show at the Zenith [9,000] in Paris cam close to selling-out, with ticket prices from €45 to €70 [$49-81]. Seeing Ivan [Moody] walking around, having meals with everyone and spending time with teams is great. You can feel the rising tension in his body getting prepared and ready to release it on stage. He remembers people who were there years ago and that is much appreciated.” Josh Hedge, Project & Operations Manager, Pyrotek, US “Five Finger Death Punch has been our client since mid-2019, and Along with our office team of permitting and logistics staff, and our touring technician Tristan Ford, we have provided the pyrotechnics and flame effects for this tour. Their team has been great to work with.”

[FOH] sound and I’m also cur-rently production manager,” he reveals. “Fortunately, we have a great crew which makes me wearing two hats a bit easier.” “This band enjoys having big, giant things, whether it’s the sound system or the lighting, or the massive skull that hangs above the drummer, with 40ft long crossed baseball bats instead of bones. “They also use a lot of pyrotechnics, but what makes it special is the connec-tion between the band and the audience. Sure, they have all the bells and whistles - lasers, cool lighting and all that - but the important thing is the way the

Niksu Vaisto, Live Nation Finland “Before I first promoted them at a 900-capacity club in Helsinki in 2013, they were so new to me that I had to check them out online before I made the offer. It was not a sell-out, but you recognise a good band when you see one, and they obviously had a professional mindset. Now they’re headlining a virtual sell-out at Hartwall Arena [10,292] with tickets between €45 and €104 [$49-112].” Tor Nielsen, Live Nation Sweden “During the last seven years we have worked with 5FDP intensely, both on festivals and stand-alone shows. They have worked very hard to become one of the very few new’ metal bands that has risen to arena status. This show was totally sold-out way in advance, with the average ticket price being €62 [$67]. The only problem in Stockholm was that our venue, Hovet [8,094] wasn’t big enough for them.”

audience identifies with the words of their songs and with the guys in the band, that’s what’s really incredible.”

Laszlo Borso

Josh Hedge

Niksu Vaisto

Tor Nielsen

Presumably because of his other role as FOH engineer, Reitner can rattle-off the details of their stage set-up with nary a pause

FIRST SWISS SHOW... 3RD MARCH 2009 IN ZURICH AT THE CLUB ROHSTOFFLAGER... 11 YEARS LATER... TH 17 FEBRUARY 2020 IN ZURICH AT THE ARENA HALLENSTADION...

THANK YOU TO THE BAND AND THEIR CREW, TO EVERYONE AT 10TH STREET ENTERTAINMENT AND TO ROD, MIKE AND MO AT ITB. I‘M VERY PROUD TO BE PART OF THIS STEFAN MATTHEY S.MATTHEY@GOODNEWS.CH

WWW.GOODNEWS.CH

www.audience.uk.com

AUDIENCE • Issue 241 • February 2020

52 • Feature for breath. “We’re using an Avid Profile console with Waves plug-ins for the front-of-house mixing desk, with a Clair Cohesion PA, Midas Pro 2-C monitors, along with the DiGiCo SG12 mixing console, all provided by Clair Global.” He professes to have total faith in his road crew, apparently more than he has in some of the local functionaries who show up at some venues to en-force local regulations.

Inspection and scaling

“There are inspectors of various sorts in about half of the towns we play in. We might get the local laser inspector, for example, making sure we don’t accidentally shine lasers into anyone’s eyes. Unfortunately, sometimes these people don’t know what they’re doing, which can be really frustrating. Our own laser people are excellent, very experienced, and they can get irri-tated if the inspectors clearly don’t understand what’s going on.” Reitner is proud that, “The show in Europe is very cohesive, it looks like a big classic rock show.” Even so, he admits that, “Some of these buildings are challenging. For ex-ample, our skull is eight feet tall, but some venues have doorways just seven feet tall, so we have to lie the skull down on its side and put it on dollies to even get it into the venue. “In Italy we played at Alcatraz in Milan which is a 1,700-capacity club much smaller than the arenas we usually play - so we had to scale everything back, including our massive PA system.” Tour manager Dan McKay is a relative newcomer to the team, having started with 5FDP in 2019 but, like Reitner, he has on the whole reveled in the Eu-ropean experience. “The crowds are always so passionate about this band, and the band is so consistently solid every night, it’s been a great thing to witness, particularly the Festhalle [15,179] in Frankfurt, which is one of my favourite venues.”

