105 An ILMC Publication NOVEMBER 2021 | £25 | €25
RECRUITMENT & RESTAFFING JAVOR TALKS COLDPLAY
INTERNATIONAL
TICKETING
REPORT
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UK & IRELAND STAGE
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QUE • WATONS Y OUT OF ROCK • WERCHTER WEST TONS BOUTIQUE • OF WAY OUTROCK WEST • WE NY • HEARTLAND BOSPOP • BLOCKFEST BOSPOP • WIRELESS FESTIVAL GERMANY • BLOCKFEST • HEARTLAND FESTIVAL • W
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ONE FAMIL UNIQUE Y .FAMILY. FES ONE FAMIL UNIQUE Y FES UNIQUE FESTIVALS. ONE ONE FAMIL UNIQUE Y .. FES
IQ105 CONTENTS
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Cover: Bob Vylan at the International Festival Forum 2021
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EMEA STAGE
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12 NEWS
FEATURES
18 6 8 ERCHTER BOUTIQUE 32 12 WIRELESS GERMANY Index In Brief The main headlines over the last month Analysis Key stories and news analysis from around the live music world New Signings & Rising Stars A roundup of the latest acts that have been added to the rosters of international agents
COMMENT AND COLUMNS
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International Ticketing Report 2021 Breaking new ground Ticketing leaders from around the world Reflecting on the first GEI Summer provide insights into the state of the Edition, Claire O'Neill says the industry business, ahead of the crucial 2022 year is coming of age on the issue of of recovery sustainability Recruitment & Restaffing Keep on rocking in the • tryWA Y OUT WEST As companies around the world to post-Brexit World rebuild their workforce, ahead Marta Pallarès calls for a solution to • of the HEARTLAND FE busiest year in live entertainment the Spanish and British deadlock over history, IQ quizzes some of those tasked visa-free short-term touring with fulfilling the recruitment drive Yellow Goes Green Josh Javor details the planning behind Coldplay's greener world tour Your Shout What is your biggest horror story?
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16 STIVALS. ONE ONE FAMI FAM STIVALS. ONE FAMI STIVALS. 38 Magazine
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SALES RUSH
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f there were any lingering doubts about the appetite for live music, coming on the back of a deadly pandemic that has so far claimed close to six million lives, then the massive on-sales of recent weeks will hopefully have allayed any such fears. Both Ed Sheeran and Coldplay have achieved sales in excess of one million tickets for their 2022 outings around Europe, while other A-list tours including Guns N’ Roses, Eagles, Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters, The Killers, Aerosmith, Kings of Leon and many more are packing out the summer schedule in Europe. Of course, many festivals are also busily announcing on-sales for their long-awaited return to operations, so the competition for fans’ disposable income will be intense with thousands of acts hitting the road in the hope of making up some of the revenues lost to Covid during the past two years. Only time will tell whether the demand will be enough to meet the supply, but there are genuine concerns among the promoter community that there will be events that become casualties of an oversaturated marketplace, which could, in turn, jeopardise the financial viability of entire tours. For now, however, optimism is high, as companies across the live entertainment industry prepare for what is promising to be the busiest year in history for concerts and other events. A major part of those preparations will involve getting the workforce back up to operational speed after many were forced to make redundancies and furlough employees. Countless numbers of other experienced staff also decided to pursue different career paths during the past 18 months and that task of enticing new blood into the industry falls upon some of the HR experts that we speak to in our Recruitment and Restaffing feature on page 32. One of the sectors that is a step ahead of others is ticketing, where staff have been dealing with the numerous rescheduled dates since the pandemic started and are now handling the millions of transactions for the new tours that are going on sale for 2022 into 2023. The challenges facing the ticketing business are not insignificant, but the executives who spoke to IQ for this year’s International Ticketing Report (page 18) suggest that the opportunities that lie ahead could make 2022 and 2023 years like no others. And underlining some of the growing confidence that appears prevalent as 2021 winds down, Lisa Henderson speaks with X-ray Touring’s Josh Javor (page 16) about the strength of Coldplay’s 2022 ticket sales, the band’s aim for sustainable touring, and the sadness that Steve Strange is not around to celebrate the success.
ISSUE 105 LIVE MUSIC INTELLIGENCE IQ Magazine Unit 31 Tileyard Road London, N7 9AH info@iq-mag.net www.iq-mag.net Tel: +44 (0)20 3743 0300 Twitter: @iq_mag Publisher ILMC and Suspicious Marketing Editor Gordon Masson News Editor James Hanley Staff Writer Lisa Henderson Advertising Manager Steve Woollett Design Rather Nice Design Sub Editor Michael Muldoon Head of Digital Ben Delger Contributors Claire O'Neill, Marta Pallarès Editorial Contact Gordon Masson gordon@iq-mag.net Tel: +44 (0)20 3743 0303 Advertising Contact Steve Woollett steve@iq-mag.net Tel: +44 (0)20 3743 0304 ISSN 2633-0636
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IN BRIEF INDEX The concert business digest
IFF enjoys a successful return to a physical event, as more than 600 delegates registered for the event that focuses on booking agents and festivals. The Dutch event sector loses summary proceedings brought against state due to latest Covid-19 restrictions. Deezer acquires a minority stake in UK-based live-streaming company Driift. Live Nation UK hires longtime alternative promoter Ryan Cornall to work on projects including Download festival. FKP Scorpio, DreamHaus and Loft Concerts join forces on a brand new open-air festival, set to launch in Berlin next year. Tomorrowland organisers submit application for third festival weekend in 2022 “out of economic necessity.” Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon apologises to the event industry for botched rollout of country’s vaccine passport app.
