ACHTUNG MAYBE Germany Market Focus
THE NUMBERS OF THE BEAST Metal Genre Report
SWISS PRECISION 30 Years of Gadget Entertainment FIELDS & YIELDS Festival Season Update
ON TOUR
Movers. Shakers. Manc Night Makers since 1995.
This is entertainment re-imagined. You raised the roof, we raised the game.
We’re bigger and better than ever before! Fans are closer than ever to the action through a 100% increase in standing floor capacity and a total capacity of 23,000. From brand new concourses, VIP areas, backstage and artist spaces, we’ve got it all. Are you ready?
AND COLUMNS
A
of the
IFF
Counting down to the tenth edition of the International Festival Forum
Fields & Yields
Festival organisers provide an insight into the 2024 summer season
This Life On Tour
On the road with Take That as they visit arenas, stadia, and festivals
Swiss Precision
Gadget Entertainment celebrate their 30-year journey to the top
New Bosses Retrospective
Looking back at some of our earliest New Bosses winners: where they are now?
The Numbers of the Beast Kerrang!'s Sam Law provides an in-depth report on the metal genre
Achtung Maybe Germany market report
Mamas in Music
Mary Leay provides encouragement for mothers who wish to remain working in the music industry
The Future of Artist Development
Manasvi Dethekar shares five takeaways from MMF's recent workshop in collaboration with Futures Forum 72 Members’ Noticeboard
ILMC members’ photographs
From the Archives
Looking back at some of the weird and wonderful facts revealed by the subjects in IQ's historic anniversary profiles
Thousands of professionals read IQ every day. Make sure you get the
HOW DO I ATTEND?
IFF is an invitation-only event for booking agents and festivals. If you’re not already on the invitation list and receiving email updates, make sure to sign up at iff.rocks/registration. Registration codes are sent out in our regular emails.
IFF IS 10!
The International Festival Forum (IFF) celebrates its tenth edition this year from 24-26 September. And if you’re a booking agent or festival promoter, you’re invited to the party.
Over the last decade, IFF has grown to become the principal meeting point for the music festival business annually. IFF brings the sector’s main buyers and sellers together for 2.5 days of networking, showcases, and conference sessions.
Last year’s edition saw 1,000 agents and festival professionals attend a sold-out edition at our new location in central London. This year’s IFF, which is presented in association with TicketSwap, will return to award-winning venue Omeara and the surrounding area, with another sell out expected.
Updates for 2024 include a new conference venue, more debates, longer (complimentary) lunches, an expansion of the IFF Campus, and specialist sector events. Meanwhile, the usual mix of showcases, networking, happy hours, and dinners remains at the forefront of the schedule.
IFF is backed by the world’s leading international booking agencies and by many of the top music festival associations and live music companies from around the globe. Agency partners for IFF 2024 include ATC Live, CAA, ITB, One Fiinix Live, Primary Talent International, Pure Represents, Solo Agency, UTA, Wasserman Music, WME, and X-ray Touring. Whilst primary supporters include Ticketmaster, All Things Live, tvg hospitality, and Tysers Live.
With over 750 festivals and tens of thousands of artists represented, if there’s one celebration to have in your diary for September, it’s this one…
Want to know more? It’s all at www.iff.rocks...
WHAT DO I GET?
n Entry to all showcases and parties
n Entry to all conference sessions
n 2 x lunches, 2 x dinners, and refreshments
n Access to the IFF Networking Scheme in order to contact other delegates
n A copy of the IFF Conference Guide, which includes the contact details of delegates, a festival directory, and the up-to-date rosters of all our partner agencies
WHO’S COMING?
WHO’S SHOWCASING?
Companies already confirmed to attend IFF 2024 include 13 Artists, 33 & West, a.s.s. concerts & promotion, Ace Agency, AEG Presents, All Artists Agency, All Things Live, Anteprima, ATC Live, Baloise Session, Barley Arts, Barracuda, Bergenfest, Blue Buddha, CAA, Catch 22, Clockenflap, Colours of Ostrava, CSB, DC Talent Agency, Den Atelier, Doomstar Booking, Double Vee Concerts, DTD Concerts, EXIT Festival, FKP Scorpio, Friendly Fire, Gadget Entertainment, Gracia Live, Greenhouse Talent, Gurtenfestival, Homerun Festivals, Hub Music Factory, IME Music, ITB, Joy, K2 Agency, Karsten Jahnke Concerts, Knock Out, Live Nation, Loud Noise, Mad Cool Festival, M.A.D. Tourbooking, Mainland Music, Midnight Mango, Mojo Concerts, Music Plus Sport, Nameless Festival, One Fiinix Live, Opus Live, Øyafestival, PlayBook Artists, Primary, Pure Represents, Radar Festival, Rock for People, Rockhal, Runway, Smukfest, Solo, Summer Breeze, Superstruct, Sziget, TAKK, TEG Europe, Trutnoff Open Air, Umbria Jazz, Undercover, UTA, Wacken Open Air, Wasserman Music, Wizard Live, WME, X-ray Touring & Zermatt Unplugged.