Time and management

Zoltan Bathory is not your average heavy metal shredder. In fact, he’s not your average anything. Born in Hungary in 1978, he’s a founding board member of the veterans not-for-profit Home Deployment Project in Las Vegas, which works to reintegrate homeless veterans. He sits on the Board of Advisors of the antirhino-poaching organisation VETPAW (Veterans Empowered to Protect African Wildlife). He’s an international award-winning martial arts sportsman, a certified Close Quarter Combat instructor for the US military and a Monster Truck Racing driver. He also manages several bands including Bad Wolves and Fire From The Gods. For our purposes, he’s best-known as the founder-guitarist of Five Finger Death Punch, but it’s all those other interests that make him arguably the most fascinating man in modern metal. How did you come to form 5FDP? “I started the band around 2005, when I was writing what became our first record. Once I had it almost complete, I started to assemble the guys. I’d always had my eye on Ivan Moody of Motograter, because I knew he was a fantastic singer and performer from seeing him live. He and I are now the longest-serving members of the band.” You started in Los Angeles but moved to Las Vegas. Why? “This band spends a huge portion of the year on the road, and Las Vegas is in Nevada, which is somewhat of a tax haven. In Los Angeles, I was paying an LA mortgage, California tax and other living costs which are pretty significant, so moving to Las Vegas made financial sense, and it’s just 45 minutes from LA by plane. There have been several times when I’ve got from Las Vegas to rehearsals in Los Angeles faster than the rest of the band who were still living there.”

Zoltan Bathory

How did you become interested in the business side of music? “When I was young, I was very judgmental and I hated to hear musicians talking about the business, but now I realise it is a business. In the new millennium everything has changed so that if a band today doesn’t have at least one member who understands the business side, then they’re in trouble.” How do you find the time to pursue all of your many interests? “Fortunately, I only sleep four or five hours every night, which gives me extra hours to be doing things. I also like to figure out how to be efficient with my time, what my priorities have to be, what is most essential to be done, how best to use my staff and my time. You have to develop a kind of non-linear visualisation of how best to accomplish all of these things.” What lies in the future for 5FDP? “We have had a turbulent past. I’ve always had to be the sober one. It has been kind of like herding cats - every freakin’ day there was something unbelievable going on. Spinal Tap had nothing on us, but it’s lightening up now. Everybody has been two years sober now, so I don’t have to be running around asking, ‘OK, who set the tour bus on fire?’.” I figure we’ve got this far despite it being crazy-out-of-control, so now that everybody is together I feel we can achieve so much more.”

Although he didn’t enjoy Ciara crowd was particularly special and or Dennis, he points out that bad the pro-duction was great too!” reweather is nothing new for an ex- ports Live Nation Entertainment’s perienced crew. “Last summer we president of UK touring Andy had to evacuate a festival site for a Copping. “They know exactly what moment, because we had tornadoes their audience want and they give brewing in the dis-tance. Luckily we it to them. The fans respond very were able to well to that re-open the “They have wisely not overplayed attitude – it’s a site and the tribal-lifestyle Europe in recent years guys went up thing. Stefan Matthey on stage and “We are played a full talking about set.” what we do next and the band will When the band came into the UK hopefully be back on UK shores very at the end of January for shows at soon.” the Mo-torpoint Arena (7,500) and In Italy, Vertigo CEO Andrea The SSE Arena, Wembley (12,750) in Pieroni is still haunted by memories London, they achieved their highest of the can-cellation of the band’s British ticket sales to date. first headlining show in Milan be“The bands’ interaction with the cause, “it was sched-uled the day AUDIENCE • Issue 241 • February 2020

www.audience.uk.com

W E A R E P R O U D T O B E I N V O LV E D

Headoffice Austria: joerg@beatthestreet.net | klaus@beatthestreet.net | hannes@beatthestreet.net | andreas@beatthestreet.net Office UK Buses: garry@beatthestreet.net Office UK Cars & Vans: ian@beatthestreet.net | mark@beatthestreet.net | courtney@beatthestreet.net Office USA Buses: tim.king@beatthestreet.us | john.aikin@beatthestreet.us www.beatthestreet.net | www.beatthestreet.us

54 • Feature

What others say Martin Nielsen, Live Nation Norway “I did my first show with them in 2009, back when I was still in Sweden. They’ve developed their sound over the years as they’ve kept touring, and I guess they’ve just added fans every time, and now it’s arenas. This year’s show at Oslo Spektrum [9,700] went amazingly well, we sold-out in advance.”

Martin Nielsen

Cory Wilson, Account Representative, Christie Lites, UK “I’ve had the honour of providing equipment for 5FDP’s tours in the US, Canada, and Europe, and watching the band’s continuous growth with production design over the years. For this tour, I’ve provided all the lighting, truss and rigging.”