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Assomusica slams Italy’s latest rollback of restrictions as being “inadequate and useless.”
DreamHaus enters strategic partnership with advertising agency Publicis Groupe Germany.
Live Nation announces election of Walmart executive Latriece Watkins to its board of directors.
Austrian promoter Barracuda says only one Covid-19 case could be linked to one-day pilot event Nova Rock Encore.
Denmark’s music industry lost over DKK3billion (€403m) in revenue in 2020 due to Covid-19 restrictions, according to a new report. SMS Event Production announces inaugural Wide Skies & Butterflies Festival for Raynham Estate, Norfolk, UK, from 5–7 August 2022. New Zealand festival promoters welcome plans unveiled by prime minister Jacinda Ardern for a vaccine passport that could be operational by November. OVG reveals new partnership with Hamilton Urban Precinct Entertainment Group, which will serve as launching point for a Canadian office. CTS Eventim snaps up German software and hardware developer Simply-X.
Leading Austrian companies Arcadia Live and Ink Music announce new partnership. TEG appoints Rachael Carroll to the newly created role of MD for TEG Sport & Experiences. UK governments announce varying approaches towards vaccine certification and Covid-19 requirements.
Supersonic promoter Creativeman says event was “big step” towards resumption of festivals and concerts in Japan. Veteran agent and founder of live music booking agency Art & Industry, Mick Griffiths, passes away (see page 9). EAA welcomes Arena Gliwice in Poland, and AO Arena in Manchester, UK, to its ranks, taking its total membership to 36 arenas across 20 European countries. Roskilde Festival organisers plan to release 5,000 extra tickets for the 2022 edition, exclusively for fans aged under 25.
AEG Presents’ Rock en Seine festival in France expands to four days for its 2022 return.
Organisers of Bay Dreams in New Zealand cancel their events due to difficulty securing quarantine spots for international acts.
Around 86,000 jobs in UK’s cultural nighttime economy sector lost due to Covid-19 pandemic, according to new report.
Benjamin Leaver is named CEO of festival discovery and booking platform Festicket and its subsidiary, Event Genius.
Eighties rockers Marillion ask fans to become their insurers for upcoming UK tour due to lack of suitable commercial insurance.
Goldenvoice announces new festival California Vibrations, or Cali Vibes, for Marina Green Park, Long Beach, from 4-6 February Thousands of 2022. professionals read
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GERMAN POWERHOUSES UNITE TO LAUNCH TEMPELHOF SOUNDS
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KP Scorpio, DreamHaus and Loft Concerts, three of Germany’s biggest promoters, are joining forces on a brand-new openair festival, set to launch in Berlin next year. Tempelhof Sounds will take place 10 to 12 June 2022 on the grounds of Tempelhof Airport – where the Berlin Festival once took place, and the German Lollapalooza Festival launched in 2015. Headliners will include Muse, The Strokes, and a third act that is yet to be announced. Alt-J, Interpol, Idles, Royal Blood, Two Door Cinema
ART & INDUSTRY FOUNDER MICK GRIFFITHS PASSES
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he live music industry has paid tribute to Mick Griffiths, veteran agent and founder of live music booking agency Art & Industry, who passed away this month. Griffiths formed the London-based agency in 2010 after working as an agent at Asgard for 30 years. During his career, he worked with artists including Mogwai, Ocean Colour Scene, The Go! Team, and Julian Cope.
Club, Mac DeMarco, Wolf Alice, and Big Thief are also set to perform. A mission statement says the event is an “inclusive and cosmopolitan festival” and the organisers “firmly believe in equality, diversity, and sustainability.” “We are very pleased to make this special festival format possible in the capital together with our partners,” commented Stephan Thanscheidt, CEO of FKP Scorpio. “Our guests can expect an event that combines top international acts with an extraordinary open-air experience.
Following his passing, a raft of executives and artists from the live music industry paid tribute on social media. Anton Lockwood, director of live at DHP Family, wrote on Facebook: “Terrible news that Mick Griffiths has died. A proper independent agent who saw things his own way, and always took the creative path.” Ade Dovey, live music promoter at Luminescent Live and former event programming and content manager for ASM Global, tweeted: “Absolutely gutted to hear that Mick Griffiths has left us. Owe this man a lot of gratitude for all the amazing shows we’ve worked [on] and [for] supporting me with putting gigs on over the years. Especially with Mogwai, Julian Cope, The Go! Team and Ocean
Tempelhof Sounds wants to offer ‘programmatic surprises’ and present a diverse line-up.” Fontaines D.C., The Gardener & The Tree, Hinds, Black Honey, Just Mustard, Pillow Queens, and The Pale White are also slated to perform. Other confirmed acts include London Grammar, Parcels, Courtney Barnett, Sophie Hunger, Freya Ridings, Anna Calvi, Kat Frankie, Holly Humberstone, Griff, and Baby Queen. Tickets are on sale now, with day passes starting from €79 and festival passes starting from €179.
