John Giddings (iq issue 28)

IQ Live Music Intelligence

Live Music Intelligence March 2010, Issue 28

The Soloist

John Giddings profiled Voyage of

Discovery

ILMC 22 panels revealed Northern

Rock

Nordic market focus European

Arena Report

The big rooms bust recession

2020 vision

March 2010, Issue 28

Sounding out the future with our panel of industry experts The Performance the Chicken; the Recording the Egg: Chuck D The Fountain of Youth: Rob Light The Bridge to Normal Life: Chris Difford Giving Up the Road: Andy Edwards

The Soloist It’s not every day that you’re named ‘International Agent of the Decade’, but it’s not every day that an agent like John Giddings carves a path through the business. Greg Parmley goes Solo...

W

hen Billboard magazine named the Rolling Stones, U2 and Madonna as the three highest grossing touring artists of the last decade, the results made John Giddings the top international agent of the ‘noughties’. Over three decades of remarkable – and remarkably steady – growth, Giddings has singlehandedly built a powerhouse agency and promotion outfit. With a roster of nearly 30 established acts that includes David Bowie, the Sex Pistols, Celine Dion, Genesis, Il Divo, N*E*R*D, Westlife and more recently triple Brit Award winner Lady Gaga, it’s a wonder he manages to represent them all, especially when he won’t employ more than ten staff because “otherwise you can’t remember their names”. Split between Live Nation’s global touring, Solo’s boutique agency, promoting the Isle of Wight Festival and now his involvement in Formula 1, Giddings straddles very different worlds across live music, but demonstrates equal passion for each.

O

n the subject of passion in life, American author Robert Collier once wrote: “The first principle of success is desire – knowing what you want”. It’s an observation that fits perfectly Solo’s premier, who unlike most that gradually drift into a career, was determined to succeed even in adolescence . “I was the only person in the world who went to university to get into the music business – I did a three-year course in philosophy and sociology and I still don’t know what they are,” Giddings says, of his acceptance into Exeter University in the early 70s.

Born in St Albans in Hertfordshire, Giddings attended a private school, and like so many before and since, had got into rock ‘n’ roll for the girls. “At school one day, my mate came up to me and said, ‘My group’s splitting up. Why don’t you learn to play bass and pull some women?’, so I learned Sunshine of Your Love and White Room and it worked, but there was

John Giddings

“ If I’d have worked at a record company I’d have been fired years ago for being too old.”

a slow, dawning realisation that I was actually better at booking the gig than doing it.” “ Top man, nice hair, good complexion but must be audited.”

– David Bowie

A

t the time, the university touring circuit attracted top name acts, and Exeter was a popular pit stop.

“By the second year I was social secretary, and by the third year I was entertainment chairman for the colleges in the area,” he says. Booking bands such as Genesis, Procol Harem, the Average White Band and the Sensational Alex Harvey Band into the 1,800-capacity space, while welcoming agents down from London on the weekend as they “harassed” the female students, Giddings made the contacts he needed. But the next step proved harder than expected. Considering the agency business too “dodgy”, 20 applications to record labels yielded 20 rejection letters. “It’s funny now because all the money’s in the live industry and if I’d have worked at a record company I’d have been fired years ago for being too old,” he says.

After unsuccessfully canvassing a number of his new agent contacts for a job, he was interviewed by Barry Dickins, who was then second in command at MAM Agency. “My first words to John were, ‘What the fuck are you wearing a suit for?’ No one wore suits in those days, we just smoked Woodbines,” says Dickins, who despite misgivings about Giddings’ fashion sense, gave him a job as a junior agent. It was a lucky break, but far luckier was being in the birthplace of an emerging, decisive new scene. “I rented a flat in West Kensington, walked across the road to a pub called The National and there was this group on stage and the singer had written ‘I HATE’ across his Pink Floyd T-shirt,” Giddings says.

“Pink Floyd are my favourite band in the world, so for me this was sacrilege. He was stubbing cigarettes out on his arm and people were pogoing at the front. It was the Sex Pistols.”