5FDP at Zurich’s Hallestadion

Andy Copping

after Le Bataclan [terrorist atrocity in Paris, November 2016] at-tack. After a long night of telephone calls and emails with the artiste, manag-ers and agent we decided to cancel the show. “Nobody was in the mood to go on stage and play that night. But we can now think positive and this year’s show is completely sold-out. To me, they’re the new metal generation. They look great, they play catchy songs and they are astonishing on stage. What else could we ask for?” The European leg of this tour ended on

Paul Bradshaw, Booker, Rockhal, Luxembourg “This was the third time they’ve played Rockhal [6,000] and they also stopped by on their very successful run with In Flames in 2017. It was an all-standing show, so only one ticket price of €58, and it sold very well, close to 5,500 tickets. I was generally impressed at the step-up in terms of production values, sound and show. Seeing a band consistently grow bigger each time is rewarding.” Egor from Spika Concert Agency, Russia “We started working with the 5FDP camp back in 2013 and we were growing along with them since then. They always delivered a high-end performances and never disappointed their fanbase, which is also growing in my market. When I first promoted them in Russia at Moscow’s Glavclub [cap. 2,500], I already knew it was a temporary venue for them and we would need to move up soon. Now we have them at Adrenaline Stadium [7,000] and next time we will move into one of Moscow’s arenas.”

22 February at Bulgaria’s Arena Armeec in Sofia and the band is currently taking a well-deserved breather before starting the 25-date American leg with Papa Roach, I Prevail and Ice Nine Kills at the BB+T Center (15,200) in Sunrise, Florida on

8 April. This looks set to be the band’s most successful year yet, but for manager Chris Nilsson, it’s only the beginning. “Our ambition is to keep growing and take over the world.”

Congratulations on your success, proud to be on the team! love Rod, Mike and all at ITB itb.co.uk

AUDIENCE • Issue 241 • February 2020

www.audience.uk.com

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AUDIENCE • Issue 241 • February 2020

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32 • Events

28-29 Feb

21-28 Aug Millennium Music Conference Germany, Berlin www.pop-kultur.berlin

Pop-Kultur

Comprising two events, the WORD! conference for USA, Newand Orleans | www.musicconference.net business SOUND! for live events. Four days of keynote speeches, panels, workshops, mentoring and a trade show. 12-14 Sep

27-29 Feb

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Music Moscow

Russia, Moscow www.musicmoscow.ru

The largest exhibition of music instruments, professional and lighting equipment and Norway, Oslo audio | www.bylarm.no technologies in Russia and surrounding territories Norway-focussed showcase and conference, attracting around 1,800 delegates and featuring 500 15-17 Sep artistes.

3 Mar

PLASA

UK, Conference London International Live Music

www.plasashow.com

Trade event focusing on products and equipment for the live event, corporate, architectural and installation sectors. UK, London | 32.ilmc.com/ipm 18-21 One-day pre-ILMC event focused onSep the production side of live music events. Reeperbahn

16-22 Mar

Miami Music Week

Germany, Hamburg

SXSW

Prolight + Sound

meeting place for technologies and services relating to entertainment, shows and events, 30 Oct audio-visual systems integration and content LIVE UK Summit creation. UK, London 22 - 24 Apr

Trade fair for lighting, spotlighting innovative product development, current design trends.

m4music

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The UK’s only comprehensive live music industry conference, bringing together promoters, festival organisers, Brighton Music Conference venue operators, agents, managers, brands and much UK, Brighton | www.brightonmusicconference.co.uk more.brings together leading delegates and BMC

16-18 Oct

MaMa Festival & Switxerland, Zurich | www.m4music.ch Convention m4music is the most important showcase festival Paris,France | www.mamafestival.com of the Swiss independent music scene. It’s the ideal Festival and convention with a sharp eclectic place to discover emerging artists, andand to meet music programme of concerts and relevant conferences. industry professionals.

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UK, London

A conference dedicated to the music, tech and gaming industries; with panel discussions and artist Vienna, Austria | www.aes.org/events/148/ performances.

AES Convention

Spain, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria www.womex.com

Germany, Frankfurt am Main A conference, trade fair and showcase festival exclusively dedicated to world, roots, www.pls.messefrankfurt.com/frankfurt/en.html folk, ethnic, traditional, local and Diaspora music of all The 25th Prolight + Sound is an nternational kinds.

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Music Expo www.amsterdam-dance-event.nl

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WOMEX

www.musiikkimedia.fi Convention attracting 700 music business professionals, alongside partner showcase festival Lost Miami In Music USA, | www.miamimusicweek.com Miami Music Week is a weeklong marathon of 15-17 Oct electronic dance music events that takes place in Miami, Florida the last-week of March and is PROLightduring + Sound Middle East attended by hundreds of thousands of people from UAE, Dubai all over the world. www.prolightsoundme.com

www.reeperbahnfestival.com USA, Burbank A club festival| www.musexpo.net and conference for electronic and Germany’s largest club festival and conference for the Convention with daily forums, discussions and dance music. Aimed at European labels, publishers, live entertainment Industry. evening showcases at West music agents, managers, artistes and Hollywood DJ’s. venues. UK, London | 32.ilmc.com 24-26 Sep The largest business gathering of international 25-28 Mar 20 Oct-01 Nov promoters and agents in theInternational universe.