IFF’s showcase schedule is announced in August and will see 40+ artists perform during the event. Unlike other showcase festivals, our partner agencies decide who performs.
IFF showcases have included early performances from Lewis Capaldi, Tom Grennan, Idles, Yonaka, Bob Vylan, Sam Ryder, Slaves, Raye, Black Midi, Loyle Carner, Dermot Kennedy, Shame, and many more.
THIS LIFE ON TOUR
As one of the biggest boy bands of the 90s, Take That have been selling out venues for more than 30 years, while racking up millions of record sales, numerous awards, and a reputation for putting on spectacular concerts. Current outing, This Life on Tour, is only enhancing the band’s status, while taking the group into new markets internationally. Gordon Masson reports.
As one of the UK’s most-loved acts, Take That have sold more than 14m albums in their home nation alone, consistently setting the bar high with live performances that thrill arena and stadium crowds alike. But unlike many of their peers, the trio of Gary Barlow, Howard Donald, and Mark Owen are determined to further build their fanbase, with the current tour taking them to new territories, as well as markets they haven’t visited in decades. Last year, Take That switched allegiances by entrusting James Wright and Oliver Ward at United Talent Agency to handle their representation globally.
In their native UK, however, the band has a longstanding arrangement with SJM founder, Simon Moran, who is often credited with persuading them to end their nine-year hiatus to reform. That decision saw SJM enjoying phenomenal success on The Ultimate Tour in 2006, in addition to the six tours prior to the current outing.
Nonetheless, Moran admits to being once again surprised by the volume of ticket sales. “We never take anything for granted,” Moran tells IQ, in the knowledge that 700,000 ticket sales makes them the biggest-selling UK tour by a UK act this year. “The high level of the tours previously and the production values thus far have delivered tremendous results, but it’s nice
to see the sales come through to this level.”
This Life marks Take That’s 12th tour, but ever ambitious, the band are taking their production to a number of new markets. “We want to go to places they’ve not been to,” says Moran. “We haven’t played in Leeds before, so to sell-out four shows and 40,000 tickets is a great result.”
And the SJM founder observes that the band’s popularity seems to still be expanding. Detailing the demographics of the ticket holders, he comments, “We still see the original fans from the 90s and then there’s a whole new fanbase that came on board with the Beautiful World [2007], Circus [2009], and Progress [2011] tours, but we also see the sons and daughters of the
Glasgow’s OVO Hydro hosted three nights of This Life On Tour
original fans and maybe even of the ones from [the noughties] as well.”
The fact that the tours attract so many young fans also plays a part in ticket prices, according to Moran. “We’re very careful on pricing to [ensure we] have a wide range. There were probably 15-20% of the tickets priced at £60, which is great value. At the other end, we have some VIP tickets, but we want to keep prices affordable for the vast majority of people.”
New relationships
While Moran promotes the UK tour leg – along with DF Concerts in Scotland and fellow Manchester-based operation Kennedy Street Presents
– globally, Take That are now represented by UTA’s Ward and Wright who went back to basics for the set-up of This Life on Tour.
“We took the decision, collectively with management, to speak to every promoter in every market, including historical promoters,” says Ward. “Essentially, it was an open door, with us being the new agents, to have fresh conversations with everyone to find the right partners for the band in every territory. The enthusiasm amongst the promoters to bring the band to these markets, where they hadn’t been for ages or [had] never been, was massive.”
Disclosing some of the research undertaken in pulling together their proposal for Take
That, Ward explains, “Our IQ Department here at UTA is an amazing resource and using their analysis we could see there were some really prominent markets, at least in terms of digital audience, where the band either had never been or hadn’t been for years. We took that information in good faith to [band manager] Chris Dempsey, and he then took it to the boys to show them there might be some untapped markets that should be considered.”