B

y 1977, the infamous ‘year of punk’, Giddings had taken on The Adverts, X-Ray Spex and the Boomtown Rats; via Dickins’ friendship with manager Linda Stein he began working with The Ramones (a relationship that lasted for 19 years), and via MAM agent Ian Wright came Iggy Pop, whose flatmate David Bowie also played in the band – both acts he represents today.

“It was a brilliant time to enter the music business, because you had absolutely no clue what you were doing but groups were having hit singles left, right and centre,” Giddings says. “Punk created a million and one new gigs and bands were playing six or seven nights a week. It was a great time for the industry.” When he picked up The Stranglers, the learning curve steepened dramatically, “ When we started 30 some years ago I used to have meetings with John around midnight in his black leather trench coat. He is still the man.”

– Iggy Pop

“Decade-nce.”

– John Rotten

38

I Q Ma g a z i n e Ma rc h 2 0 1 0

Photos: Top: John Giddings collects an Arthur Award for The Police for ‘least painful tour’ at ILMC 20 Above: Arno Carstens at Isle Of Wight 2008

John Giddings

“ I knew I’d made it when John asked me to perform at his wedding!”

– Ronan Keating and then The Ramones and Iggy took off in Europe.

“The established promoters weren’t that interested in punk, so it was the new faces like Herman Schueremans that got it and wanted to work with them – it created a whole new strata of promoters,” he says.

Learning from a scene that lived to burn the rulebook, Giddings was very much in the right place at the right time, although he gradually became frustrated by the limited freedom MAM allowed to book his own acts. In 1980, after Dickins left to form ITB, Giddings quit to form a partnership with the late Ian Wright. TBA International (dubbed Tours By Accident by popular vote) set up office on Kings Road in West London, with Wright’s roster that included Hall and Oates, Kid Creole, Nils Lofgren, Hot Chocolate and Sister Sledge, soon matched by Giddings with Paul Young, Alison Moyet, Howard Jones, Tears for Fears and Big Country.

“Punk was a very English thing, but Paul Young started selling records in Australia and Japan, so I started going abroad with them, some stories of which you can never repeat. In fact, I can’t remember us doing much work at that company,” he says. “Our office was next door to A&M records and our day consisted of coming in at 11 to answer a few phone calls, going to lunch at 12 and coming back at 4. How we managed anything really is beyond my comprehension!” Without mobile phones and email to haunt them, the TBA directors enjoyed the period, but without mentioning specifics, Giddings says it also taught him a valuable lesson.

“Groups want to earn money,” he says. “They don’t care to be drinking with their agent at 4am; they want to be represented by someone that’s in the office the next day, looking after them and their careers. You can’t be in the group and you must respect the business relationship.”

After five years, cracks started to show in the TBA walls.

Giddings says that having initially been number two to Wright, when his roster gained ground a power struggle ensued. But the final straw was an issue of trust. “Ian was siphoning off funds from the company to finance his motor racing career without me knowing about it. I didn’t think that was a partnership,” he says. “ John Giddings is a lovely man. He has become very successful, not through luck, but hard work. John was a Big Country guiding light. A large part of the band’s success must be attributed to him. Don’t stop, John. The business needs people like you.”

– Tony Butler, Big Country Photo: Madonna

John Giddings

“ The Ramones worked with John in Europe and then worldwide from their very early years all the way through their entire career. John being a consummate professional always understood the right venues and billings to put the Ramones on and the band and I appreciated this.

I’ll never forget the time we played a bullring in Madrid, Spain. Just before the show started the Spanish army marches out all armed with machine guns and forms a line in front of the stage (the Spanish promoter never mentioned this was going to happen). I turned to John and said, ‘this is the best stage security we’ve ever had at a Ramones’ show!’. ” – Monte A. Melnick – tour manager, Ramones

44

I Q Ma g a z i n e Ma rc h 2 0 1 0

T

he collaboration ended in 1986 when Wright set up XL Talent and Giddings decided to go it alone, taking his company name and logo from the first solo transatlantic flight, the Spirit of St Louis. Solo took an office on Fulham High Street (the same office it occupies today) above insurance broker Willie Robertson who provided a wealth of new contacts for the fledgling operation. But Giddings’ most fruitful relationship of this era came from the States.