13-22 Mar

31 Mar - 3 Apr

Finland, Tampere

3-6 Mar

Festival & International Live Music Conference Campus

3-4 Oct

Music & Media Finland

speakers from The Electronic Music Industry 30 Octseminars and with over 60 talks, 180 speakers, workshops, alongside networking and club events Live Music Business throughout the conference’s duration. Awards 29 Apr - 3 May UK, London www.livemusicawards.co.uk A celebration of the agents, managers, promoters, festival organisers, venues and more The East the Coast Music Association that make music industry great. Canada, St. John’s | www.ecma.com

The ECMA is a place for artists14-25 and members Nov to connect with international guest delegates and educators, offer Melbourne Music mentorship and be mentored by peers and industry Week experts, and ultimately elevate their careers. Australia, Melbourne 19-23 May www.bime.net

A conference dedicated to the music, tech and gaming industries; with panel discussions and artist performances. Canadian Music Week Canada, Toronto | www.cmw.net

Comprehensive music industry conference and showcase festival, covering sectors such as live and Entertainment and music industry light, sound The details shown above have been compiled from information provided to Audience and whilst we make every reasonable effort to ensure accuracy, we cannot be held responsible if data is incorrect. recording. and production event. The details shown above have been compiled from information provided to Audience and whilst we make every reasonable effort to ensure accuracy, we cannot be held responsible if data is incorrect.

Festival Wristbands from The Fabric Wristband Site

Tel: 01803 875364 | sales@fabricbands.com | www.fabricbands.com | Like us on Facebook www.audience.uk.com AUDIENCE • Issue 232 • May 2019 www.audience.uk.com

Fabricbands

AUDIENCE •www.audience.uk.com Issue 234 • July 2019 AUDIENCE • Issue 241 • February 2020

PRODUCTION NEWS

Newsbites

EUROPE UK audio specialist STS Touring Productions, based in Manchester, has opened an office in Leipzig, Germany, following significant expansion of its “spot” individual PA systems elements hire in the last few months. The STS, which works with artistes including Anthrax, Midge Ure and Jack & Jack, gives the company greater capacity to meet international demand, says director Pete Dutton. “Our Leipzig office and warehouse is already provoking massive interest. It gives us the advantage of having equipment in Europe ready to use.” SINGAPORE Generation AV, which distributes the products of UK manufacturer Martin Audio in the AsiaPacific region, has appointed former Vue and EV/Dynacord/Bosch specialist Tony Sawyer as senior APAC applications manager. He is responsible for project support on new and existing products, supporting major touring contracts and carrying out product/ system training across the region. Martin Audio clients include Idles, Duo Pimpelina and the Rock in Rio (cap. 100,000) festival. NETHERLANDS Microphone manufacturer Shure has updated its software to provide extra functionality across a range of products, including compatibility with the widely-used software protocol Dante. Version 4.1 of the update offers expanded support for other third-party systems including Cisco, Zoom Rooms and Microsoft Teams. Shure users include Justin Beiber, Skunk Anansie and Swedish House Mafia.

Winter Jam stage switch UNITED STATES

HE ANNUAL Christian live music tour Winter Jam, whose line-up includes Passion, Crowder, Austin French and Newsong, changed its format from in-the-round to end stage this year. The decision allowed space for a large LED backdrop, a visual focal point for supplier Bandit Lites to work around, according to production designer Jerry Holcomb. “We needed a lot of upstage light looks punching through the bands,” he says. “To accomplish this, we placed Martin MAC III Profiles on the upstage end while the trusses are loaded with Elation Colorado Solo Battens.” The screen comprised eight mil-

limetre “blow through” (partially transparent) panel, allowing him to place Elation Paladin fixtures behind the wall, at venues including PPG Paints Arena (cap. 14,550) in Pittsburgh, Santander Winter Jam 2020 Arena (7,100) in Reading, Pennsylvania, and theBOK Center (19,200) in Oklahoma. “We are using a large number of Solo Battens, and Bandit worked out a way that they can stay on the truss during transport which saves a lot of set-up time,” says Holcomb.

The company supplied more than 130 fixtures for the tour, including Robe BMFL Spots, Chauvet Maverick MK3 Spots, Chauvet COLORado Solo Battens, Elation CuePix WW2 Blinders, Elation Paladins and Martin MAC III Profiles.

