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KNIGHTS OF THE ROUNDTABLE: PROMOTERS


As the U.K. live-music scene opens up again, promoters have been busy rescheduling dates as well as new tours for 2022 and beyond. This flurry of activity has been met with a wholly enthusiastic return after the uncertainty of the last 18 months, as our interviewees tell us below. Still, there’s a bumpy road ahead resulting from the difficulty in obtaining cancellation insurance, a lack of international acts and multiple complexities in European touring brought about by Brexit. Despite all that, there’s a prevailing belief that the worst is behind us, with 2022 shaping up as a record year for shows.

Talking about all of that and more are AEG U.K. Co-CEO Toby Leighton-Pope, who helmed a successful All Points East festival in London this summer and has tours scheduled with Bryan Adams, Keith Urban, Shawn Mendes and Blondie; Live Nation EVP of Touring Europe Phil Bowdery, who has recently been working on tours with Tom Jones and Genesis; Geoff Ellis, CEO of Scottish promoter DF Concerts, who staged TRNSMT Festival in September and has rescheduled Summer Sessions events in Edinburgh for 2022; and Kilimanjaro Live CEO Stuart Galbraith, who promoted a pair of Gorillaz dates at The O2 this summer—the first full-capacity shows at the venue following lockdown.

How confident are you that tours and festivals will continue to be possible through what’s left of this year and beyond?
Toby Leighton-Pope: I’m being positive for the first time in about 35 years! You have to look at the numbers and what the Government is saying. If we can keep the number of deaths below a certain point and keep hospitals working so everybody who needs to use them can, I see no reason why we can’t remain open. Also, I don’t believe there have been record spikes in infections after public events.

Phil Bowdery: I’ve got an arena tour happening with Genesis and lots of other events, and I think it will all carry on. This is us moving forward. People are out there, enjoying gigs and loving being back, which is lovely to see.

Geoff Ellis: I’m reasonably confident because of the position with the vaccine. There are issues with international touring, because that’s obviously reliant on the rest of the world opening up. While bands can’t get cancellation-insurance cover, it’s a big risk to embark on a huge European or worldwide tour. Alongside touring in the U.K, schools are back, as is Premier League football in full capacity. It’s the effectiveness of the vaccine that will hopefully keep hospital admissions and death rates low. We’re not going to get rid of the virus—it’s going to be with us probably forever—but I don’t think the world can suffer many more lockdowns like we’ve had.

Stuart Galbraith: With every day that goes by, we’re seeing society generally learning, to quote the Government, “to live with COVID,” so I think we’re in a better position. We’ll still see some tours canceled, because it’s inevitable that a crew member, a lead singer or a guitarist is going to contract COVID, but I think generally those are going to start to become fewer and fewer. We’re not naive; there are still going to be some bumps along the road, especially as we head into what is the virus season of January and February, when we could see some dark days again. But fingers crossed they won’t be too serious. As an industry, for us to have generally adopted in advance, without being forced to, the door policy of asking the customer to show either COVID vaccination proof or a negative test, that gives customers confidence and enables us to be able to tell them, to a very large extent, that the auditorium is virus-free.

What’s the public’s appetite toward the shows you have on sale?
Ellis: From what we’re seeing, ticket sales across the board are very strong, particularly for pre-sales that are going on sale for next year. I think that’s a very positive sign that audiences want to get back. There is some nervousness at the moment, because it’s still very early days for the shows that are taking place now. There’s probably a higher number of no-shows at concerts than there are normally, but that could be down to people testing positive and not coming to the show.

Bowdery: No, they don’t seem reluctant. We’ve had to reschedule so much, and everyone is so pleased to be back and experience that wonderful euphoria of being at a live show. Over the summer, people wanted to do something normal like going away, which perhaps took a little bit of a precedent. But when Foo Fighters went up on sale, it was amazing—tickets are selling and in abundance for the acts that people want to see. There will be a reticence in some sectors, and I get it, but we have to encourage them, because it’s worth going to see all these acts.

Leighton-Pope: We have very small refund rates across everything we’re doing, and you’ve got to remember that most people go to one or two shows a year, so there’s a lot of people out there with two or three concert tickets stuck to the front of their fridge for things they haven’t yet gone to. On top of any theater tickets they may have, it just seems a bit too much. So we’re not seeing great sales right now. On-sales are OK, between 20-30% lower than what they usually are, but sales for shows that have already been on sale are slow across the board. That said, selling times are typically in November and December or February and March, and by then the country will be in a different place. We’ve got some huge name artists coming for next year that I think will turn people’s heads.