Wayne Forte and Michael Farrell of International Talent Group (ITG) were booking the likes of The Cure, Depeche Mode, Pink Floyd, David Bowie and Duran Duran, and they’d worked with Giddings at TBA. “Wayne and Michael phoned up and said could I do a Julian Lennon gig for them in London,” Giddings recalls. “I put him on at The Town and Country Club [now The Forum] and sold two tickets. It stiffed. I thought, ‘I can’t be embarrassed here,’ so I literally gave away 2,000 tickets. Lennon’s manager Tony Smith turned up and was amazed that the gig had sold out.”

“I thought, ‘here’s someone who’s got his head screwed on right’,” says Smith, who was initially unaware the gig had been papered. “Phil Collins was going

“ [Punk] was a brilliant time to enter the music business, because you had absolutely no clue what you were doing but groups were having hit singles left, right and centre.”

Photos: Top: a young Giddings with regulation leather jacket Above: The Ramones

John Giddings “ John has been my agent for a number of years now, both with the band Starsailor and myself as a solo artist. Thanks to him we have supported the biggest bands (U2, the Stones), played the biggest festivals (Glastonbury, V, T in the Park, Werchter, Rock am Ring) and also seen every continent in the world. Apart from being a great businessman, he is also a great person who has a good relationship with all his artists. There seems to be no pecking order at Solo as he seems to put as much energy into all his acts, not just the A-listers. It was also a great honour to be asked to play at John and Caroline’s wedding which turned out to be quite a legendary do!”

– James Walsh, Starsailor solo and we weren’t happy with our agent, so I called John in for a meeting, and as he walked in, announced, ‘here’s the new agent for Phil Collins’.”

“My jaw dropped,” admits Giddings. “That was my first step up, along with Wayne giving me David Bowie to promote at Wembley Stadium. When you suddenly get involved with the premier league, you have to learn that game very quickly or else you get left behind.”

Forte admits that his interest in Giddings was not entirely altruistic. “At the time I was trying to put together two or three UK agents to form a joint venture with ITG,” he says. “I was speaking to [agent] Martin Hopewell as well, and when I couldn’t pull the trigger quickly enough, Martin went ahead anyway and called it Primary Talent. It took me another 18 months to convince John it was still a good idea to do.”

Forte trusting him with Bowie at Wembley was another watershed in Giddings’ “ Not many people know it, but the career as he moved into the super-league first ownership by Clear Channel of venues, albeit without realising at first. in Europe was actually Solo.”

“They asked me if I could get Wembley on June 16th, and I booked Wembley Arena, and I went back and they said ‘no, we mean Wembley Stadium!’ and I said, ‘Of course, “ I’ve known John since the late 70s – he was one of of course, I know that’. So I went and booked Wembley the promoters of Abba in Ireland along with Jim Stadium. When they confirmed the show, I went up there Aiken and Ian Wright. Ian and John were at MAM and looked at it, and my legs shook for five minutes.” at the time.

While Bowie was a one off, Giddings’ first stadium I always knew John was going to become a major tour was with Genesis. “I’d realised that this was a guy player because he’s so good at what he does. The who learns very fast on his feet,” Smith recalls. “We’d way he believed in the acts he worked with – he quickly found a good working relationship and had a wasn’t another guy trying to flog you a dead horse. lot of fun together. I think John learnt a lot on that He was always concerned with how his artists tour, but he’s always been a lateral thinker, which is were treated, and how they were perceived by the what you need. He’s adaptable and can jump into any audience. I’ve been lucky to work with all his acts situation and take care of it.” since the 70s.”

“Genesis taught me a level I didn’t know existed,” – Thomas Johansson, Live Nation Giddings says.

46

I Q Ma g a z i n e Ma rc h 2 0 1 0

Photos: Top: David Bowie Above Left: with manager Tony Smith

John Giddings “ If I remember right, I had the fortune to have contract number 1 with Solo. It was Big Country maybe 1986 or 1987, and I have been lucky enough to be mentally beaten by John ever since…”

– Risto Juvonen, Live Nation Finland When it was finally formed in 1990, the JV with ITG gave Giddings access to a slew of top-flight talent. It proved to be the most significant landmark in his career, after which a domino effect of artists were added to his roster. ITG’s Canadian JV with Michael Cohl led to Giddings being taken on by the Rolling Stones; when Giddings first met with the Stones’ team, they took him to a showcase by their newly signed protégée Céline Dion; as a favour to Dion’s manager he put a new band on Dion’s Wembley Stadium bill, and The Corrs went on to sell 35 million albums. Back to his relationship with Michael Cohl, and through the Canadian promoter and the Stones he met Arthur Fogel (now CEO of Live Nation Global Touring) which led to U2 and Madonna; and through Fogel and Cohl, he was introduced to current Live Nation president and CEO Michael Rapino, whose first impressions of the English agent were mixed.