Wonderful colours for Krezip NETHERLANDS

ITH A range of new material requiring an unorthodox look, plus existing songs needing a “classic” approach, Dutch band Krezip asked Andre Beekmans of The Art of Light to create a new colour scheme for their reunification show, after a 10-year break. The stage design for the three-night run at Amsterdam’s Ziggo Dome (cap. 17,000) featured main and B stages connected by a thrust, with the main performance space dominated by six ninemetre-high by 2.5-metre-wide upstage video columns. These moved laterally on a tracking system to form multiple configurations. “The biggest challenge was creating

AUDIENCE • Issue 241 • February 2020

a complete show concept ahead of any programming, without the band having played live for so long,” says Beekmans, who developed colours for the new material including “ravishing blue”, “living coral” and “passionate purple”. The show opened with the screen elements together for image magnification (IMAG) so the audience had a clear view. Later, the screen divided to revealed nine columns of six Robe Spiider LED wash beams rigged on ladders, drawing gasps from the crowd, reports Beekmans. Another 41 Spiiders were rigged on side trusses. “I specified Spiiders was for the powerful and refined colour engine which enabled me to get pure renditions of the show’s colours. In one song, the aes-

thetic was composed entirely from the Spiider’s flower effects, magical punctuation in the busy 90-minute.” Thirty-four BMFL Spots sat in the overhead rig, 19 on the overhead trusses with a line of 15 upstage on the deck, used for precise beam work, while 16 BMFL Blades in the front truss did all the key lighting. Beekmans operated the show using a grandMA2 console.

Robe fixtures at work with Krezip

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PRODUCTION NEWS

Quantum takes Kabát Orchestra manoeuvres for hologram concerts to the ‘next level’

CZECH REPUBLIC

EQUIRING “TREMENDOUS” processing power and a warm sound, the Czech band Kabát used one of the latest audio consoles by British manufacturer DiGiCo, the Quantum 7, for its 30th anniversary tour. Visiting venues including O2 Arena (18,000) in Prague, Enteria Arena (10,000) in Pardubice and Werk Arena (5,400) in Trinec, the production deployed a traditional rock set

Kabat in concert

up of 40 inputs, four PA outputs and 24 input/ouputs (I/Os) for effects processers. “Previously, I employed a DiGiCo SD5 console and was very happy with it, but with the Quantum 7 I enjoy my job even more,” says front–ofhouse (FOH) engineer, Marian Starý, “As well as the power and warmth I need, it offers slick design and plenty of connectivity options. I particularly love the new Stadius 32-bit mic Pre-Amp card in the SD Rack, which takes everything to the next level.” The PA is connected over an Optocore optical network fibre loop while, complementing the FOH system, the tour also carried an SD5 console with SD Rack to manage monitors, and a combined L-Acoustics K2 and KARA line array speaker system.

WORLD

DPA for the task. “DPA’s 4099 not only alleviated that problem, but also allowed a close-mic recording [of the show]. Instead of area mic-ing with several large condenser mics, and fighting potential feedback, the 4099s allowed us to mic all of the string players and showcase the talent of each musician. “The audio quality of the DPA mics is flawless,” he says. “The 4099s deliver a sound as close to flat as you can get with little filtering.”

CONCERT CELEBRATING the music of Maria Callas, which used a hologram to represent the deceased opera singer, needed unobtrusive yet high specification microphones for the onstage orchestra, to not detract from the impact of the visuals, according to front-of-house (FOH) engineer Howard Lindeman. The orchestra comprises 14 violins, six violas, five cellos and two upright basses on a tour visiting venues such as Canada’s Orpheum Theatre (cap. 2,800) in Vancouver and Japan’s Orchard Hall (2,150) in Tokyo. “The major challenge on this project was the space mic stands take on a stage,” says Lindeman, who chose 4099 Instrument Microphones by manufacturer DPA Microphones in use for Maria Callas

Rogues back-up the Mofa Gang GERMANY

ERLIN-BASED PUNK band Alex Mofa Gang decided to use an “uncompromising” lighting scheme devised by lighting designer Gabriel Paul, which illuminated the performers solely from the back. He opted to use Rogue R2 Wash and Rogue R1 Wash fixtures by Audio Hire Consoles PA Systems Monitoring Mics & Splits Radio Systems Comms IEMs Outboard Recording Production Rehearsals The Pro Shop Staging Hire Rolling Risers Transport Crewing Technicians

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manufacturer Chauvet Professional for a tour which takes in venues including Slaughterhouse (cap. 2,000) in Wiesbaden, Dresden’s Groove Station (500) and The Tube (500) in Dusseldorf. “The challenge was to ensure that the same visual punch could be delivered in each venue, which was harder in the smaller venues with their small stages,” says Paul.