Wright says, “The boys themselves were very keen on this campaign to do more in these markets and meet these fans for the first time or for the first time in a long time. So it just became a big part of our conversation in the lead up to us working with them.
“We were also able to present an understanding of where fans were looking at things like Take That’s Wikipedia pages, so we really had a deep understanding of exactly where their fanbase was.”
That data has helped Take That plan a routing across 51 cities in 21 countries, as the band plays 79 dates before the end of the year, plus their own bespoke festival in Malta.
Burning ambition
Underlining the scope of the new markets that UTA’s research identified, the tour will see Take That play their first-ever shows in Portugal, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Czechia, and Slovakia. Additionally, Ward and Wright have agreed deals that will see the band performing in Asia for the first time since the 90s and their return to Spain after a 17-year absence.
Wright comments, “There’s a fundamental fear when a band or an artist has been going for that length of time, they want to sort of sit back. But Take That’s energy is quite remarkable – it’s very infectious to be around. And it just drives us to step up and deliver for them.”
And flagging up the professionalism of the artists, Ward says, “We’ve got a band who’ve been willing to do the promo and to go to these markets to excite the fanbase. The best example is Australia, where this will be only the band’s second visit since the 90s. Working with the promoter, Gary [Barlow] went to Australia to launch the tour with four days of packed promo. Credit to Gary, that has helped us have the best sales the band have ever seen in Australia.”
Susan Heymann, chief operating officer at Frontier Touring, which is promoting the band’s six-date tour, is delighted with the band’s return down under. “Gary was adored everywhere he went on his Australian promo trip,” she says. “The band and their team are some of the nicest people we’ve worked with and incredibly hardworking.”
As one of the new promoters on the tour, Heymann tells IQ, “We had a great response to the announcement of their November tour and with the addition of their old friend, Sophie Ellis-Bex-
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OpenAir St. Gallen celebrated its 45th anniversary in 2023 with yet another sold-out edition © Nicole Roetheli
As Switzerland’s leading promoter, Gadget Entertainment has been striving to be the best for three decades, developing organically and welcoming new partners as various independent operations came together under one roof. Derek Robertson charts Gadget’s story, as the company celebrates its 30th anniversary.
Thousands of professionals read
FROM THE ARCHIVES
John Giddings initially applied to multiple record labels for a job because he considered the agency business too “dodgy.” (IQ28)
Legendary production manager Jake Berry got into the business after working for his twin brother who worked on the thatched roof of Rick Wakeman and getting “absolutely plastered” in the pub with the Yes keyboard player. (IQ33)
Geoff Meall’s hardcore breakdancing once resulted in him breaking a rib, but rather than admit to an artist client what had happened, he called off their meeting claiming his cat had died. (IQ40)
To negotiate his way around currency restrictions behind the Iron Curtain, Laszlo Hegedus obtained state permission to buy and export goods, meaning that instead of payment in cash, his deals involved the likes of a 15-metre yacht, balsa wood, pianos, Yugoslav red wine, Fiat 600 cars, airline tickets, and even tourist vouchers for spa holidays. (IQ43)
Pino Sagliocco was responsible for introducing Freddie Mercury to opera star Montserrat Caballé and their resulting hit collaboration Barcelona. (IQ82)
Having liked the ethos behind Luke Rhinehart’s The Dice Man, Alex Hardee put his faith in the dice for his further education choices. However, he dropped out of university in his second year of aeronautical engineering studies. (IQ70)
Growing up in the circus has its benefits. When a rival band thought it would be funny to throw a live snake in Ossy Hoppe’s face, they didn’t count on his vengeance: a live tiger in their room. (IQ59)
Lucy Dickins was so unimpressed at the first concert she ever went to – ABBA – that she “cried because it was too loud.” (IQ113)
In an effort to keep herself busy during the pandemic, Anna Sjölund bought a flock of sheep and taught herself how to look after them, including shearing them for wool. (IQ127)
As a child, production guru Nicole Massey had imaginary friends – Shamen, Camen, and Amy – and much to the confusion of her sister’s friends on car journeys, she would insist on her parents stopping to pick them up from the side of the road. (IQ116)
Thomas Johansson launched his promoter operation EMA because he had been fired by The Musicians’ Union for writing an article about a band whose members were not all MU members. (IQ121)
Former golf professional John Zajonc was back at work as PM for Metallica just days after an accident during the preparation for WWE Super ShowDown in Saudi Arabia, which resulted in his shoulders being ripped out of their sockets and broken. (IQ87)
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