Colour Scene.” Promoter Dave Travis wrote on Facebook: “I’ve been booking bands off him for around 40 years, I always enjoyed the bartering over sometimes small amounts on bands fees.” Ocean Colour Scene paid tribute to Griffiths on Twitter: “We are very sad to hear the news that our friend and tour agent Mick Griffiths has passed away. “Mick has helped plan the tours for over 25 years since the days of our album Moseley Shoals. Our thoughts are with his friends and family.” The Go! Team tweeted: “Gutted to hear our live booking agent Mick Griffiths has passed away. Mick wasThousands with us of from the very beginning and such a genu- read professionals ine lover of music. RIP Mick.” IQ every day. Make sure you get the whole picture… SUBSCRIBE HERE Magazine
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NEW SIGNINGS & NEW MUSIC
LISTEN TO ’S ‘NEW MUSIC’ AGENCY PLAYLIST HERE
Each month, ’s partner agencies help us to compile a playlist of new music, much of it released by the new signings to their rosters. Among the tracks on November’s playlist are submissions from ATC Live, ITB, Mother Artists, Paradigm and UTA.
FALLY IPUPA AGENT
B (CD)
Carlos Abreu UTA
TV GIRL AGENT
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uilding a reputation around his ability to transcend genres and rise above African borders, Congolese musical icon Fally Ipupa last year released Tokooos II, which saw him combine R&B and trap beats with more traditional sounds like soukous and ndombolo from the nation of his birth. Tokooos II marked the follow-up to 2017’s Tokooos, an acclaimed LP that became gold-certified in France and led to tours around the world, from stadiums all over Africa to sold-out arenas in Paris and the United States. He also released double-album Control in 2018, a 31-track project that African music platform Afropop described as a “return to his classic rumba and ndombolo sound, aimed directly at the Congolese market.” Amassing 800 million streams across his back catalogue, Fally Ipupa started out with soukous band Quartier Latin International before launching a massively successful solo career, winning ‘Best Francophone Artist’ and ‘Best Video’ (for single Sexy Dance) at the 2010 MTV Africa Music Awards.
(US)
Guillaume Brevers Hometown Talent
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n the surface, TV Girl is a sunny, throwback splash of 60s French pop and southern California soul. Yet, under that shiny veneer lays a dark heart, beating with sharp wit and cynical alienation, and the music is all the more alluring for it. TV Girl, composed of Brad Petering, Jason Wyman, and Wyatt Harmon, was formed in 2010 as an outlet to blend the love of Spector-esque, girl-group pop with an emerging interest in hip-hop. In 2014, TV Girl unveiled their first full-length, the critically acclaimed French Exit. The album keeps true to the TV Girl charm with a bevy of electronic samplings infused throughout light and airy guitars, whirring organs, and ethereal vocals. However, this record is not all summer nostalgia, and there are plenty of times where French Exit reads like disaffected fiction. The moody characters in these songs are fuelled by revenge as often as love, underpinned by desperation and a deep yearning to connect. The band takes self-identity and ponders it alongside themes of sexuality, isolation, and social status. To date they’ve released three albums: French Exit, Who Really Cares, and Death of a Party Girl.
New Signings
ARTIST LISTINGS A-Wall (US) Guillaume Brevers, Hometown Talent Anchorsong (JP) Darren James-Thomas, FMLY Agency Andy Bell (UK) Rob McGee, FMLY Agency Benson Boone (US) James Whitting & Ryan Penty, Paradigm Beth McCarthy (UK) Sol Parker & James Whitting, Paradigm Billy Strings (US) Olly Hodgson, Paradigm Carwash (US) Guillaume Brevers & Joren Heuvels, Hometown Talent Circe (UK) Alice Hogg, ATC Live Cold War Kids (JP) Darren James-Thomas, FMLY Agency Coloray (NL) Tom Manley, ATC Live DJ Voices (US) Peter Beer, FMLY Agency Don’t Problem (UK) Rob Gibbs, Progressive Artists Donae’o (UK) Sam Gill, Earth Agency Dream Nails (UK) Graham Clews, ATC Live Elaine (US) Ari Bernstein, ICM Partners Emeline (US) James Whitting & Anna Bewers, Paradigm Etta Marcus (UK) Alex Hardee & Anna Bewers, Paradigm Fally Ipupa (CD) Carlos Abreu, UTA Goodboys (UK) Nick Matthews, Paradigm Hater (SE) Rob Gibbs, Progressive Artists J Wax (UK) Emile Martin, FMLY Agency Joe Unknown (UK) Alex Hardee & Tom Taaffe, Paradigm Karenn (UK) Jim O’Regan, Paradigm KEG (UK) Rob Challice, Paradigm
KennyHoopla (US) KiD RAiN (UK) Kidä (XK/AL) Magdalena Bay (US) Marina Trench (FR) Micromoon (UK) MIKE (US) mustbejohn (UK) Nikitch & Kuna Maze (FR/BE) Orions Belte (NO) Phem (US) RinRin (AU) Samuel Jack (UK) SG Lewis (UK) Silhouettes Project (UK) Skillibeng (JA) Sophie Faith (UK) The Royston Club (UK) The Velveteers (US) Tommy Lefroy (UK/US) TV Girl (US) Varg (SE) Water From Your Eyes (US) Wesley Gonzalez (UK)
James Whitting, Paradigm Sol Parker, Paradigm Sam Gill, Earth Agency David Exley, Paradigm Alasdair Howie, FMLY Agency Felipe Mina Calvo, ATC Live Guillaume Brevers, Hometown Talent Sinan Ors, ATC Live Andre Marmot, Earth Agency Paul Buck, Paradigm Alex Hardee, Paradigm Geoff Meall, Paradigm Alex Hardee, Paradigm Steve Nickolls & James Osgood, UTA Marlon Burton, ATC Live Nick Matthews, Paradigm Marlon Burton, ATC Live Geoff Meall, Paradigm Anna Bewers, Paradigm Olly Hodgson, Paradigm Guillaume Brevers, Hometown Talent Lucy Atkinson, Earth Agency Guillaume Brevers, Hometown Talent Rob Gibbs, Progressive Artists