“I thought he was funny and arrogant, he says. “Now I realise he’s a funny, arrogant music business genius.”

“Because ITG and Michael Cohl had owned part of Solo, when Clear Channel bought [Cohl’s] BCL Group, they naturally inherited 10% of Solo Agency. Not many people know it, but the first ownership by Clear Channel

in Europe was actually Solo,” says Giddings. Four years after the ITG JV had disbanded, Giddings was ready to go all in, and in 1999 signed Solo up for a five-year tour with the newly launched Clear Channel Entertainment, which included Cohl, Fogel and Rapino as principals.

“I took Solo from Fulham to Oxford Circus [in Central London] and shared an office with Michael Rapino and we had a great time,” Giddings says. “It was the founding years of that organisation [which became Live Nation] and it was a shame when Michael went back to run America because I enjoyed being

Photos: Top: with David Bowie at Wembley Arena Left: Iggy Pop

John Giddings with him on a daily basis. He’s one of the most successful, driven people I’ve ever met; he’s made a great job of that company and I admire him for it.” After five years, however, Giddings chose not to renew his contract.

“I decided to take my company back and to become a boutique again but that we’d work together jointly for the rest of our lives. I do Live Nation global touring for the Stones, U2 and Madonna, and the Isle of Wight Festival and agency is Solo’s.”

Giddings says that his loyalty to Rapino and Fogel will never change, and names them both – alongside Forte, Cohl and Tony Smith – as the most important figures in his career. “We’ve been in business together forever and we win or lose together.

To change affiliations at this time in a career would be a mistake,” he says, but his close relationship with the multinational has not precluded him from working with other promoters. “It varies – I do tours with [UK promoters] Triple A, Simon Moran and Danny Betesh.

Ultimately, it’s the artist’s decision and you work for them, but I would make a decision to promote with Live Nation first, unless somebody wants it differently, because I know the organisation and trust them.”

Meanwhile, Rapino is clear about what Giddings brings to Live Nation’s table: “ He’s one of my closest, most trusted friends,” he says. “For our business, when you add John to Arthur Fogel’s touring leadership, it’s the best team in the world. John helps complete

“ Groups want to earn money.

They don’t care to be drinking with their agent at 4am; they want to be represented by someone that’s in the office the next day.”

“ John and I have worked together for 20 years.

During that time we have promoted/produced tours for U2, Madonna, The Police, David Bowie and others – including most of the top performing tours of all time. John’s dedication, expertise and insight have been nothing short of invaluable.

We have shared any number of bizarre, hilarious and challenging experiences and through it all there is John’s great sense of humour.

Whether frolicking on the beach in Miami, or fearing for our lives in Moscow, or negotiating with the church in Lisbon, or swimming in Köln, or eating eggs and ham in too many places to remember.

From CPI to BCL to TNA to SFX to Clear Channel to Live Nation, there has always been John and his friendship. A very talented man, completely deserving of this recognition but more importantly an incredibly good and honourable man.”

– Arthur Fogel, Live Nation Touring

50

I Q Ma g a z i n e Ma rc h 2 0 1 0

Photos: Top: with Andy Mackay from Roxy Music Above: Giddings rocks the mic at Isle of Wight Festival

“ John is always firm but fair – he will listen to what a promoter has to say and take it on board. He’s not someone that just wants the highest guarantee possible without caring; he’s an agent that builds careers. He’s straight up, you know where you stand with him and there’s no bullshit. He’s been very supportive of me over the years, and I’d like to think we’ve been equally as supportive of him.

I count him as a very good friend, although he still doesn’t do me any favours on the deals!”