“I was able to use the zoom feature to create almost beam-like effects from behind the band, which gave visual presence and purpose. “While the rich colours of the Rogue R1 and R2 Wash units accentuated the dramatic performance, two Maverick MK2 Spot and the two Rogue R3 Spot fixtures helped me give the stage greater depth. Drawing on the

intensity and gobo capabilities of these fixtures, I peppered the stage with patterns that reflected the dramatic music.” To illuminate the cyclorama, complete with the band name written large, he used eight COLORdash Batten-Quad 6 fixtures, bathing it in saturated colours with their six individually controllable quad coloured RGBA LEDs.

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AUDIENCE • Issue 241 • February 2020

Tour Plans Artistes

Period/Territory Contact details

5K HD May-Jun Ryan Balch, The Leighton-Pope Organisation Europe T +44 20 8741 4453 ryan@l-po.com 10cc

A guide to Artistes, Tours and Agents Subscribers to Audience can submit their artistes for free listing in Tour Plans, subject to available space and at the discretion of the publisher. Send your info to: info@audience.uk.com

Jun-Jul, Nov-Dec Steve Parker, Miracle Artists World T +44 20 7935 9222 steve@miracle-artists.com

Amy Montgomery May-Sep Matt Bartlett, Midnight Mango Europe T +44 1458 211117 ethan@midnightmango.com Atari Teenage Riot May-Jun Jeff Aug, MAximum Booking Worldwide T +49 (0) 177 642 4221 info@MAXIMUMBooking.com Balming Tiger May-Jun, Oct-Nov Europe

Cils Williams, Primary Talent International T +44 20 7400 4500 cils@primarytalent.com

Baxter Dury May-Aug Alex Bruford, ATC Live Europe T +44 20 7580 7773 alex@atc-live.com Bernie Marsden May-Aug Alec Leslie, ALE Consolidated Europe T +44 1829 730488 alecconsol@aol.com Blackfoot Jul-Aug Jeff Aug, MAximum Bookings Worldwide T +49 (0) 177 642 4221 info@MAXIMUMBooking.com Cliff Bennett & May Mark Lundquist, Mark Lundquist Concert The Rebel Europe Promotions Rousers T +44 14832 24118 Mark@Marklundquist.com

GUN

Artistes

Period/Territory Contact details

Charles Lloyd Jul-Nov Matt Morrell, The Kurland Agency Europe T +1 617 254 0007 matt.morrell@thekurlandagency.com Craig David Jun - Oct Gary Howard, UTA Europe T +44 207 278 3331 garyhoward@unitedtalent.com Dan McCafferty May-Jun Alan Cottam, Alan Cottam Agency with Razamanaz Europe T +44 1254 668 471 alan7000uk@yahoo.com Dave Mason May-Jun Wayne Forte, Entourage Talent Associates Europe T +1 212 633 2600 booking@entouragetalent.com Elles Bailey May Henry Matthews, Midnight Mango Europe T +44 1458 211117 henry@midnightmango.co.uk Eric Johnson Jul-Nov Wayne Forte, Entourage Talent Associates Europe T +1 212 633 2600 booking@entouragetalent.com Foreigner

May-Jul Georg Leitner, Georg Leitner Productions Europe/ T +43 664 111 5177 South America gleitner@glp.at

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AUDIENCE • Issue 241 • February 2020

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Tour Plans Artistes Gore Gore Girls

A guide to Artistes, Tours and Agents

Period/Territory Contact details Jun-Jul Europe

Hilde Spille, Paperclip Agency T +31 24 323 9322 hilde@paperclip.agency

Graham May, Sep Gouldman’s Europe Heart Full of Songs

Steve Parker, Miracle Artists T +44 20 7935 9222 steve@miracle-artists.com

Gretchen Peters

May Europe

Nigel Morton, Moneypenny Agency T +44 1377 240162 nigel.morton@moneypennymusic.co.uk

GUN

May Europe

Martin Jarvis, The Fresh Start Company T +44 141 416 5753 mj@thefreshstartcompany.co.uk

Half Moon Run

May-Aug Europe

Alex Bruford, ATC Live T +44 20 7580 7773 alex@atc-live.com

Holy Moly & The Crackers

May-Oct Europe

Polly Bolton, Strada Music T +1 482 014 971 polly.bolton@stradamusic.com

Jason Derulo

Jun-Aug Europe, Middle East, Africa

Gary Howard, UTA T +44 207 278 3331 garyhoward@unitedtalent.com

Joe Satriani

Jun-Sep Worldwide

Wayne Forte, Entourage Talent Associates T +1 212 633 2600 booking@entouragetalent.com

Murkage Dave

Artistes Julio Iglesias

Period/Territory Contact details Jun-Jul Europe / Africa

Georg Leitner, Georg Leitner Productions T +43 664 111 5177 gleitner@glp.at

Kathryn Williams May Europe

Nigel Morton, Moneypenny Agency T +44 1377 240162 nigel.morton@moneypennymusic.co.uk