HOTTEST NEW ACTS THIS MONTH 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
LAST MONTH 6 22 19 5 17 9 31
PREDICTIONS FOR NOVEMBER 2021
ARTIST CKAY (NG) NARDO WICK (US) WET LEG (UK) ELLIE DIXON (UK) YEAT (US) MADDS BUCKLEY (US) MIKE DIMES (US) GRENTPEREZ (AU) LEITH ROSS (CA) EKKSTACY (US) LYN LAPID (US) JADE LEMAC (CA) JVKE (US) SIOUXXIE (US) JACK KAYS (US) XXKATUSJINSUX (US), HOTBOY WES (US), GUCCI DASSY (AU), GAYLE (US), NALA SINEPHRO (UK)
Artists not in the current top 15, but growing quickly
Fastest growing artists in terms of music consumption, aggregated across a number of online sources.
OCTOBER 2021
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Comment
Breaking new ground Reflecting on the GEI Summer Edition, AGF’s Claire O’Neill says the industry is coming of age on the issue of sustainability.
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n 2021, sustainability in live music has become such a hot topic that we needed not one but two Green Events & Innovations (GEI) conferences. After the Summer Edition, it became clear that the industry is “coming of age” on sustainability. I’m not talking body hair and sexual impulses – they’ve always been a prolific feature of our industry; it’s other features of transformation from “childhood” to “adulthood” that we’re displaying. There’s a notable increase in recognition of the purpose behind what we do and why. Perhaps because of the prolonged grounded months of 20/21, we’ve had space to reflect on what’s important, to see the impact of actions, positive and negative. Glimmers of emotional maturity are showing where it might have been lacking in the past. Another factor is stepping into our responsibility. It isn’t enough to just ‘not be shit.’ We must recreate our structure of business, communication, and where we place value. Never have we experienced such engagement on the topic of sustainability across all levels of the live music sector, from grassroots to c-suites – venues, promoters, agents, artists, production. All parts of the industry are uniting towards a common goal of shared learning and understanding, to not only reduce our fuel-use, plastic-use, and meat consumption etc, but to create equitable environments that nurture positive outcomes. So why is this happening now as AGF enters its 16th year and GEI its 14th? Whilst there have been pioneers and innovators present all the way, the majority of the industry has been slow off the mark to respond to the sustainability challenges we face. It is fair to say that it is human or indeed cultural nature to go with the path of least resistance, and only get things done when there’s a looming deadline. For decades it’s been made easy to make healthy profits by exploiting other people and our ecosystem – now it’s coming back to bite us on the bum. There is also a global shift in awareness, which is influencing government policy; infrastructure and logistics; marketing communications; education systems; and fields of research. Our industry doesn’t exist in a vacuum. The ignorance of sustainability was a shared global condition, as much as its
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current focus is (save for indigenous communities who have lived in reciprocity with the rest of nature for millennia). We’re also now presented with solutions and information that was previously not available to us. After all, we generally create mind-blowing and unforgettable entertaining and emotional experiences, not synthetic fuels, transport networks, and renewable energy. So back to the boots on the ground. GEI welcomed delegates and speakers from all over the globe, from elders of indigenous communities to execs of global promoters. The conference featured a collective industry-first when LIVE Green launched its declaration, asking the sector to commit to reaching net-zero by 2030. Elsewhere, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Studies shared their tour-impact research commissioned by Massive Attack, and last week Coldplay were back in the press with their actions, intentions, and failings for creating a greener tour. All of these actions are vitally important to put wind in the sails of where we need to get to. The trend of artists announcing or at the very least aspiring to greener tours, should and will increase. There are enough eyes, expertise, and open dialogue that the industry will be able to work to facilitate this, with any dubious attempts at PR stunts and greenwashing being quickly washed out of the game. What’s more, it is essential that the business provides a green industry, so that artists can confidently use their profile to engage and inspire billions of people. We will return for GEI 14 in March, alongside ILMC and IPM. We will regroup to share each sector’s actions and obstacles, as well as to report on the work done since our frenzied reboot of the industry across multiple countries. Testing how far along we have come and making sure we are all ‘walking the talk.’ At the summer edition of GEI, a deeply respected and internationally renowned elder from the Diné tribe, Patricia McCabe, Woman Stands Shining, reminded us that this vast and staggering transition is not going to be painful; it is going to be deeply satisfying. And I wholeheartedly agree!