– Denis Desmond, MCD our global touring platform like no one else could do.” And in a period when the business is increasingly split between the independents on one side and the corporate superpowers on the other, Giddings stands firmly on the latter.

“These worldwide tours changed the structure of the music business,” he says. “As opposed to selling to a third party, Live Nation takes the risk worldwide, and the artist gets the global satisfaction of (a) knowing their money is secure; and (b) knowing the marketing is all the same. Otherwise you’d turn up in Budapest and see a poster that bore no resemblance to anything you’d ever seen advertising ‘Greatest hits from the 80s live’ and the artist would fire you! These deals have brought a new professionalism to the touring industry.”

I

t was while sharing an office with Rapino that Giddings diversified with a new project – something that has since yielded some of his proudest and most difficult moments. ‘The Isle of Wight council asked everybody in the music business to restart the festival, but no one was interested,” Giddings says. “Everyone thought it was a joke and couldn’t be bothered. I was there in 1970 and saw Jimi Hendrix, and I fancied a day out of the office, so I took the train down and got on the ferry. I wasn’t taking it seriously at all, but it all came flooding back to me. I thought it would be fun to restart, and it was a challenge I hadn’t had.”

The 2002 relaunch drew 8,000 fans to watch The “ Initially I wasn’t too sure about John – I thought he was a bit odd, and he used to call me The Invisible Man because I was never at the gigs, but then I got to know him. We both have our ways but we’ve worked together for ten years and it’s always a pleasure. John tells it like it is, he’s very direct and we never have to bullshit each other. Sarah Sherlock in the office is fantastic, he’s got a great team and I really don’t know anybody else like him.

And if they’re ever making a movie about him I think John Malkovich should play him!”

– Louis Walsh, Manager Photos: Top: with Herman Schueremans at ILMC 20 Above: with Paul Weller

John Giddings

“ I have known John since 1977 and I gave him Big Country when he set up Solo. I do believe it was the first act he booked when going solo. Neither the band nor I regretted the move. He was very much part of their meteoric rise to success. Knowing where to place a band at any time in their career venue-wise is a skill. It takes judgement and getting it right is only measured by full venues, be it pubs, clubs, halls, arenas or stadiums. John is now a master. He deserves this accolade and more.

The man loves music, is honest, a straight talker, dedicated, a hard worker and has charm. I can’t speak highly enough of him.”

– Ian Grant, Track Records Charlatans, Robert Plant, Ash and Starsailor – hardly the 25,000-ticket triumph Giddings had hoped. “I go grey thinking about trying to convince groups to come and play in that first year,” he says. “Believing in it more than most and losing money was hard, but I thought it was an investment worth making.” 2003 welcomed Paul Weller and Bryan Adams as headliners; 2004 saw Stereophonics, The Who and David Bowie, and gradually the numbers returned. At its current capacity of 60,000, Isle of Wight Festival is now a key summer date in the UK.

“The music policy of the festival is simple,” Giddings says. “It’s groups I like. It’s why Isle of Wight has an eclectic mix of artists. One good thing about being old is that you’ve lived through different generations of music, and I love Razorlight, Snow Patrol and Keane as much as I love the Stones, The Police and the Sex Pistols. It’s like putting a jigsaw together and then you see 60,000 people come and enjoy it.” Over the nine years since it restarted, Giddings says there has been a multitude of highs, although he dryly recalls that “paying hundreds of thousands of pounds for the Rolling Stones to bring their B Stage so they could play three songs on it” might not have been one of them.

But with the festival now officially the most renowned event in the island’s calendar and worth an estimated £10million (€11.5m) to the local economy, Giddings has created a legacy with a long future ahead. And it’s an achievement he believes would have been impossible without working as European promoter on the Clear Channel/Live Nation touring side. “It’s being a promoter and it’s gambling,” he says. So is there a preference to agency or promoting? “It’s 50/50 really. I sell acts to third parties and I promote concerts when we take the risk ourselves. The proportion might differ from year to year, but overall I’ve always been an agent and a promoter.

I learnt at MAM that certain groups don’t want to pay Photo: The Rolling Stones

John Giddings agency commission in the UK because, rightly or wrongly, they think their mother could promote the concert. So if you promote the concert and take the risk in the UK yourself, you maintain agency representation outside, and you have a closer relationship with the artist as well because you’re guaranteeing the money.”