Kennedy Jones and The Jones Gang

Mark Lundquist, Mark Lundquist Concert Promotions T +44 14832 24118 Mark@Marklundquist.com

May Europe

King Pleasure and May-Jun the Biscuit Boy UK

Tim Jennings, Big Bear Music T +44 121 454 7020 tim@bigbearmusic.com

Le Vent du Nord

Chris Wade, Strada Music T +44 1482 014971 chris.wade@stradamusic.com

Metronomy

Jul-Aug Europe

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AUDIENCE • Issue 241 • February 2020

Tour Plans Artistes

Period/Territory Contact details

Artistes

Period/Territory Contact details

Levellers

May-Nov Europe

David Farrow, DMF Music T +44 1392 437744 david@dmfmusic.co.uk

Metronomy

Lisa Ekdahl

May Europe

Paul Charles, Asgard Agency T +44 20 7387 5090 pc@asgard-uk.com

Michael Chapman May-Jun Europe

Graham Smout, Strada Music T + 44 1377 217662 graham.smout@stradamusic.com

Lisa Stansfield

Jun Europe

Neil Wornock, UTA T 020 7278 3331 neil.warnock@unitedtalent.com

Misia

May Europe

Live Skull

May-Jun Europe

Rob Berends, Paperclip Agency T +31 24 323 9322 rob@paperclip.agency

Henry McGroggan, Central European Organisation T +48 22 894 60 35 henry@centraleuro.org

Murkage Dave

Oct-Nov Europe

May-Jun Europe

David Flower, SASA Music T +44 20 7359 9232 rab@sasa.demon.co.uk

Cils Williams, Primary Talent International T +44 20 7400 4500 cils@primarytalent.comx

Nazareth

May Europe

Marcus Bonfanti & Band

May-Jun Europe

Sabine Trunzer, Kultopolis T +49 6861 939 9827 agentin@kultopolis.com

Alan Cottam, Alan Cottam Agency T +44 1254 668 471 alan7000uk@yahoo.com

NOËP

May-Jun Worldwide

Maya Youssef

May Worldwide

David Flower, SASA Music T +44 20 7359 9232 rab@sasa.demon.co.uk

Clotaire Buche, Junzi Arts T +33 1 48 07 10 56 clotaire@junzi-arts.com

PK Keränen

Apr-Jun Europe

May Europe

Matt McCluskey, The Kurland Agency T +1 617 254 0007 matt@thekurlandagency.com

Kari Pössi, Blue Buddha Agency T +35 850 564 1950 possi@bbmgmt.com

Pokey LaFarge

May, Jul-Aug Europe

Matt McCluskey, The Kurland Agency T +44 1-617-254-0007 matt@thekurlandagency.com

SAZ’ISO

May-Jul Europe

Chris Wade, Strada Music T +44 1482 014971 chris.wade@stradamusic.com

Sebastian Plano

May-Jun Europe

Angie Rance, UTA T +1 212 633 2600 booking@entouragetalent.com

Sick Love

May Europe

Matt Bartlett, Midnight Mango T +44 1458 211117 ethan@midnightmango.com

Sigrid

May-Jun Europe

Oliver Ward, UTA T +44 20 7278 3331 oliver.ward@unitedtalent.com

Skalpel

Jan-Apr Europe

Ania Aprzec, Central European Organisation T +48 22 894 60 35 ania@centraleuro.org

Lo’Jo

Melissa Aldana

The Soul Rebels

AUDIENCE • Issue 241 • February 2020

May-Aug Worldwide

Alex Bruford, ATC Live T +44 20 7580 7773 alex@atc-live.com

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Tour Plans Artistes

A guide to Artistes, Tours and Agents

Period/Territory Contact details

Steve Hackett

Apr-Jun Worldwide

Wayne Forte, Entourage Talent Associates T +1 212 633 2600 booking@entouragetalent.com

Ten Years After

Apr-Aug Europe

Sabine Trunzer, Kultopolis T +49 6861 9399 827 agentin@kultopolis.com

The Dead South

Apr-June Europe

Ethan Proctor, Midnight Mango T +44 1458 211117 ethan@midnightmango.com

The Lumineers

Jun-Aug Europe

Alex Bruford, ATC Live T +44 20 7580 7773 alex@atc-live.com

The Selecter

Jun-Aug Europe

Zac Peters, DMF Music T +44 1392 437744 zac@dmfmusic.co.uk

The Soul Rebels

May Europe

Matt McCluskey, The Kurland Agency T +44 1-617-254-0007 matt@thekurlandagency.com

The Nomads

Apr-Aug Europe

Rob Berends, Paperclip Agency T +31 24 323 9322 rob@paperclip.agency

The Hot Sardines Apr-May Europe

Matt McCluskey, The Kurland Agency T +44 1-617-254-0007 matt@thekurlandagency.com