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Comment
Keep on rocking in the post-Brexit world Primavera Sound’s Marta Pallarès calls for a solution to Spain and England’s deadlock over visa-free short-term touring… before it’s too late.
“We’ve followed all the rules Driven miles out of our way Paid tons extra to do this properly We’ve had three stamps But now back in England They are refusing to stamp our carnet For some bizarre reason”
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ut of context, these lines could sound like a Pulp song complaining about the bureaucratic formalities we common people have to face when going through customs. But this is not a song and it is not funny – although it does come from the wit of a British band. This is the true story of BEAK touring France, shared via Twitter some weeks ago. But hey, at least the French audience was able to enjoy that performance. Here, in sunny Spain, the sun is not shining on British artists anymore. We are not even able to stamp those carnets. Alas, Spain is one of the very few countries in Europe that hasn’t come up with a plan, since 1 February 2020, to solve a very simple problem: how can artists from the UK tour our country without losing all their savings, or their sanity, in endless and highly invasive procedures? If 20 countries all over the EU have found an answer to that, why can’t we? It feels so long ago but if you are Spanish, chances are that the last gig you attended without a face mask, a negative PCR test or a Covid certificate, was by a British band. Spain is (was?), in fact, the third touring market for British bands. During the final weeks before the pandemic hit, bands like Fat White Family, Stereophonics, and Kaiser Chiefs toured in my country: now, they won’t be able to without lengthy processes and a lot of money spent on working visas. The ball keeps bouncing from the UK court to the Spanish one and back. Like in a messy divorce where the alleged adults keep fighting and making reproaches, it is always the kids
who suffer. In this case, the ‘kids’ being the smaller- and medium-sized bands, as well as the smaller- and medium-sized venues and their teams. In another typical “the winner takes it all” case, artists and concert venues that don’t count on big teams to deal with this level of logistics have to use their own time to do so, taking focus away from what’s really important: making music, promoting it, and bringing it on stage. No more, no less. We warned about it some months ago, that using Covid as a rain check to sideline topics such as gender equality could become a real problem. Not only a problem but a humongous, short-sighted mistake. With Brexit, this has happened already. We knew this would happen, and we sat on our comfy couches just waiting for the world to burn. Well, breaking news: it is burning already. Does this mean we can’t find a solution to stop the fire? I certainly hope we can. In industries such as digital business, European initiatives like the single digital market have boomed during the last few years. Even though the ideal system has not been fully set yet, we as a continent have understood that we can’t be competitive in a global world if we don’t work together and find common ground and regulations. In music, we should also stop glamourising the lone-wolf attitude. In our hyper-connected world, how on Earth – literally – is it possible that we keep building more useless fences? Regardless of what ballot boxes say, Brexit has proved that we are indeed part of a whole. If a part of the system fails, we all fail… unless we find a way to fix it. And now, we are failing. Thinking ahead and collectively, enhancing European projects and associations, adapting faster to our current reality, and coming up with solutions that work from “us, the continent” to “you, the island” is the only way. Maybe we are a little bit too late for this one, but if our business has survived a pandemic and is able to do so with this political rift, we will be pretty well prepared for what comes next. I hope.
“Here, in sunny Spain, the sun is not shining on British artists anymore”
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Comment
Yellow Goes Green Josh Javor reveals the emotions of overseeing remarkable ticket sales on Coldplay’s 2022 stadium tour without mentor Steve Strange
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n mid-October, X-ray Touring-repped heavyweights Coldplay announced their first tour in four years in support of their new album Music of the Spheres. Having previously put touring plans on hold to investigate how to make their concerts more sustainable, Coldplay’s new announcement came hand-in-hand with a 12-point plan for cutting their carbon footprint. The eco-friendly 2022 tour is currently slated to visit 40 stadiums around the world and one festival, with more dates to be announced, meaning that it could end up being the highest grossing tour of the year. For X-ray Touring’s Josh Javor, who planned the tour alongside his late partner, Steve Strange, seeing the groundbreaking tour come to fruition is bittersweet. Here, Javor tells IQ’s Lisa Henderson about how the pair planned a tour of this nature; when he sees the industry recovering; and how he’d celebrate with Strange if he were here.
IQ: How would you describe the on-sale for the European leg of Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres – World Tour?
JJ: It was insane... we pretty much sold out. We sold more than a million tickets just in Europe and added extra dates in the UK, France, Germany, and Belgium. At the moment, we’re discussing adding more dates. The US also went on sale that day and Latin America had already gone on sale and sold out. You planned this tour with your late partner, X-ray Touring cofounder Steve Strange. On a personal level, what is this moment like for you?