Beyond COVID, what are the biggest challenges you’re facing in promoting live shows and festivals?
Leighton-Pope: The fact that the world became a very small place. Previously, you could tour around the world very easily and have artists going to Australia for three days to do two shows and fly back again. Production was very accessible, and you could tour a lot easier in each market. Now, as we’re all going through the pandemic at different speeds, I don’t know when that’s going to be possible again. Trying to book a global tour is very tricky because everybody has different rules. Also, we were supposed to spend last year figuring out Brexit but haven’t had the time, so that transition is going to be very bumpy, and it’s going to be tough to send acts through Europe.

Ellis: Weather is always a challenge—Standon Calling had to cancel halfway through because of severe weather over the summer. The impact of Brexit has been masked a bit by the pandemic, but we’re seeing a lot of equipment shortages with things like timber. The construction industry is facing issues, and that affects the outdoor-event industry as well. The scarcity of truck drivers has got a lot to do with Brexit and staffing shortages in general. There’s a real pull on human resources with European nationals who were living in the U.K. having gone back to their home countries. We’ve got kit suppliers who are doing vaccination and testing centers, so lots of portable toilets and tents are harder to get hold of.

Galbraith: In the short term, supply-chain issues. There are large numbers of people who have left the live-event industry, whether it be security personnel or companies that have gone bankrupt—toilet suppliers, fence suppliers, food suppliers—and the late-summer period was stretched to the maximum. By Christmas, hopefully, we’ll have resolved this issue, and we will see availability improve. The Government-insurance scheme has some shortcomings, and from my point of view, where the majority of our business is indoor touring, there’s no point at all in taking out the policy if it doesn’t cover artists contracting the disease. There is no key-man cover, so if a member of the crew, the band or the lead singer catches COVID, the tour gets canceled, and we aren’t able to claim under that policy. Equally, it doesn’t cover us for any sort of social-distancing measures that might be brought in by local authorities. So we’re still facing the risk as we head into 2022 of potentially running events that are uninsurable.

Have there been any changes in your role as a promoter and the way you work with agents, labels and managers over the last year and a half?
Bowdery: For me, the good thing that’s come out of this adversity is the trade body LIVE. I’ve felt it was something that was necessary for a long time, and it’s shown that once you all work together, it’s a sign of strength, because everyone is fighting for a common cause. Our business supplies an awful lot of revenue to the U.K. economy, and we felt that we weren’t being listened to in the way that we should be. By giving a voice to LIVE, I think we’ve achieved that. It’s good to have everything being discussed in a sensible manner so that everyone is aware of your individual challenges. The legacy of LIVE will hopefully carry on through the business when I’m well past my sell-by date, and that’s a very satisfactory feeling.

Galbraith: I really do think that every cloud has a silver lining if you look hard enough. One of the brilliant things that’s come out of the pandemic from a music-sector point of view is the cooperation that has happened between all the different facets of our sector, whether it be festivals or production companies, agents, managers, promoters or venues. We’ve seen that come together in the formation of LIVE, which represents our entire live-music sector. In the last nine months, it has been the primary point of contact for liaison with Government.

Leighton-Pope: I think we all recognize how tough it’s been, and we’ve had to give each other a bit more space sometimes. People are being a bit more considerate about what’s urgent and what can wait.

What’s the most exciting development happening in the live-music business right now?

Ellis: For me, the exciting thing is still seeing bands and artists coming through that are fresh and exciting, and there are lots breaking through now, like Walt Disco, Rianne Downey, Kitti, Lizzie Reid and Swim School.

Bowdery: To actually sit down and plan tours with all the artists that we’ve got coming without sitting there and thinking, “Have I got to move that?” I’m fortunate to work with some of the best acts in the world, and we’re into routing to 2024 at the moment. To me, that’s the positive; that’s “OK, these guys are definitely going to work.” I think next year is going to be interesting—there’s going to be an awful lot of talent on the road, and it’s going to take a bit of time to shake out, but the fact that you’re going to be able to see some of the best acts out on the road doing their thing, that’s the most exciting thing for me. I still get a huge kick out of putting the tour together, getting the avails and finishing it. I love seeing the gig, obviously, but to actually produce something that’s ready to go, that excitement is still there the day you go on sale. I can’t wait to get it back again.

Galbraith: I can answer that, because I’ve done it three times in the last week: standing in front of a stage watching a live performance and seeing people having a good time. You forget how good it is, and it’s reminded me why I love my job.

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