One such promotion project last year “ ...if you promote the concert and was Spandau Ballet, who Giddings spent five take the risk in the UK yourself, you years trying to convince to reform. When tickets for the nine-date Reformation arena maintain agency representation tour went on sale in April, London’s The O2 outside, and you have a closer sold-out in 20 minutes and extra dates were relationship with the artist...” added almost immediately in the capital, Birmingham and Liverpool. This year the band has embarked on a world jaunt that includes Australia. “John was instrumental in getting “W e played the first Isle of Wight Festival in 2003, them back together again,” says Steve Dagger at the band’s and this guy I’d never met asked me to do an management. “He believed they could do the business interview, which I did, even though I didn’t know they have when nobody else did, and he relentlessly who he was. A few months later, I was at a David convinced others. That he spent five years without giving Bowie gig at Manchester Cricket Ground, when up really shows John’s tenacity and vision.”

I saw the same guy at the bar. ‘What are you “ When he’s your enemy he’s a serious opponent; when you’re on the same team he’s a brilliant mind.

It’s been a remarkable, ambivalent relationship.”

– Marek Lieberberg, MLK

doing here?’ I asked, to which he replied, ‘I’m David Bowie’s agent’ in the authoritative way that John does. I just thought he was a local from the Isle of Wight!

I was writing a solo album at the time and I wanted to work with other people, so John offered to book ‘the odd’ show for me. The first two gigs turned out to be with the Rolling Stones, so perhaps unsurprisingly, he’s still my agent!

For me though, it’s beyond business; it’s more about our friendship and I really like the guy. Even if I am still waiting for the statue on the Isle of Wight that he’s been promising me for years...”

- Tim Burgess, The Charlatans

56

I Q Ma g a z i n e Ma rc h 2 0 1 0

A

nother new project last year was a foray into Formula 1 with F1 Rocks – a global campaign to bring music events to motor racing. The first event at the Singapore Grand Prix in October 2009 saw the likes of Beyoncé, Black Eyed Peas, N*E*R*D and Simple Minds perform live to 27,000 fans and broadcast in 172 countries to 30 million more people. For Giddings, a long-term motor racing fan, being ‘global agent and promoter’ for F1 Rocks was a dream come true.

“When they phoned me up to ask whether I wanted to get involved I was in Monaco before they finished the question,” he says, comparing drivers to pop stars, and a grand prix to gigs. “Bernie Ecclestone is my idol because

Photos: Top: with Tim Burgess of The Charlatans Above left: Jordan Grand Prix 10th anniversary at Donnington, April 2004 Above Right: with Prince Charles at a Princes Trust show (Meatloaf ) at the Royal Albert Hall, 1994

John Giddings he’s the promoter, the agent and the manager! He does all the deals with himself, it’s fantastic.”

“The Formula 1 organisation is one of my new roles in life,” he continues. “It’s much more enjoyable than finding some scuzzy little band in some dank club; children who think I’m too old to talk to anybody.” But up and comings are being taken under Solo’s wing. The newest musical recruit is South African singer/songwriter Arno Carstens whose debut UK album is released through Sony in April, and the firm is also managing a Warner-signed girl group that have a 360-deal but currently no name. Giddings, however, is generally wary of taking on new acts, partly due to time constraints, and partly through bitter experience. “To break a new act now, first off, nobody sells records; secondly it takes five years; thirdly, the manager tends to change; and fourthly, I’ll never forget with The Corrs that when they sold 35 million albums they stopped gigging because they’d made all the money!” he says.

It’s a frustrating quandary, but if he had to stop tomorrow, Giddings says he’d feel nothing but gratitude.

“I was at Live Aid, Live 8 and Live Earth,” he says. “I’ve lived the golden age of music, which I don’t think will ever be repeated again… it’s been a blessing to be involved in all of it.” Not that he’s contemplating quitting. And

given his role as global agent and promoter for some of the world’s biggest acts, key holder to one of the biggest brands in festival history, and now the interface between music and Formula 1 racing, it’s hard to imagine a single reason why he would.