This is one of the most bittersweet moments of my life. This tour is something Steve and I planned for a very long time and because he’s not here to revel in the success, it feels very bittersweet to me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m ecstatic at how well it’s done, but the fact that Steve, unfortunately, didn’t make it to see our plan come together and work so well, brings things down to earth. It’s not the same on my own. My constant thought has been, I wish Steve was here to see this. How do you think Steve would react to the success of Coldplay’s on-sale?
He would be on another planet. He was a member of the family when it came to this band and he would’ve been jumping
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for joy. We’ve all talked about it – management and ourselves – and about how amazing Steve would have thought this is. Normally, Steve and I would get to 12 o’clock on the day of an on-sale – after selling a million tickets – and we’d be on our second bottle of champagne. How did you approach ticket pricing post-pandemic?
Just being realistic. You just have to know what the market is and what people can afford. One way of doing that is to stay very grounded and down to earth. I think we’ve got ticket prices spot on. Tickets for this tour are slightly more expensive but not by much. Without the pandemic, we could have leant towards increasing them from what they are now, but you have to take everything into account. How are you feeling about the business in general next year, and has this on-sale given you extra confidence?
Yes and no. It’s very difficult to predict what will happen. I think it’d be stupid to give any assurances, but I still worry about the industry between now and next summer. We’ve got a lot of shit to go through and a lot of hoops to jump through to get to where we want to be, but the on-sale is very positive, definitely. I think the industry as a whole is very happy and proud that the public is still interested in going to concerts on a grand scale. I think, in this instance, when one of us succeeds, in a way, we all succeed because we’ve been up Shit Creek for so long. Do you think this eco-friendly tour will become a blueprint for other bands of the same calibre?
I hope so. It’s something that everyone should be striving for, and just as Coldplay have said, they might not get it right, but at least they’re trying. They’re not just talking about doing something, they’re leading by example. I think you do need bigger artists to show other people how it could be possible to change. It’s very difficult to do an eco-friendly tour when you’re at a smaller level than Coldplay. You have fewer decisions that you can make about how you tour when you’re a smaller artist. If you’re playing a club or a theatre, you don’t have the same choices as if you’re playing a stadium. It’s about the
The past two years have been turbulent for the global ticketing business, but with consumer demand for live events now at an all-time peak, the challenges of fulfilling the most packed event schedule in history will test ticketers to the hilt. Gordon Masson talks to the experts…
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n years gone by, IQ’s annual examination of the ticketing business has merited a standalone book – the International Ticketing Yearbook (ITY). However, the pandemic decimated the business, globally, with many operations forced to run with a skeleton staff that had to deal with the thousands of postponed and rescheduled shows and events, often multiple times, as well as the complexity of refunds and/or voucher schemes. As the countdown to 2022 begins in earnest, the ticketing sector was among the first in the live entertainment sector to start bringing its employees back into the workplace. And the results have been phenomenal. On-sales such as Ed Sheeran and Coldplay have both seen more than a million tickets snapped up, while hundreds of artists and acts are planning to hit the road, meaning many venues are experiencing seven-days-a-week bookings for the first time in their history. Covid willing, 2022 should be a record-break-
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ing year for the live events industry. But there are still significant territories operating under pandemic restrictions, and the prospect of more virulent variants of Covid-19 emerging over the winter months in the northern hemisphere remains an all-too-real threat for promoters and event organisers everywhere. Setting such concerns aside, momentarily, IQ spoke with a number of leading industry executives about the challenges – past, present, and future – to gauge the health of the international ticketing business.
CHANGING LANDSCAPE The impact of the coronavirus pandemic is driving seismic changes in the ticketing sector worldwide, acting as a catalyst for digitisation but also prompting certain operators to question their participation in the business. Ticketmaster president, Mark Yovich, says,
“We’ve been leading the move to mobile tickets for some time now, but the pandemic has fasttracked their adoption industry-wide. The benefits were always there but are even more clear-cut in a post-Covid world.” He explains, “For the fan it provides a convenient and frictionless experience. For the event organiser, more insight than ever before. In the past when someone would buy four tickets, it was a matter of guessing who those other three tickets went to. Now we know who walks through the door and can serve them up a more personalised and enjoyable experience from the moment the ticket lands in their Ticketmaster account right through to showtime.” Digital services are also a priority for CTS Eventim chief operating officer Alexander Ruoff. “The entire industry must work to get fans back to shows in similar numbers to 2019,” he says. “Ticketing will become even more digital. In markets where electronic entry-control has not
REPORT INTERNATIONAL TICKETING
Given that it will be five years since Adele last performed live, it is no surprise that her 2022 shows have been selling out within minutes.
been standard, we will see this after the pandemic. As digitalisation continues, we will be able to offer exciting new products. One example is the EVENTIM.Pass digital ticket, which has already been used for Ed Sheeran's European tour.” Ruoff explains that EVENTIM.Pass tickets can only be resold via the company’s official resale platform, fanSALE, “which means they are fully traceable,” he says. “It is an important contribution in the fight against the unauthorised secondary ticket market.” Jamie Scahill, head of marketing for Skiddle, says even clients that were reluctant to adopt digital and paperless systems are now changing direction. “For example, during the pandemic, Skiddle provided ticketing for local football clubs in the UK using our RapidScan ticket scanning app software to provide contactless entry,” he says. “Such clubs had not adopted paperless entry pre-pandemic and this trend is looking set to continue across a range of sectors in the events industry.”