The Steve Hillage Apr-Jun Band Europe

Dan Silver, Value Added Talent T +44 207 704 9720 dan@vathq.co.uk

Walk Off The Earth May-Jun Europe

Tipitina

Sean Goulding, UTA T +44 20 7278 3331 sean.goulding@unitedtalent.com

Apr-Jun Europe

Tim Jennings, Big Bear Music T +44 121 454 7020 tim@bigbearmusic.com

Willie & The Bandits

May Worldwide

Tinariwen

May-Jun Europe

David Flower, SASA Music T +44 20 7359 9232 rab@sasa.demon.co.uk

Jeff Aug, MAximum Booking T +49 (0) 177 642 4221 info@MAXIMUMBooking.com

Xander & the Peace Pirates

May Europe

Tommy Emmanuel Jun-Aug Europe

Sabine Trunzer, Kultopolis T +49 6861 9399 827 agentin@kultopolis.com

Alec Leslie, ALE Consolidated T +44 1829 730488 alecconsol@aol.com

Zamilska

May Europe

Toploader

May-Jun Europe

Mark Lundquist, Mark Lundquist Concert Promotions T +44 14832 24118 Mark@Marklundquist.com

Ania Marzec, Central European Organisation T +48 22 894 60 35 ania@centraleuro.org

Zapp

July Europe

S Georg Leitner, Georg Leitner Productions • BR ING ICE IN ONwhilst .B. K • BLACK RK O • Bhave N WILSand shown been compiled from information provided to Audience we ELPER • ALThe details Sabove JO S O IA B O R O • R B C T +43 664 111 5177 G Q • E A IN IC W H S AGE THE ELL every reasonable BIG ND NbeEheld responsible E •isCincorrect. XWmake •ort OE • AL A eﬀ to ensure accuracy, we cannot if data A IN B R N • T B O IE • E N T F • E C L R L E N A gleitner@glp.at A O BETH IG DAVID OYZON R MY V SETTE • • AUDIE

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Artistes

Period/Territory Contact details

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D Quentin Geerinckx, QGBEnterprise ELLI • AN REA OC JAMES HARVEST D49 N A • T +32 475 73 50 -J T Y AL LOW •quentin@qgenterprise.com • BARCLA BLACK TIDE • ALL TIME F SKULLS • ING ME CHAINS • ABBATH • BAND O Oct-Nov Europe

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Festival News Mallorca Live celebrates fifth birthday SPAIN

HE 18,000-CAPACITY Mallorca Live Festival has secured Pet Shop Boys to make their debut in the Balearic Islands for the event’s fifth anniversary. Taking place on 14-16 May at Old Aquapark of Calvià on Mallorca, the band will headlining the Saturday night, performing their Dreamworld: The Greatest Hits Live tour, specially tailored for the festival. Other acts on the event include Crystal Fighters, Michael Kiwanuka, Miles Kane and Kate Tempest. “Mallorca Live is more than a music festival, it’s an experience,” says artistic director and booking manager Sebas-

tian Vera. “We want to leave the attendees awestruck for three days, with the incredible beaches, venues, food and special places to discover in Mallorca …. and of course, the sun.” The festival, the biggest in the Balearic Islands, will also be expanding with a fourth stage dedicated exclusively to electronic music. The renamed Tròpic Stage will feature DJs such as Marcel Dettmann, dOP, Or:La, Red Axes, &ME and Akkan. Elsewhere, the site will be extended to allow more space in The Town area which comprises food concessions, markets and bars. Tickets cost €75 ($79) for the two-day pass and €90 ($95) for the three-day pass.

Rolling Loud to Europe W

PORTUGAL

ORLDWIDE HIP-HOP brand Rolling Loud is launching a 40,000-capacity edition of the event at Praia da Rocha beach between 8-10 July. The festival will see A$AP Rocky, Future and Wiz Khalifa deliver headline performances, as well as appearances from AJ Tracey, Lil Baby and Giggs. “After five years of building our audience in the US brick-bybrick, it was time to bring the party to our friends in Europe. The location on the beach in Portugal is the perfect spot to kick off our European invasion,” says co-founder Tariq Cherif. Along with Matt Zingler, Cherif launched the original festival in Miami in 2015. Last year, the brand hosted the first annual Rolling Loud New York at Citi Field (cap. 41,000) in Queens, as well as its inaugural edition of Rolling Loud in Australia at Sydney Olympic Park (82,000). The brand was due to launch an in Hong Kong last October, but it was called off due to political unrest. The festival brand has US events in Los Angeles and Oakland.

Tour Manager Terry Tucker’s Touring Tribulations

AUDIENCE • Issue 241 • February 2020

by Newman-Parker

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