If there is a particular bugbear about the business, Giddings says it’s dishonesty which he finds most offensive. “I don’t bullshit people as I think you should always be honest and say what you think. Sometimes it’s to the point of bluntness because people think I’m joking when I’m not.” But overall, Giddings gripes about very little indeed. “I can’t think of anything else I could have done in life,” he says. “Half the time I don’t think I have a job, I think I just have fun.”

“ John is a fantastic agent and as a result has built up a tremendous roster of artists who he is very loyal to, and in return are loyal to him and stay with him. He has the ability to get the best deals for his artist, protect them, ensure they play the right venues and situations but while giving the promoter a reasonable chance of success – it’s not always easy to please both sides.”

– Danny Betesh, Kennedy Street

Photo: U2

58

I Q Ma g a z i n e Ma rc h 2 0 1 0

Further testimonials... “ Beneath his mask of grumpiness, John remains a thoroughly nice man. Tough and cunning as a tiger in negotiation, working ferocious hours, but maintaining his humanity and kindness, loyal to his old friends, still in love with the music that he promotes, and always acting like a true gentleman. This is practically unique in his line of work, but it is part of the reason for his extraordinary success.

I can’t think of anything bad to say about the man.”

– Brian Hinton, Isle of Wight biographer “ I love, love, love John!! I started working with him in 1986 right after he formed Solo. He is very special to me and has always made it clear that he is in my corner. Here’s what I wrote about him in my tour diary from 2004: We got to the backstage area. The Mooncusser film crew was there shooting. John Giddings, my agent, was backstage already. He has been my agent for a long time, nearly 20 years. I was tickled that he was there before me. ‘ We are HERE!” he shouted at me. “Yes,” I agreed, wondering for a second what he was talking about.“The moment has arrived!” he said dramatically. “I TOLD you we’d have a festival at the Isle of Wight! And you would be on it! You didn’t believe me!!’

It’s true, we had been talking about doing the Isle of Wight festival for years. But why did he say I didn’t believe him? Of course I did. When he gets an idea in his brain about something, he keeps at it until it happens.”

– Suzanne Vega “ I have known John for 20 years and the first thing that I think of when I think of him is that he makes me laugh, even in the middle of a tough negotiation we end up laughing. He is also fair and I enjoy doing business with him. One of the funniest afternoons I have ever spent was when we met for lunch many years ago when I was at the London Arena in Docklands. We lunched on a boat right next to one of the many building sites that are now Canary Wharf. A storm came up and

the restaurant was abandoned. Everyone evacuated, even the staff, but John insisted that we stayed and finished lunch with the boat practically capsizing and scaffolding poles raining down on our heads….

Luckily, the rest of the diners had left their bottles of wine on their tables and we survived!

– Nicky Dunn, Odyssey Arena “ People tend to say that John’s cynical, but for me, I wouldn’t be in business if it wasn’t for John. Twentyone years ago I told him I was quitting, but he called me back and said, ‘don’t do this’ and he gave me Phil Collins, David Bowie and Tears for Fears. Which isn’t something you expect when you go bankrupt! I didn’t get them for free, but I don’t think many agents would have taken the gamble.

For sure he’s the agent of the decade, if not one of the most important and extraordinary careers in the rock business.”

– Alain Lahana, Le Rat des Villes “ I have enough stories about John to write a book!

One such incident that caused eyebrows to be raised in the Big Country camp was when a game of table tennis during the gig at Dublin’s Point nearly ruined the evening for 10,000 punters.

As John relaxed with a knockabout, he was blissfully unaware that the room we were in had no ceiling and was in fact positioned by the stage and sound equipment. Unbeknown to him, the audience and band were picking up the ping-pong of the balls throughout the entire arena between each song. The problem was compounded when the band came off stage. Having figured out what it was that had caused the distraction they then asked for feedback about the gig. We had been dug a hole into which we immediately fell!

This was just the tip of the iceberg, but when you’re dealing with one of the UK’s greatest ever agents and most loyal and decent people, then you can forgive him anything!”

– Alan Edwards, Outside Organisation

Photos: Left: F1 Rocks Singapore, October 2009 Centre: Giddings gives Kate Moss and Pete Doherty a lift in his personalised Isle of Wight buggy Right: with promoters Ritmos e Blues and The Police, Lisbon 2007