That’s a development that Richard Howle from The Ticket Factory welcomes. But he recognises that economic hardship has taken its toll. “Commercially, it has made us more risk averse,” he admits. “I know that some promoters and organisers are struggling to get advances as the ticketing industry becomes more cautious. “The reality of the liabilities that ticket companies carry in the event of cancellation has really hit home during the pandemic and that will reflect attitudes and commercial decisions going forward, particularly for new promoters and event organisers,” he warns. The advantages of digital tickets are crucial to Fair Ticket Solutions, whose founder & CEO, Alan Gelfand, notes, “The need to know the identity of every attendee has finally come to fruition. This will ultimately move the industry to a futuristic goal of some form of biometrics becoming an attendee’s ticket, such as their face or palm. Additionally, an attendee’s health sta-
tus will now have to be linked to their ticket or else physical checks will still have to be applied at gate entry causing delays nobody wants.” While debates over biometric tickets will be a feature of industry conferences in the months ahead, the pandemic has also caused untold financial damage to the ticketing sector, meaning that some of the smaller operators in particular may not re-emerge. “The pandemic has weakened the players who were in a more challenging position, notably in terms of cash flow,” states Weezevent CEO Pierre-Henri Deballon. “It also highlighted the difficulties of some players in managing high-volume refunds, while it has underlined the advantages of having access to more flexible and adaptable technology like Weezevent.” Thousands of Benjamin Leaver, CEO, Event Genius & read Feprofessionals sticket, claims that event organisers who adopt IQ every day. Make contactless and cashless technology will benefit. sure you get the “A survey we did recently revealed that over 70%
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Feature_Recruitment & Restaffing
RECRUITMENT & RESTAFFING As live entertainment operators around the world predict that 2022 could be a record-breaking year, the scramble is on to get depleted staff numbers back to full strength. Gordon Masson reports.
A
recent report in the UK suggested that 90,000 jobs had been lost in the cultural sector because of the Covid-19 pandemic, suggesting that millions of people globally have experienced an impact on their livelihoods and many may have already taken the decision to work in a different sector. That dilemma is just one of the challenges that human resources executives and recruiters are facing ahead of a year that many live entertainment experts are predicting will be the biggest ever for concerts, festivals, and other shows. “Just before Covid we had about 110 employees; now we’re at somewhere between 85 and 90, but we want to be at 120 by the end of this year,” reveals TicketSwap corporate recruiter Ruben Pluimers. Heather Papst, who is director of people, North America, for TAIT, tells IQ, “In terms of
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our employee population, at the end of September our headcounts were at 85% of our end-ofyear target, so we are on track to meet the goals that we set out in terms of recovery, readiness, and mobilisation. “We have recalled and rehired just about everybody from the group that was furloughed. We’ve also rehired people who actually left us and had to take another job in the interim, and then we have 100-plus brand-new hires to the organisation.” Papst adds, “In the US, it’s a tight labour market. Our unemployment rate keeps dropping, which is obviously a good thing overall, but it means that there is more fierce competition for talent.” Detlef Kornett, a member of the executive board of Deutsche Entertainment AG (DEAG), which has operations in Germany, Austria, Denmark, Switzerland, the UK and Ireland, notes that
each country has its own challenges and it may well be that business will not be up and running everywhere until Q2 or even Q3 of next year. “Restaffing is, of course, different country to country, but with continental Europe we have been able to keep staff during the crisis because there have been much better support mechanisms on the part of the governments – more favourable furlough schemes and other systems – so the staff are all fully on board, even if they are not all working at this time,” says Kornett. “So we still have people on furlough, but in terms of overall numbers we’ve actually got more people than pre-Covid because certain sectors, such as arts and exhibitions, have grown and needed to employ more people. Thousands of “When we look at the UK, professionals we’re a little bitread below staff numbers compared to butMake IQpre-Covid, every day. that also has to do with changes in our makeup sure you get the – we lost a theatre to renovation in the West End
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Recruitment & Restaffing_Feature
Hiring in the live music business?
Leading companies across the industry use the newly revamped IQ Jobs board to reach a highly targeted audience of 15,000+ music industry professionals every month. Each listing is also included in our IQ Jobs mailer, which is distributed to all IQ Index subscribers. To make sure you find the right candidate, list your next role at: iq-mag.net/jobs For more information, and discounts on multiple listings, contact ▶
Steve Woollett steve@iq-mag.net +44 (0)7469 872 279 Magazine
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Your Shout
Waking up at 5.30am to 102 texts, which started with “Had his passport stolen” and concluded with “Couldn’t get hold of you so decided to go into Canada anyway for these two shows; USCIS said he should be fine to get back into the US, they said they’ll remember who he is.” Mark Davyd | Music Venue Trust
What is your favourite horror story?
TOP SHOUT This story comes from my mum and dad – it’s pretty wild… “We were staying in a hotel in Limerick and went out one evening, found we were low in petrol, couldn’t find a garage, so turned down a side road and found a garage/pub with very dated petrol pumps. “A man came out and filled the tank and invited us into the bar. It was a very old pub with no women, so I was a bit of a surprise to them... old men in flat caps sitting round the fire murmuring to themselves. “Dad asked for a G&T for me with ice and lemon and the bartender looked amazed… he simply replied with “no ice,” so Dad just had a pint of Guinness. He asked where the loo was and was told to just go out the back, and when I asked, I was told to go upstairs across an attic filled with old stuff to what seemed like a long-drop loo. It was all very old fashioned, men’s clothing etc, maybe from the early 1900s. We quickly drank up, got in the car, and left, as eyes followed us everywhere we went. “The following day, we asked people about the garage and the people there. Everyone we spoke to said that the road and pub didn’t exist, at all! Eventually someone heard our story and mentioned it to their old father who said he remembered a place as we described existing there a very long time ago, but… it was blown up pre-1916!” Rob McGee | FMLY Agency
There have been a few and most of them involve Russia. One that comes to mind: there’s about 100 of us flying between Moscow and Novosibirsk with a bunch of musicians including The Shamen, in a plane chartered by the promoter from “some friends in the oil business.” It’s a red-eye flight; everyone’s snoring away. A couple of hours in, one of the organisers wakes me up and says we have an unscheduled stop. I say, “Oh, why?” He says, “Because we’re running out of fuel…” Suffice to say that we landed, refuelled, and continued the journey, otherwise I’d have been asking where the parachutes were… Nick Hobbs | Charmenko
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How about two weeks ago at Focus Wales. I got a positive Covid test on day one (almost certainly a false positive), so spent three days in a crap hotel room in Wrexham. The Wi-Fi didn’t work, there was a collection of dead flies on the windowsill, a crap disco on the ground floor, nightly street fights at 4am close to my room, and garbage collection started at 5.30am. I understand everyone else had a good time. Martin Elbourne | The Great Escape I found a limb on a beach when I was a kid. A human arm. The authorities got involved… Gordon Masson | IQ
In the late 80s, I was in Brussels for one of the twice-yearly meetings of The Network a.k.a. Network Europe, a meeting place for like-minded independent bookers/agents/promoters from all over Europe. It was a dreary Sunday morning and we assembled at the venue – Plan K, I think – where we were going to have a meeting. Our Belgian host with the key to the building was in a traffic jam, so we decided to find a dry and warm place, without knowing how to alert others who were not there yet, such as legendary promoter Igor Vidmar from Slovenia. We had never met before. We walked to some bars around the corner, and entered the second one for no apparent reason. It was pretty dark inside but warm and dry. Everybody sat down, wondering when and where we would meet our host, and also Igor. Drinks were being ordered while I walked toward the saloon doors for the restroom. The doors suddenly opened from the inside and a man dressed in black, with black hair, wearing dark shades and black gloves came out, his hand reaching out to me as he spoke: “You must be Rob Berends. I’m Igor Vidmar. I knew you would be here.” Rob Berends | Paperclip Agency We had a headliner once who also regularly appears on a popular TV programme. On the day of a sold-out show we hear from their agent that they had to reshoot a key scene, meaning he wouldn’t make it to the venue until halfway through his original set time – but “that won’t be a problem, right?”! Due to licensing, it wasn’t feasible to push the show time back. It would be possible if the artist travelled by helicopter, but obviously we have a difference of opinion regarding who would pay. But I had an idea: I turned to Google to ask how many helicopters there are in the country, then I divided that by the population, and then looked at the headliner’s social media follower count. I calculated that, statistically, seven of his followers own helicopters – and surely there’s no better use of having a helicopter than ferrying celebrities in distress. I put this to the agent, and long story short, within five minutes Thousands of sending of an “SOS” tweet, the artist secured a free heli-read professionals copter ride courtesy of a local hotel group. All itMake IQ every day. cost? A pair of tickets to the show. sure you get the Andy Smith | From the Fields
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is now
New branding: “SC Exhibitions” stands for “Semmel Concerts Exhibitions.” We thought a little refresh would be nice, so we have rebranded to “Semmel Exhibitions.” New exhibition celebrating 100 Years of Disney: Apart from working on a new logo, we are in the middle of the creative development of the official exhibition marking the centennial of The Walt Disney Company. We will produce two exhibitions: one touring the Americas and the other a global tour. The first exhibition will open in February 2023 at The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. We are now planning the 2023–26 tour, so please contact us if that sounds interesting to you.
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The stunning reconstruction of the Royal tomb and treasures in this huge historic exhibition is now open in Seoul at the War Memorial of Korea until April 2022. The Europe tour opens next on September 10 at the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museum in Mannheim, Germany. There are three iterations of our current exhibition touring worldwide, and the 2023–25 tour is now in planning. We would love to hear from you!
For people around the world, Marvel conjures up images of one thing: super heroes. Whether in the vibrant colours of comic books, or the all-consuming brilliance of the big screen, Marvel characters have captured imaginations for a little over 80 years now. The exhibition is open until the end of October at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, where we are sold out almost every day. We are now planning the Europe and world tour from the end of 2023. For a list of contacts and to subscribe to our newsletter visit www.semmel-exhibitions.com
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